M-16
08-08-04, 08:58 PM
Media myths: "Hamas are out to destroy Israel"
by The Arab Media Watch (http://www.arabmediawatch.com/index.php)
Press reports on Hamas (Harakat al-Muqawima al-Islamiyya, the Islamic Resistance Movement) often state that the organisation's goal is the "destruction of Israel" or, if they are written in particularly jejune moments, to "drive the Jews into the sea". There are a number of misrepresentations in these statements.
Firstly, they often transfer into verdicts that the Israeli state is in "danger of survival". There seems to be a slight leap in the argument here: they do not indicate how a state armed with the fourth largest nuclear arsenal in the world, the highest calibre weapons ever produced and protected by the biggest military machine in history could be destroyed by a relatively small group who are disorganised, wholly underequipped and with little military training.
Furthermore, they misunderstand how the political leadership of Hamas has long realised that Israel cannot be defeated by a para-military campaign, and that the Palestinians will - in the long term - have to settle for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alone. Hamas leaders may think that this is not a just solution, but they have been stating for almost a decade that this is the most they can reasonably expect. Indeed, this has been the consensus in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for decades.
The first Hamas leader to publicly outline this position was Musa Abu Marzuq, then head of Hamas' political bureau, from 1993. However, it was most clearly outlined in a letter from the spiritual leader of Hamas, Shaykh Ahmad Yassin, from prison in Spring 1994. In this letter, he stated that he would accept a thirty year truce (hudna) with Israel, if Israeli troops withdrew from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, dismantled Israel's settlements and released Palestinian prisoners. He has repeated this position consistently since then, and has clarified that he is willing to accept an open-ended ceasefire. He stated the same position in an interview with CNN in 1997 (although this article seems to contain errors about the nature of the truce Yassin has proposed). In May 2002, Yassin said that "I guarantee that suicide bombings inside Israel will come to an end" if Israel stops attacking Palestinian civilians.
'Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza and arguably the key political leader in the organisation, restated this position in an interview in January 1998: "we have announced our readiness for a truce in which there would be a withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza in return for a ceasefire".
Senior Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab (former deputy to Ahmad Yassin, Hamas' observer to the PLO and its representative to the National and Islamic Forces, the coordination body for the intifada) has gone furthest in seemingly accepting a peace settlement based on a return to 1967 borders. In 1997, he said in a an interview: "If US President Bill Clinton said this conflict should be solved by dividing the land, he could succeed. Although it is not fair, most Palestinians will accept it." In April 2002, he declared his acceptance of the Saudi peace plan on behalf of Hamas, and said that Hamas will "cease all military activities" if Israel withdrew to its 1967 borders. Abu Shanab spoke of his desire to have a "good neighborhood with Israelis".
Hamas has often offered ceasefires or an end to suicide bombings on the condition of the end of the occupation. In one recent example from July 2002, a day before a scheduled Hamas re-publicisation of this offer, Israel assassinated one of Hamas' founding members - a move that has been credited to Israeli attempts to forestall Hamas' moves to a ceasefire, and thus preserve the state of war that allows it to justify the perpetuation of the occupation.
Unlike Arafat, Hamas leaders have opposed according legitimacy to Israel prior to a stated Israeli intention to withdraw from the occupied territories. This may seem unwise to some, good tactics to others. However, for the media to portray a Palestinian faction that has gained considerable support in the Occupied Territories, particularly since September 2000, as unwilling to compromise with Israel would be to invite an unwillingness on Israel's part not to compromise with the Palestinians.
Media myths: "Hamas are out to destroy Israel" (http://www.arabmediawatch.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=350)
by The Arab Media Watch (http://www.arabmediawatch.com/index.php)
Press reports on Hamas (Harakat al-Muqawima al-Islamiyya, the Islamic Resistance Movement) often state that the organisation's goal is the "destruction of Israel" or, if they are written in particularly jejune moments, to "drive the Jews into the sea". There are a number of misrepresentations in these statements.
Firstly, they often transfer into verdicts that the Israeli state is in "danger of survival". There seems to be a slight leap in the argument here: they do not indicate how a state armed with the fourth largest nuclear arsenal in the world, the highest calibre weapons ever produced and protected by the biggest military machine in history could be destroyed by a relatively small group who are disorganised, wholly underequipped and with little military training.
Furthermore, they misunderstand how the political leadership of Hamas has long realised that Israel cannot be defeated by a para-military campaign, and that the Palestinians will - in the long term - have to settle for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alone. Hamas leaders may think that this is not a just solution, but they have been stating for almost a decade that this is the most they can reasonably expect. Indeed, this has been the consensus in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for decades.
The first Hamas leader to publicly outline this position was Musa Abu Marzuq, then head of Hamas' political bureau, from 1993. However, it was most clearly outlined in a letter from the spiritual leader of Hamas, Shaykh Ahmad Yassin, from prison in Spring 1994. In this letter, he stated that he would accept a thirty year truce (hudna) with Israel, if Israeli troops withdrew from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, dismantled Israel's settlements and released Palestinian prisoners. He has repeated this position consistently since then, and has clarified that he is willing to accept an open-ended ceasefire. He stated the same position in an interview with CNN in 1997 (although this article seems to contain errors about the nature of the truce Yassin has proposed). In May 2002, Yassin said that "I guarantee that suicide bombings inside Israel will come to an end" if Israel stops attacking Palestinian civilians.
'Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza and arguably the key political leader in the organisation, restated this position in an interview in January 1998: "we have announced our readiness for a truce in which there would be a withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza in return for a ceasefire".
Senior Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab (former deputy to Ahmad Yassin, Hamas' observer to the PLO and its representative to the National and Islamic Forces, the coordination body for the intifada) has gone furthest in seemingly accepting a peace settlement based on a return to 1967 borders. In 1997, he said in a an interview: "If US President Bill Clinton said this conflict should be solved by dividing the land, he could succeed. Although it is not fair, most Palestinians will accept it." In April 2002, he declared his acceptance of the Saudi peace plan on behalf of Hamas, and said that Hamas will "cease all military activities" if Israel withdrew to its 1967 borders. Abu Shanab spoke of his desire to have a "good neighborhood with Israelis".
Hamas has often offered ceasefires or an end to suicide bombings on the condition of the end of the occupation. In one recent example from July 2002, a day before a scheduled Hamas re-publicisation of this offer, Israel assassinated one of Hamas' founding members - a move that has been credited to Israeli attempts to forestall Hamas' moves to a ceasefire, and thus preserve the state of war that allows it to justify the perpetuation of the occupation.
Unlike Arafat, Hamas leaders have opposed according legitimacy to Israel prior to a stated Israeli intention to withdraw from the occupied territories. This may seem unwise to some, good tactics to others. However, for the media to portray a Palestinian faction that has gained considerable support in the Occupied Territories, particularly since September 2000, as unwilling to compromise with Israel would be to invite an unwillingness on Israel's part not to compromise with the Palestinians.
Media myths: "Hamas are out to destroy Israel" (http://www.arabmediawatch.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=350)