61% of Americans Say:
Don’t Talk to Hamas
New York – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has strongly condemned Holocaust Denier and Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas for inviting the terrorist group Hamas to be part of the PA regime.
“The very fact that the PA made this invitation compels one to question the PA’s commitment to peace with the Jewish State of Israel. Hamas is not only on the US list of terrorist groups; its charter calls for the murder of Jews (Article 7), for the destruction of Israel (Article 15), and describes Jews as Nazis (Article 20),” said Morton A. Klein.
“More and more people are now saying that because Hamas constantly refers to Jews, rather than Israel, and calls for their murder; it is appropriate to call them a neo-Nazi group. Even the introduction to its charter talks of waging a grave war against ‘the Jews’.
“For the PA to ask an unrepentant Hamas to play any role in future Palestinian decision-making will only serve to promote more terror and hatred. And Americans clearly agree. In a recent poll of 1,000 Americans, they said, by a margin of 61% – 28%, ‘if Hamas members are elected or appointed to official positions in the Palestinian Arab government, US officials should not meet or negotiate with them.’ (McLaughlin & Assoc., June 26, 2005).
“There is also a letter circulating through Congress by US Cong. Dan Burton (R-IN) and US Cong. Shelly Berkley (D-NV) asking the President to pressure Abbas to disallow Hamas from participating in any elections unless they publicly renounce terror, end incitement and formally abrogate the odious clauses in their charter. (ZOA helped initiate this letter.)
“And on top of this invitation outrage, Abbas and other leaders of the PA invited terror leaders from Hamas, the DFLP, PLO and the Popular Struggle Front to move to Gaza from Syria after Israel leaves Gaza, ‘We want to see you among us,’ said PA Minister Muhammed Dahlan. Chillingly, other PA leaders said, ‘There are no differences over our objectives.’
“We call on President Bush to recognize the real aims and actions of this sham ‘moderate’ Abbas regime and stop all aid to the Palestinian Arabs until they truly disarm and dismantle the terror groups, end the incitement, arrest the terrorists, and stop the weapons smuggling from Egypt.
“If the PA sincerely wanted peace with Israel, it would never countenance making Hamas part of the PA. Would a US President ever give a formal role to a present member of the Ku Klux Klan if the President’s goal was better relations with African-Americans.”