Wednesday October 25, 2006

I've Been Thinking:

On issues regarding the Palestinian Hamas government there is a deep chasm that separates the point of view of the Russian government and the point of view of the United States government.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was recently quoted in the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA. Lavrov said:
That the demands the Quartet and the West are making on Hamas are excessive and unreasonable.
That it is too much to expect Hamas to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

In essence, Russia believes that there should be no preconditions to recognition and that the main objective is to talk.

The United States, on the other hand, has said time and again that certain minimum standards must be met even before the talking begins.
The United States believes that recognition is the very minimum starting point, that to think of negotiating any other way is just naïve.

Interestingly, when we compare Russian attitudes towards the Palestinians and Russian attitudes toward their own Georgians, we see vast discrepancies and inconsistencies.