For those who keep insisting that the Palestinians only want to live in peace and only resort to violence because of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the popular Hamas "Party" would like clear up that misunderstanding. Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told an Italian journalist that any agreement reached with the Israelis only amounts to a temporary solution, allowing them to gather strength to wipe out the Jewish state within a decade:

Hamas will not compromise on one inch of Greater Palestine, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told an Italian newspaper earlier this week.

Speaking to the Corriere Della Sera newspaper, al-Zahar said Hamas would "definitely not" be prepared for coexistence with Israel should the IDF retreat to its 1967 borders.

"It can be a temporary solution, for a maximum of 5 to 10 years. But in the end Palestine must return to become Muslim, and in the long term Israel will disappear from the face of the earth."

Asked about Hamas's intentions to carry out terror attacks in coordination with the disengagement plan, al-Zahar said Hamas has already promised not to initiate violence, and that the group's actions would be in response to Israeli actions.

"We won't disrupt the Israeli withdrawal, let them get out of here and go to hell," he said. "The problem will be afterwards, because in the hearts of every Palestinian, the liberation of Gaza must be accompanied by the liberation of Jerusalem and the West Bank."

Zahar isn't just some bombthrower in the street representing an obscure group of lunatics. Hamas has won a large number of offices in municipal elections across the Palestinian territories, and analysts widely predict a large Hamas victory in the next round of Palestinian parliamentary elections. In fact, President Mahmoud Abbas has suspended those elections indefinitely to avoid losing a majority of seats to the Hamas terrorists that enjoy such popularity with the Palestinians.

Zahar's position reveals the intent of the Palestinian people to either continue the intifada, or merely to use a cease fire as a pretense to gather international aid and enough time to open up a new offensive against the Israelis, perhaps hoping to convince the Syrians to join them. These people will not negotiate in good faith. They want the same thing now that they have wanted for decades -- the extermination of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Cooperating with Hamas, Fatah, and the terrorist-supporting Palestinians by granting them a sovereign state and billions of dollars in foreign aid amounts to giving Afghanistan back to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. We will do nothing but create another terrorist state, and our insistence on allowing Fatah and Hamas to operate as political parties and negotiating partners only encourages terrorists in the region to demand the same recognition without disarming first. The damage done to real democratization will cost us dearly in the next decade; Mahmoud al-Zahar will ensure it. (via Hugh Hewitt)

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