HAMAS COMES OUT OF HIDING BUT ITS APOLOGIST DOESN'T ...

Fairfax journalist and recent author of a fluffy book on Hamas, Paul McGeogh had an OP Ed published in the New York Times this week on Hamas leader in exile Khalid Mishal - HAMAS COMES OUT OF HIDING. McGeogh and Mishal together make clear that Hamas has not changed its attitude towards the destruction of Israel or its own genocidal charter:

Pressed on policy changes that Hamas might make as a gesture to any new order, Mr. Mishal argued that the organization has already shifted on several key points: “Hamas has already changed — we accepted the national accords for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, and we took part in the 2006 Palestinian elections.”

On the crucial question of rewriting the Hamas charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel, he was unbending: “Not a chance.” Khalid Mishal is not Yasir Arafat — he is not looking for a Nobel Peace Prize. Among the Hamas articles of faith is a belief that in renouncing violence and in recognizing Israel’s right to exist in 1993, Mr. Arafat sinned against his people.

McGeogh remains ever the apologist for this fascistic organisation and makes the extraordinary claim as a footnote to Mishal's very clear and concise comments:

(Nonetheless, others to whom he speaks have told me that Mr. Mishal has said that “when the time comes,” Hamas will make some of the moves demanded of it by the West.)

This is utter rubbish as Professor Shlomo Avineri pointed out in a letter to the editor of the NYT:

Op-Ed Contributor: Hamas Comes Out of Hiding (April 13, 2009)

In “Hamas Comes Out of Hiding” (Op-Ed, April 13), Paul McGeough writes that when he asked Khalid Mishal, the Hamas leader, if his organization would consider changing its charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction, Mr. Mishal answered, “Not a chance.”

What Mr. McGeough did not mention is that Hamas views all Jews, not just Israel or Zionism, as its enemies.

Its charter goes to some length to state that the Jews (together with the Masons) were responsible for the French and the Communist revolutions; that they instigated World War I to destroy the Ottoman caliphate; that they instigated World War II to make money out of commerce in war materials; that they control world finance and the media; and that they have established numerous secret organizations to achieve world domination.

Some of this is straight out of the anti-Semitic literature of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” and some of it — especially the references to the two world wars — is the original contribution of Hamas ideologues.

No Western democracy would tolerate an organization with such views. These are the issues that have to be raised with Hamas leaders by anyone who cares for peace in the Middle East.

Shlomo Avineri
Jerusalem, April 13, 2009