By Ryan Jones
Jan 31, 2006
As the largely ignorant international community speculates about whether or not Hamas will change its stripes following its rise to power, and as Western governments pressure it to do so, the blood-soaked terror group is proclaiming loud and clear that its intentions regarding Israel remain unaltered.
?Let nobody imagine or delude himself for one moment that Hamas might condemn or obstruct any [terrorist violence] against [the Jewish state], under any circumstances,? Hamas Representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan told ANB TV on January 25.
What Hamdan explained, and what the world will not grasp, is that Hamas, and indeed most of the Arabs living in this region, do not view the massacre of Israeli Jews in coffee shops, aboard public buses or at shopping malls as acts of terrorism, but rather defensive actions against what they teach their children is a ?brutal occupation.?
Their concept of what constitutes unacceptable and immoral violence is simply not the same as Western society?s.
And so Hamdan was able to state without blinking an eye that when speaking about the murder of even unarmed Jews:
?We are not talking about aggression. We are talking about defense. We are defending ourselves.?
As for accepting Israeli sovereignty over any part of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the world can forget about it, Hamdan said.
?Whoever says that these lands [referring to the Galilee, coastal plain and Negev regions] are not Palestinian - that's his problem.?
?We in the Hamas movement, and the entire Palestinian people, I believe, are convinced that the land is Palestinian... [and] must be liberated.?
Hamdan's claim to be speaking for all Palestinian Arabs is today quite valid considering Hamas' overwhelming electoral victory.
Directly addressing American and European leaders in a January 29 Al Jazeera interview, overall Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal noted that the Palestinian Arabs, contrary to the predictions of US President George W. Bush, chose his movement despite and probably because of its terrorist policies.
?The Palestinian people has chosen Hamas with its known stances. If America wants to negotiate with Hamas - it is most welcome, but based on the positions for which the people chose us.?
?No one should accuse us of being out of line or singing out of tune? with the public will.
Oh, and about that virulent charter:
?The Covenant of Hamas does not change. The resistance to the occupation [ie. the mass slaughter of Jewish men, women and children] is based on international law,? Hamas spokesman Musheer al-Masri told IMRA Sunday.
Some of the Hamas charter's more salient points:
Hamas is one of the links in the Chain of Jihad in the confrontation with the Zionist invasion.
The Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realization of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:
?The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: 0 Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!?
[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement.
There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad.
These Muslim maniacs don?t leave much room for doubt. The chances of this beast changing its stripes are about as good as Al Qaeda becoming an ally of the United States.