Hamas Speaks with Forked Tongue?

Surprise, surprise. Terrorists organizations sometimes – gasp – don’t tell the truth.

Read the whole article on World Net Daily.
Since officially forming its government earlier this month, Hamas has been making a series of contradictory statements to the media, supporting terrorism and promoting the destruction of Israel in Arabic-language interviews while espousing moderate ideology and the possibility of coexistence when speaking to Western audiences, according to a recent study.

"The Hamas movement, in an attempt to bridge the significant gap between its platform and ideology – denying Israel 's existence and supporting terrorism – and the demands of the international community, [has been] pursuing a media strategy of deliberate ambiguity and double-talk," concluded the study by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and Israel's Center for Special Studies.

"By means of Western media, senior Hamas officials attempt to blur or hide their basic extremist positions and to project a 'softened' front. By means of Arab media in general and Palestinian media in particular, Hamas projects a militant, uncompromising image," the study stated.

The study follows a WND exclusive interview in which a top Hamas leader said his group will soon make public in English a "peace initiative" in which it will offer to trade strategic land with Israel, cease attempts to capture parts of Jerusalem and sign a 10-year renewable truce with the Jewish state. The leader conceded the aim of the proposal was to later destroy Israel.

The Center for Special Studies cited multiple cases in which Hamas officials, often including its prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, directly contradicted themselves in statements to different media outlets, depending on the audience.

On the topic of suicide bombings, Haniyeh recently granted an English interview to CBS in which he stated, "Hamas never thought about violence, but, in effect, aspired towards peace and calm based upon justice and equality."

[…] Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Voice of Palestine, a West Bank radio station, "The [Hamas] movement adheres to all forms of resistance ... including suicide bombing attack."

Regarding the possibility of recognizing Israel, Haniyeh said in an English language interview with the Jerusalem Post Hamas would respect the agreements ensuring the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines, as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners. He added that if Israel withdrew to the 1967 lines, Hamas would formulate peace in stages.

[…] But speaking in Arabic, Haniyeh told the Al-Shuruq newspaper, "One of the fundamental principles of the new government is not to surrender to international pressure and refuse to recognize Israel."

Meshaal told Al-Rai al-Am, a Kuwaiti daily, "No to negotiations with Israel. No to recognition of Israel. And no to surrendering Palestinians' rights."

[…] The conflicted statements to the media follow a WND exclusive interview in January in which a top Hamas leader outlined a "peace initiative" he said Hamas would soon float publicly. The leader justified the proposal using Islamic tradition and stated it would be a temporary machination to ease international and U.S. hostility toward his group in hopes of receiving financial assistance.

"We will be ready for a long interim agreement based on a period of cease-fire that can go to 10 or even 15 years like it was done by the prophet Muhammad with the enemies of the Muslims," said the senior Hamas official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, since he said he was "revealing confidential operative information."

[…] The Hamas leader said, "I tell you we will surprise everyone with our new attitude."
But he said his group will not abandon its goal of destroying Israel.

"When I speak about a long cease-fire and a temporary agreement, it means that we do not recognize the right of the state of the occupation on our lands, but we will accept its existence temporarily," said the leader.

Although I am not a Premillenial Dispensationalist (I belong to the “I’ll probably understand prophecy when the first asteroid hits” school of eschatology), I can’t help wondering if the 10-to-15 year cease fire proposal won’t wind up being, say, seven?

It is beyond my comprehension why the world is so eager to believe what the terrorists tell the reporters, and why the reporters – who must surely know better - keep publishing it without a single caveat. It goes way beyond anti-Semitism; it is some bizarre form of mass delusion. Whatever we may think of the Father of Lies, you have to admit that he knows how to do his job.