THE US/THE MIDDLE EAST:PALESTINIAN LEADERS have reacted angrily to the speech by Democratic presidential hopeful Barak Obama on Wednesday to a US Israeli lobby group in which he said Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Israel.
"This is the worst thing to happen to us since 1967 . . . he has given ammunition to extremists across the region," Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator complained yesterday. He expressed disappointment that Mr Obama had pre-empted a deal over the final status of the holy city.
Mr Erekat called on Mr Obama to "stop being more Israeli than the Israelis themselves leave the Israelis and Palestinians alone to make decisions required for peace."
Hamas's spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said Mr Obama revealed "that there is total agreement between the two parties, the Democratic and the Republican, on support for the Israeli occupation at the expense of the Palestinians and Arabs".
In an address televised on Wednesday night shortly after Mr Obama made his remarks to the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas stated, "The whole world knows that holy Jerusalem was occupied in 1967 and we will not accept a Palestinian state without having Jerusalem as the capital."
Mr Abbas then risked alienating the US and Israel by hinting at renouncing his policy of shunning Hamas, which seized control of Gaza last June. He called for implementation of a unity agreement brokered last March by Yemen and approved by the Arab summit. Hamas spokesmen welcomed the offer. According to press reports, Mr Abbas is expected to meet Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal in Damascus.
