Green Lights and Rockets' Red Glare

It's being reported that the US has green-lighted talks between Fatah and Hamas.

The new US Administration has given the Palestinian Authority a "green light" to talk to Hamas about the possibility of forming a Palestinian unity government, a PA official in Ramallah said over the weekend.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas...

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh appeared together prior to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Photo: AP
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The official said that Washington has also given Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the go-ahead to resume his efforts to achieve reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.

"The new administration has a different policy than that of [former US President] George W. Bush," the official told The Jerusalem Post. "The administration of President Barack Obama believes that a Hamas-Fatah government is good for stability."

The Egyptians have issued invitations to representatives of Hamas, Fatah and several other Palestinian groups to attend reconciliation talks that are due to begin in Cairo on February 25.

Fatah and Hamas officials confirmed that the Egyptians had invited them to the talks.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said that in order for the talks to succeed, the PA must first release all "political prisoners" it is holding in its West Bank jails.

Why? What's changed in the situation with Hamas or Fatah? Both still would love nothing better than to toss the other off rooftops. Both still seek Israel's destruction.

In other words nothing has changed with these two terrorist groups. The only thing that's changed is who is in the White House, and President Obama thinks that there's something to be gained from making diplomatic gestures that benefit terrorist groups.

This is bad news for Israel, but Gaza is not the only front on which Israel has to remain concerned. Terrorists fired several rockets towards Israel from Southern Lebanon, and one landed inside Israel injuring several Israelis. Israel returned fire at the launching pads, but it shows that the terrorists are clearly probing Israel's resolve to attack the terrorists.

Demands on Israel remain that they release Palestinian terrorists, and Hamas is threatening to send them to Syria as part of a deal to release Gilad Shalit. That includes eight big name terrorists, and Hamas would demand that four of them be sent to Syria.

On Monday the leading pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported that Israel has accepted Hamas' demand to free eight "heavyweight" prisoners, but insists that four of them be deported to Syria.

The four prisoners slated for expulsion are: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Secretary-General Ahmad Saadat; Ibrahim Hamed, Hamas' military commander in the West Bank; bomb-maker Abdullah Barghouti and Abbas el-Sayed, who orchestrated the terror attack on Netanya's Park Hotel in 2002.

Al-Zahar said Israel has issued fresh demands in the ongoing Egyptian-mediated ceasefire negotiations, including tying the truce to a prisoner exchange deal that would see Shalit returned to Israel.

"The Israelis are in the midst of a major crisis regarding the establishment of the new coalition," he told Al-Akhbar. "In any case, we are not desperate to reach a ceasefire agreement, and the prisoner swap has its own special price tag."

That would put the terrorists ostensibly beyond Israel's reach should they be once again involved in terror attacks against Israel.

As I repeatedly note, any prisoner swap only serves to undermine Israel's security, and this latest report doesn't change my opinion one iota. If anything, it strengthens my feeling that Israel's security is further undermined by any such deal.

So, where do we find US Senator John Kerry? Syria. He's in search of better ties with the terror-sponsoring regime that has served as a home for Hamas and Hizbullah terror masters and a conduit for Iranian influence in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. More to the point, Syria and Iran's close ties continue to undermine US efforts in Iraq as Syria has been a conduit to the Iraqi insurgency.

The terrorists and the terror masters both are seeing weakness in Obama's diplomatic positions and are looking to take full advantage of the situation, which not only undermines US long term strategic interests, but pulls the rug out from under our closest allies in the region - Israel and the developing Iraqi democracy.