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| By Jerusalem Newswire March 12, 2007 |
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Hamas brazenly pulled the rug out from under PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas Sunday night, demonstrating once again that the Islamist terror group, and not the secular terrorist leader, is the dominant power among the Palestinian Arabs.
At a meeting earlier Sunday evening between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the PA President had responded to Olmert's demand that kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit be released immediately.
It would happen before the PA established its new unity government, Abbas said.
But Hamas spokesman Razi Hamed dismissed this.
We "have other, more pressing issues to deal with" than setting Shalit free, he said.
Certainly the soldier's release would not in any way be connected to the establishment of a new "Palestinian" government.
Hamas' defiance, and Abbas impotence in the face of it, was one reason why Likud Knesset members earlier Sunday called on Olmert not to go ahead with the meeting. To do so, they said, would simpy be "a waste of time."
Olmert had not been inclined to take their advice, and sat chatting with Abbas for nearly three hours.
Following the meeting all Israel's news media led their reports with Abbas' promise about Shalit.
The soldier's parents understandably had their hopes raised even as they confessed not to hearing about any imminent return of their son from any official sources.
Hamas then stepped in to gleefully rob them of what little hope they had.
Reprinted with permission from Jerusalem Newswire. |
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