If only Israel would withdraw from the occupied territories we would have peace in the Middle East. That's what we're constantly told, but that's not how the major Palestinian players see things:
Hamas will not compromise on one inch of Greater Palestine, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told an Italian newspaper earlier this week. Speaking to the Corriere Della Sera newspaper, al-Zahar said Hamas would "definitely not" be prepared for coexistence with Israel should the IDF retreat to its 1967 borders.
"It can be a temporary solution, for a maximum of 5 to 10 years. But in the end Palestine must return to become Muslim, and in the long term Israel will disappear from the face of the earth."
Asked about Hamas's intentions to carry out terror attacks in coordination with the disengagement plan, al-Zahar said Hamas has already promised not to initiate violence, and that the group's actions would be in response to Israeli actions. "We won't disrupt the Israeli withdrawal, let them get out of here and go to hell," he said. "The problem will be afterwards, because in the hearts of every Palestinian, the liberation of Gaza must be accompanied by the liberation of Jerusalem and the West Bank."
The Israelis have three choices as far as the Palestinians are concerned. They can either leave Israel, commit suicide, or eventually fight for their lives against the Palestinians and other Arabs. The anti-semitic left in Europe and the U.S. demand they opt for choices one or two. As long as the Israelis are so inconsiderate as to decline those two alternatives there will not be peace anywhere in the Middle East, and, we will be daily reminded, it will be all the Israelis' fault.
