E.U. FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF THINKS HAMAS DOESN'T WANT TO DESTROY ISRAEL

‘Hamas doesn’t want to destroy Israel’ (JPost)
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."

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."

I GUESS IF YOU IGNORE EVERYTHING HAMAS PUBLICLY STATES REGARDING ITS INTENTIONS AND IGNORE HAMAS' OWN CHARTER, AND IGNORE ALL OF HAMAS' ACTIONS, AND STUCK YOUR HEAD IN YOUR TUCHES, YOU MIGHT COME TO THESE CONCLUSIONS. BUT I DOUBT IT.

ON A RELATED NOTE, IN A PRESS CONFERENCE WITH ABBAS, SOLANA CALLED FOR ISRAEL TO END "THE OCCUPATION," CALLED ON ISRAEL TO OPEN THE GAZA/EGYPT BORDER (ONE PRESUMES TO ALLOW PALESTINIANS TO SMUGGLE WEAPONS INTO GAZA ABOVE GROUND INSTEAD OF USING TUNNELS), AND ANNOUNCED THE E.U. DID NOT CUT ITS AID TO THE HAMAS GOVERNMENT.