Israel-Palestine: Hamas Says (Again) Ready to Negotiate

This analysis is based on a piece by Amjad Atallah in The Washington Note (http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/)

The Wall Street Journal, which is no friend of the cause of Hamas, carried an interview last Friday in which the organisation's political director, Khaled Meshaal, said, "We along with other Palestinian factions in consensus agreed upon accepting a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines. This is the national program. This is our program. This is a position we stand by and respect." Meshaal added that Hamas would commit to an immediate reciprocal cease-fire with Israel and a prisoner exchange.

Meshaal put acceptance of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders within "a broader peace agreement with Israel", including the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees and a capital for the Palestinian state in East Jerusalem.

This, however, is also the official position of Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority,
although Palestinian leaders have privately admitted to Israelis that they might give up the right of return in exchange for the 1967 borders.

And Meshaal's interview, which restates the position he set out to The New York Times earlier this summer, is another indication that Hamas supports President Obama's efforts to broker a settlement: "Hamas and other Palestinian groups are ready to cooperate with any American, international or regional effort to find a just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, to end the Israeli occupation and to grant the Palestinian people their right of self-determination."