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One of the most senior leaders of Hamas has claimed that the radical Islamist movement is ready to embrace a prolonged truce with its bitter enemy Israel.
The Daily Telegraph
09 Feb 2009
Damien McElroy in Damascus
In the first Hamas interview with the Western media since last month's ceasefire in Gaza, its deputy leader Musa Abu Marzouk told The Daily Telegraph that the Palestinian group was ready for a period of "calm".
A chandeliered room in the Syrian capital Damascus - where several Hamas leaders live in exile - is a long way from the ruins of the Gaza Strip but a weary frustration with the deprivations of war was pervasive.
"We need to rebuild the buildings destroyed in the aggression," said Mr Marzouk. "We need to treat the wounded - more than 5,000 need serious treatment. We need to help all the families without food and shelter. We need the gates of Gaza to open to lift the siege.
"All this can only be dealt with by period of calm between the two sides."
Hamas negotiators have been instructed to accept the terms of a ceasefire pact negotiated by Egyptian mediators in Cairo.
Hamas regards its offer as a Tahdia, an Arabic word indicating non-aggression in a stand-off, usually described as a "calm". A longer-term Hudna, or ceasefire, would be withheld until a peace agreement that would see Israel withdraw from Palestinian territory.
"Israel owns the West Bank and Gaza Strip right now but if it withdrew from these and let the Palestinians have access to Jerusalem, we would turn our face to rebuild our lives and live alongside as in other parts of the world," said Mr Marzouk.
Operation Cast Lead and the Palestinian rocket fire that terrorised Israel's southern towns in the preceding months, left deep divisions within Hamas. Splits between the exiled political leaders in Damascus and the Gaza-based officials have been privately acknowledged.
Two strands of indirect negotiations with Israel have converged. One arrangement would allow the rebuilding of shattered parts of the Gaza Strip in return for an end to rocket attacks. Another deal would see the release of a captured Israel soldier, Cpl Gilad Shalit, in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The timing is reminiscent of the political fallout of the Iranian hostage crisis. Tehran held American embassy staff until after the 1980 election effectively dooming the campaign of President Jimmy Carter against Ronald Reagan. By announcing a release Hamas would shore up the incumbents.
Mr Marzouk rejected the parallel, claiming Israel's centrist government held no more promise for it than the Right-wing Likud party of the former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. "We don't have any reason to favour any side," he said. "But the Americans, Europeans and Egyptians appear to want the same leaders for Israel and for that reason they are very active on the issue of the calm and solving the Gilad Shalit issue."
The shuttle diplomacy around Hamas is dizzying. Hamas and Israel alternate at meetings in Cairo with Egypt's intelligence chief, Gen Omar Suleiman. French and Turkish officials have holed up in Damascus hotels attempting to close the terms of the prisoner swap. The Hamas leader in Gaza, Mahmud Zahar, travelled to the Syrian capital to lobby for the acceptance of the ceasefire. Supportive governments in Sudan, Iran and Qatar have received Hamas leaders.
Hamas has been in the ascendant in Palestinian politics since it won assembly elections three years ago and then drove supporters of the Western-backed Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, out of Gaza in 2007. Throughout, the exiled leadership headed by Khaled Meshaal and Mr Marzouk has maintained a hardline defence of the organisation's founding dream of wiping out Israel. "History has shown that you have to take by force your rights from Israel," said Mr Marzouk. "You can't make peace unless you make Israel pay the price of occupation. It's the only strategy."
But its rise to prominence has already changed Hamas's character. Half the crowd at a "Triumph in Gaza" rally in a Damascus basketball stadium last week were middle-aged. The MC's amplified cries of "martyrdom" drew no more than half-hearted repetitions. Instead of armed men in balaclavas, there was a marching band in gold braid.
Practical concessions on the independent delivery of foreign aid in Gaza have been taken, even as it seized United Nations aid at gunpoint. The border checkpoints are likely to be run by Palestinian officials again, granting Mr Abbas a new toehold in the enclave.
One of Israel's stated war aims was to turn Gazans' frustration with Hamas into anger but Mr Marzouk countered that "inhuman acts" in the 22-day conflict that killed an estimated 1,300 Palestinians inclkuding hundreds of civilians had strengthened his support. "You will not see one voice who blames Hamas for what happened because there were too many massacres to blame us," he claimed. "In fact we are more popular in Gaza and the West Bank."
Ultimately Hamas is waiting for President Barack Obama and his regional envoy George Mitchell to abandon what it describes as George W Bush's "with us or against us" approach, probably after the new Israeli government emerges after Tuesday's election.
"George Mitchell is a unique American, the first official to make a report calling on Israel stop the settlements," said Mr Marzouk. "He made peace in Ireland by allowing the Republicans to hold their dream while dealing with a different reality on the ground."
Tony Blair, the Middle East peace envoy, recently declared that direct negotiations with Hamas are inevitable but Mr Mitchell has insisted the US boycott will continue.
But Hamas senses its moment has come and is emboldened enough to claim its covert discussions with the West occur more frequently than in most alliances. "We talk to many official and unofficial agencies, sometimes two or three daily," he said. "They choose to keep the dialogue secret and we respect that, after all we can't say we are a normal country or a normal state party."
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2009
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