When "liberal" becomes synonymous with "public disgrace"

Via Normblog:

Hamas is a political organization the character of which is indicated in part by its charter. In this document, you will find reference to the notorious anti-Semitic forgery 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' and to the old theme of a Jewish plan to dominate the world:

Today it is Palestine and tomorrow it may be another country or other countries. For Zionist scheming has no end, and after Palestine they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates. Only when they have completed digesting the area on which they will have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion, etc. Their scheme has been laid out in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and their present [conduct] is the best proof of what is said there.

The Hamas charter also refers to the 'Nazism of the Jews' and to Jews as 'merchants of war'. It says that 'Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims'. It proclaims:

Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah's promise whatever time it might take. The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!

Today, the Guardian "Comment is free" made its pages available to a terrorist spokesman:

One recent approach, which seems to be part of the wider attempt to isolate the elected Palestinian leadership, is to portray Hamas and the population of the Gaza strip as motivated by anti-Jewish sentiment, rather than a hostility to Zionist occupation and domination of our land. A recent front page article in the International Herald Tribune followed this line, as did an article for Cif about an item broadcast on the al-Aqsa satellite TV channnel about the Nazi Holocaust.

In fact, the al-Aqsa Channel is an independent media institution that often does not express the views of the Palestinian government headed by Ismail Haniyeh or of the Hamas movement. The channel regularly gives Palestinians of different convictions the chance to express views that are not shared by the Palestinian government or the Hamas movement. In the case of the opinion expressed on al-Aqsa TV by Amin Dabbur, it is his alone and he is solely responsible for it.

Maybe the writer of this piece in defence of terrorists has not read the Hamas Charter. It is hard to reconcile his

"One recent approach, which seems to be part of the wider attempt to isolate the elected Palestinian leadership, is to portray Hamas and the population of the Gaza strip as motivated by anti-Jewish sentiment, rather than a hostility to Zionist occupation and domination of our land."

With this excerpt from the democratically-elected Hamas Charter:

Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah's promise whatever time it might take. The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!

Maybe the author does not realize that lying about Jews, defaming their history, expressing genocidal aspirations towards them, as well as acting in accordance with these principles, amount actually to eliminationist antisemitism. Maybe he considers these discursive and violent methods just legitimate criticism of Israel!

Maybe he missed seeing this Hamas Culture Minister Atallah Abu Al-Subh on Al-Aqsa TV:

I return to this book – The Protocols of the Elders of Zion - time and again. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is the faith that every Jew harbors in his heart. This book was published by Al-Nafiza publishers in Cairo. The research was conducted by Ahmad Hijaz Al-Saqqa and Hisham Khadhr, and the introduction was written by Dr. 'Ali Gum'a, who later became, and still is, the Mufti of Egypt. Al-'Aqqad once called this a "hellish" book, in his introduction to the translation by Mahmoud Khalifa Al-Tunisi, which is the most famous translation, which fate had me read in 1971 or 1972. I picked up this book again, so that I could present excerpts to readers throughout the Arab and Islamic world. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Their Biblical and Talmudic Roots. I'd like to read just one paragraph, before the producer tells me that our time is up. "It is well known that Ahad Ha'am was the spiritual mentor of [Chaim] Weizmann. It is not surprising that Weizmann admitted in his 1948 memoirs…" By the way, we may review his memoirs, Trial and Error, one day. "He admitted that Ahad Ha'am was his mentor, and he also admitted that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is nothing but a wicked Jewish conspiracy to control the world. Weizmann unequivocally described this conspiracy as wicked. This book, which Al-'Aqqad described as "hellish" in his introduction to the Mahmoud Khalifa Al-Tunisi translation… The Jews deny this book exists, but Weizmann admits it. Everything we see in the Arab region and around the world - the evil of the Jews, their deceit, their cunningness, their warmongering, their control of the world, and their contempt and scorn for all the peoples of the world, which they consider to be animals, cockroaches, lizards, snakes, and despicable maggots that need to be stepped on – Like [Rabbi] Ovadia [Yosef] said… The Jews say all these things, especially in the first of these protocols.

I wonder if this platform given to a Hamas representative from which to preach hatred, denial and demonization, is not the result of the legitimacy conferred upon this organization by Jimmy Carter.

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Update: Oliver Kamm, short and to the point

"Comment is Free" publishes an article by Bassem Naeem, of the Hamas administration in Gaza, entitled "Hamas condemns the Holocaust". I think not. Hamas believes the Holocaust is a hoax concocted by international Jewry.

This is a longstanding theme of Hamas's world view, and Naeem is being disingenuous in failing to acknowledge it. The organisation's leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi, whom Israeli forces assassinated in 2004, was not reticent on this point. A few months earlier, he had written in a Hamas publication:

Many thinkers and historians have exposed the lies of the Zionists, thus becoming a target of Zionist persecution. .... So far, no one has clarified how these false gas chambers worked, and what proof there is of their existence. Anyone with proof of their existence must show it.'

A pacific and equitable resolution of the Israeli-Palestine conflict is not going to be advanced by overlooking or obscuring the character of one of the protagonists. Hamas is an antisemitic, theocratic organisation wedded to the annihilation of the Jewish state. It pursues its ends by attacking Israeli civilians. These are just the facts of the matter, unfortunately.