Doug Saunders, the Globe & Mail’s European bureau chief, thinks there’s no difference between Hamas and the Israeli parties that make up Prime Minister Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
He’d be correct if Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Haatzmaut maintained their own armed groups, fired rockets at neighbors, restricted media freedom, brainwashed children, and tossed each other off the rooftops.
As for the legitimacy to govern, I’ll quote Khaled Abu Toameh, who last year argued that the PA’s illegitimacy is what’s holding up peace efforts:
A president whose term in office expired a long time ago, and a prime minister who won about 2% of the vote when he ran in an election, have now been invited by the US Administration to hold direct peace talks with Israel on behalf of the Palestinians . . . .
The 18-member PLO Executive Committee, which met in Ramallah last week to approve the Palestinians’ participation in the direct talks with Israel, is dominated by unelected veteran officials . . . .
Abbas and Fayyad are nonetheless not stupid. The two are well aware of the fact that they do not have a mandate to sign any agreement with Israel. This is why they will search for any excuse to withdraw from the direct talks and blame Israel for the failure of the peace process.
The mirror image Saunders shills is cracked.
(Hat tip: HonestReporting Canada)
