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| Middle East | ||
| Hamas’ Charter denies Israel’s Right To Exist | ||
| 2003-06-14 | ||
| Tel Aviv — "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." So states the Islamic charter of the militant Islamic group Hamas. This week's bus bombing in Jerusalem, which killed 17 people, was a bloody reminder of Hamas' power to strike Israel at any time. The organization, which has carried out dozens of attacks during the past 33 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence, called the attack "the beginning of a new series of revenge attacks . . . in which we will target every Zionist occupying our land." In a statement, it blamed the attack on Israel's attempt to assassinate its spokesman, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, in Gaza. Now, as Israel targets Hamas political leaders, the long-simmering standoff between the organization and Israel has become a no-holds-barred brawl. 'bout time. But Hamas does not need a specific Israeli operation as an excuse to act. Its charter, first published in 1988, clearly states that it is committed to an extended struggle against Israel and its replacement with an Islamic Palestinian state "from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River." pretty clear on that "Hamas has a long-term strategic game plan for an Islamic creation of Palestine some time around 2022, 2023, based on regime change, demographic changes, Islamic revolution in Jordan and Egypt, Israelis being divided and life after Yasser Arafat," said Magnus Ranstorp, deputy director of the Center for Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and a leading expert on Hamas and other Islamic militant groups. I don't think Hamas will be around in its present form in 2006 Just two weeks ago, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas dangled the promise of a cease-fire by Hamas and other militant groups. After the attack on Rantissi and the suicide bombing, however, that seems like a distant dream. But Ranstorp believes that was a feint in the group's long duel with Israel. "Hamas does not want a truce. Like Hezbollah in Lebanon, it thrives on resistance, on not giving up its military option, because this is what makes it unique — its resistance on the political front against the Palestinian Authority, on the social front against social and economic deprivation and militarily against Israel," he said. The tiny sliver of the Middle East upon which the Israeli state was established in 1948 is land that Hamas deems an "Islamic Waqf (endowment) consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day," so many analysts doubted that the group would ever lay down arms. then kill it. now. Even if Hamas were to agree to a cease-fire, it would be only the first step in a peace plan that ultimately concludes with a vision Hamas has vowed never to accept: a two-state solution with Palestine and Israel existing side-by-side. Hamas, an acronym for Harakat Muqawama Islamiya, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, was born in 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since then, the group has grown in stature to become one of the leading militant groups in the region and a key player that now jeopardizes the success of the U.S.-backed road map for Mideast peace. It gained support in the West Bank and Gaza when the Palestinian Liberation Organization went into exile in Tunisia in the early 1980s. Recently, as Palestinians have grown increasingly disillusioned with corruption in the Palestinian Authority and angry over Israeli military operations that have restricted travel and sent living standards plummeting, its support has grown. Efraim Inbar, a political scientist at Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University, notes that Hamas has a "strong territorial base, especially in Gaza where it has proved a very effective organization, in contrast to the Palestinian Authority, in providing services." The group operates a network of charitable institutions in the impoverished coastal strip and disseminates its views via leaflets and sermons in local mosques. Its mission to "liberate Palestine" finds a sympathetic audience among the 1 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza. The result has been to increase Hamas' clout and make it almost untouchable within its own community. Last year, Arafat was forced to back down after yielding to U.S. and Israeli pressure and placing Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin under house arrest. Spiritual leader of a psychotic murdering cult? Sharon has pledged that Israel will "fight the terrorist organizations and their leaders to the death." But Ranstorp says that Sharon has a broader vision that precludes dealing the group a death blow. "Israel knows every Hamas leader, every senior member and how they make their decisions," he said. Eliminating Hamas "is something Israel can do blindfolded if it wanted to, but it's not in Israel's interests to completely clip the wings of Hamas, which is a useful counterweight against the Palestinian Authority."
"If we survive...I guess" "The Israelis experienced this in 1992 when terrorist (former Israeli Prime Minister) Rabin deported Hamas leaders to southern Lebanon," he said. "What results did he get? The resistance escalated and Hamas' capabilities for action were heightened. We are not afraid at all."
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| Posted by:Frank G |
| #1 One of my fellow workers, a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem, summed it up. He was approached by a Hamas heavy, who said, "First we get the Jews, then we will get you." Yassin needs a JDAM on his spot of existance. Warn the others that they are in harms way if they hang out with him and the other leaders. Almost as important, we have to go after the money, and it all points to ---again----Saudi Arabia as the big donor. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-06-14 13:26:53 |