Hamas: "We will not discuss the recognition of 'Israel' with Fatah"

So how does Obama force feed his middle east peace process down Israel's throat when Hamas refuses to recognize the existance of Israel? This is a show stopper for him.
Rees

Hamas will not discuss recognition of Israel
from Yahoo News
Sat May 16, 2009

CAIRO (AFP) – The Islamist Hamas movement said on Saturday that it will not discuss the recognition of Israel with president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party during reconciliation talks in Cairo.

"We can discuss with Fatah all the options... which do not contradict our national goals and the rights of our people, except the American card which stresses recognition of the Zionist entity and the conditions of the Quartet," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in Gaza.

"This is not open for discussion."

The so-called Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- has long demanded that Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel and past peace deals as a precondition for dealing with any Palestinian government in which the Islamist movement is represented.

Representatives of Fatah and Hamas began a new round of reconciliation talks in Cairo on Saturday.

The two groups have been bitterly divided since Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007.

Egyptian efforts to reconcile them have so far foundered amid disagreements on the composition and obligations of a proposed unity government.
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