Hamas has been in the ascendant in Palestinian politics since it won assembly elections three years ago and then drove supporters of the Western-backed Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, out of Gaza in 2007. Throughout, the exiled leadership headed by Khaled Meshaal and Mr Marzouk has maintained a hardline defence of the organisation's founding dream of wiping out Israel. "History has shown that you have to take by force your rights from Israel," said Mr Marzouk. "You can't make peace unless you make Israel pay the price of occupation. It's the only strategy." (1)Spot it? In one sentence, we're told that the organisations founding dream is "wiping out Israel." In the next two sentences, Mr Marzouk is quoted making a bellicose statement - but one that contradicts the Telegraph's claim - you can not make peace with something you've destroyed. You can't make peace with something you're Hellbent on wiping out.
Hamas are a bunch of ruthless terrorist thugs, and their talk of peace might well be phoney. But the Telegraph needs to raise its standard. At best, that is an example of sloppy journalism. More sinisterly, it might be clumsy attempt to reinfoce the idea that Hamas are intransigent fanatics inent on - to borrow from the misquoted comment of Mr Amadinejad - wiping Israel off the map. One can't help but wonder if the choice of verb was deliberate, to remind the reader of that fiasco (2).
1 - "Hamas leader ready for truce with Israel," by Damien McElroy, published in The Telegraph, 9th of February, 2009. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/4570633/Hamas-leader-ready-for-truce-with-Israel.html)
2 - "Wipe Israel 'off the map' Iranian says," by Nazili Fathi, published in the International Herald-Tribune, 27th of October, 2005. (http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/26/news/iran.php)
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