Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
1. On March 17, 2007, Palestinian national unity government prime minister Ismail Haniya presented to the Palestinian Legislative Council the platform of the new national unity government. They contained several semantic changes and additions to the first draft, which was issued on March 15. In our assessment, it was an attempt to make the platform more palatable and easier to market to the international community, especially the United States and the European countries.
[Caroline Glick comments on this Platform in this article, ‘Your money and your life’]
2. Despite its rhetorical acrobatics, and despite the attempts to use convoluted language to blur its basic extremist nature, it is perfectly clear that the government’s platform is in accord with Hamas’s radical ideology. The platform, ratified by the Palestinian Legislative Council, expresses a radicalization in the Palestinian positions compared with both the Mecca Accord and the prisoners’ document on which it is based. That is particularly manifested in the legitimization given to the continuation of terrorist attacks against Israel, the adherence to the “right to return†(as interpreted by Hamas) and by the constraints placed on Abu Mazen’s ability to achieve ratification for agreements he and the PLO make with Israel.
3. The new government’s platform has nine sections which deal with issues related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to the internal Palestinian arena: The first section deals with politics , the second with Jerusalem , the third with confrontations with the “[Israeli] occupation,†the fourth with security , the fifth with the Palestinian legal system , the sixth with the economy , the seventh with reforms , the eighth with the Palestinian value system and the nights with the PA’s international relations . CONTINUE
