Listening to Hamas

The Israeli Lobby loves to demonize Hamas since this makes it easier for Israelis to perpetuate their heinous occupation, i.e. keep their stolen land. Justice and fairness are terms unknown to them. These are concepts much on the mind of the Muslim/Arab world, however, as we discovered on 9/11. (See previous blogs, "Why They Hate Us,"Parts 1-4, January 5-7.) Hamas has observed a truce since February 2005. Israel has not. On 4/18/06, Ghazi Hamad, Hamas Government spokesman, said on CNN, "Many times we call on Israel to avoid the civilians and to stop targeting our people, and many times also we said we are committed to the truce and ceasefire..." (It must be noted that the Israelis have killed many more innocent civilians than have been killed by Palestinians but this is little mentioned by our Israeli Lobby-dominated media.) Hamad continued, "..but really the occupation forces they never listen to us, and they are continuing their aggression and their attacks and their incursions, and they are arresting people and demolishing homes in the West Bank and Gaza, so I think the problem is not the Palestinian people, it is the occupation side who want all the time that the Palestinian people should be polite and keep silent for all the crimes of Israel, and I am shocked that the international community they condemn the operation [the Tel Aviv suicide attack the day previously] but 1-2 weeks before that about 20 Palestinian people were killed and burned by Israeli missiles, and no one released a statement and condemns Israeli operations." This is very true. In the current cycle of revenge attacks, outrage is expressed against Palestinian reprisals but never against Israeli missile attacks, (which kill many times more innocent people), or against the existence of the occupation itself. Hamad was asked if Hamas condoned the suicide attack. He replied, "We did not mention this but we said that if we want to put an end to this blood cycle that the occupation should be ended. This is very important. We are interested as a government now that there be calm and a quiet situation here, but the Israeli side they never help us. We started to talk to the Palestinian factions, all the Palestinian factions, but we are surprised that the Israelis continue their aggression. They never give us a chance now to talk with people. The international community should ask Israel if it is possible that they also stop their aggression against people or not. Today and yesterday they are killing our people. It is unfair that the Palestinian people do everything, and you keep silent for all crimes of Israel. There is no problem to talk to the Palestinian factions and to convince them but the question is who can convince Israel. This is the question." Asked about stopping other groups from carrying out attacks, he replied, "If I do so and arrest all people and put them in jail, who can give guarantees that Israel also they will stop their aggression against our people? Who can do it? The problem is that the international community and the US look to Israel all the time, it is above the law. They can do everything without punishment. This is the question, but as I told you, we are interested that this should be done with parallel lines for both sides. If Israel is ready now to stop all kinds of aggression and attacks against our people, we can keep the situation calm here also. You know, from the very first moment of this government, we said we are not against political compromise, we are not against peaceful means. But from the very first moment of this government, Israel said that this is a terrorist government, that it is the enemy, and [they] will not recognize it. And if they say that Hamas is not a partner [in peace negotiations], Fatah is not a partner, Abu Mazen, the President, is not a partner, so who is the partner? The partner will be coming from the heavens, from the other world? So I think that Israel should understand now that Hamas is a government that represents all the people and it is the elected government, and we are not against political compromise. We want to live like any people in the world, and if our problems can be solved by peaceful means, we are not against this, but the question is: Arafat spent twelve years in negotiation with Israel, and he signed all the agreements, but what happened in the end? They ignored Arafat and said he was a terrorist. They say Abu Mazen is also not representative and that he also is a terrorist, so I think the question is in the Israeli side. They do not want to be convinced that there is a peace partner who can talk." Hamad speaks the truth, and we should listen. Currently we only hear the Israeli Lobby who is pushing for war with Iran due to the fact that Iran also hates Israel because of its occupation of Palestine. We trashed Afghanistan, turning it into a narco-state; we trashed Iraq, turning it into a civil war, and now the Israeli Lobby wants us to trash Iran, turning it into God knows what. It would be much better to listen to Hamas and make peace. It is important to note that Hamas has said that Israel's return to the internationally recognized 1967 boundaries would be followed by peace.