June 22, 2006

Hamas to recognise Israel?

According to a Guardian headline Hamas is about to recognise Israel. Here's the headline: Climbdown as Hamas agrees to Israeli state. And here's the first paragraph of Chris McGreal's article.
Hamas has made a major political climbdown by agreeing to sections of a document that recognise Israel's right to exist and a negotiated two-state solution, according to Palestinian leaders.
But the American Jewish newspaper, Forward, has a different spin:
American Jewish organizations are strongly criticizing the document guiding national unity talks between Hamas and Fatah officials.

Echoing Israel's position, Jewish organizations say that the "document of national reconciliation" stakes out a series of positions that could end up undermining Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Known as the "prisoners' document," the proposed agreement was drafted last month by Palestinian faction leaders who were being held in Israeli jails.

For Palestinians, observers said, the purpose of hammering out a unified platform is not to trigger talks with Israel. Instead, the negotiations surrounding the document appear aimed at preventing an internal civil war and breaking the financial siege that the international community has imposed on the Palestinian Authority since Hamas, an Islamic terrorist organization, won the general elections in January and formed a Cabinet made up of loyalists.
I wonder if it makes any difference what Hamas is actually signing up for.

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