The Main Obstacle to a Peaceful Solution with Hamas

by Maurice Ostroff | January 4th, 2009

President Sarkozy and other intermediaries should focus on the insidious role of incitement in the tragic violence that plagues the Middle East.

In his moving appeal on December 30, for an end to the tragic events in Gaza, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was among very few opinion makers to recognize and focus on the most critical, but sorely neglected, aspect of the conflict. Very cogently he appealed to both sides to "curb their inflammatory rhetoric."

It is indeed unfortunate that so few recognize that while not only adults, but even children from their earliest years, continue to be indoctrinated to hate, any brokered cessation of rocket firing by Hamas and of retaliation by Israel cannot last.

For example, a report by Palestinian Media Watch disclosed that the new textbooks issued by the PA Ministry of Education in 2006 continue to reject Israel's right to exist. Palestinian terror against Israel is defined as acts of glorious heroism and fighting Israel is taught as a religious battle for Islam worthy of a great reward from Allah. They teach and idealize Jihad – war for Islam – and Shahada – death for Allah – as basic Islamic principles to which to aspire.

Unless President Sarkozy and other intermediaries insist on curbing this type of incitement, any truce can be nothing more than suppression of a symptom, while the underlying cause continues to fester.

Typical of the incitement that is the most formidable barrier to peaceful co-existence is the following extract from an address by Hamas MP and cleric Yunis Al-Astal, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on April 11, 2008.

"Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad. Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam – this capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe." (Translated by MEMRI)

In a paper titled "Islam's Mandatory War Against Jews and Israel", Itamar Marcus, Director of Palestinian Media Watch, describes how Islamic holy leaders teach that Jews are the eternal enemies of Allah and that the killing of Jews is Allah's will.

Full article here:
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2009/01/04/the-main-obstacle-to-a-peaceful-solution-with-hamas/