Mashaal: Entire world on its feet for one soldier
Hamas politburo chief delivers Ramadan speech filled with hatred, malice. 'Gilad Shalit's name has been engraved in world's awareness and everyone is dealing with his case, but same world doesn’t care about thousands of Palestinian prisoners,' he says
In the speech, Khaled referred to Shalit's kidnappers as "heroes" and cursed Shalit.
"When a Gazan hero kidnaps an Israeli soldier, who came from I don’t know where to kill his son, the entire world gets up on its feet. But when thousands of Palestinians are in the Israeli jail, including women and elderly people, no one bats an eyelid," Mashaal said in a special Ramadan speech he delivered in Damascus.
"Gilad Shalit's name has been engraved in the world's awareness and everyone is dealing with his case, but same world doesn’t care about thousands of Palestinian prisoners," he added.
According to Mashaal, "Damascus, which was under siege, has turned into a pilgrimage site by mediators from across the world for this dog, Gilad Shalit, but no one cares about six million Palestinian refugees scattered around the world."
Proficient in local politics
Mashaal added that "in this era, when Hizbullah is winning and when the Americans are getting entangled in the world, it's or duty to do everything in order to emerge from the mentality of defeat and improve and develop the resistance."
He regretted the fact that "the entire Palestinian issue has been reduced to the issue of salaries and the entire question of Palestine has been limited to the issue of the national unity government. We want a national unity government, but not according to non-national measured and impositions and agenda."
Mashaal claimed that elements in the Palestinian Authority were operating to carry out "a black revolution on the Palestinian democracy. The Americans tried to sell us the democracy in order to buy us, but when they were unsatisfied with the outcomes of the democracy, they began imposing a siege on the Palestinian people."
The Hamas leader expressed his regret over the fact that the world is continuing, as he claimed, to starve the Palestinians.
"And I ask, is the Ramadan month not enough so that the Arabs and Muslims try to break this siege?" He asked.
He turned to "all the Arabs" looking for a diplomatic solution, and said: "I am telling you there is no diplomatic horizon. Olmert said that Jerusalem is united in all its parts – in the east and west. Livni said that the 1967 territories will not be discussed, and even when Amir Peretz spoke about peace with Syria, Olmert silenced him.
"Now the polls in Israel point to a rise in the power of the Likud and Lieberman, the same Lieberman, who several years ago threatened to bomb the Aswan Dam. So who is the dangerous one for the Arab Nation? Lieberman and Israel or Hamas?" Mashaal concluded.
