Beirut: The Palestinian movement Hamas yesterday dismissed Israeli election results as another face of Israeli policy designed to eliminate the Palestinian issue, while other Arabs warned the Jewish state over unilateral action.
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima party picked up 28 seats in Tuesday's vote for the Knesset's 120 seats. Officials in the party said he should be able to cobble together a parliamentary majority for his plan to pull out of much of the West Bank and draw Israel's borders by 2010.
Such unilateral action has been criticised by the Arabs, and a summit of Arab leaders that ended in Sudan yesterday collectively rejected such moves while repeating its commitment to a 2002 Arab peace initiative based on land-for-peace.
But a sharp reaction came from the political leader of Hamas. "I believe, regardless of who had won in the [Israeli] elections, the Zionist position altogether, particularly that of the three parties [Kadima, Labor and Likud], is hostile toward Palestinian rights and insists on liquidating it and wiping it out," Khalid Mesha'al said.
Arab League Secretary- General Amr Mousa said it was doubtful that the Israeli elections would bring anything new.
"The Arab world must study all its options. Because it is absolutely out of the question to accept ... unilateral withdrawals according to Israeli whims. This just doesn't work, and it can only worsen the situation," he said.
Syria also insisted on a comprehensive settlement."We were expecting that," said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem of the election results. "But it's important to have a comprehensive withdrawal from the lands occupied in 1967," he said.
The Palestinian National Authority also said the election results would have little effect unless Olmert changes his policies
"and gives up unilateral ideas," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said.
Abbas repeated his rejection of any unilateral Israeli actions. "We want negotiations and not to dictate unilateral solutions," he said.
Jordan expressed hope that Israel's election would contribute to the creation of the "right condition" for resuming Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
