Hamas Political Advisor: "Don't talk about destroying Israel"
Hamas has hired a “spin doctor” to help spruce up their image in light of their expected gains in next week’s Palestinian parliamentary elections. A Ramallah media consultant, Nashat Aqtash, has been given $180,000 to apprise them of the obvious:
Mr Aqtash, who says he is not a member of Hamas and does not know where it got the money to pay him but frequently refers to the group as “we”, says he has told the leadership it has to change its rhetoric. He says Hamas has not helped itself by celebrating suicide bombings; he advises against celebration. And he has told Hamas leaders not to talk about destroying Israel.
“Abdel Aziz Rantisi [the former Hamas leader killed by Israel two years ago] was on television saying things that foreigners cannot accept, like we will remove Israel from the map. He should have talked about Palestinian suffering. He should have said we need this occupation ended. Foreigners will accept this,” he said.
Mr Aqtash has also advised Hamas leaders to emphasise that they are not anti-semitic or against Israelis because they are Jews. Hamas has taken the message on board. In an interview earlier this week, Muhammad Abu Tir, who is second on the Hamas election list, twice (and unprompted) offered an assurance that he is not a Jew hater.
“Loving others is part of our religion. We are not against Jews as Jews, we are against oppression,” he said.
Full story.
In related news, a majority of Israelis now support turning over Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority.
mobius wrote: a majority of Israelis now support turning over Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority.
What does the rest of the articel say?
… as part of a diplomatic breakthrough, though the vast majority rule out such concessions on the Western Wall or Temple Mount.
But the researchers noted that 75 percent of those Israelis who would cede land to the Palestinians under a peace accord said they did not believe there would be a deal under current political conditions.
So basically, yeah, when monkeys fly out of my butt, we’ll gladly turn over parts of Jerusalem to the PA. And not even the parts they want. That’s gonna work awesomely.
So first, people get angry at the Palestinians and want them to stop incitement against Israelis
Then when they decide to not talk about destroying Israel, people get angry at them
what kind of catch-22 is that ? What do people want, no more incitement, or more incitement ?
Does Islam have a concept of t’shuvah? Or maybe those aspiring to be elected officials are realizing that offensive bloodshed begets offensive bloodshed, and too many are already grieving? Perhaps the Hamas candidates have read ‘Refusenik!’? Or met with Avnery et al? Or have been moved by Tali Fahima?
Or, all of the above? Perhaps?
hamas is quickly going to become a dominant party on the palestinian political landscape. in that, they have certain considerations:
1) because they are a proud and outspoken terrorist organization, legitimate governments and negotiating bodies cannot associate with them under any circumstances.
2) under such conditions, any government aiding a palestinian government comprised of a majority of hamasniks will be seen as giving aid to a terrorist organization acting against israeli civilians and will thus be liable under international law.
3) hamas’ mandate comes solely from its ability to serve the interests of the palestinian majority, and their victory is a result of their contradistinction from fatah on that point. fatah has lost its power because fatah failed to serve the interests of the palestinian people.
4) if hamas does no more for the palestinians other than continuing israeli military incursions, detainments, inprisonments, closures, etc., hamas will also be seen as having failed to serve the interests of the palestinian people and they will lose their power, their support, and their adherents, and will ultimately fall apart.
therefore, hamas has no choice but to normalize its status.
prominent members of hamas’ parliamentary committee have expressed willingness to negotiate with israel, peres said he thinks israel would negotiate with them if they disarm, and fatah has demanded hamas disarm.
what will happen, in my estimation, is that hamas will learn to play politics just as fatah has. they will renounce terror publically from the dais while funelling aid money to terror operations on the sly. they will, as fatah has, arrest militants in competing groups such as islamic jihad and the pflp, and perhaps even a few of their own who are operating in their name without sanction or approval (as is often the case). they will uphold these arrests as evidence of their willingness to fight terror, though it will be more for show than anything else.
they obvious reason that they, like fatah, will not reign in terrorism is not really because their sole purpose is to destroy the state of israel (which it may very well be) but because to do so would destroy their credibility as a people’s party and ultimately lead to civil unrest if not civil war all together. no palestinian party or leader wants to be responsible for alienating their most active and committed base of support by turning them into an enemy they are obligated to hunt and destroy.
think of it in these terms: how small is jerusalem? practically everyone here knows everyone else. we might not all be friends and family, but we all know each other. our communities all overlap. we recognize each other’s faces, we attend each other’s simchas, we meet on the midrachov, one friend introduces us to another friend, etc. at the end of the day, jerusalem seems like the smallest city in the world and that everyone knows everyone else. palestinian society is hardly any different. and in that, could you imagine if it were your job to hunt down and imprison or kill your friend’s friends, your relatives, your former classmates, your former army buddies, the people whose faces you see in the streets every day — and by the thousands?
who wants to greenlight that operation?
no one.
and so a victorious hamas — even one that genuinely wishes to disarm — will find its hands just a bound as fatah has, and israel and the u.s. will use this catch 22 to proclaim they do not have a negotiating partner and proceed with enacting unilateral decisions, such as drawing final borders which i believe is an inevitability within the next three years, and possibly the next six months.
and well, frankly, what choice will they have? it will be, as it always has been, impossible for the palestinians to disarm. and so long as that demand is on the table, there can be negotiations.
hamas, on their end, can get away with not authorizing attacks, limiting funds to terror operations (again, they can’t not fund them or they’ll be seen to be abandoning their most active supporters), and even publically condemning attacks as unhelpful to palestinian interests. but they can’t demand disarmament without “the jig being up.” and thus their hands will continue to be bound.
that is, of course, unless, by a miracle of god, hamas’ leading religious figures come together and decree that by a vision of god, or after serious consideration of shariah, or some such thing, that they have come to the conclusion that continued hostilities against israel work against their peolpe and violate quranic ethos, and that they have decided to embrace the way of non-violence and the “militant pursuit of peace.” that would take a lot of balls, and a lot of support across the board. and the people, in the end, may not find it acceptable after all the suffering they’ve endured and all the conditioning they’ve received to demand vengeance.
but there is some hope being that the founder of hamas himself is now meeting with jewish encounter groups and stating that founding hamas was a mistake on his part; and now that hamas is joining non-violent direct action groups in demonstrations against the wall in bi’lin.
the founder of hamas himself is now meeting with jewish encounter groups huh? might as well pass on the whole story, not an oblique reference to it. the founders of hamas are all dead.
… except M. Taha?
i’m not at liberty to disclose the dude’s name right now because he says he fears that he will endanger his life if he comes out publicly at this point
Sheik Rantisi one of the spiritual leaders of Hamas before he was assassinated, was a Holocaust denier. He said that the there it was all a Zionist plot. Hamas has long been an antisemitic organization. It’s literature has been filled with hatred for all Jews everywhere.
Is this a real change or just PR spin? I am inclined to beleive that it is the latter. It’s a little like Walmart having commercials showing what a wonderful place it is to work for, while many of its employees are elgible for welfare benefits.
I realize that most Palestinians who vote for Hamas are voting against the corruption of the PA and not for terrorism. Iranian voters thought they were voting for Ahmadinejad because he promisted to close the gap between rich and poor and look what they got instead.
Hamas still wants to create an Islamic state based on their version of Sharia law. This would be very bad for Palestinian women and deadly for homosexuals. It would be bad for anyone who doesn’t believe in their version of Islam.
Hamas, shmamas. The current ‘conflict’ has little to do with Palestinians and more to do with how were view ourselves as proud humans/Jews.
Moshe Arens is saying today that it’s pathetic how the major parties are fighting over who will give more Israeli land away.
there is some hope being that the…
Mob, please stop deluding yourself and others. The arab thirst for our blood and the effort to push us into the sea will not stop, it will merely find a different means to execute. All we do is run around trying to convince ourselves that if we only retreated to the 67 borders, peace would break out.
and this time, I admit that I didn’t read every word you wrote, browsed through it. The comment window is unexpandable, and gives me a headache while reading long posts. Do I give you a headache 🙂
Oy. Can Jews really believe that we’re the only human beings who commit great acts of t’shuvah? That anyone else who ever experienced hate, always has hate in the soul?
No, we can’t. Look to Joseph’s story, and Rambam, for the principle of t’shuvah.
You are right. One estimate pegs Palestinians who are halachicly Jewish at up to 25%. Remember those Afghan Pashtans who light shabbat candles but hate our guts? High probability Jewish. A girl born to a Jewish woman stays Jewish and the maternal lineage goes to eternity unless this woman has only boys.
But to relate to what you said, if some goy wants to make peace, let him prove it. We are dying to make peace, but some folks think that we need to keep bending over and take it on the behind while we ‘encourage’ the goy to make peace with us.
Oy. Can Jews really believe that we’re the only human beings who commit great acts of t’shuvah? That anyone else who ever experienced hate, always has hate in the soul?
What are you talking about? This is not a discussion about whether or not Palestinians are leaving Hamas because they are against its racist, sexist, murderous apartheid policies. It is a discussion about what Hamas as an institutional entity is choosing to do. Repentance is quite simple in this context, for those who wish it: leave Hamas. Many have.
Former Chief of Staff: PA Won´t Recognize Any Borders
By Hillel Fendel
Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, ex-IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon warned that the time-honored phrase “territories for peace” has no practical relevance for the Palestinian Authority.
“In light of the fact that the PA does not fulfill its obligations,” Yaalon said this morning, “Israel’s point of departure is that any border that will be chosen, will be violated by violent activity – unless Israel manages to create significant deterrence.”
Yaalon related to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and the reports that the Kadima Party favors additional such moves. He said that they are damaging to Israel’s deterrence ability because “they are interpreted by the other side as weakness.”
Regarding the Kassam rockets fired almost daily from Gaza towards the Negev and Ashkelon areas, the former Chief of Staff said, “Israel has not created reliable deterrence against this threat. Israel’s unilateral withdrawals are interpreted as a running away from this threat… Gaza is turning, in front of our very eyes, into Qaedastan and Hamastan.”
“The bottom line of this analysis,” Yaalon concluded, “is that for the foreseeable future, the ’67 borders are not defensible.”
Interesting that the sum paid in this case was a multiple of 18…