Israeli Prime Minister Benymin Netanyahu, an irredeemable racist and pathological liar, instructed Chief Negotiator Tzipi Livni to stop all contacts with the PA.
In addition, Israel on Thursday, 24 April, reportedly imposed stringent sanctions on the PA, including freezing the transfer of tax revenue and restricting travel movement of PA officials.
In truth, Israel has been utterly hypocritical about the erstwhile inter-Palestinian rift. Israeli officials and spokespersons had repeatedly argued that Israel couldn't make peace with the Palestinians as long as the latter were divided against themselves. Now, Israel is saying the PA would have to choose between making peace with Israel or reconcile with Hamas.
Let Israel go to hell
Well, let Israel and the American government go to hell. They must understand that Palestinian national unity is an internal Palestinian affair that is none of Israel's or America's business. We must communicate this message to Israel and her guardian ally as clearly and strongly as possible.
Having said that, it is important to underscore the utter unreasonableness of American and Israeli objections.
The US argues that Hamas doesn't recognize Israel and should therefore remain outside the confines of the Palestinian political system.
Well, the US should be reminded of the fact that Israel doesn't recognize a Palestinian state based on the borders of the 1967 borders. The same thing applies to most Israeli Jewish political parties represented in the Knesset or Israeli parliament.
Indeed, nearly all coalition parties forming the current Israeli government don't recognize Palestine, with some of these parties even negating or denying the very existence of the Palestinian people.
For example, the National Religious Party, renamed Habayt ha-Yahudi or Jewish home, headed by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett holds a brashly racist and Nazi-like ideology that views non-Jews as effectively animals whose lives have absolutely no sanctity.
Yet, we have heard absolutely no objections from Washington to the inclusion of that and similar other parties into the Israeli government.
A few years ago, a leader of Israeli settlement movement, the ultimate home-turf of Bayt ha-Yahudi, told a group of settler youth in Hebron that the right way to deal with the Palestinians was Joshua's way, an obvious allusion to the genocidal massacres carried out by the ancient Israelites against Canaanite tribes in Palestine. These hair-raising massacres are narrated in grisly details in the Old Testament.
The settler leader mentioned above, named Daniela Weiss, was never barred from entering the United States and collecting money from rich American Jews and Christian Zionists for Jewish terrorists ganging up on helpless Christian and Muslim Palestinians in the West Bank.
As to the issue of recognizing Israel, foreign governments and all other honest people under the sun ought to be reminded of the following fact: The PLO under the leadership of Yasser Arafat did recognize Israel upon the signing of the Oslo Accords more than 20 years ago.
However, instead of giving the Palestinians a reciprocal recognition, Israel intensified the building of Jewish colonies all over the West Bank, so much so that no room was really left for the establishment of a viable and territorially contiguous Palestinian state worthy of the name.
A few years ago, I asked a high ranking PLO official why on earth they recognized Israel without receiving a reciprocal Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
After a moment of silence, the elderly man looked at me and said: "We simply were stupid."
In light, Hamas will not commit the same stupidity, especially given the fact that Israel has effectively killed any remaining chances for a genuine two-state solution.
As to the issue of terror, it is amply clear that the matter is used by Washington and Israel as an expedient political tool to force the Palestinians to lower the ceiling of their national aspirations and demands.
Otherwise, the U.S. and Israel are in no way fit to issue certificates of good conduct for other peoples and other nations.
As we all know Israel was born in terror, baptized in terror and adopted terror as its national modus operandi from the very inception of its existence. Hence, Israel, which many honest historians call a crime against humanity, has not even an iota of moral legitimacy to lecture her victims about terror.
Similarly, the US which murdered and maimed numerous millions of innocent people around the world-from Iraq to Vietnam- rather knowingly and deliberately, is utterly unqualified to preach morality to other peoples.
Indeed, the timeless ideal of actively resisting foreign occupiers is inculcated in every culture. Even in America, American school children learn at an early stage Patrick Henry's iconic slogan: "Give me liberty or give me death."
In the final analysis, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups are just following this sublime American ideal.
A final word to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah: Don't budge to American and Israeli financial blackmail. These forces of arrogance and evil would like to enslave our people and keep us vanquished and tormented.
Tell them to keep their money and let it be as it may. We can live without it.
By: Khalid Amayreh
Source: Palestine Information Center
Khalid Amayreh is a Palestinian journalist living in Occupied Palestine