The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and five NY Congressional representatives have called a press conference for this morning to press the State Dept. "to investigate any and all passengers on the Mavi Marmara and other ships from Turkey’s IHH flotilla who apply for visas to enter the United States."
Part of their demand is for the State Dept. to investigate whether visa applicants who were on the Turkish ship intended "to fund or to give things of value to support terrorist activity or a terrorist organization, namely Hamas."
This demand follows recent statements on Hamas from the likes of Senator Charles Schumer and other public figures that reflect the Israeli line and have been left unchallenged. While progressives have criticized Schumer’s deplorable "strangling" argument in favor of the collective punishment of 1.5 million Gazans, there has been little analysis of Hamas’s goals.
The standard line is that Hamas is a “terrorist” organization “committed to Israel’s destruction.”
Schumer said, “when there’s total war against Israel, which Hamas wages, [the Palestinians are] going to get nowhere.”
There are lots of legitimate criticisms of Hamas to be made, for instance of their policy of executing “collaborators” and destroying Palestinian homes that they say were built on public land. But repeating the standard line that Hamas rejects peace and is opposed to a two-state solution is simply not a legitimate criticism when you look at the factual record.
Hamas is not waging “total war” against Israel. Before the Gaza massacres of 2008-09, “Hamas was ‘careful to maintain the ceasefire’ it entered into with Israel in June 2008, according to an official Israeli publication, despite Israel’s reneging on the crucial component of the truce that it ease the economic siege of Gaza,” as Norman Finkelstein has written.
After the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in January 2009, leaving Gaza in ruins, Hamas still didn’t wage “total war” against Israel. Rockets have sporadically been fired into Israeli territory since then, but they have been claimed by other groups within Gaza and have killed one person, a Thai foreign worker. Israel, on the other hand, has continued its policy of “total war” against Palestine by continuing to impose a crippling blockade on Gaza, destroying civilian infrastructure as a response to rocket fire and killing civilians in Gaza.
As for the claim that Hamas rejects the two-state solution, that also doesn’t bear scrutiny. We don’t have to look very far to come to the conclusion that Hamas is willing to make a settlement with Israel based on the principles of international law and United Nations resolutions. Likud, on the other hand, does reject a Palestinian state.
Charlie Rose recently interviewed Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas’ political bureau. An excerpt:
KHALED MESHAAL: So when the occupation comes to an end, the resistance will end. As simple as that. If Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, so that will be the end of the Palestinian resistance.
CHARLIE ROSE: You are saying if the Israelis withdraw to the ‘67 borders, give or take this place or that place, right of return, Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, what else?
KHALED MESHAAL: If Israel withdraws to the borders of 1967, and from East Jerusalem, that will become the capital of the Palestinian state with the right of self — with the right of return for the refugees and with a Palestinian state with real sovereignty on the land and on the borders and on the checkpoints. Then we — the Palestinian state will decide the future of the relationship with Israel. And we will respect the decision that will reflect the viewpoint of the majority of the Palestinian people both inside and outside Palestine.
Does that sound like “total war” against Israel?
