Another look at the Hamas charter - by a Fatah supporter

At the PalArabic newspaper Al-Ayyam, a Fatah sympathizer named Mohammad Yaghi asks the question: Why can Hamas not accept the principle of two states?

Yaghi says that a unity government between Fatah and Hamas is impossible because Hamas cannot under any circumstances accept a two-state solution.

He points out that Hamas has rejected the Arab "peace" initiative, in which Israel gets recognized in exchange for full withdrawal to '67 borders, establishment of a Palestinian Arab state with Jerusalem as the capital, and allowing all PalArab "refugees" to return - even this maximal plan does not meet the minimum Hamas requirement.

Hamas' charter is equally dismissive of any "peace" conferences or similar international diplomatic initiatives to solve the conflict. Article 13 says

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with.

The critical part of the article is this one (my fixing of the autotranslation):

But most important of all is that the thirty-six articles of the Charter are free of any text that defines the goal of "Hamas" seeking to establish an independent Palestinian state on the land of historical Palestine. The only article which contained the word "state" - notice the word "state", and not "an independent Palestinian state" - is the ninth article which defines the goal of the "Hamas" to "fight against the false, defeating it and vanquishing it so that justice could prevail, homelands be retrieved and from its mosques would the voice of the mu'azen emerge declaring the establishment of the state of Islam..."

The conflict in this context, the goal of the movement is to make the State of Islam. This explains the Movement's readiness to accept a long-term truce in return for the implementation of Israel's withdrawal from the territories occupied by year 67 and the return of refugees without recognition or bargaining for the remainder of the rights of the Palestinian people or of Muslims in the land of Palestine.

In other words, Hamas is not a nationalist movement with the goal of creating an Arab Palestine - it is wholly a religious movement with the explicit goal of creating a single Muslim 'ummah!

Yaghi also mentions the Muslim Brotherhood, and in the Hamas charter Hamas is described as one of the wings of the Brotherhood. This is mildly interesting in light of the MB's more recent PR campaign (including on this very blog) that they are against all forms of terror.

Hamas has many vocal supporters on the far Left. Do any of them realize that they are supporting a movement that would replace all Arab and Muslim-majority countries with a single Islamist terror nation that would be dedicated to the destruction of the West?

Hamas' actions from its inception until today are consistent - they do not want an independent Palestine, but they do want to get rid of any Jews in positions of power in "Muslim lands." And as the following quote from the charter shows, the meaning of Jihad is wholly military according to Hamas.

The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters.