Posted on 03/07/2003 9:42:31 AM PST by anotherview
The Egyptian al-Ahram Weekly recently printed a telephone interview with Hamas spokesman and leader Khaled Mesh’al from Damascus. Mesh’al survived an Israeli assassination attempt while in Jordan in 1997.
Meshal was asked about the call, articulated recently by the PLO leader Abu Mazen, for “demilitarizing the uprising....” He responded, “it is not accepted by the Palestinians. Abu-Mazen's words come at a time when the Palestinians are suffering deeply from the brutality of the Israeli forces.... Israeli forces have also started mutilating the bodies of our martyrs, as they did in Beit Hanoun. Is this the appropriate time to ask the Palestinians to give in? Would it not have been more appropriate to ask the Palestinians to continue their struggle and support them in their fight? We are not launching an attack on the Israelis....”
When questioned as to whether there is a “distinction between militarisation, Intifada and resistance,” the Hamas leader explained that there is no difference: “they are all labels and differentiating between them is not realistic. To speak of demilitarisation without ending the Intifada is nonsense.”
Meshal went on to explain that during the intifada of 1987, “Israeli cruelty in responding to our stones pushed us naturally to try to develop our means to using Molotov cocktails, knives and guns, and when the Israelis committed a massacre in Hebron's mosque in 1994, Palestinians began their suicide attacks. It's obvious that the development of the Intifada was a natural response to the Israelis' escalation in the use of force against our people.” He also claimed that “the same thing is happening in today's Intifada. It started as a peaceful movement, but with increased Israeli aggression, our people have had to develop their means as well. Any talk about a peaceful Intifada is entirely theoretical. Dozens of our people are killed every day for no reason other than throwing stones. What should we expect from family members who see their loved ones killed before their very eyes? In short, I think it is a call to halt the Intifada -- not only the armed resistance, as they suggest.”
The interviewer then asked a revealing question: “Why do you think Abu-Mazen made his call, given that the Palestinian Authority (PA) supported the Intifada -- at least tacitly?”
Meshal answered that Abu-Mazen made a call for demilitarization on his own, but that he claimed “it came from the PA so as to impose a de facto position on Palestinian factions. However, this policy did not work because our people have not given in to the status quo.... Moreover, even if it is a PA strategy, there is actually a split within Fatah. Al-Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, did not agree to the demilitarisation option. Besides, it is not only Al-Aqsa, there is also Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as well as us in Hamas. None of us agree to this call and insist on continuing our resistance for our self-defense. What is really annoying is that such a call is coming from those who did not participate in the Intifada in the first place.”
Rhetorically, the Hamas leader asked the Egyptian interviewer, “Will a halt to our resistance allow us to stand up for our cause against the aggressors and enable us stop their attacks? Yasser Arafat announced more than once the suspension of the Intifada. The resistance movements, for their part, declared a truce, but these periods saw the highest number of [Palestinian] casualties. Thus, we are left with no option but resistance.”
As for other Arabs, the Hamas spokesperson said, “The Arabs are expected to support us in our struggle because we have no other option but to remain steadfast.... We are not relying on Arab countries, we only call upon our nation – it is up to our people to decide whether or not to support us. One day the Arab nation will realise its mistake in adopting unilateral solutions to our [Arab] issues. As I have said before, we are targeted by the Zionists and by the Americans. This alliance between the American Christian-right trend that opts for global hegemony and the Zionist lobby, which is igniting the war against the Arabs and the Muslims, is primarily meant to degrade us. This aggression is targeting our nation and any unilateral attempts to solve the conflict of one country outside the framework of the whole nation is suicidal. Things are going by turn, and will ultimately hit us all. Our only way out is solidarity. Today, Europe is unfortunately acting far better than we Arabs are.”
That idiot doesn't know his rear from a hole in the ground.
Pardon!!!
Just what does 20 pounds of exploding C4 festooned with nails happend to do to a body???
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