Yahya Sinwar explains how Hamas hasn’t changed - by Ben Cohen

Every so often in the media, a report appears suggesting that Hamas might be willing to recognize Israel or denounce violence so as to discuss the establishment of a Palestinian state. But it never does.

Ben Cohen..
JNS.org..
07 October '18..

In the weeks since footage emerged of British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn insinuating that native-born British Jews have a feeble grasp of English irony, lo and behold, I’ve been spotting ironies everywhere.

This week, there was a fine example out of Gaza. A newspaper interview with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, billed by its publishers as an opportunity for Israeli readers as well as those elsewhere to learn about the new Hamas, ended up confirming that the old Hamas is very much alive and kicking.

The basic facts are these. On Thursday, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot ran excerpts of a longer interview with Sinwar that was conducted by Francesca Borri, an Italian journalist. Borri’s interview was intended for both Yediot and the Italian newspaper La Republicca, and she insists that Sinwar and his advisers knew from the outset that an Israeli newspaper would be publishing his statements.

Sinwar’s office, however, claims that Borri misled the Hamas leader, as he would never knowingly speak to an Israeli outlet, nor to an Israeli or Jewish journalist, nor to a journalist whose work had been published in an Israeli outlet. “The decision of Hamas is clear and has been repeatedly emphasized in terms of not dealing with the Israeli media,” said a statement from Sinwar’s office after the excerpts from the interview appeared online. “The journalist applied for an interview with the leader of Hamas in Gaza on the basis of an official request for two newspapers [Italian and British].”

The statement added that a background check had been conducted to determine that Borri was “not Jewish or Israeli, and that she had no previous work published in the Israeli press.” At the same time, Hamas was clearly anxious to ensure that no inaccurate or misleading quotes from the interview went into circulation, and so Sinwar’s office decided to run the exchange in Arabic in its entirety on the Hamas-linked Quds News Agency—a day before its full publication in Italy and Israel.

(Continue to Full Column)

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