Hamas says still seeks Israel's destruction

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Pastor Dale Morgan

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Mar 12, 2007, 8:53:04 AM3/12/07
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*Perilous Times*

Monday March 12, 6:59 PM Reuters

*Hamas says still seeks Israel's destruction*

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rejected on Monday
criticism by al Qaeda's second-in-command and said it was still
committed to Israel's destruction despite a power-sharing deal with the
Fatah faction.

"We will not betray promises we made to God to continue the path of
Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of
Palestine," Hamas said in a statement, in a clear reference to Israel as
well as to the occupied West Bank.

In an audio recording posted on the Internet on Sunday, al Qaeda's Ayman
al-Zawahri accused Hamas of serving U.S. interests by agreeing to
respect past Palestinian peace accords with Israel in a recent
Saudi-brokered unity government deal with moderate Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah.

The coalition agreement fell short of meeting demands by the Quartet of
peace mediators -- the United States, the European Union, the United
Nations and Russia -- to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept
existing interim peace deals.

Zawahri said the Mecca accord, which calmed weeks of Hamas-Fatah warfare
in which more than 90 Palestinians were killed, was part of an attempt
by Washington to offset Muslim anger at what he described as its bias
towards Israel.

"It is an American scheme to hit the Islamic jihadist resistance against
the Crusader-Zionist campaign. America wanted a sham solution to the
Palestinian issue to remove the biggest reason for Muslim hatred (of the
United States)," he said.

SCOLDING

Zawahri accused Hamas of abandoning a tradition of suicide bombings for
political gains. "They have ditched the movement of martyrdom operations
... for a government that plays with words in palace halls," he said.

Hamas killed nearly 300 Israelis in 58 suicide bombings after a
Palestinian uprising began in 2000. It last carried out a suicide
bombing in Israel in 2004.

In its statement Hamas said it continued to be a "movement of
resistance, seekers of martyrdom" and that its "principles will never be
changed".

"Zawahri's recent statements were wrong ... Resistance is our strategy.
How and when? This depends on the reality at the time and our
corresponding view of things," Hamas said.

"So be assured doctor Ayman, and all those who love Palestine like
yourself, that Hamas is still the group you knew when it was founded and
it will never abandon its path."

Hamas said its decision to run in the January 2006 Palestinian election
that brought it to power and last month's unity deal with Fatah "came
only to preserve the higher interests of the Palestinian people".

Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a
viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The group's 1988 founding chapter calls for the destruction of the
Jewish state.

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