By Ryan Jones
Feb 15, 2006
Even as it agrees to transfer tens of millions of dollars to the Hamas Authority, the Government of Israel is finally starting to realize that any semblance of a ?Palestinian? peace partner has now disappeared.
During deliberations Tuesday on whether or not to grant Palestinian Arabs who marry Israeli Arabs residency in the Jewish state, prominent High Court Justice Mishael Cheshin said of the Palestinian Authority:
?I'm talking about an enemy regime, a regime that wants to destroy Israel, that is not willing to recognize the [Jewish] State... this is a de facto enemy state.?
Cheshin gave his formal backing to the State's refusal to permit entry to ?Palestinians? simply because they wed local Arab women, pointing out that the majority of the Palestinian Arab public had just backed Hamas at the ballot box:
?Why should we take risks during a war? ... Don't we want to survive??
Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz went one better, suggesting the PA take Iraq's place in what US President George W. Bush termed the ?axis of evil.?
Speaking to reporters following a meeting with Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in Cairo Tuesday, Mofaz said:
?Through Hamas, the axis of evil, which begins with Iran and passes through Syria and Hizb'allah, will continue to other countries where there are radical organizations.?
Hamas itself did little to deflect the Israeli assertions, as the group's top leaders continued their virulent diatribes against the Jewish state.
Speaking to a gathering in Khartoum, Sudan Tuesday, overall Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal made no secret of his organization's intentions after assuming control of the PA:
?Our mission is to liberate Jerusalem and purify the al-Aqsa Mosque... Allah is leading us to victory and liberation.?
Mashaal brushed aside Western threats to cut financial aid if Hamas does not renounce its terrorist ways and accept Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East:
?The crowd gathered here supports our Jihad way... We say to our people: Allah and the Islamic nation are with us. Do not fear poverty and do not fear the threats.?
Meanwhile, the ?international quartet? of the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations continues to look for ways to ?moderate? Hamas and salvage its efforts to broker a final peace settlement.