(Israel Hayom) Yoav Limor - IDF Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj.-Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun told Israel Hayom that Hamas is "a terrorist organization, and that's how they should be treated. It's imprinted on their brains....They are motivated by hardline Islamist ideology. Their main goal right now is to take control of Judea and Samaria and establish an Islamist state there." He said Hamas really wants the PA elections "because their goal is to get into Judea and Samaria. They'll cooperate with anything that can lead them there." Hamas might win, as they did in the 2006 election, because of the alienation the Palestinian public feels from the PA, the internal rifts in Fatah, and Hamas' well-oiled party machine. "If that happens, automatically there would be no...security coordination" with Israel. Asked whom he expected will succeed Mahmoud Abbas, who is 86, Abu Rukun said, "I am betting on Nasser al-Kidwa [Yasser Arafat's nephew, who represented the Palestinians in the UN and was the PA's former foreign minister]." Asked about the International Criminal Court investigation of Israel, he said, "I have no doubt that our military is the most moral in the world, and if The Hague has any questions about it, they should look into what [Syrian President] Assad did or what they're doing in Iran, and then get back to us."
2021-03-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive