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?"...
Re-posting my copy (not necessarily complete: it comprises what I chose to keep) of the comments that were made to this article, during the IntenseDebate era.
NAKAL said - What ? A two-faced Muslim ? No, say it ain't so !
TOMMO2 said - Hamas must have enough funds from the gullible West to re-build the Gaza strip twenty times over but they still have done little to improve Palestinians' standard of living.
I saw a very old film dating from 1940's on the Mountbatten years in India prior to partition.
At this time Palestine had already been a refugee state for 24-years.
Surely someone needs to be asking the question how long does it take to build a homeland and how much longer are we, the West going to support a colony who seem incapable of doing anything for themselves, except create mayhem for their Israeli neighbours.
YOM AL JUMAH said 'The problem is that people like Dr. al-Fouzan spoil the reputation of all muslims by using this form of double speak in different languages.
The Pakistani Hukamat for example then gets it in neck when they try to put forward their case in being a firm ally in America's war on terror. Pak has lost almost 8000 jawans in this fightiing against the Taliban in NWFP, highting to America on our lack of resources such as helicopter gunships, armoured troop carriers and sophisticated F16s.
ALL losses are sad...but compare our loss to the Americans and Britsh of thier losses (probably less than 300) and you can easily see that we do lack resources by sending our jawans to be slaughtered fighting in your war.
In conclusion please be aware that you can trust some muslims...Paks and people like me do need to be supported.'
-GRAVEN IMAGE said - Yom al Juma wrote:
"In conclusion please be aware that you can trust some muslims...Paks and people like me do need to be supported".
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Here's how "trustworthy" Yom is--here's a post of his from just a few days ago:
"A lot of your brothers will join us....you see examples of your bretheren joining Islam...Robert Spencer keeps saying that these are the most worrying for you...that they will not support or defend yor way of life...I'm just saying"
What could be more trustworthy than that? sarc/off
GUYMACHER said - Why are we debating whether Muslims lie and kill? We have nearly 1400 years of evidence proving they do. Ask the Pakistanis if they were lied to by the SWAT Valley Taliban.
Actually, whether they lie or tell the truth is moot. The fact is Islam has oppressed people where ever it has gained power. If Hitler told the Jews the truth, would it have mattered?
GRAVENIMAGE said - (quoting) "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."
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Well, why not? Fatah has been doing this for years, as did their predecessors, the PLO. Pakistan plays this double game, as does Egypt--as does CAIR, for that matter. In fact, it is rather more common than not when dealing with Muslim states and organizations.
Until recently, one of the few "virtues" of Hamas is that they did not hide their murderous agenda. I guess times have changed.
-CTHULHUC said - You raised the point that hit me as well. I wonder how much this is a response to recent Fatah efforts to appeal more to the Islamist crowd. The fact is that there have been blurred lines between the two entities for some time, certainly on the lower- and mid-level tiers of Fatah.
ALKIDYA said - This is just more taqiyya and double speak which we are all quite used to.
I don't trust the "Hams" as far as I can throw them(unless I am using a huge trebuchet...not a bad idea). And that goes for any Muslim fundamentalist...
ALKIDYA added - I received a very distrubing email from a fellow Canadian last night.
He told me that I should cease and desist from sending him anymore emails concerning Muslims.
He stated that "I have no ****ing idea what I am talking about"(even though the video evidence is right there in front of him, and I usually quote right from the Qur'an to back up any statments).
He told me "that I didn't understand Islam, that it is a religion of peace and compassion".
And that I should "learn from association rather than from the trash I get online".
I am truly concerned that he has either met with a Muslim lady who is filling his head with taqiyya or that he has converted over to the enemy, or both.
I wrote him back telling him that not only will I not send anymore Muslim related emails but I will quit writing him altogether.
It is sad when you start losing friends because of your commitments to a cause but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
BASEBALLMAVEN said - "This is nothing new--the PA has been doing this forever; one would wish, however, that the US had Arabic speakers translating the truth....of course, under BO, they're all nodding their head and agreeing with the Arabic."