Report: Hamas says Israel could have peace with withdrawal to ’67 line

by on February 1, 2009 18

Mohammad of Vancouver notes that a French Jewish writer, Marek Halter, met with Khaled Meshaal of Hamas last month in Damascus and reports that Hamas would recognize Israel's existence inside the '67 borders.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East

{ 18 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. BluePearl says:
    February 1, 2009 at 11:49 pm

    Norm Finkelstein says that the reason that Israel went ballistic on Hamas is that Hamas was sending signals of peace with Israel. If Israel accepted peace it would have to give up territory, which it does not want to do.

    http://counterpunch.org/finkelstein01282009.html

  2. LanceThruster says:
    February 2, 2009 at 12:50 am

    Didn't Ariel Sharon once say, "I love the peace process, I wish it could go on forever." or something to that effect?

  3. David Malcolm says:
    February 2, 2009 at 1:25 am

    Hamas is clearly not an obstacle to the peace process. They told Carter, and Carter has told everyone who will listen, that they will respect anything that's negotiated by Abbas and agreed to by the Palestinian people via referendum.

  4. delia says:
    February 2, 2009 at 1:30 am

    Meshaal has been saying this for two or three years, but it keeps getting ignored by Israel and the American press because that would mean that the 2-state solution is indeed possible. And Israel doesn't want that. Israel wants things as they are, if only those restless Palestinians would learn that they are a defeated people and settle down in their ghettos. (See all the articles on Hamas on Conflicts Forum.)

  5. delia says:
    February 2, 2009 at 1:34 am

    I think I posted these paragraphs a coupla days ago, but they're relevant here:

    "Just one year after the 1967 war, Moshe Dayan, a former IDF chief of staff who at the time was minister of defence, described his plan for the future as ‘the current reality in the [Palestinian] territories’. ‘The plan,’ he said, ‘is being implemented in actual fact. What exists today must remain as a permanent arrangement in the West Bank.’ Ten years later, at a conference in Tel Aviv, Dayan said: ‘The question is not “What is the solution?” but “How do we live without a solution?”’

    "Geoffrey Aronson, who has monitored the settlement enterprise from its beginnings, summarises the situation as follows: ‘Living without a solution, then as now, was understood by Israel as the key to maximising the benefits of conquest while minimising the burdens and dangers of retreat or formal annexation. This commitment to the status quo, however, disguised a programme of expansion that generations of Israeli leaders supported as enabling, through Israeli settlement, the dynamic transformation of the territories and the expansion of effective Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan River.’" (Henry Siegman, “The Great Middle East Peace Process Scam,” 2007)

  6. Craig says:
    February 2, 2009 at 2:17 am

    Funny how the usual Zionuts have nothing to say about this entry…

  7. Eva Smagacz says:
    February 2, 2009 at 3:40 am

    Hamas position, of accepting will of Palestinian People if expressed in referendum or via Unity Government, was repeated face to face to British Parliamentarians who went on the fact finding mission to Gaza on the boat run by Freegaza.org last year.

    This was widely reported in British Press.

    And couple of days ago Tony Blair openly stated that to obtain peace, parties will have to speak to Hamas.

  8. Richard Witty says:
    February 2, 2009 at 4:22 am

    Noone can tell if Hamas is in earnest.

    Nor what "fine print" Hamas would consent to.

    For example, a VERY large issue for Hamas' consent, and also for single-state proponents, is whether democracy (one-person one-vote) happens before or after the right of return. By that I mean that Hamas insists that diaspora Palestinians would be considered equal voters in any plebiscite (whether refugee or emigrant for 100 years or 35, whether they've EVER lived in Palestine or not). And, that Jewish diaspora would NOT be afforded that same right.

    Haven't you ever been to stacked rooms? "Lets have a vote".

    Even considering the current upcoming Palestinian election, what timeframe (if ever) do you think that Hamas will permit Fatah or new parties very critical of Hamas, to set up centers in Gaza, and actively campaign?

    Democracy, but?

    The recent sequence in Gaza, in which Hamas decided to not renew the cease-fire, instead initiating shelling on civilians, a week prior to the Israeli military escalation, is an indicator.

    Even if many Israeli officials hoped for a military confrontation with Hamas, Hamas was the doer, the stimulator of the war.

    To state, that was their only choice, is a lie.

  9. chris berel says:
    February 2, 2009 at 6:31 am

    Richard, they must state it. If they don't then they must admit to living a lie.

  10. Rowan says:
    February 2, 2009 at 6:38 am

    shelling on civilians

    sometimes, Richard, you are just a plain unvarnished liar, with no more to say that chris berel, suzanne, etc.

    rather often, in fact.

  11. chris berel says:
    February 2, 2009 at 8:20 am

    Perhaps, but not this time.

    By the way, why would he have more to say than the truth? Must all be as verbose and wrong as you, Rowan?

  12. Crimson Ghost says:
    February 2, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    Hamas ready for truce IF BLOCKADE ENDS.

    Hamas says no to truce under blockade
    Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:07:03 GMT

    Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum
    Hamas reiterates that the resistance movement favors a truce deal that envisages the opening of all border-crossings into the Gaza Strip.

    Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesperson for Hamas, said on Monday that the movement would agree to a one-year truce in and around the Gaza Strip provided the territory's border-crossings are opened.

    "We agree in principle with a one-year truce," Barhoum said adding that Hamas has not ruled out an 18-month truce proposed by the Egyptian mediators.

    "Whether one year or a year and a half, it must be linked to the opening of all crossing points, including Rafah, and the lifting of the (Israeli) blockade," he said.

    A Hamas delegation was due to travel to Cairo on Monday to present its response to the Egyptian proposals, Barhoum said.

    Ahead of the final round of talks, Sami Abu Zuhri, another spokesman of the movement said Hamas will base its final decision on the Cairo talks.

    Earlier on Monday, Israeli warplanes launched another attack on the strip, killing a Palestinian. Almost 1,400 people including women and children were killed in the 23-day long onslaught across the densely-populated sliver.

    Even though a ceasefire has been announced, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has not efficiently improved due to the 19-month blockade Israel has imposed on the coastal strip.

    As a result of the siege the crossings into Gaza remain closed and humanitarian aid entering the besieged strip remains below the minimum necessary for survival.

    Tel Aviv's military operations have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, inflicting heavy damage on the civilian infrastructure, disrupting the flow of clean water and causing overflow of sewage.

    At least 16,000 residential buildings have been damaged and nearly 5,000 houses have been reduced to rubble, making thousands of people homeless.

    Gaza has also been experiencing harsh conditions due to shortage of fuel and electricity, which has affected the performance of medical centers and hospitals.

  13. MM says:
    February 2, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    Richard keeps repeating "Hamas shells civilians" because he knows that repetition worked for Goebbels.

    It's meant to distort the gravity of the supposed offense justifying Israeli brutality. Richard takes the Israeli line and ties his boat to it. Hezbollah provoked Israel. Hamas provoked Israel. Apparently anything but total compliance and submission to rampant Zionist expansionism is a provocation.

    Richard worries about "Iranian expansionism," a phrase he's used, a phrase for something that DOESN'T EXIST (except on a metaphysical plane only accessible to Richard Witty.)

    But he soft-peddles Zionist expansionism as a marginal, wrong and yet understandable aspect of a much larger movement for GOOD. Then he talks about gullibility.

    The obvious fact is that Israel could sacrifice its expansionist fantasies for peace. The injustice of the Nakba could be negotiated and settled, but first the Nakba has to end.

    Not if equivocal Richard Witty has anything to say about it.

  14. chris berel says:
    February 2, 2009 at 6:49 pm

    Launch missles? Prepare to die. What is your problem with that formula?

  15. MM says:
    February 2, 2009 at 10:12 pm

    Steal land? Prepare to live with "missles". What is your problem, Chris, besides spelling?

  16. chris berel says:
    February 2, 2009 at 10:21 pm

    Spelling, and your lies. Other than that, no problems.

  17. MM says:
    February 3, 2009 at 12:24 pm

    Chris, I'm with you, man. I think Jewish supremacism in the Holy Land is a net gain for Humanity. Look at all the great things colonization can bring. The Arabs are dogs and the Americans are idiots who will fall for anything. Just repeat ourselves often and call the smart ones anti-Semites.

    Shit I bet we can probably control this bitch forever. Let's make a special memorandum of understanding and invade Iran, in self-defense. (Who cares if it's good for the… Americans?)

    I see how well the commenters here have taken to your message and I want to form opinions like you do. Let's work together.

    You take Mondoweiss, I'll take Daily Kos. (Oh, someone's already got that?)

    Tell me where to go and what to say, Chris. Tell me what to tell them.

  18. chris berel says:
    February 4, 2009 at 6:07 pm

    It certainly isn't and you aren't with me. You are more than likely with rowan and Joachim.

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