Betul, kalau melihat track record George Mitchell (bukan orang gajian Israel, sukses mendamaikan konflik IRA; yang terkenal cukup kompleks), ada kemungkinan besar kita akan melihat perubahan yang sangat positif di Timur Tengah.
Mudah-mudahan kesempatan ini bisa dimanfaatkan dengan sebaik-baiknya oleh saudara-saudara kita. Salam, HS 2009/2/4 A.Dharmawan <[email protected]>: > Carter says Hamas must be included > > > > Israel's 22-day assault on Gaza has left the Palestinian > territory devastated [Reuters] > > Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has said any future permanent > Israeli-Palestinian agreement has to include Hamas, the Palestinian movement > that controls the Gaza Strip. > > Carter also told Al Jazeera's Riz Khan on Wednesday that US presidents were > unable or unwilling to take on Israel's supporters in the US, but said he > had high hopes for George Mitchell, the new US Middle East envoy. > > The former US leader said there was "no way to have a permanent peace in the > Middle East without the inclusion of Hamas". > > "Hamas has got to be involved before peace can be concluded." > > Carter said reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the faction led by > Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, had been "objected to and > obstructed by the US and Israel". > > He hoped the new Obama administration would work to bring the Palestinian > factions together. > > IN VIDEO > > Carter on Middle East peace > > The US government has branded Hamas as a terrorist group and Barack Obama, > the new US president, has reiterated international demands that it recognise > Israel, renounce violence and recognise previous peace agreements before it > can sit at the negotiating table. > > Abbas sacked a unity government led by Hamas in 2007, leading to Hamas's > takeover of the Gaza Strip, while Abbas' Palestinian Authority remained in > charge of the West Bank. > > Carter also said Hamas had mainly kept to its truce agreement not to attack > Israel. > > The truce ended last December and was followed by a massive 22-day Israeli > assault on Gaza that left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead. > > Israel says the operation was necessary to stop Palestinian fighters firing > rockets into southern Israel. > > Mitchell praise > > Carter said that US presidents had officially backed UN resolutions calling > on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian land, but that they had been > unwilling to take on Israel's political allies. > > "The fact is that very few of the presidents have been willing to confront > Israel's forces in the United States, politically speaking," Carter said in > what appeared to be a reference to the powerful Israeli lobby. > > Carter, a Democrat who was president from 1976 until 1980, praised Obama for > signalling deeper US involvement in the quest for Middle East peace by > appointing Mitchell. > > "If you look at US Middle East envoys in the past, almost all of them have > been closely associated with Israel, sometimes even working professionally > for Israel. George Mitchell is a balanced and honest broker compared to the > others." > > Mitchell, a former senator, has held talks in Israel and Egypt during his > first tour of the region aimed at promoting what he said would be a bid for > "lasting peace" between Israel and the Palestinians. > > He had served as special envoy to Northern Ireland during the Clinton > administration and brokered the landmark Good Friday accord in 1998 that > ended decades of bloody violence in the conflict. > > _______________________________________________ Is-lam mailing list [email protected] http://milis.isnet.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/is-lam
