Ahmadinejad: Gaza struggle has just begun

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:29:00 GMT  In line with his vision for the Palestinians, Ahmadinejad said the Muslim world should "pressure the Zionist regime to fully retreat, open the crossings and try the Zionist criminals".

Ahmadinejad has congratulated Hamas over its "victory" over Israel. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the "victory" of the resistance over Israel should be followed by preventative steps.  "Today is the beginning of victory and resistance will complete the links of victory," Ahmadinejad told Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal in a telephone conversation.  According to the outspoken Iranian president, resistance will ensure that the Palestinians can assert their rights as the native population of the lands occupied by Israel and will prevent further Israeli aggression against Gazans.  In line with his vision for the Palestinians, Ahmadinejad said the Muslim world should "pressure the Zionist regime to fully retreat, open the crossings and try the Zionist criminals".  They should also "cut ties with the fake Zionist regime and boycott its goods and those of its supporters," he continued.  Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Cast Lead on December 27. At least 1,300 Palestinians, many of them women and children, have been killed in the war. Nearly 6,000 others have been wounded.  Gaza was reportedly quiet on Sunday night after Hamas responded positively to a unilateral Israeli ceasefire by giving Tel Aviv a one-week ultimatum for its forces to leave the Palestinian territory.  Tel Aviv has nevertheless declared victory.  "We reached all of our objectives in Gaza," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a press conference in Tel Aviv on Saturday.  Israeli military officials, however, have criticized Tel Aviv on the issue and believe the offensive was a failure, reported Debkafile -- widely believed to have links with Israeli military and intelligence sources.  Israel has failed to halt rocket fire from Gaza and to return its captured soldier, Gilad Shalit.  The top-ranking member of Hamas revealed a Palestinian perspective on the issue in his phone conversation with Ahmadinejad. He said Israel has been unable to fulfill any of its proclaimed objectives and cannot acknowledge its operations as a success.  "The resistance will continue until all Zionist forces exit and Israel lifts the siege on the Gaza Strip," said Mashaal.  The recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the latest of a series which began when world powers created Israel in 1948 under the Zionist slogan of a 'land without a people and a people without a land'.  The establishment of Israel in the Middle East was carried out in compensation for the hardships and suffering imposed on the Jews of Europe due to anti-Semitism in the continent.  Zionists benefited by gaining power over the native land of the Palestinians, but the establishment and the subsequent terror attacks against the Palestinian population gave rise to the philosophy of resistance and in recent years armed retaliation.  In the past 60 years, Israel has managed to increasingly appropriate Palestinian landby taking no action to prevent its settlers from building illegal settlements and has thus marred all prospects of a two-state solution.