Liberman slams EU: Hamas is just like ISIS and al-Qaida

The foreign minister also criticized Wednesday's European Parliament symbolic decision to recognize a Palestinian state as a move that would harm efforts to restart peace talks.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Liberman at press conference (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Liberman at press conference
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Foreign Minster Avigdor Liberman spoke out against the decision by an EU court to remove Hamas from the bloc's terror blacklist, saying that there was no difference between Hamas, al-Qaida and Islamic State.
The foreign minister also criticized Wednesday's European Parliament symbolic decision to recognize a Palestinian state as a move that would harm efforts to restart peace talks.
"The decisions made today by the European Union do not contribute to improving the situation in the Middle East, nor do they improve the situation between the Israelis and the Palestinians," Liberman said at a press conference.
"While terror is rearing its head, not only in the Middle East, but in the whole world - we've seen acts of terror in Australia and Pakistan - of all days to take Hamas off of the list of terrorist organizations and to justify it with technical clauses and such is an erroneous decison that does not reflect the struggle against terror in the Middle East and in the world," he said.
"There is no difference between Hamas, al-Qaida, Jabhat al-Nusra or Islamic State. These are the same organizations with the same ideology and the same hatred for the civilized, modern world," Liberman said.
Cutting off heads in the Middle East and the killing of innocent people in Pakistan by terrorists is the same as terror attacks in Israel, such as the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in cold blood, Liberman argued.
He said that Europen unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state would only serve to push the Palestinians further away from the negotiating table.
"Why negotiate when in two years time they'll get everything they are asking for?" he asked, referencing a Palestinian proposal for a UN Security Council resolution to force the withdrawal of Israel to the pre-1967 lines within two years.
Israel believes that the EU must hold the Palestinians responsible for taking actions to renew negotiations, not only Israel, the foreign minister said.
Liberman slammed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for saying one thing in Hebrew while addressing the Israeli media, while expressing differing views in his interviews to the Arabic media.