And Israeli government officials said: “We are deeply disappointed by the comments of the State Department regarding working with the Palestinian unity government. This Palestinian government is a government backed by Hamas, which is a terror organization committed to Israel’s destruction.” It is refreshing, and rare, to see these unpopular truths being spoken by anyone on the world stage.
“Israeli ambassador publicly rebukes US administration for backing PA unity,” by Raphael Ahren and Rebecca Shimoni Stoil, Times of Israel, June 3, 2014:
In tough language rare for an Israeli diplomat in Washington, Israeli ambassador to the US Ron Dermer said Monday that Israel was “deeply disappointed” in the State Department’s decision to continue dealing with the Palestinian Authority now that it has Hamas support.
“Israel is deeply disappointed with the State Department’s comments today on the Palestinian unity government with Hamas, a terrorist organization responsible for the murder of many hundreds of Israelis, which has fired thousands of rockets at Israeli cities, and which remains committed to Israel’s destruction,” Dermer said in a Facebook post.
“This Palestinian unity government is a government of technocrats backed by terrorists, and should be treated as such,” he said. “With suits in the front office and terrorists in the back office, it should not be business as usual.”
Israeli envoys rarely publicly rebuke US administrations. Dermer’s was the first public comment on the matter.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, said earlier Monday that commending the Fatah-Hamas partnership is “lending legitimacy to terror attacks against Israel.”
In a letter to the president of the UN Security Council, Prosor wrote that Hamas “may seek the veneer of legitimacy by partnering with the Palestinian Authority but it is clear that the terrorist group remains committed to destroying Israel.”
Prosor added that the international community must condemn terrorist attacks against Israel.
Earlier Monday, Israeli government officials in Jerusalem slammed the United States for announcing that it will work with the new Palestinian unity government, sworn in earlier Monday. In strikingly bitter comments, officials said that rather than cooperating with a government backed by a terror group, Washington ought to be urging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to disband his pact with Hamas and resume peace negotiations with Israel.
“We are deeply disappointed by the comments of the State Department regarding working with the Palestinian unity government. This Palestinian government is a government backed by Hamas, which is a terror organization committed to Israel’s destruction,” Israeli government officials said. “If the US administration wanted to advance peace, it should be calling on Abbas to end his pact with Hamas and return to peace talks with Israel,” they added. “Instead, it is enabling Abbas to believe that it is acceptable to form a government with a terrorist organization.”…