Hamas: We'll never recognize Israel

by nukegingrich | November 12, 2006 at 12:33 pm

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Speaking to al-Sharq al-Awsat Palestinian foreign minister says Hamas will never agree to UN resolutions calling for two-state solution.

Palestinian Foreign Minister and Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar told al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper on Sunday that his group will never "repeat Fatah's mistake of recognizing Israel ."...

And if there is [a] solution that includes the establishment of a Palestinian within the 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital?
"We will declare a hudna but we will never recognize Israel..."
"... if the world asks Hamas, and if this is in the interest of the Palestinian people, we can give a hudna but not recognition."

Westerners generally translate "hudna" as "ceasefire"; a word that falls gently upon the ears of those who truly want a lasting peace in this decades old conflict. It would be wise for the would-be peacemakers to look at the actual definition of "hudna" to see what al-Sharq is agreeing to:

According to Umdat as-Salik, a medieval summary of Shafi'i jurisprudence,
hudnas with a non-Muslim enemy should be limited to 10 years: "if
Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for
the Prophet made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related
by Abu Dawud" ('Umdat as-Salik, o9.16).