Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Israel's Ambassador to the UK, Zvi Heifetz, writes in The Guardian:
Hamas's own charter declares that "liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Muslim wherever he may be ... Israel will ... continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it", while more recently Khaled Mashaal, Hamas's most senior leader, speaking in Syria after the Palestinian elections, had this promise for Israelis: "God willing, before they die, they will experience humiliation and degradation every day."
Which then portrays the more honest reflection of Hamas - a sugar-coated article in English, or a speech in Arabic in a Damascus mosque?
Perhaps, though, Haniyeh's more moderate message signals a genuine change in the Hamas position? If so, someone forgot to tell his foreign minister, Mahmoud al-Zahar, who remarked in an interview three days after Haniyeh's article: "I hope that our dream of having an independent state on the entire territory of historical Palestine will be realised one day, and I am sure that there is no room for the state of Israel on this land."
Hamas believes the land of "Palestine" is an Islamic waqf - territory once ruled by Muslims that must never be relinquished. This position leaves no room for compromise...
If you've got a strong stomach, take a look at the comments and despair.
You weren't kidding about the comments on that article. Yikes.
Sadly, not at all surprising.
No, the outrageous responses to a seemingly reasonable article are, sadly, not surprising--this is The Guardian, after all, a paper that, like its leftist rival The Independent, and the publically funded BBC have fomented a climate or rank anti-Zionism/anti-Semitism in the UK. There's always been a right-wing, Arabist strand of Jew-hatred in Britain (a strand which occasionally rears its ugly head in the pages of The Economist.) Coupled with the new religion of the left--anti-Western multiculturalism--this has made it possible for the bashing of Jews and the Jewish state to achieve respectability in the media, in private conversation, and in public discourse (see Livingston, Galloway, Paulin, Redgrave, et. al) Based on previous experience, I'm at the point where I assume that any British person I meet is going to be reflexively anti-Zionist. Unfortunately, I have to include many British Jews in this.
Had Hamas been really Islamic, they would never sturggle for a "Palestinian state". They would stryggle to remove all the borders of all the states. They would want to be under the Islamic global government that is supposed to have place and a covenant of peace and justice with the people of all faith more particularly with the Jews and Christians (the people of the book}
Actually, that is the next part of their program. First Al Quds, then Al Andalus, then they will bring the peace and sceurity of rule by a righteous caliph to you and me. Maybe Denmark firsst. Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood, after all.
Liz (and Mazen):
Hamas's on-line kiddies' magazine (Al-Fateh, I believe it's called) is already grooming the young shahhids for the fight over Al-Andaluse, no doubt on the assumption that the Lesser Jihad against Israel will have been won by the time they're old enough to explode themselves. "Palestine" has always been a stalking horse for the Muslim Brotherhood.