MEMO to The Financial Times

RE Article: Hamas's choice

Dear Editor,

Your Editorial "Hamas's choice" asserts that, "Until Hamas renounces violence, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for Israel to accept that the group is interested in an equitable peace deal that offers security for Israel and justice for the Palestinians". In fact. In the early nineties, the then leader of Hamas, and the group's founder, Shaikh Ahmad Yassin (the paraplegic who was later murdered by Israel), offered Israel a hudnah, a truce for a specified period of 30 or so years which, subject to its conditions being met by Israel the Islamists would have had a religious obligation to uphold. There is no evidence to suggest that the Israelis have ever taken the offer of a hudnah seriously. Indeed, it was Israel which broke the temporary truce agreed with Hamas which lasted for five months until November 2008, when the Israelis' action provoked a response and provided themselves with a pretext for launching the murderous Operation Cast Lead against the people of Gaza. As well as calls for Hamas to renounce violence, there should be calls for Israel to do likewise; as the occupying power and a nuclear-armed state, it surely has to take the lead on this, not the victims of its occupation and its military might. Better still, end the occupation.

Ibrahim Hewitt
Senior Editor,
Middle East Monitor