Posted on 03/06/2007 10:26:17 AM PST by SmithL
Israel will eventually disappear from the world, and the Palestinians should be prepared for that, Israel Radio reported Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal saying Tuesday during a meeting in Teheran with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad.
At a press conference, Mashaal was asked if Hamas had now recognized Israel.
The Hamas leader did not answer directly, but said: "The Palestinian government insists on June 4, 1967 borders (for Israel), full Palestinian sovereignty with Jerusalem as its capital."
He was referring to the borders of the Israeli state before the 1967 war, which broke out on June 5 that year.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucheher Mottaki said that his government backed the Mecca accord.
"Iran supports this initiative, and it also supports any step toward achieving greater unity among Palestinians," the foreign minister said.
Last month, Mashaal and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signed a Saudi-brokered agreement in Mecca under which they would form a coalition government and Hamas promised to "respect" the previous agreements.
Mashaal also extracted from Iran a pledge to fund his Palestinian movement to compensate for the West's financial blockade of the Palestinian Authority government.
Mashaal, who arrived in Iran early Tuesday, said that Iran had been giving financial and political support to the Palestinians, whose government has been cut off from Western aid since Hamas took office in March last year.
"We still look forward to get support (from Iran) to break the political and economic sanctions," Mashaal said.
Mottaki told reporters that Iran would continue to provide money to Hamas, but he did not give any figures.
Iran is known to have given sums of money to Hamas since it took office following its victory in the PA legislative elections. But there was no word Tuesday on what more would donated.
Mashaal met Ahmadinejad on Tuesday and was expected to meet the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before he leaves the country.
> Mashaal: Palestinians should prepare for Israel to disappear
"Prepare"? As in figure out who they'd throw bombs at and blame for their incompetence, poverty and homicidal mania if they didn't have the Israelis?
Crash Course on the Arab Israeli Conflict Here are some conveniently overlooked facts in the current Middle East situation. These were compiled by a Christian University Professor.HERE'S THE BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY...
1. Nationhood and Jerusalem. Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, two thousand years before the rise of Islam.
2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years
4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more than 22 years.
5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.
6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.
7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.
8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.
9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews and give them the spoils. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
[Note: The U.N. partitioned the British mandate territory into Israel and an Arab Palestinian State. Jordan took over the West Bank, and Egyot the Gaza region. One of many references on this: Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present by By Oren, Michael B. 2007/01 - W. W. Norton & Company. #5 on the NY Times Non Fiction current list. I recently read this book (just OK, not real interesting), but it was good to see again what I had read 30 years ago in James Michener's, The Source, as well as having read the partition story in an Irishman's book about Palestine called, "The Siege" (by Connor Cruise O'Brien, it is an excellent read about the history of Zionism and the events in the Middle East until the mid-80s)].
10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and progroms.
11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.
12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory (e.g. Jordan's control of the West Bank, Egypt's control of the Gaza Strip from 1948 - 1967). Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
13. The Arab - Israeli Conflict: The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.
14. a. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.
[ This was correct in 2001: One could go online to the PLO's website and read Article 17's call for descturction of Israel in the PLO charter, plus in one other place - I saw with my own eyes. Note this was seven, (yes, 7) YEARS after the Oslo Accords agreement wherein Arafat and the PLO allegedly acknowledged Israel's "Right to Exist." ]
14. b. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them with weapons.
[Jump to 2006: The very next day after Israel completely turned over the Gaza Strip to Hamas, Israel having removed every settlement and settler, Hamas launched artillery and rockets into civilian areas of israel adjacent to Gaza's border with Israel. The very next day! Every time I hear the talking heads say or read a letter to the Editor that opines that if only Israel would "engage and talk" to the Arabs, I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or puke].
15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.
16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.
17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.
18. The U. N was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians.
19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
20. The UN was silent from 1948 to 1967 while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
These are incredible times. We have to ask what our role should be. What will we tell our grandchildren we did when there was a turning point in Jewish destiny, an opportunity to make a difference?
blah-blah-blah.
The BBC, The Guardian, Reuters and the NY Times would still be writing about the "occupation" and the UN would pass resolutions against "Jewish settlements" in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
"Imagine, if all of the Jews left Israel exactly as it is now, leaving their homes, schools, hospitals, all of the infra-structure and buildings and let the "palistinians" have it all, the place would be shambles within a year.
I'm guessing it would take a year for them wreck it all leaving the desert to take it over."
But you're surely underestimating the Palestinian Arabs. It would not take them a year. They'd destroy the place in one month. It took them no time at all to trash the the civilization that the Jews had created in Gaza.
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