All entries for February 2006

An interesting point of view from a voice of Hamas

Writing about web page http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1698702,00.html

A lot of public opinion in Europe and America with regards to Hamas is formed either by repetitive statements on the part of US officials and continual media focus on Israelis who never seem to have anything more to say than "Hamas wants to kill all Jews. Holocaust. Bombs on buses." All we ever see or hear from Hamas is the odd post-assassination display juxtaposed with Israeli officals/generals proclaiming another victory over 'terrorists' and the newest Hamas leader suggesting that the organisation might want to take revenge. All in all not a very friendly picture. Somewhat lost in the somewhat hyperbolic linking of Hamas to "terror" is the fact that Hamas has provided a great deal of social relief to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Palestinians within the occupied West Bank and the Ghaza strip. When Israeli bulldozes homes, closes roads to people who need emergency treatment, fills in wells, destroys olive groves etc., Hamas steps in to provide social welfare. A further elaboration on this can in the work of a couple of Jewish/Israeli authors in The Palestinian Hamas

Well anyhow, in the above link, Mr. Khalid Misha'l puts forth a case for Hamas and for the future. I think the most notable section is this:

The day Hamas won the Palestinian democratic elections the world's leading democracies failed the test of democracy. Rather than recognise the legitimacy of Hamas as a freely elected representative of the Palestinian people, seize the opportunity created by the result to support the development of good governance in Palestine and search for a means of ending the bloodshed, the US and EU threatened the Palestinian people with collective punishment for exercising their right to choose their parliamentary representatives.
[my emphases]

I think this really hit the nail on the head.

: 01 Feb 2006 13:03 |  Tags: הסברה America Politics |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem