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Hamas Unlikely to Moderate

(Council on Foreign Relations) Interview with Matthew Levitt by Bernard Gwertzman - Terrorism expert Matthew Levitt is deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Treasury Department. "Being the government, I don't think, is going to moderate Hamas in the least. And the reason for that is they have a model they have already articulated that they intend to follow, which is the model of Hizballah in the north." "Months before the election, Hamas announced it was going to be setting up a standing militia, the Qassam Brigade; it would not take the place of, but would sit parallel to, existing terrorist wings." "Abbas al-Sayyid is the convicted mastermind of the Passover bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya....[He told me:] 'I as a Muslim cannot cede any part of what I believe to be an Islamic endowment - all of Israel, presently Israel - to the Jews or anybody else. If I were to agree to a temporary truce, that would be exactly what it is, temporary.'" "Al-Sayyid said 'temporary' can mean a generation or two, but he added: 'If I were to subscribe to one of these long-term ceasefires, don't think that I would not continue to train my son, who would enable his son to eventually consider the struggle, the fight, to regain all of this Islamic endowment that is now Israel.'"
2006-03-23 00:00:00
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