Almost a year ago, we saw that Zaki Chehab, a leading Middle East Journalist, was coming out with a book called Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of the Militant Islamic Movement. We knew right away we had to talk to him; an inside account from Chehab is no joke. He's a guy with really extraordinary access— he was one of the first journalists to interview members of the Iraqi resistance way back in May '03— and he's also Palestinian himself; he grew up in refugee camps in Lebanon. The book is fascinating; Chehab talked to Palestinian leaders across the political spectrum, and his descriptions of the personalities that shaped the movement are alive with detail. Often we forget that history is made by human beings— not just archetypes— and Chehab's portrait of these human beings is remarkably colorful. What emerges is not just a history of Hamas, but a history of the Israeli-Palestinan struggle. What we could not have predicted, however, was that the week that Chehab came to town to talk about Hamas, would be the week that the frail unity government between Hamas and Fatah came to a near-breaking point. So...any questions you have about the current factional fighting, or the history of the group, are perfectly acceptable.
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I'm an American Jew who supports the primary goals of the zionist movement.
That said, I agree with the speaker completely. While Israel has legitimate concerns and complaints, their policy of overreactions and collective punishment has made the situation worse rather than better.
When Hamas was first elected, Israel had a chance to help turn the corner. At that point there was relative peace. And Israel should have cooperated, at least to the extent that the peace was kept.
But instead of reacting to what Hamas did, they reacted to what Hamas said - and overreacted at that.
Chehab is called a leading middle east journalist, but he really is an advocate and a concealer of truth rather than an honest reporter. He says that the US and Israel falsely promised steps toward a Palestinian state (thereby 'justifying' renewal of Hamas attacks on Israel) but he does not admit that these steps required Hamas to abjure violence and to publicly recognize Israel. His response to the interviewer's challenge on the latter point was hogwash. He said that Hamas had defacto accepted an Israeli state along a Palestinian state and then shouted down the interviewer's quoting of a Hamas spokesman that explicitly said that anyone who says Hamas will recognize Israel is a liar. Indeed, he spent most of his time shouting. Shame on NPR for giving him so much access to valuable national time.
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