Billionaire Democratic donor George Soros once slammed the US for supporting Israel and not recognizing Hamas after the terrorist group took control of the Gaza Strip.
In a 2007 Financial Times op-ed, Soros denounced the Bush administration’s commitment to Israel, calling on the US and the Jewish state to cooperate with Hamas, whose forces killed more than 900 people across the Gaza border on Saturday.
A year after Hamas won elections to govern Gaza, Soros said it would be wrong for the US to align itself with Israel in denying the terror group’s authority and installing blockades around the Palestinian territories.
“Israel, with strong US support, refuses to recognize the democratically elected government of Hamas and withholds the payment of millions in taxes collected by Israel on its behalf,” Soros wrote, suggesting the move was a mistake that only worsened Israeli-Palestinian relations.
“If Israel had accepted the election results, that would probably have strengthened the more moderate political wing,” he added. “Unfortunately, the ideology of the ‘war on terror’ does not allow for such subtle distinctions.”
Billionaire Democratic donor George Soros once slammed the US for supporting Israel and not recognizing Hamas after the terrorist group took control of the Gaza Strip. AP A year after Hamas won elections to govern Gaza, Soros said it would be wrong for the US to align itself with Israel in denying the terror group’s authority.AP
Israeli officials immediately condemned the election of Hamas in 2006 because the group’s main mission is to establish a Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, through violent means.
Hamas also refuses to recognize the existence of a Jewish state, a condition that Soros says should not be so important to Israel.
“The main thing is the refusal of Hamas to recognize the existence of Israel, but that can be made a condition for the final settlement and not a precondition for negotiations,” he wrote.
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Regardless of the extremist group’s position, Soros claims it is necessary for the US and Israel to negotiate with Hamas, and that only engaging in talks with them in the West Bank is wrong.
“Defenders of the current policy argue that Israel cannot afford to negotiate from a position of weakness. But Israel’s position is unlikely to improve as long as it continues on its current course,” wrote the liberal donor.
He then cited the decades of violence that have plagued Israel and Palestine, calling on Israel to desist from future military action and for America to support the idea.
“Showing military superiority is insufficient as a basis for dealing with the Palestinian problem,” Soros wrote. “It would be tragic to miss that prospect because the Bush administration is caught up in the ideology of the war on terror.”
Hamas also refuses to recognize the existence of a Jewish state, a condition that Soros says should not be so important to Israel. AP
There have, however, been no such negotiations with Hamas, with the terror group repeatedly attacking Israel, and the Jewish state launching counter-attacks to stamp out extremists, with violence seeing a high-scale increase this year involving civilians.
The situation reached an unprecedented level of brutality on Saturday when Hamas attacked Israel, killing hundreds of music festival attendees, destroying villages near the Gaza Strip and kidnapping about 150 people.
The weekend of violence also saw 27 Americans killed, with 14 more still missing.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
