Putin Invites Hamas - February-March 2006
NCSJ Calls for Halt in Russian Meetings With Hamas
Urges Putin to Reconsider Negotiations
NCSJ letter to President Putin
Euro-Asian Jewish Congress statement
related news items
February 24, 2006
His Excellency Vladimir V. Putin
President of the Russian Federation
The Kremlin
Moscow, Russian Federation
Dear President Putin:
We are deeply distressed about your government’s invitation to meet with leaders of the Hamas Islamic resistance movement in Moscow. Hamas is a terrorist organization whose covenant calls for the destruction of Israel and its replacement by an Islamic state. Immediately following its victory in the Palestinian elections, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar stated: “Recognizing the state of the Israeli enemy is not on the table. Our program is to liberate Palestine, all of Palestine.” Hamas has masterminded more than 60 suicide bombings against Israel since 2000, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians, including numerous Russian emigrants.
We are aware of your government’s intention to seek recognition of Israel’s right to exist from Hamas. However, meeting with this self-avowed terrorist group before it has shown itself to be prepared to negotiate with Israel confers an undeserved legitimacy upon them.
Hamas is not only anti-Israel and anti-Zionist, but also openly anti-Semitic. Extending an invitation to the Kremlin to a group that urges jihad against all Jews in its Charter undermines your statements condemning anti-Semitism and supporting Jewish communities throughout Russia.
Furthermore, Hamas has exhibited hostility towards Russia by recognizing Chechen terrorists as part of the global jihad and supporting their terrorist activities. In a meeting with NCSJ in 2005, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that he would not speak with Anzor Maskhadov because he had blood on his hands. Holding talks with Hamas while condemning talks with Chechens is creating a double standard.
Moscow has called for a united international front against terrorism, arguing that one nation's terrorist should not be another nation’s freedom fighter. In light of the above, we believe that your reception of Hamas could damage both Russia’s international reputation and the Quartet Roadmap. It seems very doubtful that the arrival of Hamas leaders in Moscow will lead to any breakthrough.
We agree with your initial assessment that the Hamas victory is a "very serious blow" to the peace process. We respectfully urge you, Mr. President, to reconsider your position on negotiating with these self-declared terrorists. We strongly recommend that Russia insist that Hamas comply with the three conditions agreed upon by the Quartet in January 2006: Hamas must commit to nonviolence, recognize Israel’s existence and security, and pledge to uphold previous agreements and obligations, before any conversation is to take place.
Sincerely,
[signed]
Robert J. Meth, M.D. Joel M. Schindler, Ph.D. Mark B. Levin Chairman President Executive Director
Euro-Asian Jewish Congress - 03.02.2006
EAJC Public Relations and Media Department
HAMAS Delegation Visit to Moscow / EAJC Secretary General Statement
MOSCOW -- On the eve of the HAMAS delegation official visit to Moscow, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) Secretary General, the Vaad of Russia President Michael Chlenov stated:
“It is hard for me to tell what President Putin is trying to achieve. But Russian Jewry as we are doesn’t want to host the kids’ murderers. He simply did not take into consideration that millions of our relatives and friends reside in Israel thus it is not the problem of the foreign policy only but as well our own problem. Recently Russia as a “Quartet” member signed the agreement on cooperation with HAMAS denial until they give up the terrorist activities and change their attitude towards Israel. Putin should have counted the opinion of Jewish population of Russia.
There is no difference between Chechen terrorists and HAMAS terrorists. Nevertheless under no circumstances Putin agrees not to negotiate with Chechen terrorists while HAMAS got an invitation to Moscow. All this is a glaring example of double standards. Israel is one of very few countries who never supported Chechen separatists in any way but Russia granted it’s recognition to HAMAS.
In attempt to identify the new national ideology Russia rushes back and forth, trying to shield Iran, HAMAS… so we can come to recognition of Ben Laden soon”.
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Mar. 28 MosNews: Russia: Arms to Palestine Only If Israel Consents — Minister
Mar. 07 JTA: Hamas talks pay off --- for Russia's war effort in Chechnya Mar. 06 JTA: Putin briefs Olmert on Hamas Mar. 01 Haaretz: Olmert: We must improve relations with Russia Feb. 28 Reuters: Israel softens Russia criticism over Hamas talks
Feb. 26 Jerusalem Post: Moscow: Hamas must pledge to recognize Israel Feb. 17 Reuters: Russia to sell Palestinians arms if Israel agrees Feb. 16 Jerusalem Post: Russian Foreign Ministry: Hamas to visit in March
Feb. 13 Jerusalem Post: Israel uses Hamas-Chechen link Feb. 13 JTA: Analysts: Invite may undercut Israel and ‘road map’ Feb. 13 Jerusalem Post: Rice: Putin will insist Hamas recognizes Israel
Feb. 11 Interfax: Rabbi Lazar - No point in talks until Hamas recognizes Israel Feb. 10 NY Times: Putin Considers Inviting Hamas Leaders to Moscow
Russia Will Sell Arms to Palestine Only With Israel’s Consent — Minister
Russia will not supply military hardware to the Palestinian Authority if Israel disapproves of such sales, Russia’s Defense Minister said on Tuesday.
Sergei Ivanov quoted by Interfax said that “these issues have been discussed and examined. They should be transparent and take into account the opinions of all of the conflicting parties.” He added that he could not say anything definite on the subject of assistance provided through the Defense Ministry.
Negotiations were once held on sales of armored personnel carriers to the Palestinian Territories, he said.
“But the situation is different today. A change of power has taken place in the Palestinian Territories and elections have been held in Israel. After stability is restored, it will be possible to revisit this issue and hold transparent talks,” the minister said.
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Jewish Telegraphic Agency - 03.07.2006
In Moscow, Hamas talks pay off --- for Russia's war effort in Chechnya
By Lev Krichevsky
MOSCOW (JTA) - Russia's invitation to Hamas to come to Moscow for talks failed to yield any concessions from the terrorist group that is about to take over the Palestinian Authority -- but it may have paid some dividends for Moscow.
Russian critics of the visit -- including most of the nation's leading newspapers and political analysts -- accused President Vladimir Putin of double standards on terrorism and said Russia's gamble was targeted at boosting the country's global influence, which has declined greatly since Soviet times.
Now that the visit is over, some say Moscow satisfied its ambition without striking a mortal blow to Russian-Israeli relations. Israel was furious that Russia undermined its efforts to isolate a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, arguing that while Hamas leaders offered no concessions at the talks -- they refused to renounce violence or recognize Israel -- an invitation from one of the countries overseeing the "road map" peace plan, which Hamas rejects, conferred invaluable international legitimacy on the group.
Israel and the United States have classified Hamas as a terrorist organization, saying one can't make a distinction between its political and military wings. The Kremlin has never officially included Hamas on its list of terrorist organizations, but has refused to make a similar distinction between the military and political wings of the Chechen separatist movement that has carried out several high-profile terrorist attacks in Russia.
What may well have been the main dividend for Russia was a point made by the head of the Hamas delegation, Khaled Meshaal, who described the Chechen issue as an internal Russian problem.
That statement angered Chechen rebels, who were hoping for Hamas support of their cause. The Kremlin long has tried to destroy the international support Chechen separatists receive from Islamists outside Russia, and Hamas' stance on the issue may prove important for Moscow's fight there.
Regardless of what the Kremlin wanted from the visit, it was received with much passion by many Russian Jews. A prominent Russian Jewish leader voiced his protest on the eve of the visit.
"Putin should have taken the opinion of Russian Jews into consideration," Mikhail Chlenov, general secretary of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, wrote in a statement March 2. "I find it difficult to judge what President Putin is striving for, but we, Russian Jews, do not want to host child murderers."
Russia should have heeded "millions of our relatives and friends who live in Israel," Chlenov said. "This is not only a foreign policy problem, but also our own."
In the small eastern Russian town of Kamensk-Uralskiy, local Jewish activists issued a statement protesting the visit. The activists said they were prompted by the memory of a town native, a 14-year girl who was killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack in Israel in 2001.
Another top Jewish leader praised Putin for the initiative.
Adolf Shayevich, one of Russia's two chief rabbis, described the invitation as a "contribution to strengthening relations with the Jewish state."
The Federation of Jewish Communities, Russia's largest Jewish group, refrained from commenting on the visit. But on the eve of Hamas' arrival, the group's newspaper published two columns criticizing the visit. One carried a headline "Back to the USSR?" -- a reference to Russia's attempts to once again project influence in the Middle East, as it used to in the days of the Soviet Union.
Putin did not meet with the delegation personally, which some observers interpreted as a desire not to damage relations with Israel any further.
Once the Hamas delegation left the Russian capital for Damascus, Putin called interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday to discuss the talks, the Kremlin said.
"Putin stressed several times during the conversation that Russia would not take any step directed against Israeli interests, nor harm Israel's security," the statement by Olmert's office said after the 40-minute telephone conversation.
Given a chance to present its vision of a dialogue, Hamas did its job perfectly, sarcastically commented Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Institute for Israel and Near Eastern Studies, a Moscow think-tank.
Although the visit was a perfect opportunity for Hamas to present a more moderate face, the group did not appear willing to involve in any constructive cooperation with Israel. The most it offered was a continuation of tenuous year-old truce, along with demands that Israel evacuate all the territory it won in the 1967 war as a precondition for talks.
"In Moscow, Hamas made its stand on a dialogue with Israel crystal clear: an unconditional capitulation of Israel," Satanovsky said. "So what was billed as an opening of a dialogue has in fact turned into its closing."
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Jewish Telegraphic Agency - 03.06.2006
Putin briefs Olmert on Hamas
(JTA) - Russia’s president briefed Ehud Olmert on his government’s talks with Hamas officials.
The Kremlin statement said Sunday that Vladimir Putin telephoned Israel’s interim prime minister for a “detailed exchange of opinions” on the weekend talks in Moscow. Although Putin had extended the invitation to host Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal and other senior members of the radical Islamic group, he was not expected to meet with them. Russia is pressing Hamas to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel’s right to exist, neither of which has so far been accepted by the group.
Israeli officials were furious about the Russian invitation, seeing it as a major threat to Israel’s desire to deny Hamas international legitimacy.
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Olmert: We must improve relations with Russia
By Aluf Benn
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday convened a special meeting on Israel's bilateral relations with Russia. The move comes in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invitation to Hamas to visit Moscow and the criticism from Israel that ensued.
"Russia is an important state, the relations with it are important, and we must find ways to improve them and bolster the understandings between us," Olmert said. He categorized the meeting as secret.
He said Putin had sent him "encouraging messages" about the importance of the dialogue between Russia and Israel.
"I intend to continue the dialogue with Putin. I met him several times and received the impression that he was a friend of Israel and would not act against Israeli interests," Olmert said.
Russia is to host a senior Hamas delegation, headed by its political bureau chief Khaled Meshal, on Friday. Putin invited the delegation following Hamas' victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections.
The invitation evoked harsh criticism in Israel, and Olmert's placatory statement is seen as an attempt to relieve the tension with Moscow.
The meeting with the defense and foreign ministers and heads of the intelligence community focused on a survey by the deputy head of the National Security Council for foreign policy, Eran Etzion.
He presented a paper he prepared at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's request about Russian policy, the dialogue between the two countries, anti-Semitism and immigration to Israel.
Mark Sofer, deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry, presented the ministry's evaluation of the subject.
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Israel softens Russia criticism over Hamas talks
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel backed away from strong criticism of Russia on Tuesday just days before Hamas leaders visit Moscow for talks opposed by the Jewish state.
Russian officials will meet leaders of Hamas on March 3 in the wake of its Palestinian election victory, challenging efforts by Israel and the United States to isolate the Islamist militant group.
Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met top officials on Tuesday to discuss ties with Moscow and told them he had got positive messages from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Ties between the two countries are important and ways must be found to improve them and tighten the understanding," Olmert said in a statement after the meeting.
Previously, Israeli officials have warned that the Moscow meeting threatened peacemaking prospects and accused Russia of "stabbing Israel in the back."
Olmert said he believed Putin was a friend of Israel and would not act against Israeli interests.
Russia has said it will tell Hamas, formally dedicated to destroying the Jewish state, that it must commit to seeking peace with Israel to win international acceptance.
That reflects the position of the international Quartet of Middle East mediators, grouping Russia, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States.
Hamas's delegation will be led by Khaled Meshaal, the group's political leader who lives in exile in Damascus. It was unclear at what level the talks would be held.
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Russian Foreign Ministry: Hamas to visit in March
MOSCOW (AP) - A senior Russian diplomat said Sunday that Moscow expects Hamas to make a clear pledge to recognize Israel, a news agency reported.
Alexander Kalugin, the Russian Foreign Ministry's special envoy to the Middle East, said that Hamas should outline approaches to recognition of Israel in its action plan. "The main thing is that they should clearly speak on the issue of recognizing the state of Israel," Kalugin said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Russia to sell Palestinians arms if Israel agrees
By Oleg Shchedrov
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Friday Moscow would supply military hardware to the Palestinian Authority only if Israel agreed.
Plans to sell the Palestinian Authority 50 armored personnel carriers (APCs) were put on hold since last September.
But Russian Armed Forces chief-of-staff General Yuri Baluyevsky said on Thursday that the plan could be revived if a visit by leaders of the Islamist Hamas group to Moscow planned for early March went well.
"Supplies of military hardware to Palestine can only be carried out with Israel's consent and through its territory," Ivanov said in televised comments.
Last year the Palestinian Authority sought to buy Russian hardware, but no definite deal was reached. Diplomats said Russia had since shelved the idea after Middle East peace brokers told Moscow it could harm efforts to stabilize the area.
On Monday, Interfax news agency quoted a "well-informed source" in Moscow as saying that APCs sales were still on hold after Hamas won the January 25 Palestinian elections. But the source did not mention the helicopters, which are destined for use by the Palestinian presidency.
"It would be short-sighted to say the least to make decisions on supplying APCs to Palestine after the Hamas victory and amid the current situation in the Middle East," the source said. "We are taking a break on the issue for now."
Israel supported the Russian decision.
"We welcome the Russian statement that they are re-evaluating and they expect to continue any such future cooperation also in coordination with us," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
Ivanov's remarks were clearly meant to downplay Baluyevsky's suggestions. "The consideration of the issue is at a preliminary stage," the defense minister said.
Russian officials have said the invitation to Hamas leaders was aimed at encouraging the group, branded a terrorist organization by the West, to stick to peace commitments made by the previous Palestinian administration.
They have said Moscow would convey to Hamas the demands of the quartet of Middle East mediators, which also includes the United States, European Union and the United Nations, to recognize Israel and stop armed attacks against Israelis.
"We are now in the process of agreeing delegations, which will take part in Moscow talks," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference.
But Russia's envoy in the Middle east was quoted as saying on Friday that Moscow would not press Hamas in any way.
"We are not going to demand anything at the meeting," Interfax quoted Alexander Kalugin as saying. "It's up to them to decide what answers the interests of the Palestinian people, what helps solve problems in Israeli-Palestinian relations."
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Russian Foreign Ministry: Hamas to visit in March
MOSCOW (AP) - Hamas leaders will travel to Moscow for high-level talks with Russian officials next month, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday, amid Kremlin efforts to cement a central role in Mideast diplomacy and Western wariness about dealing with the militant Palestinian group that won parliamentary elections last month.
Russian officials say they will press Hamas to recognize the state of Israel and to renounce violence. The other members of the so-called "quartet" leading Middle East peacemaking - the US, the EU and the United Nations - also are making those demands, but Washington and the EU have refused to meet with Hamas, unlike Russia.
President Vladimir Putin's invitation to Hamas, made at a news conference in Spain earlier this month, was the latest bid by Moscow to invigorate its role in Mideast peacemaking after years of taking a back seat to the United States. The invitation stunned Israel and other nations.
"We have reached an agreement in principle about the arrival in early March of a delegation of the Hamas leadership to Moscow," the Foreign Ministry said.
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Israel uses Hamas-Chechen link
By Herb Keinon
Government officials are circulating a document showing Hamas's links to Chechen terrorists in an attempt to influence Russian public opinion against President Vladimir Putin's overtures to Hamas.
The pamphlet, put out by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies, an information project sponsored by an NGO set up in memory of fallen members of the Israeli intelligence community, opens by stating that "Hamas support for the Chechen separatists and their terrorist tactics did not prevent it from immediately accepting" Putin's recent invitation to visit Moscow.
According to the document, Hamas "is completely hostile to the Russian regime in that it identifies with the Chechen separatists, regarding them as part of the global jihad, and supports them in their terrorist activities."
A government official said that the document was being circulated so that people "understand the real nature of Hamas - that Hamas has supported terrorism in other part of the world, and has supported a radical jihad agenda, not only against Israel, but also around the globe, specifically in Russia."
"We think that it would be a good thing if Russian citizens became aware of that," he said.
To support the claim of a Hamas-Chechen link, the document states that posters, CDs and movies supporting the Chechen terrorists have been found in Hamas offices. According to the document, Hamas has "even allowed the Chechen terrorists to use its Internet site, www.Palestine-info.net, to provide its suicide bombing attacks with religious Islamic sanction."
According to the pamphlet, "Hamas customarily distributes its anti-Russian incitement CDs (full of hate propaganda and incitement to acts of terrorism) in educational institutions in the PA-administered territories as part of the battle for the hearts and minds of the younger Palestinian generation."
The document said that the CDs, entitled "The Russian Hell," were distributed in 2003 and 2004 to the American University in Jenin, the Hebron University and the Hebron Orphan Asylum.
According to the document, Hamas has expressed admiration for Chechen terrorists in its posters and videos, while the Russian army "is blasted and its actions are referred to as 'terrorist activities against the Islamic population in Chechnya.'"
One poster pictured in the document shows a picture of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin next to those of Ibn al-Khattab, a Chechen leader killed in 2002, Osama bin Laden and Shamil Basayev, a Chechen warlord who claimed responsibility for the Beslan school massacre in September 2004.
Underneath the pictures are the words "Chechnya, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Kashmir, Palestine and Lebanon," as well as a quote attributed to a companion of Muhammad who said Islam would "continue to exist in those regions of the world where Muslims are a minority living in a hostile environment."
Russian officials traditionally bristle at attempts to compare Hamas with the Chechen terrorists, saying that while the international community recognizes Chechnya as an integral part of Russia, the world has never recognized the West Bank as part of Israel.
Rice: Putin will insist Hamas recognizes Israel
(JPost.com) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday morning that Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to demand that Hamas recognize the State of Israel.
Last week, Russia was the first of the Quartet to break with the cold shoulder given to the Hamas, when Putin invited the group's leaders to meet with him in Moscow.
In a CBS interview, Rice noted that unlike the Russian stance, both the United States and the European Union see Hamas as a terrorist organization. She insisted that view would not change before Hamas does.
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Jewish Telegraphic Agency - 02.13.2006
Analysts: Russian invite to Hamas may undercut Israel and ‘road map’
By Leslie Susser
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Russia’s readiness to hold talks with Hamas following the terrorist group’s victory in Palestinian parliamentary election has surprised and angered decision-makers in Israel. But how damaging is the Russian move likely to be?
Israeli leaders worry that Russia’s overture to Hamas might become a precedent and that, if others follow suit, Israel’s attempt to force a Hamas-led government to moderate its anti-Israel positions or face international isolation will fail.
More than diplomatic isolation, however, it’s the loss of economic aid that Hamas fears, and this comes not from Russia but mainly from the European Union and United States. If they withhold the $1.5 billion they transfer to the Palestinians every year, some hope it could impel Hamas to accept Israel’s three conditions for dialogue: Recognition of the Jewish state’s right to exist, renunciation of terrorism and acceptance of previous agreements the Palestinians have signed with Israel.
Israel’s strategy is to show Hamas leaders and Palestinians in general that a radical government will not serve their interests. Through a combination of diplomatic and economic pressure, the aim is to force Hamas to adopt a more pragmatic line or face such intense popular discontent on the Palestinian side that P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas might be forced to declare new elections, in which Hamas could be ousted.
For the policy to work, however, Israel needs broad international support, which the Russian move threatens to erode.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was assigned to get the United States on board. In talks in Washington last week with American leaders, including an unscheduled meeting with President Bush, Livni secured an American commitment not to talk to Hamas unless it accepted the Israeli conditions for dialogue.
Dov Weissglas and Shalom Turgeman, aides to Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, focused on Europe, urging Javier Solana, the European Union’s external affairs minister, not to transfer any of the E.U.’s massive aid package to a Hamas-led government — either directly, through development projects or through UNRWA, the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees.
For now, the Europeans are listening — but what will happen if withholding aid money leads to intense suffering on the Palestinian side? And, Solana asked, was there not a danger that if Europe withheld funds, radical countries like Iran could step in to fill the vacuum?
Weissglas assured Solana that Iran could not contribute anything remotely approaching the sums the Palestinians receive from Europe, and that withholding aid might force the Palestinians to be more pragmatic.
Nevertheless, most Israeli pundits are skeptical and do not believe Europe will persist in denying funds to the Palestinians. Writing soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he intended to invite Hamas leaders to Moscow, Ma’ariv editor Amnon Dankner forecast the imminent collapse of international support for the Israeli position.
“It seems that the next step is already written on the wall: Hamas will mumble something vague and deliberately misleading out of the side of its mouth in order to enable the international community to establish ties, open a dialogue and urge Israel to sit down and negotiate,” Dankner wrote.
Israeli politicians were highly critical of the Russian move, seeing it as a cynical attempt to regain center stage in Middle Eastern affairs, regardless of the diplomatic or security costs to Israel. Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrit described it as “a knife in the back.”
Israeli pundits echoed the anger.
“Putin has identified a rare and great opportunity to again become the central and chief player in the Middle East, the only one who can deliver and mediate between the parties. But he ignores the fact that he is playing a dirty game, and that the goal he scored was after the referee had already whistled for half-time,” Ma’ariv political analyst Ben Caspit commented.
Though the Russians claimed they merely want to impress on Hamas the need to meet Israel’s conditions for dialogue, the pundits were not convinced. They argued that Russia would be conferring legitimacy on Hamas without the terrorist group having to change an ideology that calls for Israel’s destruction.
Ha’aretz military analyst Ze’ev Schiff predicted that the Russian move would boomerang: Instead of becoming the only party in a position to mediate, he wrote, Russia no longer would be able to play the role of honest broker in peace talks.
Moreover, Schiff said, the Russian gambit endangered the internationally backed “road map” peace plan. If France — which gave mixed signals that it might follow Russia’s lead — indeed did so, “that will be the end of the road map,” Schiff warned.
Some saw a return to days when the Soviet Union served as the Arabs’ main foreign backer. Writing in Yediot Achronot, analyst Sever Plotzker warned that Russia would reap scant rewards.
“Has Russia learned nothing from the Soviet Union’s support for Palestinian terror in the past?” he asked. “Its Middle Eastern policy was rife with errors, failures and strange alliances that led to Moscow being banished from every corner of the Middle East.”
The experts agree that there is not a lot Israel can do about the Russian move, besides shoring up support in Europe and the United States. Israel’s responses are limited when dealing with a major power like Russia, they say.
Avi Primor, head of European Studies at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, told Israel Radio that “relations with Russia are far too important to create a crisis over this.”
Primor, who served as Israeli ambassador to the European Union, believes the European embargo on aid to the Palestinians could hold. Moreover, he claims that Israel has powerful economic leverage of its own.
“Hamas was elected to improve the Palestinian standard of living,” he notes. “They can’t do that without our help.”
Still, the big question remains: Will the Russian move set off a domino process that leaves Israel’s anti-Hamas policy in ruins?
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No point in talking to Hamas until it recognizes Israel - Rabbi Lazar
Moscow, February 11, Interfax - Moscow holding negotiations with HAMAS makes no sense until the organization disarms and recognizes the state of Israel, Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar said.
"The Middle East 'quartet' has articulated clear guidelines for HAMAS' participation in the Middle East settlement negotiations: give up violence and terror, recognize Israel's right to existence and security and disband illegal armed groups. Until these conditions are fulfilled, there is no point in negotiations. They will not bring peace to the Middle East," Lazar said in comments on Russians' initiative to invite HAMAS leaders for talks to Moscow.
"I understand well the Jews from all around the world whose relatives were killed by HAMAS militants. Unfortunately, I understand their reaction to Russia's idea to welcome HAMAS leaders in Moscow," he told Interfax in an interview.
Lazar stated that HAMAS has routinely assumed responsibility for the majority of terrorist attacks committed against Jews, peaceful people, women and children.
"Russia has until now resolutely condemned HAMAS terror and any other terror. And such a position has elicited a positive response from all civilized countries," Lazar said.
"It is very convenient for HAMAS to be 'moderate' outside the Middle East and at the same time proceed with terror against Jews. Leaders of the organization have been stating for a long time their readiness to negotiate with any country, but not with Israel, which they aspire to wipe off the face of the Earth," he said.
Earlier on Friday, Holocaust foundation president Alla Gerber severely criticized the idea of inviting HAMAS leaders to Moscow for negotiations.
"Moscow's statement that HAMAS is not a terrorist organization and that we will receive them honorably in the Kremlin is no less frightening than publishing Holocaust cartoons," she said at a press conference in Moscow.
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Putin Considers Inviting Hamas Leaders to Moscow
[excerpt]
By Renwick McLean and Greg Myre
MADRID — Pulling away from an agreed American and European policy, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said Thursday that he was considering inviting the newly victorious leaders of the radical Palestinian Islamic group Hamas to Moscow to discuss solutions to the conflict in the Middle East.
He spoke during a day of chaos and violence in the Gaza Strip, where three armed Palestinians were killed as they attacked Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen kidnapped an Egyptian diplomat. The kidnapping was the most serious attack against diplomats in Gaza since a United States diplomatic convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in October 2003, killing three security guards.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Madrid with Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Mr. Putin rejected suggestions that Russia join with the European Union and the United States in declaring Hamas, which won the Palestinian parliamentary elections on Jan. 25, a terrorist organization.
"I am profoundly convinced that burning bridges in politics is the easiest thing to do, but it has no perspective, it has no future," he said. "Preserving our contacts with Hamas, we are willing in the near future to invite the authorities of Hamas to Moscow to carry out talks."
Hamas responded favorably on Thursday. "If we receive an official invitation to visit Russia, we will visit Russia," said Ismail Haniya, a senior Hamas leader, according to a Reuters report from Gaza City.
But Israeli officials said Mr. Putin's remarks conflicted with the ground rules for negotiations that Russia signed on to in London last month at a meeting of the so-called quartet on the Middle East, which also includes the United States, the European Union and the United Nations. They called on Hamas to renounce violence, disarm militias, recognize Israel and respect previous agreements with it, and implied that international aid would be cut off if changes were not made.
In New York, the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, warned that any weakness in dealing with Hamas would "legitimize terror," according to the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman.
At a lunch meeting with Secretary General Kofi Annan and the ambassadors of all five Security Council permanent members, Ms. Livni said, "Any show of weakness or hesitation on the part of any country and especially a member of the Security Council would only act to legitimize terror and give Hamas a feeling that maybe the international community was weakening," Mr. Gillerman reported.
A senior State Department official said that the administration was surprised and irritated by Mr. Putin's remarks, but that Russia had assured the United States that there would not be any senior-level contacts with Hamas. Asked about Mr. Putin's statement, the official said, "Frankly, it doesn't help."
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mikhail Kamynin, said Russia would adhere to the approach agreed upon in London. Later Thursday, Russia's special Middle East envoy, Aleksandr Kalugin, said Moscow hoped to bring Hamas "up to international requirements" and draw it into dialogue with Israel, The Moscow Times reported.
While Mr. Putin seemed to catch the Bush administration and some others by surprise, it was not the first time he had voiced such an opinion. In a news conference late last month, after the Palestinian elections, he said Russia had "never regarded Hamas as a terrorist organization," and did not rule out financial aid for a Hamas-led government.
Renwick McLean reported from Madrid for this article, and Greg Myre from Jerusalem. Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Moscow, Warren Hoge from New York and Steven R. Weisman from Washington.
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