Mashaal's speech

On Saturday, Khaled Mashaal, the Leader of Hamas, visited Gaza for the first time, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of Hamas.  He had lived in Damascus for many years where the HQ of Hamas was located.  With the uprising in Syria and the potential demise of Pres. Assad in the offing, Mashaal decamped to Qatar and Cairo.  He had fallen out with the Hamas leadership in Gaza, because he wanted to remain an ally of Shia Iran, and they had moved closer to a preferred relationship with the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, that had won the election there.  Now he has mended his fences with the Hamas leadership in Gaza, including Pres. Haniyeh, and they embraced warmly during his visit.

If anyone thought that there would be an ounce of moderation in Mashaal's position regarding Israel they were wrong!  In his speech (in Artabic) to ca. 100,000 Palestinians, while surrounded by a detachement of Hamas militia and standing before a mock-up a a huge M75 missile, several of which had been fired into Israel in the recent war with Hamas, he said

"We will never give up any of Palestine, from the river to the sea!" 

"Palestine from the river to the sea, from the north to the south is our land, and we will never give up any inch or any part of it!"

"Palestine was, still is and always will be Arab and Islamic."

"Palestine belongs to us and to noone else.  We can never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.  Palestine belongs to us and not to the Zionists."

To anyone who believes that Israel could do anything, such as make concessions to the Arabs or give them land or anything else, that this might result in any form of accomodation or compromise, can kiss that illusion goodbye.  Mashaal tells it like it is, Hamas will never compromise with the sovereign State of Israel, period!  This makes things a lot clearer for us.  Even the PA under Pres. Abbas shows some form of "moderation," but they too are trying to make an end-run around any agreement with Israel by appealing to the UN where they have an automatic majority in the General Assembly, thereby avoiding making any compromises with Israel.  No negotiations, and the recognition as a non-member state for Palestine, gives them the option of later claiming all of Palestine, just as the Hamas does.  So what's the real difference.  No wonder they keep talking about an agreement between Fatah and Hamas, there really isn't that much difference between them.

It's a mystery, given Mashaal's fierce enmity, that Israel still supplies electricity (that they don't pay for), water, oil, food and medical supplies to Gaza.  Why don't we acknowledge their unilateral actions, their absolute enmity and simply cut off the supplies.  So what if there is a humantiarian crisis in Gaza, let them deal with it and let the Muslim Brotherhood in nearby Egypt supply them, instead of Israel.  Why should we subsidize our enemy?  Something needs to be done to show them that we will not stand for this kind of rhetoric from them.