MEMO to Israel: What do you expect?
- Better to taste this reality now than later when it could really hurt:
- Israel was left fuming over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invite Palestinian poll winners Hamas to Moscow, slamming the move as a “knife in the back” from a key negotiator for Middle East peace.
- The invititation was later backed by France as potentially positive for the peace process.
- But it puzzled Washington and delivered a blow to the Jewish state’s appeal to the international community to isolate the radical movement as it prepares to form a new Palestinian government.
- “This initiative is a real knife in the back… because it aims to give international legitimacy to a terrorist group and we must oppose it with all our means,” Education Minister Meir Sheetrit told public radio on Friday.
- “What would Moscow say if we invited Chechen representatives (to Jerusalem) in response?” the minister asked.
- “Putin is dancing with wolves,” charged Housing Minister Zeev Boim.
- “Anger in Israel: Putin is Spitting in Our Face,” read the headline of the top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
- The invititation was later backed by France as potentially positive for the peace process.