From my forthcoming article for FAIR....
Four months before the elections, a moderate Hamas candidate representing Nablus, Mohammed Ghazal, told Reuters that the group could change its 1988 charter calling for Israel’s destruction and that it was open to negotiating with Israel. “The charter is not the Koran,” Ghazal said. “Historically, we believe all Palestine belongs to Palestinians, but we're talking now about reality, about political solutions ... The realities are different.” If Israel reached a stage where it felt able to talk to Hamas, Ghazal said, “I don't think there will be a problem of negotiating with the Israelis” (Reuters, 9/21/05). (Less than a week after Ghazal’s comments, Israeli soldiers raided his apartment and arrested him – AP, 9/27/05). Asked about the charter the following month, a leading Hamas hardliner, Mahmoud Zahar, told Ha’aretz that “no one is thinking now about changing the charter, but in principle it is not impossible” (10/26/05).
Angelus Novus wrote:
>This has not much relevance to Hezbollah, Lebanon, and
>the current conflict, but someone earlier scoffed at
>the idea that Hamas could be described as
>anti-semitic, so I am positing this:
>
>"Article Twenty-Two: The Powers which Support the
>Enemy
>The enemies have been scheming for a long time, and
>they have consolidated their schemes, in order to
>achieve what they have achieved. They took advantage
>of key elements in unfolding events, and accumulated a
>huge and influential material wealth which they put to
>the service of implementing their dream. This wealth
>[permitted them to] take over control of the world
>media such as news agencies, the press, publication
>houses, broadcasting and the like. [They also used
>this] wealth to stir revolutions in various parts of
>the globe in order to fulfill their interests and pick
>the fruits. They stood behind the French and the
>Communist Revolutions and behind most of the
>revolutions we hear about here and there. They also
>used the money to establish clandestine organizations
>which are spreading around the world, in order to
>destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests.
>Such organizations are: the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs,
>Lions Clubs, B’nai B’rith and the like. All of them
>are destructive spying organizations. They also used
>the money to take over control of the Imperialist
>states and made them colonize many countries in order
>to exploit the wealth of those countries and spread
>their corruption therein. As regards local and world
>wars, it has come to pass and no one objects, that
>they stood behind World War I, so as to wipe out the
>Islamic Caliphate. They collected material gains and
>took control of many sources of wealth. They obtained
>the Balfour Declaration and established the League of
>Nations in order to rule the world by means of that
>organization. They also stood behind World War II,
>where they collected immense benefits from trading
>with war materials and prepared for the establishment
>of their state. They inspired the establishment of the
>United Nations and the Security Council to replace the
>League of Nations, in order to rule the world by their
>intermediary. There was no war that broke out anywhere
>without their fingerprints on it: “…As often as they
>light a fire for war, Allah extinguishes it. Their
>efforts are for corruption in the land and Allah loves
>not corrupters.” Sura V (Al-Ma’ida—the Tablespread),
>verse 64 The forces of Imperialism in both the
>Capitalist West and the Communist East support the
>enemy with all their might, in material and human
>terms, taking turns between themselves. When Islam
>appears, all the forces of Unbelief unite to confront
>it, because the Community of Unbelief is one. “Oh ye
>who believe! Take not for intimates others than your
>own folk, who would spare no pain to ruin you. Hatred
>is revealed by [the utterance of] their mouth, but
>that which their breasts hide is greater. We have made
>plain for you the revelations if you will understand.”
>Sura III, (Al-Imran), verse 118 It is not in vain that
>the verse ends with God’s saying: “If you will
>understand.”
>
>Full:
>http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html
>
>
>
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