Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh writes at the end of a long and deception-filled screed in today's Washington Post that "[i]f Americans only knew the truth," we would stop supporting Israel in the struggle between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Even the briefest skim over Haniyeh's column reveals that we will not get the truth from Hamas, as Haniyeh manages to hit all of the Hamas talking points while oddly neglecting to mention their part in escalating the conflict into open war in Gaza.

Let's take this one piece at a time. He claims that the Palestinians are "besieged" by their occupiers:

As Americans commemorated their annual celebration of independence from colonial occupation, rejoicing in their democratic institutions, we Palestinians were yet again besieged by our occupiers, who destroy our roads and buildings, our power stations and water plants, and who attack our very means of civil administration. Our homes and government offices are shelled, our parliamentarians taken prisoner and threatened with prosecution.

The Israelis pulled out of Gaza completely, however, several months ago. They packed up the IDF, forced thousands of settlers out of their homes, and sent everyone back into Israel. The Palestinians held Gaza for themselves. What did they do with it? They used it as a launching pad for Kassam rockets into Israel almost since the day the IDF left. Now Haniyeh wants us to hearken back to our colonial roots to understand ... what? That an act of war, repeatedly taken, results in a military response?

The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The "kidnapped" Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago.

The economic sanctions did not have the intent of forcing Palestinians to "reconsider" their vote. We made it plain that we would not send our money to Islamofascist terrorists groups, especially one that used the election to tear up all previous agreements between Israel and the PA. I don't know why Haniyeh put scare quotes around "kidnapped"; is he arguing that Gilad Shalit asked to be shot and captured by Hamas terrorists after they invaded Israel? And once again, Haniyeh complains about a military response to an act of war, somewhat akin to a child whining to his mother that his older sibling hit him back.

In addition to removing our democratically elected government, Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively. The Palestinian leadership is firmly embedded in the concept of Islamic shura , or mutual consultation; suffice it to say that while we may have differing opinions, we are united in mutual respect and focused on the goal of serving our people.

Oh ... so all of that shooting in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank between Fatah and Hamas amounted to "mutual respect"? Is that why Hamas and Fatah prisoners in Israel had to come up with the NCD to get the two factions to quit killing each other? If Haniyeh expects Americans to believe this drivel, he has to do better than this.

As I inspect the ruins of our infrastructure -- the largess of donor nations and international efforts all turned to rubble once more by F-16s and American-made missiles -- my thoughts again turn to the minds of Americans. What do they think of this?

They think, doubtless, of the hostage soldier, taken in battle -- yet thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children, remain in Israeli jails for resisting the illegal, ongoing occupation that is condemned by international law. They think of the pluck and "toughness" of Israel, "standing up" to "terrorists." Yet a nuclear Israel possesses the 13th-largest military force on the planet, one that is used to rule an area about the size of New Jersey and whose adversaries there have no conventional armed forces.

Syria has no conventional armed forces? Iran has no conventional armed forces? Haniyeh expects us to conveniently forget the two wars launched on Israel by their Arab neighbors. These forced Isreal to capture Gaza and the West Bank as buffers in 1967, after the Palestinians allowed the Arabs to use their lands as conduits for the attacks. If Hamas is stupid enough to engage the 13th largest military force in the world by continually firing rockets from Gaza, then they will meet the IDF up close and personal.

And, by the way, people who deliberately blow up civilians eating at falafel stands are terrorists, and so are the groups that endorse it.

I hope that Americans will give careful and well-informed thought to root causes and historical realities, in which case I think they will question why a supposedly "legitimate" state such as Israel has had to conduct decades of war against a subject refugee population without ever achieving its goals.

Once again, we see that Hamas still refuses to recognize Israel as legitimate; hence the scare quotes. Also, part of the problem is that Israel has not conducted a war against the Palestinians, despite decades of provocation. They did occupy the territory for four decades, and that is a legitimate complaint. However, we saw what happened when they pulled out of Gaza -- Islamic Jihad used it as a rocket pad for months while the Palestinian Authority did nothing to stop it, and Hamas conducted a border raid that left two soldiers dead and one kidnapped. The Palestinians have conducted a war against Israel; Israel just finally put itself in a position to fight a war in return.

But there is a remedy, and while it is not easy it is consistent with our long-held beliefs. Palestinian priorities include recognition of the core dispute over the land of historical Palestine and the rights of all its people; resolution of the refugee issue from 1948; reclaiming all lands occupied in 1967; and stopping Israeli attacks, assassinations and military expansion. Contrary to popular depictions of the crisis in the American media, the dispute is not only about Gaza and the West Bank; it is a wider national conflict that can be resolved only by addressing the full dimensions of Palestinian national rights in an integrated manner. This means statehood for the West Bank and Gaza, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem, and resolving the 1948 Palestinian refugee issue fairly, on the basis of international legitimacy and established law. Meaningful negotiations with a non-expansionist, law-abiding Israel can proceed only after this tremendous labor has begun.

"Historical Palestine" and "the refugee issue from 1948" means that Hamas will not settle for the West Bank and Gaza. They want all of Israel as well, and expect the Israelis to leave or to live under Hamas/Fatah rule. And note that Haniyeh won't even agree to negotiations with Israel -- or what's left of it -- until after they have capitulated on all of these points.

Was Israel defending itself when it killed eight family members on a Gaza beach last month or three members of the Hajjaj family on Saturday, among them 6-year-old Rawan? I refuse to believe that such inhumanity sits well with the American public.

That's the consequences of war, Ismail. What he leaves out is that the Gaza Beach incident -- which did not come from an Israeli shell but a mine -- was part of an exchange of rocket fire that the terrorists in Gaza initiated. The shelling targeted an Islamic Jihad launching site. The details of the Hajjaj deaths are less clear, but in any case did not come from deliberately targeting the family. Hamas and Haniyeh, we should recall, endorsed as self-defense the deliberate targeting of civilians at a falafel stand, resulting in the deaths of 21 unarmed men, women, and children, and injuries to many more. How humane was that, Ismail, and why did you endorse that attack and condemn this one?

Finally, Haniyeh presents us with an offer for hudna, perhaps not realizing that Americans have become more familiar with the concept since 9/11:

If Israel is prepared to negotiate seriously and fairly, and resolve the core 1948 issues, rather than the secondary ones from 1967, a fair and permanent peace is possible. Based on a hudna (comprehensive cessation of hostilities for an agreed time), the Holy Land still has an opportunity to be a peaceful and stable economic powerhouse for all the Semitic people of the region.

The hudna goes back to Mohammed, who used the device to gather his strength while weakening his enemy. Haniyeh knows full well what a hudna means, even if he thinks his audience does not. It's the final prevarication in a column full of lies and half-truths, hyperbole and hypocrisy. We leave Haniyeh's column more convinced than ever that Hamas has no intention of negotiating for Palestinian statehood along the framework of previous agreements, but intends to wage terrorism against Israel until it concedes.

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» Hamas and the Washington Post from It Shines For All
Captain's Quarters writes: Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh writes at the end of a long and deception-filled screed in today's Washington Post that "[i]f Americans only knew the truth," we would stop supporting Israel in the struggle between the Palestinians an... [Read More]

Tracked on July 11, 2006 8:34 AM

» Hamas and the Washington Post from It Shines For All
Captain's Quarters writes: Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh writes at the end of a long and deception-filled screed in today's Washington Post that "[i]f Americans only knew the truth," we would stop supporting Israel in the struggle between the Palestinians an... [Read More]

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With the thoughtful assistance of the editorial staff at the Washington Post, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh enjoyed the unique opportunity of airing his hate-induced grievances with Israel for American consumption. In an op-ed published tod... [Read More]

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