ASHRAWI DEFENDS HEZBOLLAH AND HAMAS

Ashrawi defends Hizbullah and Hamas (JPost)
Veteran Palestinian Authority lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi, who represents PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad's Third-Wave party, defended both Hamas and Hizbullah in a speech at Emory University in Atlanta on Monday night.

"The [Second Lebanon] War proved [Israel] could not defeat a nation fighting for freedom," Ashrawi said. Later, the Christian lawmaker blamed Hamas's January 2006 election victory on Israel, saying the occupation bred extremism.

Ashrawi also discussed the plight of the Palestinian people, saying they had plunged into a deep depression with unemployment and poverty at record levels, and that peace was the only answer.

Palestinians are experiencing "one of the most difficult phases in our history," she said. "Violence and [the] extreme ideology of Israel feed violence and extremism on the other side. And that's what led to the election of Hamas."

"Now we see not just a political and economic battle, but a battle over the soul of Palestine," she told an audience of about 200. "We find ourselves in the grip of... the deconstruction of Palestine."

Nearly 75 percent of Gazans were dependent on welfare and the Strip's unemployment rate had skyrocketed to 50%, she said, adding that conditions there had worsened since Hamas seized power in June.

Ashrawi's lecture was part of a series of speeches on the Emory campus focusing on peace-building in wartorn regions. One of the more controversial talks was by former US president Jimmy Carter, who spoke about his much-criticized book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. The book was condemned by many for comparing Israeli actions to the oppression of blacks under South Africa's apartheid regime.

Ashrawi praised Carter as a "prophet" and a "man of conscience," and one of a dwindling number of people who still believed peace was possible in the Middle East.

OF COURSE EVERYTHING IS ISRAEL'S FAULT. THE PALESTINIANS ARE JUST IGNORANT CHILDREN WHO HAVE NO FREE WILL. MAYBE SHE SHOULD LISTEN TO THOSE WHO VOTED FOR HAMAS WHO GAVE FATAH'S CORRUPTION AS THE REASON. OR MAYBE SHE SHOULD LISTEN TO THOSE LIVING UNDER HAMAS' IRON FIST WHO ARE NOSTALGIC FOR ISRAEL'S "OCCUPATION" OF GAZA.