Presidential press secretary Tony Snow today said the president envisions either the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority soon recognizing Israel or the dissolving of the PA government.
Snow was responding to a question by WorldNetDaily at today’s press briefing.
Said WND: “The president’s recently stated: ‘The Palestinians want to live in peace. Our beef is not with the Palestinian people, but with the government.’ And my question: Since the overwhelming majority of these allegedly peace-loving Palestinian people voted for Hamas, which the president recognizes as a terrorist organization, how can he claim they are peace lovers when polls also report 75 percent of Palestinians support attacks on Israel?”
Snow responded, “A couple of points to make. Number one, there were many reasons for the election of Hamas; one of them was corruption in the previous regime. And Hamas, you may recall, ran on an anti-corruption platform. Also it is worth noting that the president is – well, that there is still an ongoing debate within the Palestinian Authority, and President Abbas has said to Hamas that they need, within a very short span of time, to go ahead and recognize Israel. So rather –”
“They aren’t about to recognize Israel, are they?” interjected WND.
“Well, it means that it gets to dissolve the government,” Snow said.
But would the Palestinians vote differently next time around?
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” the spokesman responded. “Look, if you’re – I don’t want to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people, but I think it is safe to say that people there have gotten just as tired of war as anybody else and they would like to have a peaceful, successful society.”
WND also asked Snow about a story today reporting that an Atlanta researcher estimates there are about 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States who have had an average of four victims each.
“Is the president aware of this research? And would it make him more likely to make border security the cornerstone of his immigration reform?” asked WND.
Snow said he had “no clue” about the research, saying, “Let’s do an early warning system for Lester so that when you come up with these fairly obscure stories and studies, that I have an opportunity to look into it.”
The spokesman said he would pursue the issue, noting he could not characterize the trustworthiness of the research.
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