Hamas leader won’t change attitude towards Israel

Not at all surprising:

JERUSALEM, Jan. 28 — The exiled political head of the radical Islamic group Hamas said Saturday in Damascus, Syria, that the group would adopt “a very realistic approach” toward governing the Palestinian Authority and would work with the Fatah president, Mahmoud Abbas, on an acceptable political program.

But the leader, Khaled Meshal, also said Hamas would not “submit to pressure to recognize Israel, because the occupation is illegitimate and we will not abandon our rights,” nor would it disarm, but would work to create a unified Palestinian army.

He insisted that “resistance is a legitimate right that we will practice and protect,” and he defended attacks on Israeli civilians, which included many suicide bombings until a cease-fire nearly a year ago. Then he said Hamas was “ready to work with Europe and even the United States if they wish.”

The US, Britain, and Israel have made clear they refuse to work with the new Hamas-dominated Palestinian government until they renounce terrorism, which obviously isn’t going to happen. Not even if they managed to bring on former Prez Jimmy Carter as the Palestinian Ambassador to the US.

What happens now regarding the situation between Israel and the Palestinian people is anyone’s guess, but mine is that relations will get progressively worse. After all, let’s not forget Hamas’ agenda:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

[â€¦]

“The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up.”

[â€¦]

“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”

The AP reported today that Hamas is calling for the use of “militants” (better known as terrorists) in the creation of a Palestinian army. The “militants” would include those who’ve participated in and/or conducted deadly terrorist attacks against Israel.

Hat tip: Holly at The Moderate Voice, who has a link roundup of all the latest news regarding Hamas’ win in the Palestinian elections earlier this week and what’s happened there since the elections.

Read more commentary on this via Gateway Pundit

More: John Hinderaker at Powerline notes an attempt by some in the media (like Glenn Kessler’s Washington Post piece) to cast the Palestinian elections as a refutation of Bush’s Mideast policy.

(Cross-posted at Blogs For Bush)

24 Responses to "Hamas leader won’t change attitude towards Israel"

ttyler5 says:

January 28, 2006 at 11:26 pm

We warned Sharon and Bush that giving ground to the Palestinian demands would simply strengthen the terrorists, but they wanted to play “Jimmy Carter” rather than secure peace.

The ultraliberal civil rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a true master of the art of negotiation, has a book entitled ” Why Terrorism Works.”

Read it, then send W a copy…
Lorica says:

January 29, 2006 at 12:13 am

This will all work out. If for no other reason it will be very hard to justify continued attacks on Israel, when they have bent over backwards for these Jordanians a.k.a. Palestinians. Their lack of diplomacy amongst their own kind in proof of how little they care to be apart of the world. I feel sorry for these people who would vote in a government that will only take them back to the dark ages. It is incomprehensible in my mind. It would be like voting Carter back into the presidency. God help us. – Lorica
Baklava says:

January 29, 2006 at 1:44 am

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it

This seems to be a mindset we can negotiate with. What to do. What to do. It’s like marriage counseling for a couple where the one wants to murder the other. And peaceniks who think the surviving spouse is the enemy for defending theirselves are delusional and bent on having the victim be destroyed. (just my opinion)
steve says:

January 29, 2006 at 11:40 am

Let’s see, the radical Palestinians believe that God gave them the land and the radical Jews believe that God gave them the land. It’s time for the huge middle to back the Zionists and the Islamists into a corner and tell them to play nice. The middle in the US needs to tame the armageddonists and the neo-cons in our midst. To have Peace, the violent radicals on all sides need to be discredited. Peace
Baklava says:

January 29, 2006 at 12:17 pm

The Jews aren’t calling for the extermination of the Palestinians. The Jews have been trying to negotiate and give Palestinians their own state for a long long time.

How do you tame the “armageddonists” when they teach their children that Israel shouldn’t exist and that they will be martyrs from preschool? I hope we can retrain those armegeddonists but they’ll have to accept that Israel will exist and that’s a huge teaching for the armageddonists to learn.

Instead of calling names people should be responsible and do the due dligence of learning the issue.
steve says:

January 29, 2006 at 4:10 pm

The “armageddonists’ are your ilk Baklava. And it sure is nice of the Zionists to give back the land that the UN gave them in Palestine, before they asked the Palestians if that would be ok. And after they took the land by emiment domain they gave No restitution. Any of that sound fair to you all? If so maybe me and my posse can take your land by emiment domain and not pay you anything. Peace
J Rob says:

January 29, 2006 at 6:28 pm

Mr. Peace just can’t resist hurling epithets as he dances with glee over the election of a party that is serious about finally pushing the Joos into the sea.
Before you cry foul, you were the one using the primary anti-semitic buzz word to refer to Jews.
Lorica says:

January 29, 2006 at 6:40 pm

Steve if in using the word “ilk” you mean people from the United States of America, then you are part of that ilk. – Lorica
Baklava says:

January 29, 2006 at 7:03 pm

Nobody is calling for the destruction of an entire people here except you Steve.

We all here (J Rob, Lorica, and I) realize that putting your efforts behind the “armageddonist” Palestinians who want to wipe Israel off the face of the map is to want NO PEACE.

We want people to coexist and recognize that Israel has the right to exist. Do you recognize Israel has the right to exist Steve? Be careful of your answer (don’t do hate speech).
steve says:

January 29, 2006 at 7:17 pm

Of course Israel has a right to exist. Even the PLO has said that. The stupid and harsh policies of Sharon and bush caused the election of Hamas. If you really want Peace it’s time to talk and bring Peace. It is not the time to blow people up with rockets as they sit in their wheelchairs. And all of the Palestians who were displaced from their homes to make room for Israel, should be compensated for their lose and apologized to. Peace
Big Bang Hunter says:

January 29, 2006 at 7:27 pm

“And all of the Palestians who were displaced from their homes to make room for Israel, should be compensated for their lose and apologized to.”

Steve… All I can say is that your total lack of historical knowledge concerning Isreal, Palistine, and the whole area in general, is simply breath-taking. Just who do you believe is uneducated enough to believe your leftist revisionism?

– If you really believe those sorts of miss-representations, and outright lies, thinly disguised anti-semitism, then theres no point in taking you serious anymore, not that I’m sure there ever was. Run back to the Kos Kiddies where this junk plays well in the star chambers of the fanatical left.

– Bang
Baklava says:

January 29, 2006 at 7:29 pm

Steve wrote, “Of course Israel has a right to exist. Even the PLO has said that.

Hamas said, ““Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
J Rob says:

January 29, 2006 at 8:00 pm

I guess that steve thinks those halcyon days of being able to go in and order a pizza without the guy next to you detonating himself are rightly gone. Anybody who thinks that genocide is justifyable should not be taken seriously, unless he has demonstrated the willingness and ability to carry it out.
Gee it was darn nice of you to say Israel has a right to exist. Of course he left out the part about no genocide bombings.
J Rob says:

January 29, 2006 at 8:03 pm

Lorica,
Although steve means it in a pajorative way, “ilk” is Scots Gaelic for “of that same place” or “of that same clan” (that’s “clan” with a “c” steve, not K so don’t even try it)
Lorica says:

January 29, 2006 at 11:50 pm

Steve the only people firing rockets is Hamas. Now that Hamas is a legal governing body of Palestine, those rockets an out right attack of another nation. – Lorica
J Rob says:

January 30, 2006 at 6:18 am

Good point, Lorica. That means that the next attack could be construed as an act of war (legally, morally we know that these people have been warring on Israel from day one). Anybody else remember ’73 when egypt et al ganged up in Israel in yet another attempt to push Israel into the sea, and got pushed back and actually lost the Sinai penninsula? (They got it back because grinnin Jimmy thought it wasn’t fair that the obvious aggressor should have to lose land even though they were beaten back).
The problem is Hamas likes to attack while your back is turned then run hide among non-combatants.
PCD says:

January 30, 2006 at 8:09 am

Maybe steve will go to Gaza and be a human shield for a Hammas Rocket launcher. He would if he practices what he preaches.
steve says:

January 30, 2006 at 12:31 pm

You cats are really full of hate, aren’t you? Peace means that nobody fights and dies. And you cannot have Peace(Christ) by making war(Anti-Christ). Peace
Morhgan says:

January 30, 2006 at 2:36 pm

Peace will never be achieved by sitting by and watching evil people rule, kill, and destroy. So the answer is to sit back and just watch it happen? Where is the peace in that Steve?

Patriot-One who loves, supports, and defends one’s country.
Big Bang Hunter says:

January 30, 2006 at 8:04 pm

“News reports have said Hamas plans to establish separate schools for boys and girls in the Palestinian territories and implement stricter Islamic law. Asked whether he plans a theocracy instead of a secular government, Zahar responded, “Do you think the secular system is … serving any nation?”

A secular system “allows homosexuality, allows corruption, allows the spread of the loss of natural immunity like AIDS,” he said.”

– I await with high expectation, the laughable way the Liberalcrats will try to spin this one into “A peace loving nation that just longs for freedom for everyone in their country”….

– Heh…h-h-heh….heh heh …. hehe

– Is it just me or have the al Qaeda bats spun so many directions and messages lately that you couldn’t follow it with a roadmap and a battalion of political experts….

– Bang
GBA says:

January 30, 2006 at 9:54 pm

Bang,

That sucks for the Palestinians because this is the type of stuff moderate Palestinians, especially the Christians, were afraid of. I was hoping HAMAS would be cool. But it seems it’s not in their nature.

God help the Pals….they’re going to need it. They have obviously made a deal they’re going to regret it seems on many levels for years to come.

This is a perfect example of what can go wrong when you mix religous charities, religous fundamentalist and government. We should learn from this mistake and make sure we keep the church and the state totally seperate in our own country. We do a pretty good job but we can do a whole lot better.
Baklava says:

January 31, 2006 at 12:30 am

GBA, The 1st ammendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I bolded the part I did a college paper on. Nowhere in the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independance or any other founding document is there a “separation of church and state”. The phrase was first coined in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson the 3rd president.

This 1st ammendment means that Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion NOR should it PROHIBIT the free exercise thereof. This means that Congress cannot go around removing religion from public places.

Government removing religion from public places is a bad idea. We should be able to freely worship. And I’m not a particularly religious guy. I’m not an atheist either. To act offended and have the government remove religion is the wrong way to go.

I got an A on my paper because I did a lot of work on it.
Big Bang Hunter says:

January 31, 2006 at 2:27 am

– We may have areas of agreement….I’m sure we do GBA, but trying to insist theres equivalency between the true writings of the Christian bible, and the genocide, and “its ok to beat your wife with a tire iron if she dishonors you by trying to learn to read” as is found in the Q’oran…. Well lets just say on that point we’ll always have a healthy disagreement. And that is why you have a strange idea that seperation of church and state means we must disavow our Judeo/Christian heritage. In fact thats why the Left is trying so hard to afix equivalency. They don’t give a jack rabbits tush about the ME. Their agenda is to remove Americas hereitage whereever they can, period. If they can establish a seeming fact of “evil” by demonizing those values and morals >85% of the American public believe in, even people who are agnostic, they will. Thats the real purpose behind the equivalency scam. Fortunately for America, hardly anyone outside of the moonbat camp is buying it.

– Bang
Severian says:

January 31, 2006 at 8:09 am

GBA, only you could look at the total mess the PA is in, and come up with 1) an idea that Hamas is “cool” and 2) extrapolate from that total mongolian goat screw into an insult against religion in this country.

What, have you had your head in the sand completely for the past, oh, 2 or 3 decades? Hamas’ actions really surprise you? Hamas is predictable, they have been for decades.

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