Bardawil: Wikileaks revelations about Gaza war are not new

[ 30/11/2010 - 09:50 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Senior Hamas official, Salah Al-Bardawil, said that what was revealed by Wikileaks website about the prior knowledge of de facto president Mahmoud Abbas of the last Israeli war before it was waged on the Gaza Strip was not new.

In a press release on Monday, Bardawil added that before Wikileaks disclosed its documents, his Movement had accused Abbas and his authority many times of being involved in one way or another in the Gaza war in order to undermine the rule of Hamas and topple it.

Regarding Wikileaks' talk about the presence of a US veto on the inter-Palestinian reconciliation, the Hamas official affirmed that this information was already known by many people, and Abbas himself and some of his aides admitted there was such a veto.

He also accused Washington of knowing already what Wikileaks was going to publish in order to force Abbas to be more submissive to Israel's demands and negotiate with it without complaining.

The latest documents released by Wikileaks stated that the regime of Abbas and the Egyptian leadership were informed previously about Israel's intention to wage a war on Gaza.

These documents asserted that Israeli premier Ehud Barak contacted Cairo and Abbas, and held consultations with them about Israel's intent to regain its control over Gaza after routing Hamas.

Among these documents was an official paper issued by the US embassy in Tel Aviv stating that Barak told a delegation from the congress in 2009 that the Israeli government conducted these contacts with Cairo and Abbas before the war and kept in touch with them during the military aggression on Gaza.

In response to this information, the France news agency (AFP) quoted chief negotiator of the Palestinian authority Saeb Erekat as saying that what was published by this website confirmed the credibility of Abbas when he tried repeatedly to persuade Hamas to sign Egypt's reconciliation paper so as to avoid the war.

WikiLeaks: Netanyahu said no peace with right of return

Published  29/11/2010 22:44 JERUSALEM, Maan, (AFP) --

The Palestinians will not be a partner for peace until they drop demands for the right of return, Benjamin Netanyahu said two years before being elected premier, leaked US cables showed Monday.

Details of his remarks were catalogued in a diplomatic cable sent by the then US ambassador Richard H. Jones in April 2007 when Netanyahu was leader of the opposition, which was one of hundreds of secret documents released by WikiLeaks late Sunday.

Netanyahu told the officials that Israel would not have a partner for peace until the Palestinians dropped their demand for refugees to return to homes they either left or were forced out of in the war which accompanied Israel's creation in 1948.

"Netanyahu noted that he thought dropping the 'right of return' was the acid test of Arab intentions and insisted that he would never allow a single Palestinian refugee to return to Israel," the leaked cable said.

"Israel will only have a peace partner when the Palestinians drop the right of return," it quoted him as saying, noting Israel's rejection of the so-called Arab peace initiative because it kept the option for the right of return open.

"Asked whether Israel could accept case-by-case exceptions, Netanyahu insisted not one refugee could ever return. Israel, after all, was not asking for the right of Jews to return to Baghdad or Cairo."

The issue of refugees is one of the thorniest elements of the conflict, with the Palestinians demanding that Israel recognize the "right of return" of refugees who, with their descendants, now number 4.7 million people.

Israel rejects the demand, saying they should be accommodated within a Palestinian state.

In leaked cable, Egypt says factions unserious on unity

Published 29/11/2010 15:33

 GAZA CITY (Ma'an) --

The Egyptian official charged with reconciling rival Palestinian factions judged in 2009 that neither Fatah nor Hamas wanted a unity deal, a leaked document revealed Sunday.

A US diplomatic cable, one of more than a quarter million obtained by the whistleblower group WikiLeaks recounts a meeting between CENTCOM commander Gen. David Patraeus and Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in Cairo in June 2009.

"Reconciliation remains elusive, he [Suleiman] noted, as neither Hamas nor Fatah really want an agreement," the document states.

"Talks were at an impasse, however, as Hamas had suspended reconciliation talks until Abbas released all Hamas detainees in the West Bank, which Soliman said Abbas would never accept," the dispatch from the US Embassy continues.

Suleiman "promised that Egypt would 'not give up' on Palestinian reconciliation. 'It is hard,' he continued, 'but I am always optimistic. I consider myself a patient man, but I am loosing [sic] patience.'"

Suleiman oversaw several rounds of negotiations between the factions after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. The Islamist movement had won a majority in the Palestinian parliament but moved to preempt an expected US-backed coup against its authority.

Pressure on Hamas

In the same conversation, Suleiman is quoted as telling Patraeus that "Egypt's three primary objectives with the Palestinians were to maintain calm in Gaza, undermine Hamas, and build popular support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas."

The document states: "On Gaza, Soliman said Egypt worked closely with Israel to coordinate humanitarian assistance shipments and was encouraging the Israelis to allow more assistance into Gaza. Soliman said he was still seeking a 'tahdiya' (calm) agreement between Hamas and Israel, but noted that Israel's lack of a Gaza strategy and desire to keep Hamas under pressure made any agreement difficult."

"On undermining Hamas, Soliman said Egypt has "stopped" money and arms from entering Gaza. 'Hamas feels they are losing their capabilities,' Soliman said, as they are unable to re-arm using the tunneling network under the Egypt-Gaza border."