By Ryan Jones
Feb 21, 2006
Aware that Israeli and US economic sanctions on the Hamas Authority will be easily broken by increased financial aid from Islamic states, senior Likud Knesset Member Yuval Steinitz said Monday the time has come for Israel to get serious about combating the terrorist entity on its doorstep.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a meeting with top Hamas officials in Tehran Monday urged Muslim governments to give generously to the Palestinian Authority.
Meeting in Algiers, Algeria later in the day, Arab League foreign ministers placed regional funding of the PA atop its agenda in an effort to prop up that regime's $1.9 billion annual budget in the expected absence of substantial American aid.
With the Hamas-led PA set to fully join and gain the more than adequate financial backing of the anti-Israel and anti-US Muslim world, Steinitz told media analyst Aaron Lerner that Jerusalem must act quickly to nip this serious threat to its security in the bud.
?We can put a siege on the cities of the West Bank in order to prevent the members of Hamas from leaving their cities in order to run the Palestinian Authority.
?We can also prohibit the carrying of weapons by the Palestinian police in the territories the moment that it turns - and it is already turning - into a police force under Hamas influence.
?We can thus prevent the formation of a Hamas government and the formation of a Hamas regime in Judea and Samaria.?
Failure to do so will have dire consequences, warned Steinitz, who also heads the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
?Within hours or days of the formation of a Hamas government the Arab League will recognize it. It will enter into official defense pacts with Iran and maybe also Syria and maybe even with Egypt. And after that it will be much harder to deal with the terror government that is under Iranian influence.?
If his Likud party emerges victorious in next month's general election, Steinitz made no secret of what the policies of Israel's next government will be towards the Hamas and its allies:
?It is time to use force to prevent the formation of a Hamas government and the formation of a Palestinian-Hamas revolutionary guard under Iranian influence in the territories.?