Merkel Blasts Hamas for Middle East Violence
12/29/2008 05:02 PM
www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,598724,00.html

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said the blame for renewed
violence in the Middle East can be pinned on Hamas. Others, though, say
Israel's response with mass air strikes has been disproportionate.

Domestically, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has often been criticized for
trimming her positions to take advantage of whichever direction the
political wind might be blowing. On Monday, though, she was very clear about
where the blame should lie for the renewed Palestinian-Israeli violence in
the Middle East.

Speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by phone, she said
responsibility for the three-day-old Israeli air offensive against Hamas in
the Gaza Strip lies "clearly and exclusively" with Hamas, according to
government spokesman Thomas Steg. A statement on the Chancellery Web site
referred to Israel's "legitimate right" to defend its people and territory.

Merkel's comments joined a chorus of voices slamming Hamas for its decision
to allow a cease-fire to elapse on Dec. 19 and to resume firing rockets from
the Gaza Strip across the border into Israel. Dozens of homemade Qassam
missiles have slammed into Israel in the last several days, killing two and
wounding several. Israel has responded with massive air raids that began on
Saturday. At least 300 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been
killed in the bombings.

The US has likewise pointed at Hamas as being responsible for the renewed
violence. "The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and
mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the
cease-fire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza," said Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice in a statement.

Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, was even
more direct. "These people are nothing but thugs, so Israel is going to
defend its people against terrorists like Hamas that indiscriminately kill
their own people," he said.

Still, much of the global and European reaction has also been critical of
Israel's forceful response. In a statement released on Monday, Prime
Minister Gordon Brown said "I am deeply concerned by continuing missile
strikes from Gaza on Israel and by Israel's response."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was even more critical of Israel, calling
the air raid campaign against the Gaza Strip "disproportionate force."
Sarkozy spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by telephone on
Sunday and also condemned "the provocations which have led to this
situation."

Javier Solana, chief of foreign policy for the European Union, said "the EU
has repeatedly condemned rocket attacks against Israel," before adding "the
current Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian
civilians."

Despite the protest from capital cities around the world, it seems unlikely
that the violence will stop anytime soon. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud
Barak has indicated that a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip may be the next
step and Israeli tanks are amassing on the border. Hamas, for its part, has
denied a government statement from Senegal which claimed that Hamas leader
Khaled Mashaal had told the Senegalese president he was ready to sign a
cease-fire.

The Palestinians themselves also seem split on how to react to the Gaza
Strip raids. An aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said
that Abbas "demands that the Israeli government stop this aggression
immediately." But on Sunday in Egypt, he also seemed to place some of the
blame with Hamas. "We talked to them (Hamas) and we told them 'please, we
ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop' so that
we could have avoided what happened," Abbas said on Sunday in Cairo during a
visit for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Abbas' Fatah Party holds power in the West Bank, but has had no leverage in
the Gaza Strip since June 2007, when Hamas violentally wrested power away
from Abbas' Fatah party in the area. Since then, the two Palestinian
factions have been deeply divided with the European Union and Americans both
classifying Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The split is likely to make it even more difficult to find a resolution to
the current crisis. Egypt has long been attempting to negotiate a settlement
between Hamas and Fatah, but has found little success so far. Such a
settlement though, is necessary before the Israeli-Palestinian peace process
can continue, say many.
"We need to devise a new strategy for Gaza," former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, who is serving as the Mideast Quartet's special envoy
representing the US, Russia, the United Nations and the EU, said on
Saturday. One "which brings that territory back under the legitimate rule of
the Palestinian Authority in a manner which ends their suffering and fully
protects the security of Israel."

cgh -- with wire reports