By Ryan Jones
Nov 20, 2005
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Friday published a translation of an October interview in which Gaza-based Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Zahar laid out his group's post-election agenda.
?Hamas' mission upon joining the [Palestinian Authority] Legislative Council will be to eliminate the last remnants? of the so-called ?Oslo? peace process, Zahar told elaph.com.
Should Hamas one day control a majority of seats in the parliament and be asked to form the government, it will go one step further and end all relations with the Jewish state.
?The national interest demands that we not cooperate with Israel in the security, political, or economic spheres,? Zahar explained. ?The facts should lead us to cut off our relations with the Israeli enemy by all means.?
?The question,? he said, ?is whether to do this gradually or all at once.?
Hamas is expected to garner up to 40 percent of the vote when ?Palestinians? go to the polls in late January, giving the group considerable influence over official policy.
Due to its overtly destructive agenda, Israel continues to insist the PA and Western nations involved in the peace process prohibit Hamas from participating in the election, or risk the collapse of everything they have worked for.
But following this summer's withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas views Israel as a vanquished foe, and ?the defeated [party] does not dictate conditions,? Zahar said.
Public opinion polls have consistently shown a majority of Palestinian Arabs agree with that view.
And as for disarming, Zahar said everyone concerned can forget about it.
?We will join the Legislative Council and serve the Palestinian street with our weapons in hand,? he insisted. ?We want to turn into the weapon of resistance in all the land.?
The terror boss noted that Hamas has already joined municipal councils throughout PA-controlled areas, and no one has demanded the group disarm as a result of those election successes.
At any rate, Zahar said, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas ?said that he didn't want to disarm the resistance. We are no longer talking about this subject.?
Abbas is obligated under Phase I of the Road Map peace plan to disarm and dismantle all terrorist organizations operating out of areas ostensibly under his control.
But he has found in US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice an ally in his insistence that such a move not even be considered until after the election.
At that point, Rice claims, Hamas will be far easier to disarm since it will be part of the establishment and because international pressure that should have led to the group's disarmament a decade ago will finally be forthcoming.
US President George W. Bush has expressed his belief Hamas simply won't make any headway in the election ?because I think Palestinian moms want their children to grow up in peace just like American moms want their children to grow up in peace.?
?The people that campaign for peace will win,? Bush asserted during a May press conference.
Since then, he has been contradicted by every major ?Palestinian? public opinion poll.