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[Adventurer]

New York Times

November 10, 2006
Hamas Offers to End Rule if Aid Resumes

By IAN FISHER
GAZA, Nov. 10 � Hamas committed today to folding its eight-month government if that would restore the international assistance that was cut off after it won national elections earlier this year.

In a shrewd and dramatic speech, the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyah, said he would likely resign in the next �two or three weeks� to make way for a national unity government more acceptable to international donors than Hamas, the organization responsible for the deadliest attacks against Israel.

�When they put the siege on one hand, and having me the prime minister on the other, I said �no: Let us end the siege and let us end the suffering of the Palestinian people,� � Mr. Haniyah, 43, a former teacher and union official, told worshippers at Friday prayers here.

It was a public acknowledgment that Hamas had failed to run the Palestinian Authority on its own terms in the face of an American and Israeli-led cutoff of funds and aid, and that Mr. Haniya and his government would soon be replaced by a �unity� government of technocrats, currently being negotiated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas refused to meet the three conditions set out by the international community: to recognize the right of Israel to exist, to forswear violence and to accept previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements that imply a two-state solution. In turn, Israel withheld more than $50 million a month in taxes and customs collected for the Palestinians and the United States and Europe cut off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority.

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/nyt601.html

[There is no way to negotiate with an entity that will not recognize the previous agreements that the PA signed with Israel. It appears pressure on the street and suffering is having a role in this.]