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2. juli 2006
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The leftist press in Europe has presented Hamas' reluctant acceptance of the so-called Prisoners' Paper as an implicit recognition of Israel's right to exist. Not so, says Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, the second in command of Hamas' political leadership in Syria in an interview with Der Spiegel.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Doesn't that mean that Hamas inevitably accepts the Israeli state in the rest of that area?
Abu Marzook: The paper does not say that at all. It is purely about the future of our people and about how a government uniting all Palestinian factions can work on building their independent state.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: And does Hamas also believe that an Israeli state can exist alongside a Palestinian state?
Abu Marzook: Hamas has always said clearly: We will never accept the occupation, because it is not legal, not correct and not just.
He also vowed no end to violence:
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Looking at the consequences, one has to recognize that violence against Israel will never really help the Palestinian people.
Abu Marzook: Of course such actions help. Because every Israeli now knows that there will always be a reaction to violence. If Palestinians are killed, Israelis will be killed. That should be clear to all Israelis.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: It is hard to imagine that approach would ever bring an end to reciprocal violence.
Abu Marzook: No matter what, the violence will not stop. We are on the weaker side and we do whatever we can. The Palestinians have no other choice.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Palestinian head of government Ismail Haniyeh, also from Hamas, recently showed himself to be more diplomatic than the political leadership in Damascus. That suggests a certain lack of unity in Hamas.
Abu Marzook: No, there is no split, just various approaches. The government, the military wing and the political office all follow the same strategy, but each one works in a manner appropriate to his tasks.
And yet, Hamas' useful idiots in the west insist on pretending Israel should absolve Hamas' "political wing" from the "military wing" of the same organisation.
6:14:21 PM 
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When police arrived to a big fight in a sports stadium in Melhus in South Trøndelag (Mid-Norway) last night, they were told by the fighters they could just spare themselves trying to stop it. These were two feuding families who had been fighting for more than a 100 years, the enmity inherited from father to son.
This fight broke out related to the "Kvålsdåggån", whatever that may be (I have no clue, and I really don't want to know).
The police simply gave up trying to separate the fighters, aged 13 to 50, according to local newspaper reports.
Sounds like a new job for former prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik's peace center.
Update: The story has now been withdrawn. There was apparently no real fight, just a bit of a scruffle, and the family feud angle was based on some internal police joke that journalists picked up.
4:24:18 PM
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This time, Hamas finds itself on the receiving end of the rockets:
Israeli aircraft blasted the Palestinian prime minister's office early Sunday during the fifth straight night of airstrikes aimed at winning the freedom of an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas militants in Gaza.
The attack on Ismail Haniyeh's empty office came amid continued diplomatic efforts involving Egypt and other regional players to end the standoff, which have been under way since Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, was seized a week ago in a cross-border raid.
I wonder how much power Haniyeh really has over this situation.
1:05:32 PM
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Michael J. Totten is a skillfull writer who travels around the Middle East to deliver his audience some truly unique insights on its people, culture and of course politics. He has interviewed a number of extremist leaders, and continues to explore the variation of what we call Islamism - political Islam. Does such a thing as moderate Islamists exist? Yes, he answers, he has found one such group in Kurdistan.
The Kurdistan Islamic Union, though, does seem to be genuinely moderate. Its leaders appear to have more in common with conservative Christian Democrats in Europe than with any terrorist organization or Middle Eastern religious dictatorship.
I met with Ali Muhammad, Director of the Suleimaniya bureau of the KIU, Iraqi Kurdistan’s third largest (and growing) political party, in his office. He provided his own in-house translator, a plump woman in a dark brown abaya. My own translator, because he was a stranger, was not to be trusted.
Ali looked to be in his sixties. He wore a trimmed beard, glasses, and a distinctly unfashionable Western suit and tie. He greeted me warmly in English. I greeted him and thanked him in Kurdish. Then we spoke to each other through our translator.
Michael Totten is very far from naive, as you'd see when you read his full article, kindly supplied for free because, amazingly, no US newspaper considered it interesting enough to print it. Since he does this at great personal expense, please consider hitting his tipjar.
Another fact I consider quite interesting: if you don't credit the Bush administration with much else, President Bush at least became the first western leader who did not sell out and betray the Kurds. If you want to be cynical, it is worth appreciating the Kurds as strategic friends of the west in the Middle East. And to be somewhat less cynical, supporting the Kurds against the continued aggression and oppression from Arabs, Iranians and the Turkish, is also the right thing to do.
2:07:30 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.08.2006; 17:35:55.
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