We Won't Allow Hamastan in Gaza

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(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)

Livni: We Won't Allow Hamastan in Gaza
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23/12/2008 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to discuss escalating violence between Israel and Gaza resistance fighters in a rare visit to Cairo on Thursday.

The invitation was personally extended to Livni on Sunday by her Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in a telephone conversation. Livni is also set discuss with Mubarak ongoing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

(Archive)

The visit will be an exception one, since Mubarak usually meets with Israeli officials at the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, and not in the Egyptian capital.

As such, the move is likely to be seen as an endorsement by Mubarak of Livni, who is seeking to lead her Kadima party to electoral victory in February's general election.

The invitation to Livni, and not to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, is certain to spark speculation that this represented an indirect Egyptian endorsement of Livni in the upcoming elections. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly approved the trip.

Livni is expected to present Tel Aviv's current stance, which holds that enough is enough – and that Israel is duty-bound to protect its settlers from the incessant rocket and mortar fire from Gaza.

"We will not allow the prolonged existence of a Hamastan state in Gaza," Livni said during a Kadima security convention in preparation for her visit to Egypt.

"We need to retrieve the power of deterrence. Every decision made about Gaza needs to come from an empowered stance," she added. "The objective is Hamas. Hamas is responsible for everything that happens in Gaza, politically and economically. Israel has no interest in harming innocent civilians, but it must respond," she claimed.

Livni stressed that "Kadima's policy for the long run is to destroy Hamas and by then – to retrieve the IDF's power of deterrence and protect the residents."

In her meeting with the Egyptian president Livni will discuss the over 300 Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza into the occupied territories since November, when the lull agreed upon between the two sides was fractured.

MP Odwan: Egypt bound by law to open Rafah crossing

[ 23/12/2008 - 04:23 PM ]




GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas MP Dr. Atef Odwan has underlined that the Camp David agreement and the Rafah border agreement of 2005 did not prohibit Egypt from opening the Rafah border crossing.

Odwan told Quds press that Egypt's continued closure of the crossing makes it an accomplice to the siege on the Strip and Egypt has to open the terminal to prove the contrary.

He said that even if Egypt was bound by the Camp David and Rafah agreements it should abide by the international laws that supersede any local law or bilateral agreements. He explained that the international law prohibits endangering lives of an entire community.

There are also the humanitarian laws that dictate on Egypt and others to extend whatever is necessary to a community that is under siege, Odwan pointed out.
Egypt, Gaza, Genocide, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Resistance, Siege of Gaza, This is Zionism