Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman continued Israel's diplomatic offensive Friday against the reconciliation between the Fatah and Hamas factions of the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced earlier this week. During a meeting with Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias in Nicosia, Lieberman said that the United Nations Security Council's inability to approve a resolution of condemnation for Syria's violent crackdown on anti-government protest raises the question of the international community's ability to consider the Israeli-PA situation in an honest and balanced way.
Referring to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Fatah faction, the foreign minister said, "Abu-Mazen and the Palestinian Authority must know that it's impossible to be a partner of terrorists without being a partner in terror. The international community must not give legitimacy to a government whose face is that of Abu-Mazen but whose hands are those of Hamas, which launches missiles at civilians and whose hands are filthy with the blood of the innocent."