Netanyahu blasts international community for staying quiet amid Hamas calls for Israel’s destruction
PM says ‘deafening silence’ of European governments and PA President Abbas over Mashaal’s comments this weekend is unacceptable; EU does issue statement, soon after PM’s critique
By RAPHAEL AHREN
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday slammed the international community and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for failing to speak out against explicit calls for Israel’s destruction by Hamas leaders on Saturday.
Speaking at a Hanukkah ceremony with the foreign press, Netanyahu contrasted Europe’s condemnations of Israel for approving construction plans in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, with its lack of response to Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal’s weekend speech in Gaza, in which he said the Palestinians would “not give up an inch of Palestine,” and that “Jihad and armed resistance is the only way.”
Said Netanyahu: “This weekend, the leaders of Hamas openly called for the destruction of Israel. Where was the outrage? Where were the UN resolutions? Where was President Abbas?”
Soon after Netanyahu spoke on Monday afternoon, the EU did issue a statement saying that it found “inflammatory statements by Hamas leaders that deny Israel’s right to exist unacceptable. The European Union will never cease its efforts to combat terrorism which seeks to undermine the openness and tolerance of societies through indiscriminate acts of violence against civilians.”
The prime minister drew a direct parallel to the outcry in the international community over Israeli plans to expand settlements beyond the Green Line. Numerous countries have deeply criticized plans to develop the sensitive E1 area east of Jerusalem, and the Israeli ambassadors in Britain, Brazil, France, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Egypt and the European Union were summoned for sharp dressing-downs late last week.
“Why weren’t Palestinian diplomats summoned in European and other capitals to explain why the PA president not only refused to condemn this, but actually declared his intention to unite with Hamas?” Netanyahu asked. “There was nothing. There was silence. And it was a deafening silence. Well, we can’t accept that. We can’t accept that, when Jews build homes in [Israel's] ancient capital, the international community has no problem finding its voice, but when Palestinian leaders openly call for the destruction of Israel, the one and only Jewish state, the world is silent.”
Hamas chief Mashaal completed a three-day visit to Gaza on Sunday. In a speech marking the terrorist group’s 25th anniversary, he reiterated his movement’s commitment to wipe out the State of Israel. “We are not giving up an inch of Palestine. It will remain Islamic and Arab for us and nobody else. Jihad and armed resistance is the only way.”
Speaking to mostly foreign reporters at the Government Press Office’s annual Hanukkah reception, Netanyahu said that Israel “remains committed to a two-state solution,” but rebuffed calls by the international community to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, however, slammed Netanyahu for ostensibly deepening Israel’s pariah status by announcing plans for building that, she said, “will never actually be built.”
Netanyahu made his statements as 27 foreign ministers of EU countries were convening in Brussels to debate Israel’s approval last week of the thousands of housing units to be built in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The meeting was expected to result in a harsh condemnation of Israel’s decisions.
Ahead of the meeting, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Europe’s political view of the Middle East has changed profoundly because of Israel’s advancement of plans to build 3,000 new settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Bildt said the Israeli plans had caused “extreme concern” in the European Union. He referred in particular to the E1 project, which would drive a wedge between the northern and southern flanks of the West Bank.
“What the Israelis did on E1 has shifted opinions in Europe,” Bildt said as he arrived for the meeting. “I don’t think the Israelis are aware of this.”
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he expected “the entire EU will be strongly opposed” to the settlement building.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-blasts-international-community-for-double-standard/
Who Are the Palestinians?
ReplyDeleteby Yashiko Sagamori, 25 November 2002
Yashiko Sagamori is a New York-based
Information Technology consultant.
If you are so sure that "Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history", I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of "Palestine":
1. When was it founded and by whom?
2. What were its borders?
3. What was its capital?
4. What were its major cities?
5. What constituted the basis of its economy?
6. What was its form of government?
7. Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
8. Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
9. What was the language of the country of Palestine?
10. What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine?
11. What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and try and find the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, British pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese
yuan on that date.
12. Have the Palestinians left any artifacts behind?
13. Do you know of a library where one could find a work of Palestinian literature produced before 1967?
14. And, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise
and when did it occur?
If you are lamenting the "low sinking"
of "once proud" nation, then please tell me, when exactly was that "nation"
proud and what was it so proud of?
And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call "Palestinians" are anything but
generic Arabs collected from all over - or thrown out of - the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that
gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating
defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War?
I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern-day "Palestinians" to the Biblical Philistines:
substituting etymology for history won´t work here.
The truth should be obvious to everyone who wants to know it. Arab countries have never abandoned their dream of destroying Israel; they still cherish it today.
Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal through military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it "the Palestinian people"
and installed it in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.
How else can you explain the refusal by Jordan and Egypt to unconditionally accept back the "West Bank" and Gaza, respectively, in the aftermath of the 1967 war?
The fact is, Arabs populating Gaza, Judea, and Samaria have much less of a claim to nationhood than the American Indian tribe that successfully emerged in Connecticut with the purpose of starting a tax-exempt
casino: at least that tribe had a constructive goal that motivated them.
The so-called "Palestinians" have only one motivation:
the destruction of Israel. In my book that is not sufficient to consider them a "nation" -- or anything else -- except what they really are: a terrorist organization that will one day be dismantled.
In fact, there is only one way to achieve piece in the Middle East. Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side, should pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited
upon it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and acceptance of Israel´s ancient sovereignty over Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.
That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning?