Report: Haniyeh says Hamas will support Palestinian state within '67 border

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh wrote that his group will support any step that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the '67 borders, Israel Radio quoted Palestinian media reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, Haniyeh stressed that Hamas wouldn't thwart efforts to establish a free and independent Palestinian state, which will have Jerusalem as its capital.

The Hamas leader reportedly went on to say the US and Israel were responsible for the current stagnation of Middle East peace talks, because they rejected a two-state solution based on ceding the entire '67 territories and allowing Palestinian refugees to return to Israel or receive compensation."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1253198174648&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Hamas is not al-Qaida

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/21/hamas-al-qaida

The two are radically different – the position of the democratically elected Hamas is about land, not religion, creed or race

<snip>

"The New Statesman's interview with Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader, was one of the most significant interviews with the leading figure in a movement that has been demonised and excommunicated by most of the western world and its media. The fact that Meshal realises that his words will be scrutinised by his allies and supporters as closely as his adversaries confirms that he speaks of the official position of Hamas on a number of crucial issues which the pro-Israel propaganda apparatus has managed to manipulate for so long.

Arguably, the most important assertion made in the interview, conducted by Ken Livingstone, is that in which Meshal clearly stated that the Palestinian struggle was anything but a conflict between Muslims and the Jewish people. He insisted that the Palestinians were fighting against the occupier who had dispossessed them of their homes and lands, regardless of religion, creed or race. He also went on to confirm that the concept of coexistence was largely present in the Palestinian psyche, and that genocide, as suffered by Jews in Europe (and which he described as "horrible and criminal") was alien not only to the Palestinians but to the inhabitants of the region as a whole.

His statement that Jews, Muslims and Christians had for centuries lived side by side – implying there was nothing intrinsic to prevent this happening again in the future – is crucial. This mirrors Ismail Haniyeh's response, after he became prime minister in 2006, to the question of whether the Palestinians wished to throw the Jews into the sea: "Does a besieged people that is waiting breathlessly for a ship to come from the sea want to throw the Jews into the ocean? Our conflict is not with the Jews, our problem is with the occupation."

This unequivocal stand is one that ought to be welcomed by Jewish communities around the world. Rather than the fear-mongering tactics of the Israeli media machine, particularly during the Gaza attack earlier this year, warning Jews of imminent attacks against them and their facilities, Meshal was sending a clear message of assurance that the Palestinian struggle was political rather than religious and about real political grievances and not against the Jewish people per se. This comes after Meshal had himself publicly rejected any attack committed anywhere in the world which exploited the premise of the Palestinian struggle."

[Cant trust em]

1. Wow. nt

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Changing the Hamas Charter would be necessary for a final agreement...

because it contradicts what he says, but he seems ready to negotiate.

The real problem will be getting past US refusal to talk openly with Hamas. If Obama opens to a negotiation where Hamas and Fattah sit at a table with Netanyahu, something cold happen. But Hamas willingness to negotiate seems to have come at a time when Israeli's elected a government unwilling to negotiate.

[aranthus]

3. Good Lord. How gullible are you people?

Does he ever once say that he is willing to accept a Jewish state of Israel within the 1967 borders? Of course not. And his statement, "that Jews, Muslims and Christians had for centuries lived side by side," is a bald faced lie by omission. What he doesn't say is that Jews and Christians lived as second class citizens. Nor is there any reason to believe that they would be anything else under a Hamas ruled Palestine. the man has nothing against Jews except for their national existence as Jews. He's part of the problem. Hamas may not be Al Qaeda, in part because it is better at lying to the Western press.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Less gullible than those people who believe what Nutty says about peace and two-states...

Me, I don't give a shit if Hamas accepts Israel as a Jewish state or not. It's stupid to demand they do. And Jews, Christians and Muslims did live side by side, at least much more side by side than they did in Europe at the same time. Don't forget that there were Jews and Christians at high level of government in the Middle East....

I do think yr being a bit selective in yr criticism, seeing as how all politicians are prone to lying, and Nutty's govt is no less likely to be lying about things than Hamas are...

[aranthus]

5. I don't know why you choose to believe that.

When Netanyahu says those things it's usually in Hebrew to an Israeli audience. He's not just saying it to make nice with the West. Not so the leaders of the Palestinians. They reserve their peace talk for those listening in English.

Since the war is about Israel being a Jewish state, it's absolutely not silly to demand Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. When Hamas refuses to do so, it means that it doesn't want to end the war.