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Hamas aims to improve international image with new program
[WASHINGTONPOST] The Islamic holy warrior group Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", has drafted a new political program it hopes will improve ties with neighboring Egypt and the West, and present a more moderate image that will help it get off Western terrorism lists.The internationally isolated group, which has ruled the Gazoo Strip for the past decade, characterizes itself in the manifesto as a Paleostinian resistance movement against Israeli occupation, dropping references to holy war against Jews. It also raises the possibility of a Paleostinian state in the West Bank, Gazoo Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. The document plays down ties to Hamas’ parent movement, the regional Moslem Brüderbund, which is being targeted by Egypt’s government as a terror organization. However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... Hamas appears to have stopped short of a significant ideological shift amid concerns about alienating its hard-line base at a time when ultra-fundamentalist Islamist groups, such as the Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... , are making inroads, particularly in Gazoo. The new program, to be made public at the end of the month, will not formally replace Hamas’ 1988 founding covenant, which called for the destruction of Israel and for "confronting the usurpation of Paleostine by the Jews through jihad." Such language has drawn accusations of anti-Semitism. In referring to a Paleostinian state, Hamas does not spell out whether it considers this an acceptable solution to the conflict with Israel or a stepping stone to its longstanding goal of an Islamic state in all of historic Paleostine, including what is now Israel. Posted by: Fred 2017-03-22 |
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