Hamas Statements on Israel Show Flexibility
Hamas' public stance toward the conflict with Israel has fluctuated since the 1990s, but the organization insists its goals haven't changed, Hazem Balousha writes.
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal expressed a tough stance during his recent visit to the Gaza Strip, reaffirming the Islamists’ position on the liberation of historic Palestine from the river to the sea.
But only a few days earlier, Meshaal had discussed Hamas' acceptance of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, which is compatible with the stance of rival Fatah.
Fayez Rasheed, a Palestinian political writer, sees clear contradictions in the stance of Hamas toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is confusing and disrupting to the movement’s position.
"Hamas adopted a radical discourse — the kind that was repeated by the politburo chief in his last speech — while not in power, but Hamas in power differs from the Hamas before the [2006] elections," Rasheed recently wrote in an article published in the local Al-Quds newspaper.
