It comes as no surprise that Hamas has thus far rejected any change to its party’s platform, which aims for both the destruction of Israel, and the instituting of sharia as law for the new Palestinian state (to be be founded upon the ruins of the Jewish state). In a prior email exchange with an analyst at the Finnish UPI, (his/her name remains anonymous due to the privacy of the exchange) the issue of Hamas’ religious radicalism was discussed, with my point being:
“Its always been my understanding that when speaking about the Hamas, they have to be understood within the confines of their short and long term goals. Could the religious side of Hamas ever seriously opt to recognize the ‘Jewish entity’, which would effectively and totally undermine their party platform? In other words, for Hamas to vote Israel into existence, they would be voting their party’s relevancy out of existence.
While Democratic Jihadi-Salafiyyahism is an oxymoron, and Hamas’ decision to participate in the elections in spite of the many Jihadi-Salafi edicts can’t be overstated, they can however, be interpreted in a couple of different ways(1). I am of the opinion that the ‘short and long’ term goals of the Hamas can be divided up along their political and religious outlooks, with the latter better addressing their ultimate aim. In dealing with the politicians who have a knack for not thinking in terms of the long term, the latter should not be underestimated. (at least in my own opinion)”
“As I said, we will have to wait and see. What comes to fundamentalism, this is not even the issue yet, now Hamas should be flexible on issues of Israel and violence and these are not islamist issues, but nationalist. The islamist nature of hamas will come to debate later for sure.”
–At the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus on Tuesday, December 5, Haniyeh vowed his Hamas movement and government would never recognize Israel.
–Haniyeh also said Tuesday that in all the time he had served as prime minister, he had never acted against Palestinian armed groups or prevented them from carrying out operations against Israel.
–Haniyeh declared that his government does not condemn the Palestinian “resistance” but embraces it. He stressed that the Palestinian people would not give up “a single grain of the entire land of Palestine” nor would it relinquish the “right of return” of Palestinian refugees to within the borders of Israel.
–Haniyeh praised the “heroic” suicide bombing attack carried out two weeks ago by Fatimah Omar al-Najar, a 68 year old Palestinian grandmother of 25.
–In Iran two days later, Haniyeh told a Teheran mosque during Friday prayers that his government would never recognize Israel and would fight to liberate all of Jerusalem.
–At the Teheran mosque on Friday, Haniyeh stated: “The world arrogance and Zionists . . . want us to recognize the usurpation of the Palestinian lands and stop jihad and resistance and accept the agreements reached with the Zionist enemies in the past. We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of all of Palestine.”
