Hamas wants acceptance without changing its goal of destroying Israel
JIHAD WATCH
By Robert
And Obama seems ready to give it to them.
"Hamas wants acceptance without changing ideology," by Karin Laub for Associated Press, May 18 (thanks to James):
>>> GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Leaders of Hamas have begun reaching out to the West with conciliatory words, saying the Islamic militant group wants to be part of a Mideast solution and raising the possibility they would someday accept a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
In the most significant statement so far, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal told British lawmakers recently that the group is open to "real peace." In Gaza, the Hamas government said last week it is ready to discuss "any approaches and proposals that can lead the region out of its current situation."
In a recent interview, Hamas lawmaker Yehiye Moussa said the group is "not demanding to destroy Israel." West Bank legislator Mahmoud Ramahi added that Hamas is ready to talk to the West - stressing the group has nothing in common with the virulently anti-Western al-Qaida.<<<
They're not demanding to destroy Israel? War is deceit!
>>> The new tone seems mostly aimed at President Barack Obama, who was meeting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. As he puts together a new Mideast strategy, Obama must decide whether the U.S. will keep shunning Hamas, which seized Gaza by force in 2007 after winning parliamentary elections.
So far, the U.S. and international community insist they will deal with Hamas only if the group recognizes Israel first.
But some foreign policy experts in the U.S. and Israel are advocating a new approach to Hamas, noting that neither the boycott nor Israel's recent war in Gaza have toppled the militants.
Those advocating change include a former Israeli military commander of Gaza, an ex-chief of Israel's Mossad spy agency and a group led by Obama's now chief economic adviser, Paul Volcker.
Volcker's group told Obama that any future Palestinian government that includes Hamas should be judged by whether it's ready to observe a truce with Israel, and allow moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate with Israel - not by whether Hamas is ready to revoke its ideology....<<<
In other words, if they're willing to destroy Israel later rather than sooner, he thinks the U.S. should play ball with them. |
