Hamas To Israel: Die, and We'll Change

Hamas officials are going all out to mask their group's violent intentions towards Israel in the language of "moderation" so as to realign deteriorating Western support behind the "Palestinian cause." Speaking to reporters in Moscow Sunday after three days of talks with their Russian hosts, senior Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal said: "Hamas must change its manners. We know that very well. But what we are saying is that we want a response from the Israelis. If you want Hamas to change its policies, you must also request that the Israelis change their policies."The changes Israel must make, spelled out on several occasions by Hamas leaders over the past couple weeks, constitute a complete surrender to all current Arab demands:
Israel must fully withdraw to its pre-1967 borders;
Judea and Samaria, like the Gaza Strip, must be ethnically cleansed of all Jews;
Israel must surrender control of the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the Old City and Temple Mount; and
Israel must open its gates wide for the four to six million people claiming to be "Palestinian" refugees.While the first three demands represent strategic threats, not to mention of violation of Israel's biblical and historic rights, it is the required "right of return" for so-called "Palestinian refugees" that makes Hamas' recent comments so ridiculous. Reading between the lines, Hamas is saying that if Israel allows itself to be flooded with Arabs, then Hamas will of course cease its "military" activity since the Jewish state will be no more and there will be no one to fight. Israeli leaders have engaged in efforts to prevent their ostensible allies in the West from being taken in by the terrorists' sweet talk. Said Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz to visiting US State Department envoy David Welch last week: "Hamas is trying to mislead the international community, to sweet-talk it and to exhibit an appearance of responsibility." Israel's efforts in this area, however, seem as doomed to failure as past efforts to keep Yasser Arafat's PLO on the world's blacklists, as an increasing number of nations invite Hamas for official talks.