(BBC News) Amb. Dore Gold, a former adviser to the Israeli prime minister, told BBC News on Wednesday: "Khaled Mashaal heads a jihadist organization, and the best proof of that is what fellow Arab states are saying about Hamas. Hamas in the Gaza Strip is allied with Ansar Beit al-Maqdis that is the jihadist movement in the Sinai Peninsula. They work together and now that organization is part of ISIS. So you can tell what an organization is by the friends it keeps and Hamas is clearly in the jihadist category." "During the last Gaza war, it's public knowledge that on July 15, Egypt offered a ceasefire to end the war and Israel accepted it. Khaled Mashal, sitting in the luxury of his Qatar home, refused that ceasefire and that war continued from July 15 almost to the end of August. As a result, [PA leader] Mahmoud Abbas has admitted that instead of 200 Palestinians dying, 2,000 died, and the blood of those Palestinians is on the hands of Khaled Mashal." "President Netanyahu said: 'Given the multiple security threats now that are emerging on Israel's doorstep, with the Revolutionary Guards of Iran in Syria, with ISIS spreading in the Sunni center, and with the fact that Mahmoud Abbas has now, out of weakness, embraced Hamas as a partner, this makes it very difficult to envision the implementation of the principle of 'two states for two peoples.'" The prime minister still supports that principle. He hopes we can change the security environment of the Middle East so we can implement a reasonable, fair deal between Israel and the Palestinians." Q: But by saying he would not have a Palestinian state - the twin state solution has been the thrust of the international community, of America, for over the last decade or so - he has undercut that, hasn't he? Gold: "You're not hearing what I said. He's said, "For now." You have to read the Hebrew text of what he said. A lot of people have either misrepresented him or didn't do their homework or don't know Hebrew. But the fact is, he has said: 'Not now. Not now when these threats are multiplying.' And Israel knows that withdrawal from territory under present conditions will lead to the filling of the vacuum left by Israel pulling back by Iran or by an al-Qaeda affiliate. That is what happened to us in Gaza. That is what happened to us in southern Lebanon. We're not going to repeat that mistake again."
2015-04-03 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive