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Hamas and the Rebirth of Illusion

(Ha'aretz) Jonathan Spyer - A process of rethinking is currently taking place in British and American foreign policy establishments regarding Hamas and engagement with Palestinian Islamism. The trouble is that this is asking us to ignore the actual, openly proclaimed aims and practices of Hamas. This is a movement whose founding charter contains in its opening paragraph: "Israel will rise and will remain until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors." The charter goes on to advocate the creation of an Islamic state, aiming "to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine." There is no doubt that the popular support enjoyed by radical Islamist forces raises a serious question for advocates of regional democratization. History is replete with examples of movements that sought to combine the use of the tools of democracy with the substantive rejection of its goals, and the desire eventually to subvert and destroy it. The continued health and existence of democracies required that they identify those threats in good time, and did not lack the will to act against them. It is therefore essential to make clear that the disarming of Hamas and the defeat of its ideas is the common, urgent interest of Israelis, Westerners, and Palestinians alike. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.
2005-05-27 00:00:00
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