[Jerusalem Post] Herb Keinon - Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to lobby Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next week against U.S. recognition of a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas, top advisers to Netanyahu said Wednesday. Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Zalman Shoval said, "We shall try to convince our American friends that this is not something that would help the peace process, and that it would only make it easier for all sorts of other players - the Europeans and the Russians - to deal with Hamas." Shoval said history had shown that when there was an amalgamation between a moderate and an extremist party, it was only a matter of time before the extremists called the shots, and that the end result of a Hamas-Fatah merger would not be a more moderate Palestinian political entity but a more radical one. Officials said that Israel would insist that the international community's conditions for dealing with Hamas were met, and not be changed because Hamas refused to comply. Those conditions are recognizing Israel's right to exist, forswearing terrorism, and accepting previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
2009-02-26 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive