From Bridges for Peace, February 7, 2007, by Ron Ross ...
The Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA) has called on the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to retract a statement she made to reporters at a Berlin press conference on January 18. Rice had described the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas as “a resistance movement.” On its Web site, ZOA has called for a retraction and requested that Rice apologize to victims of Hamas terrorism. Some Middle East analysts fear the phrase was premeditated and may signal a new approach to Hamas by the United States.
The Hamas foundational charter calls for the destruction of Israel. In an agreement drawn up between Fatah and Hamas for a unity government last week, that agenda remains.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We respectfully request that Secretary Rice both clarify and apologize to the victims of Hamas terror, which includes 27 Americans killed and 39 wounded and nearly 500 Israelis killed plus the many thousands more maimed in scores of suicide bombings and hundreds of other acts of Hamas terrorism. “Hamas is one of the most murderous terrorist groups in the world and can by no stretch of the imagination be described as a ‘resistance organization.’”
In a statement issued on the ZOA Web site, Rice is criticized for what they call “inappropriate positive spin on troubling aspects of Palestinian Arab society.”
“Is Secretary Rice’s claim that Hamas is a ‘resistance movement’ part of a larger pattern of sanitizing the Palestinian Arabs, their goals and conduct, and thus part of an attempt to force Israel into a path of further, disastrous concessions ...?” the statement asks....
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