It’s gotten to the point where Hamas doesn’t even have to pretend that they’re possibly, maybe, kinda sorta if the right offer came along ready to deal with Israel. Not that they ever really did—it’s just that the media generally don’t publish the truth about Hamas as openly as this AP piece has done.
And by the way, color me shocked. I had to reread the source a dozen times to believe it.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said Saturday that the group would accept an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire with Israel but it would be a “tactic” In the group’s struggle with the Jewish state.
The Damascus-based Mashaal said in an interview with al-Jazeera television that Egypt had proposed a six-month truce between the Hamas rulers of Gaza and Israel. He said his group was ready to cooperate but added: “It is a tactic in conducting the struggle. … It is normal for any resistance that operates in its people’s interest … to sometimes escalate, other times retreat a bit…the battle is to be run this way and Hamas is known for that,” he said. “In 2003, there was a cease-fire and then the operations were resumed.”
In other words, just as Israel has said, the Hamas truce is only so that Hamas can regroup and rebuild its army of terrorists. For some reason, this line is missing from the Ynet article. (It’s the third graf in the plain AP version. The Times also saw fit to change the quotes above, taking some direct quotes out of the quotes and making them seem like paraphrases.)
He warned of an explosion of violence in Gaza if Israel rejected the truce.
However, the Ynet version uses other information from previous Ynet articles that gives you far more background on Hamas’ deception.
Earlier Saturday, Mashaal said that Hamas is still waiting for Israel’s official response to the group’s sixtruce offer. During a press conference in Qatar, Mashaal said he had asked for a written commitment from Israel to open all of Gaza’s border crossings, including the one at Rafah.
Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told London’s Al-Quds Al-Arabi that if a truce is not reached the region could see unprecedented violence.
Gee, you mean like the bloody spring of 2002, where Israel suffered multiple terrorist attacks—including multiple suicide bombings—on a daily basis?
On Thursday Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar called a press conference following his meeting with the head of intelligence in Egypt, in which he declared that Hamas would offer a six-month truce in exchange for the opening of all border crossings. “The ball is in Israel’s court now,” he said.
Yes, and on Wednesday, I called the truce offer bogus. And every other time Hamas has offered a “truce,” I’ve called bullshit on it. The only ones who seem to think that Hamas really means it are idiots like Jimmy Carter and the UN. And this is in spite of all proof to the contrary.
I’d love to hear what Carter has to say about Hamas openly admitting that the only reason they want a truce for six months is so they can continue fighting Israel six months from now. That’s some major spin he’s going to have to do to convince us that Hamas is interested at all in peace with Israel. Because his spin on his talks with Hamas was as follows:
“It’s very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians,” Carter said in an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”
“There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process,” Carter added. “I think someone should be meeting with Hamas to see what we can do to encourage them to be cooperative and to find out what their attitude.”
Their point of view is simple: They want to destroy Israel. Now that they’ve come out and admitted it again, do you think Carter will stop blaming Israel for the lack of peace with the terrorists in Hamas?
Yeah, me neither. But perhaps there’s hope for the AP, after all.
Hudna.