Well, war is deceit, after all. "Hamas spinning Western media, study says: Islamic group talks peace in English, promotes destruction of Israel in Arabic," by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily, August 9 (thanks to all who sent this in):
JERUSALEM – A new study asserts Hamas is engaging in a "spin" effort of phony rapprochement with Israel in order to continue engaging with the West, while its leaders are explaining in Arabic they are still seeking the Jewish state's destruction and denying any real accommodation with Israel. Hamas is conducting a 'smile spin' for the West, particularly the United States. Its main objectives are to ease its political isolation, improve its position vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority and get funds to rebuild the Gaza Strip," concludes the study by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at Israel's Center for Special Studies. "For the Palestinians, [Hamas] stresses that its fundamental anti-Israeli pro-terrorism strategy remains unchanged."
The study quotes liberally from multiple recent Hamas interviews to U.S. and British news media outlets and compares those statements to Hamas rhetoric to the Palestinians during the same period.
Khaled Mashaal, the overall chief of Hamas, was interviewed in Damascus two weeks ago by the Wall Street Journal. During the interview, Meshaal told the newspaper his group is willing to agree to an immediate reciprocal cease-fire with Israel as well as a prisoner exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Meshaal claimed Hamas and other Palestinian organizations would be ready to cooperate with any American, international or regional effort to find a "just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict," end so-called Israeli occupation and allow the Palestinian people their "right to self-determination."
In a separate interview with the British Economist, Ahmed Yousef, Hamas' chief political adviser in Gaza, was quoted as stating, "Hamas is very close on recognition of Israel … We show all sorts of ideological flexibility on this."
Yousef, who conducts regular interviews with WND, told the Economist that should the Palestinian people choose the so-called two-state solution, Hamas "would not object."
Yousef tried to minimize the importance of the Hamas charter, which calls for the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel. He stated, "We don't use it. Why should we change it when we never use it?"
In an interview with the BBC, Taher al-Nunu, a Hamas spokesman, said his group welcomed the opportunity for dialogue with the international community.
Meanwhile, the Center for Special Studies noted, Hamas figures continue to incite against Israel and promote terrorism when speaking to the general Palestinian public. Some Hamas figures even rejected the statements they purportedly gave to the Western media.
Clarifying his remarks of recognizing Israel to the Economist, Yousef, speaking with a Hamas news website days after the interview, denied ever having said that Hamas was close to recognizing Israel. He claimed the Economist either misunderstood what he had said or had misquoted him when the interview was translated into English.
In a Friday sermon at a mosque in Khan Yunis, and broadcast on Hamas' al-Aqsa television on July 24, Ismail Haniya, head of the Hamas de-facto administration in Gaza, said his group was prepared to adopt the concept of "liberation in stages."
Haniya said Hamas would not object to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. However, he said this was just a temporary strategic option aimed at completely ending the "occupation" – meaning destroying Israel.
Haniya added that "resistance," a term which often includes terrorist acts, was also a strategic option to which the Palestinians would continue adhering.
At a July 27 ceremony held in the Al-Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City, Mahmoud al-Zahar, chief of Hamas in Gaza, clarified his group adheres to the position that "the [Palestinian] state must contain all the territory of Palestine."
Continued al-Zahar: "We are certain that what comes after the liberation of Palestine will not be only a state. After the liberation of Palestine a large revolution will reach everywhere."
Sheikh Hamad al-Bitawi, a Hamas activist in the West Bank city of Nablus and a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared two weeks ago that "Jerusalem and Palestine will only be liberated by jihad and not by negotiations."
Fathi Hamad, Hamas' interior minister, reiterated on July 13 Hamas' basic, traditional positions that only "resistance" would make the "Zionist enemy" leave "occupied Palestine."
Hamas, he said, "cannot cede one inch of the historical land of Palestine because it belongs to the Muslim endowment."
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