Posted on 01/13/2006 12:41:56 PM PST by Alouette
GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas has omitted its long-standing call to destroy Israel from a manifesto for the Palestinian parliamentary election, a change of tone the Islamic militant group hopes can win it votes and Western acceptability.
Pragmatism is the catchword, Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas leader in Gaza and a candidate in the January 25 ballot, said on Thursday.
"Hamas is talking about the most efficient way to attract public support," he told Reuters.
"In order for the message to be better accepted, internally and on the outside, Hamas has spoken about what it is actually capable of offering the Palestinian people in the way of achieving their rights," Hamad said.
The official manifesto, distributed to Palestinian homes and the media, reaffirmed Hamas's commitment to a "fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital" and "armed resistance to end occupation."
But while Hamas's 1988 charter advocates the destruction of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state in its place, the election pamphlet did not contain such a call.
The omission stood in sharp contrast to campaign speeches in which several Hamas candidates voiced wishes for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Hamad, echoing comments once made by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Hamas leader killed by Israel, said the group might accept an interim solution under which Palestinians would create a state in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
"But we are not ready to recognize the existence of Israel," Hamad said.
Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel in a Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000, attacks that drew international condemnation and its classification by the United States as a terrorist organization.
Making its first bid for parliamentary seats, Hamas is riding a wave of popularity in the Gaza Strip and West Bank for its fight against Israel and its social welfare network and anti-corruption policies.
A softening of its tone toward Israel could ease Hamas's entry into the Palestinian political mainstream now dominated by President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction that wants to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
At Abbas's urging Hamas agreed last February to observe a "period of calm" with Israel until the end of 2005. In an interview published in The New York Times on Thursday, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar was quoted as saying it might hold off from attacks on Israel "if not provoked."
"TERRORIST AUTHORITY"
Israel has said armed groups have no place in the Palestinian Authority and urged Abbas not to allow them to run for parliament.
In Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz demanded Abbas present a plan, immediately after the vote, to disarm Hamas and other militant groups.
"Without a plan ... we will not be able to make any progress in a dialogue with the Palestinians in the future," Mofaz said in broadcast remarks at a meeting with a U.S. envoy.
Hamas, saying it has a right to resist occupation of land Palestinians want for a state, repeated in the manifesto its rejection of a U.S.-backed peace "road map's" call to disarm.
Abbas has said forcibly taking weapons away from militants would lead to civil war.
Israel holds its own election on March 28 in the shadow of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's illness. He suffered a massive stroke on January 4 and is not expected to return to office.
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Hamas and hillary have a lot in common , Both will say anything to get elected and you cant trust either .
Very appropriate name change for this media outlet.
;)
They both are like excrement, in that the only benefit of excrement is derived from its removal..
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