Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal's vow to take Israel 'inch-by-inch' justifies Israel's renewed pledge to settle the West Bank, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday.
Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal waves to Palestinian student during his visit to the Islamic University in Gaza City December 9. Hamas's vow to vanquish Israel after claiming 'victory' in last month's Gaza conflict vindicates Israel's reluctance to relinquish more land to the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
Suhaib Salem/Reuters
EnlargeHamas's vow to vanquish?Israel?after claiming "victory" in last month's?Gaza?conflict vindicates?Israel's reluctance to relinquish more land to the Palestinians, Prime Minister?Benjamin Netanyahu?said on Sunday.
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Khaled Meshaal, the leader of the Islamist?Hamas?movement, made a defiant speech before thousands of supporters in the?Gaza?Strip on Saturday, promising to take "inch-by-inch" all of modern-day?Israel, which he said he would never recognise.
"Over the last day, we have again been exposed to the true face of our enemies. They have no intention of compromising with us. They want to destroy our country," Netanyahu told his weekly cabinet meeting.
The Israeli leader has faced fierce foreign criticism this week for announcing a wave of Jewish settlement building in the occupied?West Bank?and East?Jerusalem?following a de-facto recognition by the U.N. General Assembly of a Palestinian state.
But Netanyahu said?Israel?would never withdraw unilaterally from the?West Bank?as it had done from?Gaza?in 2005, arguing that this would risk creating another territory from which Palestinians could launch rockets at Israeli cities.
"I am always aghast at the delusions of others who are prepared to pursue this process and call it peace," he said.
"We want a true peace with our neighbours, but we will not close our eyes nor bury our heads in the sand," he said, adding that this required?Israel?to "stand up to international pressure".
Although?Hamas?refuses to recognise?Israel?or renounce violence, the Western-backed Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas?has said he is ready to make peace on the basis of the lines that existed before the 1967 war, when?Israel?seized the West Bank, East?Jerusalem?and the?Gaza Strip.
ABBAS UNITY
Direct talks broke down in 2010 over the issue of settlement building and Abbas, who holds sway in the?West Bank, has since called for reconciliation with?Hamas, which ousted his own forces from?Gaza?in a 2007 civil war.
Hamas's 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of?Israel?and for recovering all mandate Palestine, although?Hamas?leaders have said in recent years the movement could live peacefully alongside?Israel?if it wins a state on all land occupied in 1967. Various?Hamas?officials have at times indicated a willingness to negotiate a ceasefire, possibly decades long, with?Israel.
"What is interesting is that?Abu Mazen (Abbas), of all people, did not condemn the (Hamas) words calling forIsrael's destruction, just as previously he did not condemn the rockets fired at?Israel?(from?Gaza)," Netanyahu said.
"And to my regret he is working for unity with this same?Hamas, which is supported by Iran."
Hamas?is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its foundation this week, turning the event into a "victory" party following its eight-day conflict with?Israel?last month in which some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed.
Israel?not only killed the group's military mastermind during the fighting, but also says it destroyed long-range Gazan rocket arsenals and secured a ceasefire that put an end to indiscriminate attacks from the coastal enclave.
As a first-time premier in 1997, Netanyahu sent?Mossad?assassins to kill Meshaal, then a mid-level?Hamas?figure, in?Jordan?in reprisal for a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. They botched the mission, and the ensuing recrimination from?Amman?forced?Israel?to free the jailed spiritual leader of?Hamas. The episode helped propel Meshaal to the top ranks.
A cabinet minister from Netanyahu's rightist?Likud party,?Yisrael Katz, said?Israel?could again target Meshaal should?Hamas?not keep the Egyptian-brokered?Gaza?truce of Nov. 21.
"He said he wishes to die a martyr, and there is a high probability that this last wish would be realised, and he would become a legitimate target, should the quiet be violated," Katz told?Israel Radio.
Meshaal is making his first visit to?Gaza?and is expected to return to?Egypt?on Monday. He lives between?Dohaand?Cairo, and is the?Hamas?point person for all its foreign ties.
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