The top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip rejected compromise with Israel in a speech Wednesday, a day after gunmen killed four Israeli settler in the West Bank. In an address to Hamas members, Dr. Mahmoud Zahar said his movement would resist peace efforts and slammed the Palestinian Authority president for joining the negotiations. "Today marks the start of direct negotiations between someone who has no right to represent the Palestinian people and the brutal occupier, to provide a cover for Judaizing Jerusalem and stealing the land," Zahar said. "The enemy of the Palestinian people is the Zionist enemy," he said.
Zahar rejected the idea of compromise with Israel, saying that "liberating" all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River is a moral and religious duty. He said Palestinians must not abandon armed resistance against Israeli occupation.
President Barack Obama denounced the West Bank ambush as he launched a two-day summit marking the first Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in nearly two years. "The message should go out to Hamas and everyone else who is taking credit for these heinous crimes that this is not going to stop us," he said after greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
