While I was away, I'd missed this gem in the Guardian, which I picked up via Miriam Shaviv. It gives the whole Hamas game plan away. Whilst others have been arguing that there are pro and anti accommodation factions within Hamas, what it makes clear is that Hamas followed an image consultant from Birzeit University who advised it what not to say to gullible western audiences about their political programmes.
The key points were:
Say you are not against Israelis as Jews
· Don't talk about destroying Israel
· Do talk about Palestinian suffering
· Don't celebrate killing people
· Change beard colour (if red)
Mr Aqtash, the image consultant, is clearly not lacking in chutzpah. Despite the dozens of Hamas suicide bombings, the associated celebration parades and posters and the years of bloodcurdlingly anti-semitic propaganda drawn from their founding covenant, and so beautifully fisked by Scott Burgess here, he gives this ultimate example of how to spin terrorism:
We don't need the international community to accept Hamas ideology, we need it to accept the facts on the ground. We are not killing people because we love to kill. People view Hamas as loving sending people to die. We don't love death, we like life."
Mr Aqtash, who describes himself as opposed to violence and "believing in the Gandhi route", has advised Hamas leaders to change their image by explaining that they do not hate Israelis because they are Jews. And he is attempting to persuade influential foreigners that Hamas is essentially a peaceful organisation that was forced to fight, but is now committed to pressing its cause through politics, not violence.
"Hamas does not believe in terrorism or killing civilians. But Ariel Sharon pressed buttons to make people angry. Sometimes we are innocent enough to react in a way that the Israelis use the reaction against us," he said.
What's most interesting is to see how well Hamas have taken his advice on in what they produce for western audiences, and compare it with what they put out in Arabic for the Islamic world.
So there's this article which appeared in the Washington Post on 31st January. And this transcript of an interview on 27th January on the Arabic language satellite channel Al Manar, with Gaza Hamas leader Mohammed Al-Zahar, whose pronouncements I've already featured here and here.
First, let's take some contrasting responses to Mr Aqtash's guidance:
Say you are not against Israelis as Jews
Our society has always celebrated pluralism in keeping with the unique history and traditions of the Holy Land. In recognizing Judeo-Christian traditions, Muslims nobly vie for and have the greatest incentive and stake in preserving the Holy Land for all three Abrahamic faiths
Mousa Abu Zabrook, Deputy Political Bureau Chief of Hamas, Washington Post, 31st January
The Israeli enemy does not belong to the region. It does not belong to the region's history, geography, or faith. When you enter the land occupied in 1948, it is like entering an enclave. But when you go to Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt, you feel at home. It is your homeland."
Mohammed Al-Zahar, Leader of Hamas in Gaza, Al-Manar, 27th January
Don't talk about destroying Israel
Alleviating the debilitative conditions of occupation, and not an Islamic state, is at the heart of our mandate (with reform and change as its lifeblood)....
The Islamic Resistance Movement was elected to protect the Palestinians from the abuses of occupation, based on its history of sacrifice for the cause of liberty. It would be a mistake to view the collective will of the Palestinian people in electing Hamas in fair and free elections under occupation as a threat. For meaningful dialogue to occur there should be no prejudgments or preconditions. And we do desire dialogue. The terms of the dialogue should be premised on justice, mutual respect and integrity of the parties.....
Mousa Abu Zabrook, Deputy Political Bureau Chief of Hamas, Washington Post, 31st January
Palestine means Palestine in its entirety - from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River, from Ras Al-Naqura to Rafah. We cannot give up a single inch of it. Therefore, we will not recognize the Israeli enemy's [right] to a single inch. That is one thing....
The second thing is that if the right of return is an individual right, neither Mahmoud Al-Zahar nor 'Abbas Zaki can relinquish it, because all these concessions will constitute a national catastrophe....
If today we are unable to win the conflict decisively, for reasons known to all, we must not pass on to our sons a disgraceful defeat by recognizing the Israeli enemy's right to exist, where it has no such right
Mohammed Al-Zahar, Leader of Hamas in Gaza, Al-Manar, 27th January
· Don't celebrate killing people
As the Israelis value their own security, Palestinians are entitled to their fundamental rights to live in dignity and security. We ask them to reflect on the peace that our peoples once enjoyed and the protection that Muslims gave the Jewish community worldwide. We will exert good-faith efforts to remove the bitterness that Israel's occupation has succeeded in creating, alienating a generation of Palestinians. We call on them not to condemn posterity to endless bloodshed and a conflict in which dominance is illusory. There must come a day when we will live together, side by side once again......
We appeal to the American people's sense of fairness to judge this conflict in light of the great thoughts, principles and ideals you hold dear in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the democracy you have built.
Mousa Abu Zabrook, Deputy Political Bureau Chief of Hamas, Washington Post, 31st January
We will not give up the resistance in the sense of jihad, martyrdom-seeking, sacrifices, arrests, the demolition of homes, and the uprooting of trees, at the same time, nor the shattering of the Israeli enemy's honor in all the confrontations - the war of tunnels and of security against the Israeli enemy, which ultimately led to its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank....
Our Ministry of Culture will teach them how the martyr is turned into prose, literature, and poetry, and how a woman who used to cook and do the laundry turns into one of the heroes of Palestine...
Mohammed Al-Zahar, Leader of Hamas in Gaza, Al-Manar, 27th January
Secondly, it's interesting to see how Mr Al-Zahar's interview in Arabic for an Islamic audience provides a gloss for the very rosy and anodyne view given to readers of the Washington Post of what Hamas intends to do for the Palestinian people.
Alleviating the debilitative conditions of occupation, and not an Islamic state, is at the heart of our mandate (with reform and change as its lifeblood).
Despite the pressures of occupation and corrupt self-rule, Palestinian civil society has demonstrated its resilience in the face of repressive conditions. Social institutions can now be given new life under a reformed government that embraces the empowerment of the people, facilitates freedoms and protects civil rights.
Our society has always celebrated pluralism in keeping with the unique history and traditions of the Holy Land.
Mousa Abu Zabrook, Deputy Political Bureau Chief of Hamas, Washington Post, 31st January
We will not allow a situation in which a person who is wounded cannot be treated anywhere, unless he goes to the Israeli enemy, or is transferred across the border. Our education system will not represent Palestine as a coastal strip stretching from Rafah to Beit Hanoun. We will teach them their history and the geography of Palestine.
In addition, we will teach them how we can have an industry that is independent of the Israeli enemy. We will gradually get all the laborers back [from Israel], after supplying them with job opportunities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where they will work in small and very small factories which will be independent of the Israeli enemy
Mohammed Al-Zahar, Leader of Hamas in Gaza, Al-Manar, 27th January
I could go on, but I think you get a clear understanding from Mr Al-Zahar of exactly what Hamas means by Mr Mabrook's references to facilitating freedoms and protecting human rights.
Now of course, you could argue that these are just different sections of Hamas thinking, and Mr Aqtash's helpful PR advice has no bearing on these very different presentations in English and Arabic. Well, you could argue that....
Oh, and Mr Mabrook, by the way, as the Washington Post so helpfully tells us
was indicted in the United States in 2004 as a co-conspirator on racketeering and money-laundering charges in connection with activities on behalf of Hamas dating to the early 1990s, before the organization was placed on the list of terrorist groups. He was deported to Jordan in 1997.
So I think we know who to trust as a spokesman for the famously cleaner-than-clean, new corruption free pragmatic Hamas, don't we?
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