The AP reports that Daddy Mazen has asked Hamas to join his Palestinian Authority cabinet. The article employs all the euphemism and editorialization that obscures the facts, noting that “Israel and the United States have demanded that Abbas disarm Hamas and other militants, a step he has so far refused to take, fearing it would provoke bloodshed among Palestinians. He has chosen instead to co-opt militants.”
Before memories fade, let us recall that the principles governing American policy were set forth in President Bush’s “road map” speech of June 24, 2002. Under the principles set forth by President Bush, in the first of three phases leading to Palestinian statehood (per the State Department summary):
*Palestinians declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism and undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere.
*Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons and consolidation of security authority, free of association with terror and corruption.
Something tells me — perhaps the new lingo debuted by Scott McLellan in his whitewashing of Hamas in the White House last April — that we’re in for a round of amnesia and denial, and that it’s time for a restatement of the first principles governing President Bush’s policy.
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