MIDDLE EAST: Prime minister Netanyahu: Hamas's Gaza jubilation proves Israel is at risk

Record ID: 397714

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Prime minister Netanyahu: Hamas's Gaza jubilation proves Israel is at risk
  • Date: 9th December 2012
  • Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (DECEMBER 9, 2012) (REUTERS) MESHAAL THANKING UNIVERSITY DIRECTOR (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS POLITICAL LEADER, KHALED MESHAAL, SAYING: "I was never afraid from dying in the divine path." MESHAAL LEAVING UNIVERSITY TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (DECEMBER 9, 2012) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRESIDENT SHIMON PERES IN ISRAELI BUSINESS CONFERENCE AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISR
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA59MWNW9FOVYAZ9X04VFL9CULH
  • Story Text: Israeli PM Netanyahu says the "true face of our enemies" was exposed when Hamas leader Meshaal spoke against the Jewish state in Gaza.

    Hamas's vow to vanquish Israel after claiming "victory" against it in the Gaza Strip fighting of last month vindicates Israeli reluctance to hand over the occupied West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (December 9).
    Buffeted by international censure of new plans for Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Netanyahu sought to cast his strategy as one of caution given the diehard hostility of Islamist Hamas and the lack of public opposition from its U.S.-backed rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
    "Over the last day, we were again exposed to the true face of our enemies. They have no intention of compromising with us. They want to destroy the country. They will fail in this, of course, as they failed more than 60 years ago. And in the chronicles of our people, too, we, the people of Israel, overcame such scourges," Netanyahu said, referring to Hamas's 25th anniversary celebrations in Gaza presided over by its long-exiled supreme leader, Khaled Meshaal.
    Netanyahu, who was addressing his cabinet, focused criticism on Abbas, who holds sway in the West Bank and has resisted calls to resume peace talks as long as Israel pursues settlements that are deemed illegal internationally.
    "What is interesting is that Abu Mazen (Abbas), of all people, did not condemn the (Hamas) words calling for Israel's destruction, just as previously he did not condemn the rockets fired at Israel (from Gaza)," Netanyahu said.
    "And to my regret he is working for unity with this same Hamas, which is supported by Iran," he added.
    Sidestepping the possibility of a negotiated deal with Abbas, Netanyahu said Israel would not withdraw unilaterally from the West Bank as the Israelis did from Gaza in 2005.
    Doing so, he argued, would turn the West Bank into a second Gaza, from which rockets could be fired at Tel Aviv and other cities in central Israel.
    "I'm always aghast at the delusions of others who are prepared to pursue this process and call it peace. You hand over more territory, in this case, Judea and Samaria, which overlooks the cities of Israel, to the same people, and the result will of course be Gaza on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Gedera and Kfar Saba," he said, adding that Israel is interested in a delusion-free peace with its neighbours.
    Addressing a huge Hamas rally on Saturday (December 8), Meshaal pledged never to recognise Israel, but rather, to "free the land of Palestine inch by inch" - an allusion to Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.
    On Sunday, speaking at the Islamic University in Gaza, he repeated the same message.
    "This nation and its factions will never be changed at all, Palestine will be for them always Palestine the Land, Jerusalem, the right of return and the resistance. No concession of any inch of Palestine," he said.
    As he left the building, he was asked about the possibility of being targeted by Israel, and replied: "I was never afraid from dying in the divine path."
    Saturday festivities in Gaza were a bid to assert that the governing Hamas won eight days of Gaza fighting against Israel last month in which some 170 Palestinians, including the group's guerrilla mastermind, were killed. Israel, which lost six citizens, said its forces also destroyed Gaza's long-range rocket arsenals.
    Meshaal's speech was also a rebuke to Abbas for promoting Palestinian statehood alongside the Jewish state. Hamas drove Abbas's more secular Fatah movement from Gaza in a 2007 civil war and the Islamists enjoy grassroots support in the West Bank.
    Israeli President Shimon Peres also chided Meshaal.
    "He (Khaled Meshaal) unmasked the real nature of Hamas: to kill, to conquer, not to compromise, the people of Gaza can remain poor and hungry. He will go
    and fight," Peres said in a business conference in Tel Aviv.
    In his cabinet remarks, Netanyahu did not mention Meshaal by name - though the Hamas leader had publicly mocked him in Gaza.
    As a first-time premier in 1997, Netanyahu sent Mossad assassins to kill Meshaal, then a mid-level Hamas figure, in Jordan in reprisal for a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. They botched the mission, and the ensuing recrimination from Amman forced Israel to free the jailed spiritual leader of Hamas. The episode helped propel Meshaal to the top ranks.
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