Memo to Hamas

A friend, who has helped me understand better what is going on in Turkey, especially in light of the flotilla fiasco, has written an open letter to Hamas, which you can find here.

Jim Lobe

Jim Lobe served for some 30 years as the Washington DC bureau chief for Inter Press Service and is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy and the influence of the neoconservative movement.

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4 Comments

  1. I second the observations of Dr. Zorba. Or rather, he echoes my own beliefs. I have long maintained that if the Palestinians had adopted a Gandhian approach, they would have achieved statehood years and perhaps decades ago. See for example my comments on the Apr. 9, 2010 posting on this site by Ali Gharib (“Did NYT’s Bronner Even Go To A Friday Protest?”).

  2. Memo from Hamas:

    http://tinyurl.com/39otalz

    I think, it’s a good idea to know Hamas position.

    I have the impression, that Dr. Zorba is not so well acquatined with the positions of Hamas.

    For example, when asking Hamas to suspend violence Dr. Zorba doesn’t distinguish between rocket attacks (Hamas tries to stop these rockets) and defense against Israeli cross border invasions into Gaza like Hamas does (Hamas vows to resist by all means Israeli cross border invasions into Gaza).

    Hamas offers an enduring truce based on Israels international recognized borders. Why Hamas shall give in to Israels demand for legitimization by being recognized as a legitimate state, when the PLO did it long ago and Palestinians got nothing back for it?

  3. Zorba the Physicist is apparently heavily influenced by the American/Israeli narrative. How exactly has Hamas been advocating violence from 9 months previous to the Gaza invasion? How? When? As I understand it, those rockets were sent by rivals to Hamas.

    The author makes a couple of other factual errors. Suicide bombing is far from unique among Muslim terrorists. In the United States first war, our own admiral blew himself up in a loosing effort against the Corsairs of Tripoli. His celebration of his martyrdom used to be a rallying cry for Americans, now it’s down the memory hole.

    Of course going down fighting is older than Masada. The nasty Bernie Lewis should know better, but he is a sophists and all to happy to distort facts to denigrate Arabs or Muslims.

    Finally, Hamas doesn’t simply fail to recognize Israel. This is a silly charge. It’s like denying gravity, Hamas is oriented to address Israel, so saying it doesn’t recognize Israel is silly.

    Hamas has repeatedly said, they will recognize Israel as soon as Israeli recognizes the Palestinians right to a state on the other side of the Green Line. Now, think about it, how can Hamas or Palestinians do anything else. THAT is an existentially essential element for the Palestinians. The Israelis, many literally refuse the recognize Palestinians at all. It is their humanity, their very right to exist as a people that is under threat, and under question.

    You’ve succumbed to Bernard Lewis’ trickery here. Another note on him. He loved to say, “why don’t the Arabs make an automobile?” But, few know that the Iraqis did make a car for three years. The first runs of this auto were worse than the notorious Yugo, but Iraq produced a car. By the third year, the cars had been much improved and Saddam hoped to export these in a few years. But, that was just before the Gulf Storm. We destroyed those factories, Iraq

  4. I don’t write Zorba the Physicist as a pejorative. Niko Kazantzakis is a hero of mine. I just think his perspective has been heavily influenced by the American/Israeli narrative.

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