Helsingin Sanomat’s Inka Kovanen, reports in today’s paper on the continuing violence in the P.A. territories, despite the “truce” reached between both sides of the warring parties of Fattah and Hamas. In “Hamasin suosion lasku ei välttämättä käänny Fatahin voitoksi” [Hamas’ fall in approval not necessarily a victory for Fattah] the following statements by Kovanen are too juicy to let pass unnoticed:
“Less than a year ago, the Islamist organization of Hamas created an international earthquake by winning the Palestinian parliament elections. The January win was a surprise to Hamas itself. The consequences of which hardly anyone could have guessed”
I couldn’t disagree with Kovanen’s statement more. With the co-framers of the Road Map (Quartet/US,EU,UN,Russia) having demanded from the very beginning of Hamas’ inclusion into the political arena, 1.) the full acceptance of Israel, 2.) the rejection of violence (terror) and 3.) all pre-existing signed agreements, the hand writing was already on the wall, with a disaster in the making.
Again (it gets tiring to repeat oneself), how can one expect an Islamist radical group to moderate itself, to the point that it will deny the very essence/meaning of its own existence (the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel), thereby rendering it a mere shadow of its former self?
Kovanen then goes on to quote the ICG’s own Mouin Rabbani, who states quite laughably:
“If the international community would have genuinely tried to work with Hamas, it would not have recognized Israel, but it could have considered a political approach“
This is of course utter nonsense, reflecting the mindset in some analytical circles that “Hamas is above all, a nationalist movement, then Islamist/religious”. Hamas’ charter then, (according to the thinking of Rabbani and others) does not really reflect Hamas’ “true intentions”, that the wording of the charter reflects the traditional hyperbolic rhetoric that “traditionally finds a home” in the Arab lexicon. When they shout “death to Israel”, it’s just a way of saying, “naughty Israel, we’re angry with you”.
Mouin Rabbani states in the ICG website concerning Hamas’ intention to participate in the elections earlier this year, that:
“If anything, Hamas’s fear at this point is that it may do too well, and consequently be forced to exchange the benefits of opposition for the burdens of responsibility, and prematurely have to confront strategic issues such as relations with Israel and the demobilization of its armed wing. The only certainty is that Hamas would not have embarked so decisively on the path of political integration if it was unprepared to accept—in substance if not as a matter of official policy—a two-state settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.“
Rabbani’s incredibly naive and ridiculous statement by is rendered meaningless due to its lack of understanding/refusal to admit the intolerant nature of Islamism vis-a-vis the Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world, as well as the patience shown by the Islamists towards the eventual removal of the Zionist entitey from their midst. The dictum being, “once Muslim land, is always Muslim land.”
What does Rabbani, the ICG, Kovanen and other at the Finnish UPI have to say about Hamas’ Foreign Minister Al-Zahar or PA Deputy Minister for Religious, Affairs Salah Alrakab recent comments?
—We as Muslims are the owners of this land and we shall not give up a single handful of Palestinian soil,” Zahar told students at Gaza City’s Islamic University on Sunday (10 Dec).
–He declared that a solution to the conflict is not the creation of a Palestinian state according to the 1967 boundaries, but the total liberation of “all Palestinian lands” — a popular euphemism for the territory “occupied” by the State of Israel. The establishment of a Palestinian state would be followed by an “Islamic cultural enterprise.”
–Zahar told the students that Israelis have already begun to question whether Israel will continue to exist in the next few coming decades.
–Zahar demanded that the PA renounce all agreements it signed with Israel, which he said have brought disaster upon the Palestinian people. In addition, he rejected any type of security coordination with Israel, which he termed “a betrayal of the homeland.”
–PA Deputy Minister for Religious Affairs Salah Alrakab told the students that Islam forbids signing a peace agreement with Jews, because “The conflict with the Jews is a religious, existential struggle and is not a conflict over borders.” At most, he said, Islamic law permits signing a temporary hudna (cease-fire). The Jews have no claim to a Land of Israel but that stated in the Torah, he continued, which has already been proven to be a forgery. Liberation of the land will be accomplished only by jihad through the general mobilization of the Islamic nation, he said, which is the shortest way to restore Palestinian rights and shrink “the greed of the Jews.”
The whole point of the article is to basically set up the reader to conclude that, “the only reasonable/logical choice” was to include the totally unreasonable Hamas into the political process, thereby allowing the political process itself to have some “magical effect” on their religious extremist views, and become moderated towards Israel. In other words, it’s “Israel and the Quartet that is to blame”, not the intolerant, bigoted Islamist group Hamas. *L* KGS
