By Ryan Jones
Nov 09, 2005
Gaza-based Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar Wednesday indicated that his group, like the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) before it, is prepared to add diplomacy to its arsenal in order to realize its goal of destroying Israel.
In an interview with Israel Radio, Zahar said Hamas is ready to join negotiations with Israel following the upcoming ?Palestinian? parliamentary elections, explaining that ?negotiation is a method? for Hamas to achieve its aims.
Hamas, which is expected to garner up to 40 percent of the vote in the January poll, remains violently dedicated to Israel's complete destruction and replacement with an Iran-style Islamic state.
Its virulent platform notwithstanding, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas insists Hamas must be allowed to field candidates for the sake of democracy.
Hamas' apparent departure from uncompromising aggression mirrors the PLO's 1974 decision to take a phased approach to Israel's destruction, a decision that led it to adopt diplomacy as a tool in that quest.
Speaking to Radio Monte Carlo in 1993, Yasser Arafat said the peace agreement he had just signed with Israel would ?be a basis for an independent Palestinian state in accordance with the Palestine National Council resolution issued in 1974.?
The 1974 Phased Plan calls for the establishment of ?an independent combatant national authority over any territory that is liberated from Israeli rule? so as to facilitate continuation of ?the struggle against Israel, using the territory of the national authority as a base of operations.?
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for his part, stated this week that his government will not hold talks with any future ?Palestinian? delegations that include Hamas members.
Israel for decades said the same thing of the PLO, before that global terror network began dabbling in diplomacy.