Rice Blames Mideast Stalemate On Hamas

Secretary Of State In Region To Try And Revive Struggling Peace Talks

(CBS/AP)  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's Mideast trip kicked into high gear Tuesday with a strong admonishment of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Rice blamed Palestinian Hamas radicals for provoking an Israeli military onslaught in the Gaza Strip. The campaign has derailed an already troubled U.S-backed drive for peace terms this year.

"Negotiations are going to have to be able to withstand the efforts of rejectionists to upset them, to create chaos and violence, so that people react by deciding not to negotiate," Rice said in Egypt at the start of two days of efforts to rescue negotiations. "That's the game of those who don't want to see a Palestinian state established."

The moderate, U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership in the West Bank suspended peace talks in protest after an Israeli military offensive that killed more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza. That made restoring two-way talks Rice's chief objective for a trip she had planned to check up on the negotiators' progress.

Rice, who later appeared with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that walking away from talks plays into the hands of militants.

"I know that there is great will to try and get to a solution by the end of the year. What we are trying to achieve is not easy ... but I do believe it can be done. We need very much for everybody to be focused on peace," Rice said later Tuesday during a joint press conference with Abbas.

Referring to the opponents of peace, she said, "We won't let them win." Rice also said that Israel should make "a very strong effort to spare innocent life" in Gaza.

For his part, Abbas declared that peace is his first choice in the Mideast.

"I call on the Israeli government to halt its aggression so the necessary environment can be created to make negotiations succeed, for us and for them, to reach the shores of peace in 2008," Abbas said. He was referring to the goal - stated at a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in November - of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty by the end of the year.

Also Tuesday, President Bush said he remains optimistic there will be a Mideast deal by the end of his presidency. Mr. Bush made the remarks in the Oval Office after meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Mr. Bush said it is "a process that always two steps forward and one step back" and said that people need to make sure that it's just "one step back."

Israel launched the offensive to stop rocket attacks by the Hamas militant groups on nearby Israeli cities, but the assault prompted Abbas to suspend negotiations. Israeli aircraft sent more missiles crashing into Gaza on Tuesday after more rockets were fired on the southern town of Sderot.

Rice backed Israel's right to respond to the rocket fire, but said it must avoid causing civilian casualties.

"The rocket attacks against innocent Israelis in their cities need to stop. This can't go on. No Israeli government can tolerate that," she said. But the Israelis "need to be aware of the effects of these operations on innocent people."

She said Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip last July, is armed "in part" by Iran and underlined the need for the United States and the West to train and develop the Palestinian security forces loyal to Abbas, whose government controls the West Bank.

"Hamas gets armed by the Iranians and if nobody helps to improve the security capabilities of the legitimate Palestinian Authority security forces. That's not a very good situation," she said at a news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

Rice said she still thinks the two sides can reach a deal for Palestinian statehood this year.

"I do think that negotiations ought to resume as soon as possible," Rice told reporters Monday on her way to the Middle East. "I understand that the situation has been complicated. But the longer the negotiations are not ongoing or the longer that they are suspended, if that's what one wants to call it, the more it is a victory for those who don't want to see a two-state solution."

Rice declined to call for a cease-fire, which many Israelis think would legitimize Hamas and its hold in Gaza. The Mediterranean coastal strip is the smaller, poorer of two Arab tracts that would form an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Gheit, whose country has sought to isolate Hamas, also stopped short of calling for a cease-fire. He said Egypt was seeking to convince Israel "not to resort to excessive use of force.... The imbalance of power (between Hamas and the Israelis) must be taken into account." He said Egypt also urges the Palestinians to halt rocket fire.

Israel said it wants to continue negotiations, but suggested it also may launch a full-scale re-invasion of the Gaza territory it abandoned three years ago in a first step toward ending defensive occupation of lands the Palestinians claim for the state.

Israel said it would return to Hamas-ruled Gaza if necessary.

"We cannot afford this kind of extreme Islamic state controlled by Hamas," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told foreign diplomats in a meeting, according to a ministry statement released Tuesday. Israel evacuated Gaza "not in order to come back, but we might find ourselves in a situation that we have no other alternative."

In Egypt, Rice asked President Hosni Mubarak and other officials for help controlling Gaza's small border with Egypt, site of a border breach in January that became something of a public relations coup for Hamas. Some Israeli military analysts think the more sophisticated longer-range rockets fired at the Israeli city of Ashkelon in recent days probably came into Gaza during the week that fences with Egypt were down.

Rice was also looking for ways to speed aid into Gaza, sealed off for months as Israel tries to punish Hamas and break its rule. She said proposals from Egypt and the Palestinians to reopen a monitored border crossing point have merit.

Gaza and the Palestinian leadership split that underlies the crisis are the largest potential deal-killers for President Bush's goal to sign a peace treaty before the close of his term in January.

[kretos-2009]

israel stop killing babies thats enough !!!!

[rowdytexan2]

It just seems to me that the Jews were having a hard time, especially being God''s chosen people, to learn to live here on this earth the way he wanted them to. Seems they were worshiping golden calves, etc. And in the light that the Jews don''t even recognize Jesus, so the second time doesn''t count.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by singinrick at 12:09 AM : Mar 05, 2008

I do not apologize to anybody for my stance. This bit of history was written by the Jews. And in it they laid claim to be God''s chosen people. Not anywhere else in the world is it written that God promised them that land forver into eternity. And not anywhere else in the world is it written, that God spoke to the Jews and called them his chosen people.

Now pardon my skepticism. But that''s just a little too convenient!

Especially in light that God allowed them to be scattered all of the world. And that he had to come back twice, once with his commandments, and once through Jesus Christ, to teach them how he expected them to live on this earth.

[leftyintexas]

Singinrick...Nobody cares about your bible quotes except you. We all know you are crazy. If there is a god, I don''t believe he is favorable toward any particular group of people. He wouldn''t be God if he showed partiality toward anyone. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Only 321 days left! Enjoy!

[j-whitman]

jowand,,,, I meant Torah

[j-whitman]

jowand,,,, Yes, it''s true,, I can''t name more than one without some extinsive digging ---- The Dead Sea Scrolls is one good example,,,,, You''d have to go back through all the stories not cannonized, many were left out.... The Toha only has 5 stories included in the Old Testement, there are others.

[rowdytexan2]

Constantine began what was to become a centuries long effort to eliminate any book in the original Bible that was considered unacceptable to the new doctrine of the church. At that time, it is believed there were up to 600 books, which comprised the work we now know as the Bible. Through a series of decisions made by the early church leadership, all but 80 of those books, known as the King James Translation of 1611, were purged from the work, with a further reduction by the Protestant Reformation bringing the number to 66 in the "Authorized" King James Bible.

[rowdytexan2]

There was no specific list or accounting of all the books that made up the Bible until the commission of the first Bible by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century AD. The books that make up the Authorized King James Bible were chosen by men, not divine forces. The language of the King James Bible is obscure and limited.

[j-whitman]

ilikecats1,,,, Why did Bush divert the War on Terror to Iraq ??? Everyone was onboard with war in Afhaganistan without a doubt.

[rowdytexan2]

In the end, it''s clear that Bush is no follower of Jesus Christ and neither are the militant Christians in the USA. These American Pharisees cite Christ''s teachings and actions to perform insufferable acts, but millions the world over see right through them. They even claim to have an open channel to Christ''s father, God. Their actions are evidence enough that Christ and his father are just another prop in the staged affair that is the Bush presidency and the Right Revolution. As the Son of David once said about people like Bush, Cheney and the like, "You are like whitewashed tombs which look fine on the outside but are full of dead men''s bones and rotten stuff on the inside. In the same way, on the outside you appear to everybody as good but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sins."

[rowdytexan2]

This is the path that George Bush II and his militant-Christian Republican disciples claim to be following by daily invoking Christ''s name and actions. For example, in the name of Christ and all he represents, Bush invaded Iraq. Bush sought divine guidance from the Son of Man in that action--as he does in every other--and claimed to be enlightened by him in his decision to go forth and conquer. One would think that such a devotee of Christ''s teachings would have placed the highest priority on protecting the Iraqi National Museum that contained information on Christ''s lineage and the history of his times. As history has recorded, though, it was the Iraqi Oil Ministry that was heavily defended by Bush''s legions, not the Iraqi National Museum that also housed a unique portion of the history of Muslim and Christian alike. That action speaks volumes about Bush''s opportunistic dedication to Jesus Christ. Bush gladly sacrificed a warehouse full of insights into humanity and it''s relationship with divinity to an unruly mob. Yet, a worthless building containing oil and gas extraction contracts between American firms and the government of Iraq was heavily defended by US troops.

[ajaxtheleast]

Maybe Abbas can disolve the government,
he probably wont, but disolving Hamas
is another matter.

[rowdytexan2]

"Every plant which my Father in heaven did not plant will be pulled up," according to Christ, via Saint Matthew, commenting on the Pharisees and their progeny, that being Bush and the NeoCons who lay claim to world leadership and the heavenly divine. "Do not worry about them!" said Jesus, "They are blind leaders, and when one blind man leads another one, they both fall into a ditch...It is much harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle...The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to a people who will produce the proper fruits..." There is hope after all.

[jowand]

Rick,,,, Were you aware that each of the Lost Tribes of Israel had their own sepreate Bible & most of them was left out of yours ??????

Posted by j-whitman
----------------------
Is this a true statement?
Posted by ilikecats1 at 07:09 PM : Mar 04, 2008

No it''s not a true statement

[rowdytexan2]

Rick,,,, Were you aware that each of the Lost Tribes of Israel had their own sepreate Bible & most of them was left out of yours ??????

Posted by j-whitman
----------------------
Is this a true statement?


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Posted by ilikecats1 at 07:09 PM : Mar 04, 2008

Yes, it is. Modern Christianity is a designed religion. The books in the current Bible was selected from among many.

[randynason]

"And God spoke all these words, saying: ''''I am the LORD your God... ''''You shall have no other gods before Me.''''



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Posted by j-whitman

I thought it was the heretic Bush that said that.

[rowdytexan2]

Do
es RowdyTexan2 qualify as a Prophet?


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Posted by ilikecats1 at 07:06 PM : Mar 04, 2008

Nope, just one who reads and sees reality.

[j-whitman]

Rick,,,, Were you aware that each of the Lost Tribes of Israel had their own sepreate Bible & most of them was left out of yours ??????

[rowdytexan2]

God promised the Jews that land and He will protect them, as it is written.

HE Himself will come back to end all wars and defeat the enemies of ISrael, as it is written.


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Posted by singinrick at 07:00 PM : Mar 04, 2008

God specifically spoke to Moses and told him to stop murdering, stealing, and killing in his name.

[j-whitman]

Rick,,,, You ever learn God''s 1st Commandment --- It wasn''t a suggestion or a request it was a commandment

"And God spoke all these words, saying: ''I am the LORD your God... ''You shall have no other gods before Me.''