I've been warring in my soul, feeling very war-like towards islamo-fascists, but resting in the Words of Jesus, and trying to work out these tendencies we all have.
I sometimes think to myself if I was an Israeli policy maker, who seeks peace, who, on the Palestinian side, would I reason with, and after reading this article, I realize the answer is, nobody.
"if you have a cloak, sell it and buy a sword".
pondering the meaning of that.
from the NY TImes:
October 6, 2006
Palestinian Premier Vows Not to Recognize Israel
By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Oct. 6 — Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya told a huge, cheering crowd today that his Hamas movement would not give in to international pressure that has crippled his government, and that it still has no intention of recognizing Israel.
“I tell you with all honesty, we will not recognize Israel, we will not recognize Israel, we will not recognize Israel,” Mr. Haniya said to a thunderous roar of applause from tens of thousands of Hamas supporters, many waving green Hamas flags, at the Yarmouk soccer stadium in Gaza City.
Mr. Haniya also called on the president of the Palestinian Authority — Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the secular nationalist Fatah movement — to return to Gaza and resume talks on forming a national unity government. Those talks have broken down amid rising tensions between the two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah.
“Come down to Gaza to protect our people and declare our commitment to a national unity government,” Mr. Haniya said in remarks directed at Mr. Abbas, who works out of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
During a lengthy speech on a sweltering afternoon, Mr. Haniya appeared at one point to be on the verge of collapse aand unable to continue his remarks. Bodyguards rushed to his side to hold him up and whisk him off the stage.
But about ten minutes later he he reappeared and resumed the speech. “Our bodies may get tired, but our souls will not,” Mr. Haniya said, as the crowd roared.
His spell of weakness apparently was caused by the dawn-to-dusk fast that Mr. Haniya, like many Muslims, observes daily during the holy month of Ramadan.
Mr. Haniya’s speech and the large Hamas rally were seen as a rebuttal to Mr. Abbas, who said on Wednesday that the current political stalemate could not go on indefinitely. At that time, Mr. Abbas said he was prepared to invoke his presidential powers, including dismissing the current Palestinian government, which is dominated by Hamas.
Mr. Abbas made his remarks on the same day that he met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who expressed support for Mr. Abbas.
On Sept. 11, Mr. Abbas and Mr. Haniya agreed in principle to form a unity government in an attempt to find a way out of the worsening political and economic crisis facing the Palestinians. The deal would bring Fatah and other political factions into a government that has been controlled by Hamas since the radical Islamic movement won Palestinian elections in January.
Western countries cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority when Hamas assumed power because they regard Hamas as a terrorist group, and they are now demanding that the Palestinian government take three steps before aid will be resumed: Recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
In the talks between Fatah and Hamas, negotiators have sought some way for a new government to take those positions that still allowed Hamas as a political party to avoid explicitly endorsing them.
But Hamas has repeatedly rejected the Western demands, and Fatah leaders say they see no rationale for joining a unity government that would continue to be ostracized by the Western countries and much of the international community.
Israel, which is withholding more than $50 million a month in taxes that it collects on the Palestinian Authority’s behalf, refuses to deal with the Hamas government. Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, says he is willing to meet with Mr. Abbas, but he says there is no prospect for progress until the Palestinians release an Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian militants and taken to Gaza on June 25.
Mr. Haniya, meanwhile, said that the Palestinians faced an “unethical and unjust siege led by the United States administration.”
“Many parties, internal and external, colluded in an attempt to force us to surrender,” the prime minister added. He noted that, aside from Qatar, even the governments of Arab states had not invited him to visit.
The Fatah-Hamas friction boiled over into street fighting in Gaza on Sunday and Monday, leaving 10 Palestinians dead and more than 100 injured in some of the worst internal fighting in recent years. The violence has subsided, but the tension remains.
Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza.