December 22, 2007

From Maurice Ostroff
To Janice L. Murray
Senior Vice President, Treasurer, and Chief Operating Officer,
The Council on Foreign Relations
 
Dear Ms. Murray,

First of all, please allow me to congratulate your Council on Foreign Relations for its extremely important and valuable service in providing an independent, nonpartisan resource for information that helps us try to understand the complex world we live in.
 
In view of CFR's nonpartisan attitude, I trust you will accept the following comments in the constructive spirit intended about the article on Hamas that appears on your web site. http://www.cfr.org/publication/8968/#5
 
The description on your site, of Hamas' goals is insufficient for a reader to make an intelligent assessment as it omits essential information about the organization that is revealed in its own Charter. In fact it is impossible to even start comprehending the nature of Hamas without having read this fundamental document, which reveals an extremist, irrational nature, completely irreconcilable with the Western way of life. The complete text is available in English on the Yale University site. http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/hamas.htm.
 
 The Hamas Charter discloses that Hamas' ambitions are not directed at Israel alone. Article 11 states "This is the law governing the land of Palestine in the Islamic Sharia (law) and the same goes for any land the Moslems have conquered by force.."
 
The Charter helps to understand how the Islamic fundamentalist movement generates terror by spreading fanciful conspiracy theories bordering on megalomania and seducing gullible youngsters to sacrifice their lives in exchange for heavenly rewards.  It demonstrates Hamas' complete disregard for facts; for example, the charter accuses Freemasons, Rotary clubs, Lions and similar �Zionist� organizations not only of stirring the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and World War I but also of forming the League of Nations. They are alleged to have been behind World War II, and of instigating replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council. Hamas promises that these organizations will be obliterated, the day Islam is in control. The absurdity is highlighted by the fact that Israel is the one member of the UN, which cannot become a member of the Security Council.
 
The charter makes it clear there is absolutely no room for peaceful negotiation. Article 13 unambiguously states, "Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." These basics have been repeated time and again by Hamas leaders.
 
It is also highly relevant that Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union, Japan, and the United States and is banned in Jordan.
 
With regard to the statement on your site that Hamas maintained a cease-fire from March 2005 until June 9, 2006, "cease-fire" is not quite the correct word. What Hamas arranged was a hudna which is defined in the authoritative Islamic Encyclopedia as a "temporary treaty which can be approved or abrogated by Islamic religious leaders, depending on whether or not it serves the interests of Islam". Hudnas have been repeatedly used by Hamas as opportunities to rearm and recover whenever it has been under stress.  In his infamous speech in a Johannesburg mosque, after signing the Oslo accords, Yasir Arafat referred to the Accords as a hudna; a temporary strategy on the road to final liquidation of Israel.
 
But no description of Hamas is complete without mention of incitement to violence, its most pernicious activity that contaminates future generations. For example, Hamas-owned al-Aqsa TV recently broadcast a children's program featuring a Mickey Mouse character called Farfur who was preaching Islamic supremacy and hatred of non-Moslems until the station was threatened with copyright infringement. Farfur was then replaced by a child holding an AK47 while a chorus urges children to become martyrs. The child becomes a Hamas fighter and dies as the choir sings "the pure blood will produce honor and glory".
 
According to Palestinian Media Watch, on March 21 this year, Hamas TV broadcast a clip of a four-year-old girl, Duha, whose mother blew herself up in January 2004, killing four Israelis. Duha sings: "Instead of me you carried a bomb in your hands. Only now, I know what was more precious than us. I am following Mummy in her steps", as she picks up a stick of dynamite. On March 8, Hamas TV interviewed Duha, now seven, and asked her where her mother was. She replied, "Paradise", and after prompting, recited a poem about her mother that said: "Reem, you are a fire bomb, your children and submachinegun are your motto." http://www.pmw.org.il/getresults/media/i210534.
 
While its immediate focus is on Israel, Hamas in common with its parent, the Moslem Brotherhood, is universal. It accepts other religions only as subordinates Article Thirty One states "Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions - Islam, Christianity and Judaism - to coexist in peace and quiet with each other. Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam".
 
As an unambiguously Islamic movement, intent on imposing its religion on others, Hamas cannot even fully accept the PLO until the PLO adopts Hamas' interpretation of Islam. Article Twenty-Seven states "That is why, with all our appreciation for The Palestinian Liberation Organization - and what it can develop into - and without belittling its role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, we are unable to exchange the present or future Islamic Palestine with the secular idea...The day The Palestinian Liberation Organization adopts Islam as its way of life, we will become its soldiers, and fuel for its fire that will burn the enemies".
 
Ms. Murray, may I hope that you will ensure that the CFR web site will amplify its description of Hamas on its web site in view of the above factual information?
 
I will be distributing this letter to my email list and publishing a copy on my web site, which deals with countering misinformation and bias in the media. http://maurice-ostroff.tripod.com. My readers and I will be very interested to read your response.
 
 
Sincerely
 
Maurice Ostroff