Hamas Is Leading Palestine Down the Road of Carnage
THE TELEGRAPH: Brutality is at the heart of Hamas's practice and ideology, characterising its actions against both Palestinians and Israelis, writes Ron Prosor.
Hamas has no interest in compromise or negotiation. Photo: The Telegraph
Earlier this month, Hamas launched a devastating bombardment of rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire against a mosque in Rafah. The attack killed at least 22 Palestinians, including an 11-year-old girl. Over 100 more were injured and the mosque, which belonged to a rival Islamist faction, the Jund Ansar Allah, was left riddled with bullets. The adjacent building was destroyed. Yet Hamas's disregard for the sanctity of a house of worship, and its contempt for the lives of neighbouring civilians, is unlikely to be the subject of any probing reports from Human Rights Watch.
It is no surprise to see Hamas brutalising the Palestinian population as it tightens its vice-like grip over Gaza. After all, it seized control of the territory in a bloody coup against the Palestinian Authority in June 2007, murdering rivals and hurling PA officials from the rooftops. Subsequently, it has ruthlessly and violently crushed any potential challenge to its power, whether from the Palestinian nationalists of Fatah, or from rival terrorist groups within the Islamist fold.
Meanwhile, it has imposed Gaza's rapid descent into fanatical freefall. As it hounded out the Palestinian Authority, Hamas opened Gaza's floodgates to a tsunami of extremism. Extremism breeds extremism, and the rise of rival Jihadist groups is a problem of Hamas's own making. Yet when it perceives such groups as a threat, or when ideological differences exist, it demonstrates its own barbaric methods of conflict resolution and law enforcement.
Brutality is at the heart of Hamas's practice and ideology, characterising its actions against both Palestinians and Israelis. Throughout its bloody history, the organisation has unleashed waves of indiscriminate terror against any attempt at progress. Yet alarmingly, sections of the media are determined to whitewash and legitimise it. They are joined by various politicians, commentators and activists, who argue that Israel and the West must talk to Hamas, so implying that it is on the verge of a switch to moderation.
Yet Hamas has no interest in compromise or negotiation. The most vicious, genocidal anti-Semitism is intrinsic to its goals. Its charter includes the ominous vision that, "The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." This year, a senior Hamas figure, Fathi Hammad, reminded us of its continued commitment to this goal when he stated: "We will not rest until we destroy the Zionist entity." >>> Ron Prosor* | Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Oct 25, 2023 | Is Western 'peacemaking' in the Middle East perpetuating the Arab-Israeli conflict? Has the refusal by the West to see the evil of Hamas backfired? This week, Jonathan is joined by author and journalist Melanie Phillips.
I generally agree with much that Melanie Phillips says, especially when it comes to Islam; however, in this video she mentioned several times that Netanyahu's goal is to destroy Hamas. Melanie Phillips is certainly not alone in talking about this objective. One hears it over and over. I fully understand why people want to destroy Hamas. I go along with that desire myself; wholeheartedly so. But, how on earth do people think that it can be done? I think that it's an impossibility! Why do I say this? Simply because Hamas is based on ideas; so, even if you were to be able to kill each and every member of Hamas today, the ideas behind the organization would survive, only to be taken up by a new generation of people with identical sympathies.
After World War II, Nazis were caught and were either killed or put on trial in the Nuremberg trials. Some others esscaped to South America, and elsewhere. One, Aribert Heim, known as 'Dr Death' and also the 'Butcher of Mauthausen', escaped even to Egypt, where he converted to Islam and lived under the alias Tarek Farid Hussein. Others have since died of old age in exile. But have the ideas of Nazism died along with the death of these ruthless, cruel scoundrels? Certainly not! Nazism is alive and thriving to this day; in fact, it is growing in strength and number. And not only in Germany! We have Nazis here in the UK too; and there are many in the States, and elsewhere.
And the same it will be if Israel manages to catch and kill all the murderous Hamas members of today. In time, a new generation will grow up and take up the very same ideas and ideology; after all, so many of them are rooted in Islam. Many people might not know that one of Hamas's objectives is not only the establishment of a Palestinian state, but a Palestinian state based on Sharia law, so that its people will live strictly in adherence to Islamic laws and principles. Hell will freeze over before those ideas will vanish off the face of the earth! So it is really hard to comprehend how Benjamin Netanyahu imagines he will be able to kill off Hamas the organization and Hamas's ideas too, ideas which are based on faith and Islamic doctrine.
SPIEGEL: Der militärische Erfolg bleibt aus, so besinnt sich die Hamas auf ihre islamistische Agenda: Badehosenverbot für Männer, Massenhochzeiten für alle - und Propaganda gegen Verführungen. Wie angebliche Lust-Kaugummis aus Israel.
Wenn man wissen will, was man in der Hamas derzeit so denkt, ist Islam Schahwan ein guter Gesprächspartner. Schahwan ist Sprecher der Hamas-Polizei, und er kämpft nicht nur gegen das Verbrechen im Gaza-Streifen, sondern vor allem gegen den Verfall der Sitten. Und deshalb hält Islam Schahwan jetzt eine kartenspielgroße Pappschachtel mit Daumen und Zeigefinger, sein Beweisstück. Auf der Schachtel steht: "Lina Sex for Woman", daneben ist das verschwommene Foto einer Blondine in weißer Unterwäsche aufgedruckt und eine Telefonnummer mit der Vorwahl von Burma.
Der Hamas-Mann legt sie auf dem Tisch ab, mit dem Bild nach unten. In der Schachtel versammelt sich, wenn man Schahwan glaubt, alles Übel der Welt: 20 gelbliche Dragees, von denen der Hamas-Mann behauptet, sie enthielten stimulierende Substanzen. "Nach einer halben Stunde Kauen müssen Sie unbedingt Sex haben, sofort, mit allem, sogar mit dem Fernseher", sagt er, es ist ihm sichtlich peinlich.
"Diesen Kaugummi hat die israelische Regierung nach Gaza geschmuggelt, er sollte an Schüler und Schülerinnen verteilt werden, um unsere Gesellschaft zu zersetzen." Die Jugendlichen sollten mittels Sex gegen die Hamas aufgehetzt werden, so sieht er das, so lautet die offizielle Propaganda. Erst Bomben, dann Sex, für Schahwan ist das nur logisch.
"Aber wir konnten das Schlimmste gerade noch verhindern", sagt der Polizeisprecher und lehnt sich breitbeinig auf seinem Stuhl zurück. Die Ehre eines vom Kaugummi erregten Mädchens konnte gerettet werden, die vier angeblichen Kollaborateure sitzen jetzt im Gefängnis, ihnen drohen bis zu 25 Jahre Gefängnis. Insgesamt 40 Kilo Lust-Kaugummi hat Schahwan konfisziert und im Tresor des Polizeihauptquartiers weggeschlossen, sicher ist sicher.
Natürlich ist der Vorwurf absurd, Israel versuche, die Palästinenser zu einer Revolte der Lust anzustacheln. Aber so lächerlich die Geschichte ist: Sie zeigt, wie die Hamas sich, angesichts ausbleibender militärischer Erfolge, wieder auf die Umsetzung ihrer islamistischen Agenda besinnt. Es ist kein Zufall, dass die Hamas, ein Dreivierteljahr nach dem Luftkrieg der Israelis, nun wieder islamische Regeln strikter durchsetzt. >>> Von Juliane von Mittelstaedt, Jerusalem | Mittwoch, 26. August 2009
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Hamas Close to Control of Gaza
GLOBE AND MAIL: GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP — Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and executed them in the street.
The capture of the Preventive Security headquarters was a major step forward in Hamas' attempts to complete its takeover of all of Gaza.
The moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, for the first time in five days of fierce fighting, ordered his elite presidential guard to strike back. But his forces were crumbling fast under the onslaught by the better-armed and better-disciplined Islamic fighters.
Fatah officials said seven of their fighters were shot to death in the street outside Preventive Security. A witness, Jihad Abu Ayad, said the men were being killed before their wives and children.
"They are executing them one by one," Mr. Abu Ayad said. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting." Hamas close to controlling Gaza (more) By Diaa Hadid (Associated Press)
THE SUNDAY TIMES: A Hamas leader admits hundreds of his fighters have travelled to Tehran
The Hamas commander was in a hurry. Hunched forward in a navy-blue parka, with the wind-chapped skin and drawn eyes of someone who had been outdoors all night, he had just returned from the front line with Israel. The whine of drones overhead signalled that his enemy was hunting for blood.
For someone who had survived the fiercest fighting between Israelis and Palestinians since 2000 and the deaths of scores of his fellow fighters, the commander, already a senior figure in his late twenties, appeared remarkably composed.
He is in the vanguard of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas which is growing into a disciplined army, trained to fight for victory rather than be consigned to the “martyr’s death” of the suicide bomber.
Israel has long insisted that Iran is behind this training. Last week Yuval Diskin, the head of the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet, said as much when he claimed that Hamas had “started to dispatch people to Iran, tens and a promise of hundreds”. He provided no evidence.
The Hamas commander, however, confirmed for the first time that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been training its men in Tehran for more than two years and is currently honing the skills of 150 fighters.
The details he gave suggested that, if anything, Shin Bet has underestimated the extent of Iran’s influence on Hamas’s increasingly sophisticated tactics and weaponry. Hamas wages Iran’s proxy war on Israel >>> By Marie Colvin in Gaza City
Oct 26, 2023 | In an eye-opening interview, Mosab Hassan Youssef, the son of one of the co-founders of Hamas, reveals the true intentions of the militant group and calls for their removal from power.
With first-hand experience and an insider's perspective, Youssef exposes the brutality of Hamas and emphasizes the urgent need to stop them before their destructive actions escalate further.
His passionate plea aims to shed light on the reality of the situation and highlights the importance of separating the Palestinian cause from the extremist ideology of Hamas.
He says Hamas has “opened up the gates of hell on the Palestinian people.”
Speaking to Piers Morgan, Yousef he went on to also say: "Hamas's cause is a sick one... only God knows what will happen next, if Hamas is not finished."
THE TELEGRAPH: Prince Turki al-Faisal, a key power broker in the Middle East, hits out against the murderous tactics adopted by the terror group
Prince Turki al-Faisal: ‘I categorically condemn Hamas’s targeting of civilian targets of any age or gender as it is accused of’ | Leigh Vogel/Getty
An influential Saudi prince has issued a strong condemnation of Hamas in a rare rebuke from one of the Middle East’s main power brokers.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi ambassador to the UK and US, said he preferred “civil insurrection and disobedience” to the murderous tactics adopted by the Palestinian terror group.
“I categorically condemn Hamas’s targeting of civilian targets of any age or gender as it is accused of,” Prince al-Faisal said in a speech at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a US think tank housed at Rice University in Texas.
“But equally, I condemn Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Palestinian innocent civilians in Gaza and the attempt to forcibly drive them into Sinai,” he added, citing Israel’s recent bombardment of the enclave and order for its residents to flee south towards Egypt ahead of an expected ground offensive.
Prince al-Faisal’s remarks underline recent comments from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and indicate Riyadh may still be amenable to a historic normalisation deal with Israel, despite having put on hold talks amid the current war. » | Sophia Yan | Friday, October 20, 2023
I concur with Prince Turki al-Faisal’s wise words. His forthrightness is both refreshing and courageous.
Hamas’s crimes were vile and depraved, but peace will never be achieved unless the root causes of the enmities and hatred between the Palestinians and the Israelis are addressed and corrected.
Whilst it is undeniable that Israel has a right to respond to the atrocities committed by Hamas, it is in the Israelis’ own interests to ensure that their responses are measured, appropriate and proportionate. Civilised behaviour demands that the punishment should always befit the crime. If Israel’s reaction turns out not to fit the crimes committed by Hamas, their disproportionate punishments will engender even more anti-Semitism throughout the world – a cancerous phenomenon which in many countries is already at fever pitch.
Anti-Semitism, Islam & the Growing Problem in Europe
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Though most Muslims reject Islamism and its propaganda, anti-Semitic messages from satellite channels like the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa are helping to bring a message of hate and intolerance to Europe. The effects of such hate preaching can already be felt in Germany.
"Sanabel, what do you want to do to help the Al-Aqsa Mosque?" Farfur asks on the children's program of Hamas's Al-Aqsa television station. "We want to fight." "And what else?" "Wipe out the Jews." Now Farfur, the cartoon character on Hamas's children's television program, is satisfied. Farfur is a carbon copy of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, but the Hamas version does something that Mickey would never do: He entertains children while propagating the murder of Jews.
International protests forced Hamas to take its Disney clone out of circulation. Al-Aqsa complied, but promptly turned Farfur's departure into an anti-Semitic statement: Farfur was clubbed to death by an Israeli official. Then the girl hosting the program turned to the camera and said: "You've seen how the Jews killed Farfur as a martyr. What do you want to say to the Jews?" A three-year-old girl named Shaima called into the show to say: "We don't like Jews, because they are dogs! We will fight them!" "Oh, Shaima, you're right," the girl in the studio replied, "the Jews are criminals and our enemies."
Farfur's appearances are typical of Hamas's anti-Semitic propaganda, which the organization also exports to Germany via satellite, hoping to breed new generations of fanatical anti-Semites and suicide bombers.
The Hamas station, founded in 2006, is modeled on the Hezbollah station in neighboring Lebanon, al-Manar. Al-Manar's children's program shows children wearing explosive belts and images of dying Israeli soldiers, with triumphant chants as background music. Cartoons depict scenes like that of a child blowing himself up near Israeli soldiers, or of a smiling boy flying toward Israel on a missile. Adult viewers can enjoy video clips that use inspirational graphics and rousing music to glorify the act of committing a suicide bombing, while the evening lineup offers family entertainment with a series of films based on the classic anti-Semitic forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
In late 2004, France banned the broadcasting of al-Manar through the European Eutelsat satellite system, citing the station's anti-Semitic content. Nevertheless, messages of hate were still being broadcast into the living rooms of Muslims in Germany via satellites controlled by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, ArabSat and NileSat. Exposure to this programming was apparently not without consequences.
Rabbi Zalman Gurevitch was wearing a traditional black robe when he left his synagogue in Frankfurt's Westend neighborhood on Sept. 7, 2007. It was the Sabbath. According to the police report, he encountered a 22-year-old German of Afghan descent "spontaneously and coincidentally" a short time later. It was early evening and the man, shouting "You shit Jew, I'm going to kill you," plunged a knife into the rabbi's abdomen. Gurevitch was recognizable as a Jew. He survived, thanks to luck and emergency surgery. Anti-Semitic Hate Speech in the Name of Islam >>> By Matthias Küntzel | May 16, 2008
YNET NEWS: Deputy leader of terror organization urges Hamas to implement Islamic law in Gaza, to unite with his organization's holy warriors
Al-Qaeda's deputy leader called on Muslims around the world to back Hamas with weapons, money and attacks on US and Israeli interests in a web audiotape Monday, urging the Palestinian group to unite with al-Qaeda's "holy warriors" after its takeover of Gaza.
The message from Ayman al-Zawahri, who is Osama bin Laden's top deputy, marked a major shift by al-Qaeda, which in the past criticized Hamas for joining a government with the US-supported Fatah faction.
The audiotape was clearly made after Hamas' takeover of Gaza earlier this month, marking a rapid response from al-Qaeda's top leadership to the events. Its authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but it was posted on a web forum where al-Zawahri has issued messages in the past.
Oct 20, 2023 | Hamas said that its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, had released two American hostages who had been held by the group after the terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7.
The news was initially confirmed by Israel's Channel 13 News and public broadcaster Kan.
The release of the hostages, Judith and Natalie Raanan, was confirmed via statement by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.
"In response to Qatari efforts, (the Qassam) Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons," Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram.
The Islamist group did not provide any additional information as to where the hostages were released. Israel's government estimates that roughly 200 people are being held by Hamas in Gaza, of which at least 10 are believed to be American nationals.
Hamas is categorized as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, Germany and a number of other countries.
Hamas Patrols Beaches in Gaza to Enforce Conservative Dress Code
THE GUARDIAN: Lawyers resist campaign to make Palestinian society more Islamist
A mounted Hamas officer rides along the beach at Gaza City, on the lookout for infringements of Islamic dress codes. Photo: The Guardian
It began with a rash of unusually assertive police patrols. Armed Hamas officers stopped men from sitting shirtless on the beach, broke up groups of unmarried men and women, and ordered shopkeepers not to display lingerie on mannequins in their windows.
Then came an effort to force female lawyers to abide by a more conservative dress code, and intense pressure on parents to dress their daughters more conservatively for the new school term. Last week police began enforcing a new decree banning women from riding on motorbikes.
For the first time since Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections nearly four years ago, the group is trying to Islamise Gazan society. In public, Hamas leaders say they are merely encouraging a social moral code, and insist they are not trying to imitate the religious police who operate in some other rigid Islamic countries. But to many it feels like a new wave of enforcement in what is already a devoutly Muslim society.
Asmaa al-Ghoul, a writer and former journalist, was one of the first to run up against the new campaign. She spent an evening with a mixed group of friends in a beachside cafe in late June. After dark, she and another female friend went swimming wearing long trousers and T-shirts. Moments after leaving the water they found themselves confronted by a group of increasingly aggressive Hamas police officers. "Where is your father? Your husband?" one officer asked her. Ghoul, 27, was told her behaviour had not been respectable. Five of her male friends were beaten and detained for several hours.
"I believe our society is secular, but some Islamic parties want to change the idea of this society to make it religious," she said. She does not wear a headscarf, a choice that is increasingly rare for women in Gaza and generally confined only to those living in the wealthier areas of Gaza City. She routinely suffers taunts from other Palestinians as she walks from her home to her favourite coffee shops. "We're just afraid to be ourselves in the street," she said. "Hamas uses Islam in the mosque to try and control people's hearts." >>> Rory McCarthy in Gaza City | Sunday, October 18, 2009
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Israeli prime minister Netanyahu says there will be no negotiations with a Palestinian unity government unless the Hamas movement gives up its vision of destroying Israel and embraces peace
Speaking on CNN, the Israeli leader said the preferable course of action to get peace negotiations back on track would be for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to renounce Hamas, the Islamist movement whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
"Either Hamas disavows the destruction of Israel and embraces peace and denounces terror, or president Abbas renounces Hamas," Netanyahu said.
"If one of those things happened, we could get back to the peace negotiations. I hope he renounces Hamas and gets back to the peace table, as I've just said. The ball is in his court."
Netanyahu suspended peace talks with the Palestinians last week after the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Hamas agreed to work together to form a unity government, in a move to end years of bitter political rivalry. » | AFP | Sunday, April 27, 2014
Feb 20, 2018 | Did you also know that Hamas — which is an Arabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement” — would probably not exist today were it not for the Jewish state? That the Israelis helped turn a bunch of fringe Palestinian Islamists in the late 1970s into one of the world’s most notorious militant groups? That Hamas is blowback?
Former Israeli official Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s, told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat. Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than two decades, told the Wall Street Journal in 2009 that Hamas is “Israel’s creation.” Hamas was the result of this, as Mehdi Hasan explains. First, the Israelis helped build up a militant strain of Palestinian political Islam, in the form of Hamas and its Muslim Brotherhood precursors; then, the Israelis switched tack and tried to bomb, besiege, and blockade it out of existence.
“The Intercept is an investigative nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing fearless, adversarial journalism. We believe journalism should bring transparency and accountability to powerful governmental and corporate institutions.”
Thursday, June 04, 2009
President Obama Speaks to the Muslim World from Cairo, Egypt
NZZ Online: Kommentar: Eine Rede allein genügt nicht
Welche Wirkung der amerikanische Präsident mit seiner Rede in Kairo erzeugen wird, bleibt abzuwarten. Dabei gilt es zu berücksichtigen, dass Barack Obama nicht nur die islamische Welt im Auge hatte, sondern auch das Publikum im eigenen Land. Natürlich ist es für ihn nützlich, bei Muslimen rund um den Globus Sympathien zu erzeugen. Aber was für ihn letztlich zählt, sind die amerikanischen Wähler. Diese wünschen sich durchaus einen Präsidenten, der mit geschickter Politik die Spannungen mit der islamischen Welt abzubauen vermag. Das bedeutet jedoch nicht, dass Obama viel Spielraum besitzt, wo amerikanische Interessen im Kern betroffen sind.
Mehr Erfolg als Bush?
Die Kairoer Rede ist Teil einer Öffentlichkeitskampagne, die der Präsident gleich nach seiner Amtsübernahme lanciert hat. Sein erstes Interview, mit dem Sender al-Arabiya, der Neujahrsgruss ans iranische Volk, die Ansprache vor dem türkischen Parlament und nun der Auftritt am Nil dienten alle demselben Ziel - der Zuhörerschaft zu versichern, dass Amerika die Welt des Islams nicht als Feind betrachtet, sondern ihr mit Respekt begegnet. Völlig neuartig ist das nicht. Schon Bush hat islamische Würdenträger ins Weisse Haus eingeladen, die arabische Hochkultur gewürdigt, den Koran zitiert, Communiqués an die Iraner verschickt und eine Regierungsabteilung geschaffen, die nichts anderes tat, als im Ausland für ein besseres Image Amerikas zu werben. >>> Von Andreas Rüesch | Donnerstag, 04. Juni 2009
LE FIGARO: Fatah et Hamas saluent le changement de ton
REACTIONS - Le mouvement islamiste Hamas estime cependant que l'allocution au Caire de Barack Obama contenait de sérieuses «contradictions».
«Un bon début» selon l'Autorité palestienne. Le président américain a montré dans son discours qu'il y a une «politique américaine nouvelle et différente concernant la question palestinienne», a commenté jeudi un porte-parole du président de l'Autorité palestinienne Mahmoud Abbas. «C'est un discours clair et franc. Il constitue un pas politique innovateur et un bon début sur lequel il faudra bâtir».
Pour le Hamas, «un changement» mais «des contradictions». Le Hamas, le mouvement islamiste qui contrôle la bande de Gaza, a relevé jeudi «un changement tangible» dans le discours du président américain Barack Obama à l'adresse du monde musulman, mais également «des contradictions». «Une des contradictions réside dans le fait qu'il a dit que le Hamas était soutenu par le peuple palestinien mais il n'a pas appelé au respect de la légitimité du Hamas qui a été démocratiquement élu», a ainsi expliqué le porte-parole du mouvement islamiste, Fawzi Barhoum. «Aussi, il a parlé d'une nouvelle politique américaine mais il ne s'est pas excusé pour les politiques erronées qui ont détruit l'Irak et l'Afghanistan», a ajouté le porte-parole. >>> F.G. (lefigaro.fr) avec agences | Jeudi 04 juin 2009
LE FIGARO: Discours d'Obama : le Vatican satisfait
Le Vatican a "beaucoup apprécié" le discours du président américain Barack Obama aujourd'hui au Caire, qui pourrait contribuer à établir de "nouvelles relations avec le monde musulman", a déclaré le porte-parole du Vatican Federico Lombardi à l'agence Ansa.
"Le discours prononcé aujourd'hui par Obama est très significatif et peut être important pour établir de nouvelles relations entre les Etats-Unis et le monde musulman", a déclaré le Père Lombardi.
Le quotidien du Vatican, l'Osservatore Romano a de son côté souligné dans son édition parue ce soir que, "sans fermer les yeux face aux divergences et aux tensions, sans éviter les préjugés et les problèmes, Barack Hussein Obama a donné un nouveau départ aux relations entre les Etats-Unis et le monde musulman".
"Le premier président noir des Etats-Unis est allé au-delà des formules politiques, évoquant des intérêts communs concrets au nom d'une humanité partagée", ajoute l'Osservatore.
Dans un discours très attendu et présenté comme une étape marquante du début de sa présidence, M. Obama a plaidé aujourd'hui au Caire avec force pour une nouvelle donne entre les Etats-Unis et le monde musulman, en rupture avec l'ère de son prédécesseur George W. Bush. [Source: Le Figaro] AFP | Jeudi 04 Juin 2009
SAUDI GAZETTE: Saudis Happy About Obama Visit But Look for Action
RIYADH – Saudi cardiologist Osama Al-Amoudi praised President Barack Obama as the US leader visited the Kingdom, saying he believes the new president has made a good first impression and appreciates his overtures to Muslims.
But Al-Amoudi said it will take more than speeches and pleasantries to convince him that Obama is really serious about changing his country’s policies toward the Arab World and “mend the bad image” former president George W. Bush left in the minds of many Arabs about Americans.
Al-Amoudi’s words reflected the sentiments of many Saudis, who have a favorable view of Obama but are worried that he will not be able to deliver on his promises, especially those concerning the issue Arabs care about most: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict. >>> By Donna Abu-Nasr | Friday, June 05, 2009
CAIRO: US President Barack Obama made his long-awaited address to the Muslim world from the podium of Cairo University Thursday, triggering a standing ovation and chants of his name as he exited [sic] the grand hall.
The historic event was attended by an array of guests, including head of the Policies Secretariat of the ruling National Democratic Party Gamal Mubarak, Egyptian ministers, Muslim and Coptic clerics, representatives of diplomatic missions, and celebrities like comedian Adel Imam and Laila Elwi.
Before the speech he toured the Sultan Hassan Mosque and visited the Giza Pyramids after the speech. He flew to Germany at 6 pm.
In a speech which came in at just under an hour, Obama addressed a series of hot-button issues in the Muslim world including Iraq, Palestine, Iran, extremism and the negative stereotyping of Muslims.
Yet he began his speech by making clear that he came with the intent to achieve mutual reconciliation and step up cooperation.
“Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire … America is not — and never will be — at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security,” he said.
The head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights Hafez Abu Saeda told Daily News Egypt, “I see it as a historic speech, which will cement ties between the strongest country in the world and the Islamic world. It also made the distinction between Islam and terrorism,” a word which Obama steered clear of using.
Head of the Arab Socialist Party Waheed Al-Aqsari, however, was not so moved, telling Daily News Egypt, “Obama didn’t offer anything new, he came to improve America’s image in the Islamic world after the relationship deteriorated so severely during the Bush years.”
Obama then went into some detail regarding issues which are at the heart of American-Islamic relations and what the American position was concerning them, as well as admitting to mistakes the US made there.
On Iraq he said, “Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world … 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals.” >>> By Abdel-Rahman Hussein | Thursday, June 04, 2009
GUARDIAN EUROPE: Exclusive: Sapiens author among 90 signatories to statement of dismay at ‘extreme moral insensitivity’
The author Yuval Noah Harari said peace activists in Israel felt ‘abandoned and betrayed by supposed allies’. Photograph: De Fontenay/JDD/SIPA/Rex/Shutterstock
The Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari has backed academics and peace activists in his home country in an attack on the “indifference” of some American and European progressives to Hamas atrocities, accusing them of “extreme moral insensitivity” and betraying leftwing politics.
Harari – the author of bestselling books including Sapiens and Homo Deus – joined 90 signatories of a statement expressing dismay with “elements within the global left … until now, our political partners” who had, on occasion, “justified Hamas’s actions”.
The 47-year-old, who has recently become a high-profile political activist in Israel, opposing Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing populist coalition and its plan to weaken judicial oversight, told the Guardian he intervened after speaking with peace activists in his home country who were “completely devastated” and “feeling abandoned and betrayed by supposed allies” in peace efforts, after academics, artists and intellectuals signed letters which failed to condemn Hamas.
Harari’s aunt and uncle lived in one of the kibbutzim targeted by Hamas in attacks that killed more than 1,400 people and saw more than 220 people taken hostage. They had survived after hiding while gunmen went house-to-house killing neighbours.
Speaking about the reaction from parts of the left in the US and Europe while on a visit to London, Harari said it was “shocking to hear some of the responses that did not only not condemn Hamas, but placed all responsibility on Israel” and to see “the lack of solidarity with regard to the horrific attacks on Israeli civilians”. » | Robert Booth | Tuesday, October 24, 2023
LE FIGARO: Nicolas Sarkozy n'est plus hostile à l'ouverture de «passerelles» avec les islamistes palestiniens.
Dans la plus grande discrétion, une première rencontre a eu lieu, il y a un mois environ, à Gaza, entre Yves Aubin de La Messuzière, diplomate français de haut rang en retraite depuis janvier, et les principaux responsables du Hamas, révèle Le Figaro. Ancien ambassadeur en Irak et patron de la direction Afrique du Nord, Moyen-Orient au Quai d'Orsay, La Messuzière s'est notamment entretenu avec Ismaël Haniyeh et Mahmoud Zahar, avant d'informer le Quai d'Orsay de ses discussions.
«Ce n'était pas une mission officielle, nous déclare l'intéressé, j'ai dit au Hamas qu'il devait se rapprocher au maximum des conditions imposées par l'Occident pour qu'on leur parle (mettre fin au terrorisme, reconnaître l'État hébreu et entériner les accords signés entre Israël et l'Autorité palestinienne, NDLR). Ils m'ont répondu qu'ils étaient prêts à accepter un État palestinien dans les frontières de 1967, ce qui équivaut à une reconnaissance indirecte d'Israël. Ils se sont dits prêts à arrêter les attentats kamikazes, et ce qui m'a surpris, c'est que les dirigeants islamistes reconnaissent la légitimité de Mahmoud Abbas (le chef de l'Autorité palestinienne, NDLR). Dans tous les bureaux où je suis allé, son portrait était collé à ceux des responsables du Hamas», confie Aubin de La Messuzière, qui qualifie sa visite de «très utile».
Jusqu'à présent, les relations entre la France et le plus puissant parti intégriste palestinien étaient limitées aux services de renseignements. Elles avaient été interrompues en juin 2007, lorsque le Hamas conquit par la force la bande de Gaza. Mais, en août, les postes diplomatiques français de Tel-Aviv et Jérusalem recevaient un télégramme autorisant les services à renouer avec les islamistes. «Aujourd'hui, on passe à des contacts politiques», note un diplomate à Jérusalem. La France parle avec le Hamas >>> De Georges Malbrunot | 19/05/2008
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Officials and researchers say the deluge of online propaganda and disinformation is larger than anything seen before.
A recently erected billboard in Tehran depicts Muslims walking toward the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem while carrying their national flags. | Atta Kenare/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The conflict between Israel and Hamas is fast becoming a world war online.
Iran, Russia and, to a lesser degree, China have used state media and the world’s major social networking platforms to support Hamas and undercut Israel, while denigrating Israel’s principal ally, the United States.
Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have also joined the fight online, along with extremist groups, like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, that were previously at odds with Hamas.
The deluge of online propaganda and disinformation is larger than anything seen before, according to government officials and independent researchers — a reflection of the world’s geopolitical division.
“It is being seen by millions, hundreds of millions of people around the world,” said Rafi Mendelsohn, vice president at Cyabra, a social media intelligence company in Tel Aviv, “and it’s impacting the war in a way that is probably just as effective as any other tactic on the ground.” Cyabra has documented at least 40,000 bots or inauthentic accounts online since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7.
The content — visceral, emotionally charged, politically slanted and often false — has stoked anger and even violence far beyond Gaza, raising fears that it could inflame a wider conflict. Iran, though it has denied any involvement in the attack by Hamas, has threatened as much, with its foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, warning of retaliation on “multiple fronts” if Israeli forces persisted in Gaza. » | Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel | Friday, November 3, 2023
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Peres: UN Gaza Report Makes Mockery of History
HAARETZ: President Shimon Peres said Wednesday that the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes during its military offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip earlier this year, "makes a mockery of history."
The president issued a stinging rebuke to the report, which was commissioned by the United Nations and authored by Richard Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor who investigated Israeli and Palestinian conduct during Operation Cast Lead.
Though the report accuses both Israel and Hamas of carrying out war crimes during the three-week campaign in Gaza, it focuses primarily on Israel's actions during the fighting.
Over the course of the hostilities, which erupted on 27 December 2008 and lasted three weeks, human-rights groups say approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, along with Israeli fatalities of three civilians and 10 soldiers.
Israel says it launched the offensive in response to persistent Palestinian rocket fire against towns and communities in the western Negev.
"The report in practice grants legitimacy to terrorism, premeditated shooting and killing while ignoring the duty and the right of a state to defend itself, something which is explicitly stated in the UN charter," Peres said.
"The Hamas terror organization is the one that launched the war, and it also committed other horrific crimes," the president said. "Hamas has employed terrorism for years against Israeli children. It has detonated explosive devices in the heart of Israeli cities, harmed civilians, launched over 12,000 missiles and mortar shells aimed at innocent civilians with one clear goal in mind - to kill."
"Israel evacuated its soldiers and citizens from Gaza, opened its crossings, and aided in the rehabilitation of the Strip," Peres added. "After the Israeli evacuation, Gaza was overrun by force by a murderous, illegitimate terrorist organization - Hamas - which launched a mutiny against the legitimate Palestinian Authority."
"Instead of building Gaza and worrying about the welfare of its residents, Hamas built offensive tunnels against Israel and brutally used Palestinian children and civilians in order to conceal terrorists and hide weapons," Peres said.
The president said criticism against Israel's actions fails to offer effective alternatives that can stifle rocket fire against the country's outlying towns. >>> Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service | Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Friday, January 25, 2008
Jordanians Rally in Support of Hamas in Gaza
YNET NEWS: Muslim Brotherhood activists march in Amman to protest Israel's closure on Gaza, and call on Hamas to resume suicide bombings
Reuters
Chanting slogans urging Islamist Hamas militants to resume suicide bombings against Israel, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital on Friday to protest against Israel's blockade of Gaza.
About 8,000 activists from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets to support their ideological allies, the Palestinian Hamas group, and hail militants' success in breaching the Gaza border in defiance of an Israeli blockade.
"The people of Jordan are with Hamas," chanted the crowds who called on the Islamist group to resume a campaign of suicide bombings and intensify rocket attacks against Israel. Jordanians rally in support of Hamas in Gaza >>>
BBC: Arab nations have condemned the latest infighting in Gaza, pledging fresh support for the embattled Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
His Fatah faction has been ousted from Gaza by rival Hamas militants, ending a week of fierce feuding in which at least 100 people died.
After talks in Cairo, Arab League foreign ministers urged Hamas and Fatah to end their rivalry and co-operate.
A key Hamas leader earlier said he remained willing to work with Mr Abbas.
Khaled Meshaal, Hamas's political leader, who lives in exile in Syria, said Mr Abbas remained the "legitimate" president.
