"Hamas Doesn't Want To Destroy Israel"

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Courtesy Of: http://jpost.com

By David Horovitz

Oct. 26, 2006

Hamas wants to "liberate the Palestinians," not to destroy Israel, Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

In an interview following his talks in Tel Aviv with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Solana insisted that it was "not impossible" for Hamas to change and "recognize the existence of Israel." History had shown that people and nations "adapt to reality," he said. "I don't want to lose hope."

Solana: Reopen crossings to Gaza
Pressed as to whether he was underestimating the fundamentalist religious imperative at the heart of the Hamas ideology, Solana said, "I cannot imagine that the religious imperative, the real religious imperative, can make anybody destroy another country... Therefore that is an abuse of religion...

"I don't think the essence of Hamas is the destruction of Israel. The essence of Hamas is the liberation of the Palestinians," he added. "The liberation of their people, not the destruction of Israel."

Solana, who said he saw himself as "a good friend of Israel," also said that he was concerned that, given the various demographic, security and other considerations, "some of the positions of some leaders of Israel may not be the best recipes to guarantee the security of Israel."

He said, for instance, "I never thought the construction of the security wall was a good idea."
When it was suggested to him that the security barrier had saved hundreds of lives, he said, "I think there were other ways to do it. In any case, the wall should have been constructed on the line of '67."

He said that sometimes Israel's emphasis on security, however important, provided "more insecurity than security," and cited procedures at the Rafah crossing in this context.

He said he disagreed, too, with the positions of incoming minister Avigdor Lieberman, with whom he met on Wednesday. The Israel Beiteinu leader's stances, he said without elaboration, "are very far from the positions of the classical leaders of Israel."

He added that it was important to remember that, as US President George W. Bush had stated, the goal of the peace process in general, and the road map in particular, was to end the occupation that began in 1967 by means of a two-state solution.