Hamas Charter, Art. 11, (in part): "Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Moslem generations until Judgement Day." For Hamas, that is a matter of being an absolutely inflexible religious doctrine and not an adjustable political ideology. Furthermore, by "Palestine", Hamas means all of the old Mandate west of the Jordan River including Israel.
Hence, Clinton is essentially telling Abbas that if Fatah reconciles with Hamas, then the PA will not be in receipt of U.S. funds and quite possibly of EU funds either, but if Fatah does not reconcile with Hamas, then the money can go into the PA treasury directly. If worst comes to worst, the West will still get aid to the Palestinians, but it will be going through the UN and various NGO`s instead of through the PA.
Three-state solution, anybody? Israel, Fatahland, and Hamastan sounds nice and more likely every day. |
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