Then there’s what he didn’t say: 1.) That Hamas would accept Israel’s continued existence on the rest of the land. 2.) That Hamas would renounce its goal of destroying Israel. Hence, this statement by Haniyeh is simply more of the same. “Haniyeh tells Carter: We’re ready for state in 1967 borders,” by Khaled Abu Toameh for the Jerusalem Post, June 16:
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told former US President Jimmy Carter Tuesday that his government supported any plan that aims at fulfilling the aspirations of the Palestinians, preserve their rights and lead to the establishment of a soverign Palestinian state on all the territories that were occupied by Israel in 1967.
Haniyeh, according to his aides, also expressed Hamas’s desire to end the case of kdnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, welcoming Carter’s mediation efforts in this regard. Haniyeh was quoted as saying that Hamas supported acheiving [sic] a dignified solution to the Schalit case on a “human and political basis.”
Platitudes like this always depend on the expectation that people will project their own, optimistic sentiments on them and ignore the agenda behind them.
Haniyeh urged Carter to exert pressure on Israel to lift the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and reopen the border crossings into the area.