THE PLANK JUNE 25, 2007
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With Hamas's takeover of Gaza, one might have assumed that The Nation would wise up a bit regarding its stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict. In an editorial earlier this month, The Nation claimed that "even the Islamist Hamas has indicated that it would acquiesce" to a "two-state solution." Surely, the homicidal madness of the past few weeks made even The Nation a little more realistic about the methods and ultimate intentions of Hamas?
Not quite. Here is what the The Nation claims in its current editoral:
Hamas leaders have repeatedly stated that they can live with a two-state settlement, or at the very least a long-term hudna (truce). Both Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and his political adviser, Ahmed Yousef, have made this point in op-eds in the past month.
They made the point in op-eds! Then it must be true!
Here are some relevant excerpts from Hamas's "Sacred Covenant," which I share because The Nation either ignores it or doesn't want such nasty realities to get in the way of its policy of blaming everything that goes wrong with the "peace process" on the Bush administration:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
"The day the enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In the face of the Jews' usurpation, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised."
"[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility."
Pay particular attention to that last excerpt, which explains how Hamas is able to reconcile its constitutional obligation to the obliteration of Israel with its occasional public statements--intended exactly for useful idiots in the West like E.U. negotiators and The Nation magazine--to the contrary.
Is there anything silver-tongued Islamists say that Nation editorial writers won't believe?
--James Kirchick
