Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his first comments on the idea of Hamas joining the Palestine Liberation Organization and reconciling with Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas.

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that the Israeli Prime Minister, who was Speaking at the annual conference of the heads of Israel’s Delegations Abroad in Jerusalem, ruled out any negotiations with any Palestinian government that includes the Hamas Terrorist Organization.

He reiterated that while he supports the formation of a Palestinian State, Israel will not permit that Palestinian State to become like Gaza or Lebanon.

Israel unilaterally withdrew its army and civilians from all areas of Lebanon and Gaza years ago.  Since then, Hezbollah has amassed an arsenal of over 10,000 missiles pointed at the Jewish state and Israel has endured tens of thousands of rockets fired into southern Israel from Gaza since they withdrew all forces from the coastal strip.

Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have reached several understanding recently allowing the two factions to unify.  Elections are being called for this spring and Hamas will be participating and running its own candidates.  The last time Hamas ran candidates in Palestinian elections they took a majority of the Parliament forcing Israel to suspend all contacts with the body.

Hamas reiterated to the press today, that although they are making strong attempts to unify the Palestinian population they have made no attempt to moderate their positions.  Hamas does not recognize the right of Israel to exist at all and calls for the violent destruction of the Jewish State.

Netanyahu also restated his desire to meet with Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas at anytime, anywhere to restart peace talks without preconditions.

The Palestinians have refused to meet with the Israelis unless they agree to halt all settlement activity and accept the 1967 borders as a start to peace negotiations.

Watch a video here of Netanyahu explaining to President Obama the dangers of using the 1967 borders to start peace talks.

Netanyahu: We Will Not Negotiate with Hamas is a post from: The Inquisitr

With tens of thousand of supporters in attendance in Gaza City, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called for the formation of an arab army to liberate Jerusalem in the name of the Palestinians.  The rally was called to celebrate the Hamas Movement’s 26th year since its inception. Hamas, classified as a terrorist group by Israel and the United States, seized control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody coup against the leadership of the Palestinian Authority and has ruled there ever since.

Hamas is opposed to any sort of peace treaty with Israel and vows to destroy the Jewish State and eject every Jew from Israel.  Hamas was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Recently, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have tried to bury the hatchet between them and show some level of unity ahead of planned elections, which are scheduled for this spring.  The last time Palestinian elections were held Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian Legislature and among city councils.  This created a problem for the Palestinian Authority, who has had some level of negotiation with Israel.

Hamas is best known in the western world for being behind a gory spate of suicide bombings across Israel in the early 2000′s which killed hundreds of Israeli Civilians.  More recently Hamas has been fires thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, leading up to the Israeli Military action refered to as Operation Cast Lead. Hamas has remained committed to a military solution to their conflict with Israel.

Do you think Hamas belongs to be recognized as a legitimate government in Gaza or are they only a terrorist organization?

Hamas Leader Calls For Arab Army To Liberate Jerusalem is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to Chez over at Dues Ex Malcontent the most insane thing that has happened in journalism and blogging is coming to pass. Remember Joe the Plumber – of course you do even though you probably don’t want to – well he has been hired by PajamasMedia. His job – to head over to the war in Gaza and report back and let Israel’s “Average Joes share their story”

For those that might not recognize the name PajamasMedia it is a mini-conglomeration of conservative new media. Now I tried to find anything on this at the PajamasMedia site but when I tried to search I ended up with an error page so I’ll leave it up to you to verify if this is indeed a fact. Mind you doing a Google search for Joe The Plumber is turning up all kinds of references to the story

If it is true I’m not sure if this could be consider a travelling comedy show or not. Joe the Plumber .. war correspondent .. wow.

OMFG! Joe the Plumber heading to Gaza as a war correspondent is a post from: The Inquisitr