Hamas not interested in peace deal with Israel

AP/CBS:

Hamas said Saturday it was shocked Arab countries have decided to attend next week's U.S.-backed Mideast peace summit and underlined its opposition with a threat to launch deadlier rocket attacks on Israel.

Hamas argues the time is not right for talks with Israel because the Palestinians are divided. With the Islamic militant group in control of Gaza, Hamas says moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas does not have a mandate to negotiate.

"The announcement of the Arabs that they would participate in the Annapolis conference was a great shock for the Palestinian people," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, said in a statement. "Participation opens doors for normalization of relations with the Israeli occupiers."

Another Hamas official said the group was on the brink of developing a more lethal type of warhead for the rockets it regularly lobs from Gaza into Israel.

"They can be developed in a short period to create sufficient terror and fear and make the Israelis live in pain no less than what our people live through because of the repeated incursions into our villages and cities in the West Bank and Gaza," said Ahmed Yousef, an adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister in Gaza.

Israel, which warmly welcomed the Arab League decision Friday to go to the Mideast conference in Annapolis, Md., has repeatedly said it expects Hamas to try and thwart peace efforts.

"We take these threats very seriously," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said in response to Yousef's comments.

Gaza militants have fired hundreds of crude, homemade rockets at Israeli border communities in recent years, killing 12 people.

...
The Hamas justification is ridiculous. If it were not attacking Israel from Gaza, there would be no need for Israel to respond. If Israel responded in kind to the indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilians it could destroy most of the civilians in Gaza.

The Hamas statement does point out the problem with any Palestinian peace agreement. Unless the Palestinian Authority can impose discipline on groups like Hamas, any agreement it enters into with Israel is of little or no value. In other words, the Palestinians have to be ready to suppress groups like Hamas if they are going to have a genuine peace agreement. What that means is that the PA and the other Arab states are going to have to work with Israel to destroy organizations like Hamas. I want hold my breath.

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