Hamas Doublespeak
December 13th, 2007 by JEB KOOGLER
Dr. Ahmad Yousuf, a senior advisor to Ismail Haniyeh (left), recently wrote an open letter to Condoleezza Rice calling for the Bush administration to engage in unconditional dialogue with Hamas. (Hat tip: Jeff Dexter) Couched in flowery diplomatic language, Yousuf’s portrayal of Hamas is of a benign organization with only peaceful intentions. He writes:
“Many people make the mistake of presuming that we have some ideological aversion to making peace. Quite the opposite; we have consistently offered dialogue with the U.S. and the E.U. to try and resolve the very issues that you are trying to deal with in Annapolis.
Our conflict with the Israelis is a grievance-based conflict. We want to end the occupation of our land and the systematic human rights abuses that our people suffer from daily. We do not have any ideological problems with living side by side with Christians and Jews. When we have not been occupied we have successfully done this for thousands of years.”
This is a clear example of Hamas doublespeak. To the rest of the world, Hamas eagerly presents the moderate face of a legitimate political organization. Domestically, however, the rhetoric sounds nothing like this. Rather than the conciliatory and thoughtful tone of Yousuf’s letter, Hamas usually uses much more vitriolic, anti-Semitic, and nationalistic rhetoric when talking to its local Palestinian constituency.
But the doublespeak is just politics. The real question, of course, is which view does the Hamas leadership truly believe. Are they genuinely interested in peace and not averse to recognizing the establishment of Israel, as they claim in this letter? Or are they merely looking to string the rest of the world along as they continue to try to bring down the Israeli state? I’m optimistic in this regard - Hamas has proven to be a fairly pragmatic organization, and it seems unlikely that their leadership honestly believes that they can, with enough effort, actually destroy the state of Israel. Indeed, both Khaled Meshaal and Ismail Haniyeh have expressed their willingness to establish an “extended ceasefire” if Israel were to withdraw to the 1967 borders.
At this point, Hamas’ capability for violence as well as their refusal to recognize Israel are being used as bargaining chips. The fact is, as they’ve said themselves, the Hamas leadership doesn’t envision a permanent state of war - they just want a better deal than the one Arafat got in 1993. To them, this means not giving up too quickly and thereby forcing Israel to take them seriously. So don’t get any misconceptions: Hamas, too, wants peace and if the deal is sweet enough, they’ve indicated that they’ll take it.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Hamas, Palestine, Israel. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
December 13th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Yep, the complete destruction of Israel or killing all the Jews in it. Short of that, the organization will settle for a temporary, incremental victory of some kind.
December 13th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Hamas wants peace only when I’m dead.
December 13th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
I’m afraid that I don’t share your optimism, Jeb. It’s just as likely that the reasonable face they put on to many is a cover in order to be able to receive funds, avoid sanctions and enable their allies to have political cover for helping them. What they’ve also said is that they are willing to have a truce as a mere pause in their goal to destroy Israel. Given their recent active support for mass murder of civilians I think the more pessimistic view is the more likely one.
December 14th, 2007 at 5:02 am
I am very sceptical.
That’s where talking and negoiations begin, not when everybody is trusted and agrees on every point,.