I Feel So Much Better Now

Sen. John Kerry has said that he would not support Hamas being in the Palestinian Authority.

US Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) said Tuesday that he would not support funding for a Palestinian Authority that included Hamas, unless the terrorist group denounced violence and recognized Israel's right to exist.

"I don't support funding a terrorist organization as long as they remain a terrorist organization," said Kerry, who spoke briefly to the press in Jerusalem after meeting with Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA negotiator Saeb Erekat. Kerry is on a 12-day tour of the region that will include Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Jordan and Kuwait.

Earth to Kerry. The PA is and always has been terrorist organization - Fatah and PLO run the entity known as the Palestinian Authority, and both are terrorist organizations that have factions that conduct repeated terrorist attacks against Israel. The PA was a fiction devised by the negotiators in Oslo to get Palestinians to the negotiating table with Israel. The PA is a terrorist entity, supports and condones terrorism against Israel despite it's English language press releases, and all of its obligations to eliminate terrorism and recognize Israel's right to exist have gone unfulfilled. The al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade is part of Fatah, part of the PLO, and part of the PA. They are all part of the same organization, and it doesn't matter that there is a political wing or a military wing if both are committed to terrorism and the elimination of Israel.

UPDATE:
Mohammed Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, has said that he would resign if the government elected in the January 25 elections does not follow his policies. Sigh. What an empty threat. So what would happen if he resigns? Nothing. It's not like his policies were such a success in the first place. Palestinian standard of living indicies have fallen considerably since he took power, despite the fact that Israel has withdrawn Gaza. Things are actually in worse shape than before. Corruption is rampant, and Hamas is gaining ground because they claim that they can provide basic services better than the PLO. That might even be true. The PLO and PA has done an absolutely awful job of providing basic services to the Palestinian people and there's little reason among the Palestinians themselves to support the PA's current course of action. It hasn't gotten the Palestinians anywhere.

But it's also true that Hamas has absolutely no intention of making peace with Israel. We know what their intentions are - they're quite clear and explicit about that.