Hamas speaks

And now for the Hamas side of what just happened in Gaza from Ahmed Yousef, political advisor to Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister via the New York Times:

THE events in Gaza over the last few days have been described in the West as a coup. In essence, they have been the opposite. Eighteen months ago, our Hamas Party won the Palestinian parliamentary elections and entered office under Prime Minister Ismail Haniya but never received the handover of real power from Fatah, the losing party. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has now tried to replace the winning Hamas government with one of his own, returning Fatah to power while many of our elected members of Parliament languish in Israeli jails. That is the real coup.

From the day Hamas won the general elections in 2006 it offered Fatah the chance of joining forces and forming a unity government. It tried to engage the international community to explain its platform for peace. It has consistently offered a 10-year cease-fire with the Israelis to try to create an atmosphere of calm in which we resolve our differences. Hamas even adhered to a unilateral cease-fire for 18 months in an effort to normalize the situation on the ground. None of these points appear to have been recognized in the press coverage of the last few days.

Nor has it been evident to many people in the West that the civil unrest in Gaza and the West Bank has been precipitated by the American and Israeli policy of arming elements of the Fatah opposition who want to attack Hamas and force us from office. For 18 months we have tried to find ways to coexist with Fatah, entering into a unity government, even conceding key positions in the cabinet to their and international demands, negotiating up until the last moment to try to provide security for all of our people on the streets of Gaza.

Sadly, it became apparent that not all officials from Fatah were negotiating in good faith. There were attempts on Mr. Haniya’s life last week, and eventually we were forced into trying to take control of a very dangerous situation in order to provide political stability and establish law and order.

Ok, so this is the Hamas view of what just happened. So how does Hamas see the way forward? What should we expect of them? Yousef continues:

We have begun disarming some of the drug dealers and the armed gangs and we hope to restore a sense of security and safety to the citizens of Gaza. We want to get children back to school, get basic services functioning again, and provide long-term economic gains for our people.

Ok, now what about this stated goal of Hamas, that its purpose is to take back all the land under Israel's control, not just the West Bank and Gaza? I quote here what they say in their 1988 Covenant:

The Islamic Resistance Movement [aka Hamas] believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that. Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Moslem generations until Judgement Day. This being so, who could claim to have the right to represent Moslem generations till Judgement Day?

This is the law governing the land of Palestine in the Islamic Sharia (law) and the same goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force, because during the times of (Islamic) conquests, the Moslems consecrated these lands to Moslem generations till the Day of Judgement.

Not surprisingly, the Hamas spokesman Yousef doesn't say much on this issue:

We continue to believe that there is still a chance to establish a long-term truce. But this will not happen unless the international community fully engages with Hamas.

Any further attempts to marginalize us, starve our people into submission or attack us militarily will prove that the United States and Israeli governments are not genuinely interested in seeing an end to the violence.

Unfortunately, a willingness to negotiate a long-term truce does not exactly translate into recognizing Israel's right to exist. But perhaps if Hamas really could stop the rocket launchings, suicide bombings, kidnappings, and other types of incursions into Israel, maybe there could be room for discussion, even if the end result could only be a long-term truce as opposed to full recognition.

But, suppose for a moment now that Hamas really did go this far, that it really could declare and enforce a truce?

How long do you suppose it would take for a new faction to arise? For disgruntled members to say that by virtue of such a truce, the Hamas leaders only desecrated the Waqf - that is the Hamas - covenant? This seems to me to be a real stumbling block.

Anyone have any ideas on how to solve this fundamental problem? Check out the source documents on which the Hamas Covenant portends to be based. Maybe therein lies some kind of solution.