The Prime Minister and President whose parties advocate kidnapping

It's not the first time that he's endorsed things like this but this quote today comes from the party organzation of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority's much touted "unity government":

in a statement sent to reporters Monday, Hamas said, "We believe that kidnapping soldiers and exchanging them for prisoners is the best solution for releasing our heroes, after the failure of all the diplomatic channels."

This is the same Ismail Haniyeh to whom the British government sent its consul general in Jerualem just a few days ago to plead for him to help secure the freedom of kidnapped (and now possibly murdered) BBC Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston. That British government approach was in breach of the EU and US agreement not to deal with the Hamas government until they agree to renounce terrorism and recognise the state of Israel.

At the time of the visit, Reuters quoted an Israeli official as criticising the meeting on the grounds that it could send a message to the faction that it could gain ground diplomatically if foreigners were abducted.

I don't actually think Mr Haniyeh needed any messages on how to use to terrorism to gain ground diplomatically, but if he did, he certainly wasn't slow to learn.

UPDATE: It's not only Hamas advocating kidnapping prisoners.

The supposedly more moderate Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is also advocating the kidnap of Israelis. But it goes a big step further than Hamas and advocates the kidnapping of Israeli civilians as well as soldiers:

Fatah's armed wing also urged its members Monday to kidnap Israelis to swap them for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Blaming "the Israeli enemy" for the failure to release prisoners, a statement faxed to the media issued "an open call for all our fighters to concentrate on kidnapping Israeli soldiers and civilians."

I hope that's very reassuring to the US government, which has recently doled out huge sums of money to Mahmoud Abbas, and to the many Israelis who seem to think he's some sort of cuddly nice guy.