ISRAEL HAS condemned the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation as a blow to peace, and is urging the European Union to withhold funds from the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Speaking in London yesterday, ahead of talks with British prime minister David Cameron, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal signed in Cairo was a victory for terrorism.
“Three days ago terrorism was dealt a resounding defeat with the elimination of Osama Bin Laden,” he said.
“Today in Cairo it had a victory. When Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas embraces this organisation which is committed to Israel’s destruction and fires rockets on our cities, this is a tremendous setback for peace and a great advancement for terror.”
Israel has already frozen the transfer of €60 million tax revenues to the PA and wants the EU to freeze aid to the Palestinians, worth €288 million annually, in response to the Fatah-Hamas pact.
Mr Netanyahu, who meets today in Paris with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, wants EU states to reject any Palestinian government which includes Hamas as long as the Islamic group refuses to accept three conditions set by a quartet comprised of the US, the EU, Russia and the United Nations.
They are recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence, and acceptance of agreements signed between Israel and the PLO.
Israel’s deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon said the Europeans, as the largest donors to the PA, should make it clear that failure by Hamas to comply with the quartet’s conditions would be met with sanctions.
Mr Ayalon’s party, Yisrael Beiteinu, led by hardline foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, yesterday called on the Israeli government to cut all ties with the PA and block the transfer of funds which could be used “to fund terror activity”.
