That it’s not false doesn’t make it true

Israeli journalist Zvi Bar’el wrote an item in Haaretz recently that got a lot of people excited, people who suddenly had hope that peace between Palestinians and Israelis might be within reach after all.

They were wrong.

PNA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the report said, “told foreign journalists that his group will respect the results of any referendum on a peace agreement with Israel, even if the agreement runs contrary to the movement’s principles. Moreover, ‘Hamas will not oppose the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, whose capital is Jerusalem, and which includes a resolution of the refugee problem and the release of prisoners from Israeli jails.’ ”

Wow!

“Not a return of refugees, not the destruction of the State of Israel, no preconditions,” Bar’el wrote. “More importantly, [Haniyeh] allows the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas to conduct negotiations with Israel that would lead to an agreement, which would then be brought to the Palestinian people for a referendum.”

This, from Haniyeh, is the same as “No new taxes” from President Obama. It’s politispeak. It has nothing to do with reality, even though Haniyeh, on a one-to-ten terrorist scale with Abdullah Barghouti as a ten, ranks among the doves.

Does Haniyeh speak for Hamas? Yes.

Does he decide for Hamas? No. The military guys, even the ones in Israeli prisons, decide for Hamas. The Qur’an decides for Hamas.

Israeli leaders speak the same language.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Shaul Mofaz just threatened to topple Hamas if it fires long-range missiles into Israel.

Politispeak, which should be translated, “Look at me! Listen to me! I was Defense Minister. I was Chief of the General Staff of the IDF. I should be Prime Minister.”

Does he speak for Israel? Yes.

Does he decide for Israel. No.

Despite the saber rattling and political posturing, statements like these do not signal change.

The reality is that:

• Hamas is steadily acquiring more sophisticated weapons.
• The apparent expansion in the West Bank is artificial and relies entirely upon an uninterrupted flow of dollars and Euros. As such, this faux prosperity will be short-lived. Collapse is assured.
• When Hamas smells economic blood in the West Bank, it will call its brothers in other Islamic nations to help it take over, in the name of reunifying the Palestinian people and maneuvering into striking distance of the heart of Israel.