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Radical and Moderate Palestinians

(Gatestone Institute) Khaled Abu Toameh - When PA President Mahmoud Abbas returned from New York to Ramallah and told the Palestinians that he obtained UN recognition of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 lines, fewer than 5,000 Palestinians, many of them civil servants who receive their salaries from the PA government, turned out to greet him. When Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal came last week to Gaza and told Palestinians that armed struggle and jihad were the only way to liberate all Palestine because the country belonged only to Muslim and Arabs, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians showed up to voice support for his plan to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Islamic state. Even many Palestinians in the West Bank expressed support for Mashaal, while the PA's official TV station in the West Bank broadcast Mashaal's speech live. The widespread support for Hamas' position is a sign of how much the Palestinians have been radicalized over the past few decades. The pro-Hamas rallies in Gaza that called for more rocket attacks against Israel reflect the authentic voice of the Palestinian "street." The real threat to the two-state solution is Hamas and the unwillingness of many Palestinians to accept Israel's right to exist.
2012-12-13 00:00:00
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