Novak's great white hope, redux

I wrote yesterday about the phenomenal self-delusion of Robert Novak as he seemingly found a single sort-of moderate Hamas voice and he played it to the hilt, implying that Hamas was ready to make peace with Israel and that not speaking to Hamas was foolhardy and wrong.

Today, his Hamas hero has backtracked on his moderate words:

Jenin - Ma'an exclusive - Palestinian Education Minister Nasser Addin Ash-Sha'er has denied the declarations which the US daily newspaper Washington Post ascribed to him.

In an interview with Washington Post columnist Robert Novak published on Monday, Ash-Sha'er was quoted as saying that bombing attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets had ruined past peace attempts.

Ash-Sha'er reportedly said that "previous attempts at peace were ruined by suicide bombers. Now, we look forward to a sustained peace."

On Wednesday, in conversation with Ma'an, he depicted the newspaper's allegations as imprecise.

The minister highlighted, "electronic websites took portions of a long interview, and what they took was absolutely out of the real context." It was misinterpreted, he explained.

Ash-Sha'er explained, "Every people in the world has the right of self defence, and nobody can incriminate his own history or his own right to self defence."

So it seems that he really doesn't think that suicide bombings had a negative effect on peace efforts. And that terror attacks against civilians is every Palestinian Arab's right.

Poor Robert Novak. He wasted an entire year searching for the legendary Moderate Hamas leader. Perhaps he'll have better luck looking for the Easter Bunny in Bethlehem.