Israel may one day talk to Hamas: president

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s President Moshe Katsav said
on Tuesday that talks with Hamas might one day be possible if
the Palestinian Islamic group disarmed and abandoned its
commitment to destroying the Jewish state.

Even if there was no chance that Hamas would meet such
conditions any time soon, the comments from Israel’s ceremonial
president appeared to be a sign of shifting attitudes ahead of
Palestinian elections.

“If Hamas recognizes Israel’s right to exist, and ceases
terrorism and is elected by the Palestinians to their
parliament, under these conditions I think it would be possible
to conduct political negotiations with them,” Katsav said on
Israel’s Army Radio.

A senior Israeli official said that there had been no
change in position and that Israel had long believed that Hamas
could be a partner if it met the conditions set out by Katsav.

A Hamas spokesman said there was no question of disarming
and that it was “committed to resistance against the
occupation.”

Hamas, popular among many Palestinians for its charities,
perceived lack of corruption, and suicide bombings, is expected
to make a strong showing against the mainstream Fatah in
Palestinian parliamentary elections on January 25.

That has raised a big question over the possibility for any
future peacemaking given that Hamas is officially dedicated to
destroying Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah wants a
state alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hamas did not stand in 1996 elections because it opposed
interim peace accords with Israel.

Israel’s interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday
that he hoped to renew peace talks with the Palestinians after
Israeli elections on March 28, but only if militant groups are
disarmed first.

Hamas, behind dozens of suicide bombings since a
Palestinian uprising began in 2000, has consistently refused to
disarm. But it has respected an 11-month-old truce to a greater
extent than other Palestinian militant factions.

Some Hamas figures have suggested that talks with Israel
might one day be possible if there was a complete withdrawal
from all of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem — which
Israel has said it will never do.

But senior Hamas leaders have rejected the idea of any
talks and said that there is no discussion of changing the
group’s stand.

Under Western pressure to ensure that the Palestinian
election takes place as planned, Israel has agreed to allow
Palestinian voting in Arab East Jerusalem, but barred Hamas
from listing candidates on ballot slips.