What is Hamas trying to say?

last updated 8 January 2015

Palestinian Territories

Abdel al-Rabei

What does Hamas really want? asked Abdel al-Rabei in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. Just last week, over the course of three days, we heard three different policy statements from the incoming Palestinian government. One spokesman said Hamas would recognize Israel as soon as it withdrew from the occupied territories. Another said Hamas would never, under any circumstances, recognize the Zionist entity. And a third said that Israeli withdrawal from all territories would prompt Hamas to “consider a lengthy truce.” Well, which is it? Among Arabs, we can tolerate “contradictory statements,” because Arab culture is used to “people adopting opposing ideas and using a flexible discourse that could be interpreted in a number of ways.” But loose rhetoric is ill-suited to today’s reality. Recently, for instance, a Hamas leader returned from Iran and boasted that Tehran would supply all Palestinian financial needs. “Does Hamas really want to create a Palestinian Authority funded by Iran?” Such a move would alienate Arab countries, most of which are no great fans of Iran, even sooner than it alienates the West. Just like the West, Arab countries need to know how Hamas plans on governing. But right now, it looks as if even Hamas itself doesn’t know its own mind. “Obscurity overwhelms the movement.”