Hamas: But they're not civilians anyway

I posted yesterday about Romano Prodi's call for dialogue with Hamas, and dismissed it as gesture politics to satisfy his left-wing coalition partners. I should have added, however, that the talk-with-everyone approach is not exclusive to the Left in Italy. The Catholic Right of the Christian Democrat days was also favourable to talking to Yasser Arafat, even before his 'legitimisation'.

But to stick with today's terrorists-we-should-be-talking-to, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, gave an interview on Lebanon's Al-Kawthar TV on August 6, 2007.

We are making the preparations for a confrontation. This is not because we need to be prepared for an Israeli act of aggression - after all, aggression is intrinsic to this entity - but because the final goal of the resistance is to wipe this entity off the face of the Earth. This goal necessitates the development of the capabilities of the resistance, until this entity is wiped out.

In addition, it is legitimate to target buses. Why?

Because they are the means of transport used by the soldiers as well. The Zionist soldiers, who go from their homes to their bases and back, use public transportation, because it is free or almost free. In my opinion, the occupation soldiers also have a security motive in using public transport: They shield themselves behind the so-called 'civilians' within the Zionist entity.

But the "so-called 'civilians'" are legitimate targets as well, because they are all from other countries, even if generations back.

[T]here were no Palestinian Jews. When the British Mandate began in 1917, there was only one settlement on Palestinian land, which included several dozen Jews, who were living there in violation of the law at the time ... Anyone who comes to live in a war zone is a combatant, regardless of whether he wears a uniform.

Note: A lower-end estimate of the Jewish population in 1912 put it at 40,000.

However, Hamdan's feelings are not by any means shared by all Muslims. These Indian visitors to Israel would be liable to execution if they lived in Bangladesh.