Iran prevailed over the Obama administration’s attempts to reconcile Fatah with Hamas in a government that would respect previous agreements. Just as AIPAC, Israeli leftists, and Obama pushed for a two-state solution, Hamas firmly rejected it.
In an interview with the New York Times, Mashaal superficially welcomed peace with Israel. This is peace Hamas style:
- a ten-year truce, which would allow the terrorists to entrench themselves in the West Bank before launching a new round of wars against Israel.
- dismantling all Israeli settlements, making 260,000 Jews homeless. The last time an eviction of that magnitude took place was under the Nazis.
- Palestinian annexation of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
- return of all refugees to Israel, so that the Jewish state would be overwhelmed with hateful, criminal Arabs.
Mashaal’s position is aligned with Iran’s and is generally more extreme than Haniye’s, but Gaza’s “moderate” Hamas leaders have little say in the policy since their lifeblood, the Iranian money, comes through Mashaal.
Fatah’s negotiator Erekat voiced similar demands to Netanyahu, who offered him the immediate resumption of peace talks.
