Inside Hamas: my journey to its secret heart

sebastian

Mike Chamberlain has, with all due respect, been but the solitary passenger on a Hamas fairground Ghost Train of stage managed spine-tinglers and dangled, sheeted contents of false, hidden tombs. Probably only the well informed Israelis really know what lies at Hamas' secret heart. And they're no more likely to share this with a man with a notepad and camera, than Hamas is. How does it feel to know you've been taken for a ride, Mr. Chamberlain?

jack jones

"Later on, he offered Israel a traditional Islamic truce — 10, 20, 30 years without fighting, if Israel would retreat back to the 1967 borders." This is known as a "Hudna" and is a temporary cease fire in order for the armies of islam to regroup until there powerful enough to start another offensive. Mr.Chamberlain is either ignorant of islam or like most is choosing to ignore it's basic tenets of perpetual war with the "infidel" because it kills the myth and legend of the "diversity fairy" that most journalists/politicians seem to believe in these days. I hate to burst your bubble but these guys want you dead too...just when they choose. At the moment your useful.You could become even more useful and end up spending several years wrapped in gaffa tape in a cold cell. Two words to look up and study from an islamic context Mr Chamberlain. Taqqiya and Hudna. The former is most important for you because if you grasp it you might realise how you've been played by Hamas and the practitioners of the religion that dare not speak it's name.

jack jones

"Later on, he offered Israel a traditional Islamic truce — 10, 20, 30 years without fighting, if Israel would retreat back to the 1967 borders." This is known as a "Hudna" and is a temporary cease fire in order for the armies of islam to regroup until there powerful enough to start another offensive. Mr.Chamberlain is either ignorant of islam or like most is choosing to ignore it's basic tenets of perpetual war with the "infidel" because it kills the myth and legend of the "diversity fairy" that most journalists/politicians seem to believe in these days. I hate to burst your bubble but these guys want you dead too...just when they choose. At the moment your useful.You could become even more useful and end up spending several years wrapped in gaffa tape in a cold cell. Two words to look up and study from an islamic context Mr Chamberlain. Taqqiya and Hudna. The former is most important for you because if you grasp it you might realise how you've been played by Hamas and the practitioners of the religion that dare not speak it's name.

Maurice Ferera

Mr Chamberlain chooses to ignore every anti-Israel statement made by HAMAS leadership, the way in which HAMAS disposed of FATAH prisoners in their recent civil war, their tacit if not overt support of kassam rocket attacks against Israel, their recent handling of protests by unarmed civilian demonstrations etc. etc. Reading this, I got no deeper understanding of Hamas - but got plenty of understanding of Mr Chamberlain's abilities as a journalist. Is this article really supposed to pass for serious journalism?

Napoleon

I was not going to post, but as I have seen that no one(that posted) agrees with Mike, I decided to post just to say that I loved the article, and totally agree with Mike.

Arieh Gertler

Your reporter Mike Chamberlain has unwillingly became a tool in the hands of Hamas terror organization and shows them in a moderate light. Not talking of what Hamas is ready to do to Israelis, not talking of the home made rockets that he sends with a clear intention to kill Israeli citizens, should your reporter see what Hamas did in Gaza to his fellow brothers from Fatah, starting from shooting in knees to throwing them from 17-floor houses to their death. Those moderate Western journalists who try to "understand" the terrorist motives should learn from Winston Churchill - the evil has to be eliminated and not understood. There is only one way to treat those Hamas terrorists - to KILL them.

TDK

but Israel did withdraw to the 1967 border in the Gaza strip. And Hamas responded by immediately launching (or in this naive version, tolerating the launching of) rockets into Israel. I would have though that if Hamas was an honest partner in peace it might have tried to encourage Israel, that it could be trusted to keep the peace, as a prelude to Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

Shimon Felix

Well, I guess if you want the access you have to play the game - Hamas's racist, anti-Semitic charter is dismissed as an irrelevant relic,the "traditional Islamic truce" of 20, 30 years, is not just a way for Hamas to arm itself to act on the genocidal aims of its charter, it's "traditonal", Hamas allows deadly rocket fire at Israeli civillians in order to retain credibility as a "resistance group" - resistance to what? Israel's non-existent "occupation" of Gaza, etc., etc. But hey, he got a movie out of all this nonsense. And it will be a good one, too, after all these Hamas guys wear sharp suits and look like George Clooney.

Mikets

Hamas has, as they say, a respect for democracy - 'one man one vote one time'

Elliot

What is this apology for Hamas? They are as democratic as Taliban or al-Qa'eda. I gather Mike Chamberlain doesn't wish to be assasinated after his interview, but he really ought to have published it in the Guardian or some other liberal PR mouthpiece.

Patricia Williams

Am I too late to post? It's late Jan 2009 now and Mike Chamberlain and Rodrigo Vazquez's film was shown on 20th Jan on Arte TV in France. I'm with you, Napoleon, on this one. Have any of the rest of you SEEN the film? Please do, a variety of people are interviewed, many different views are expressed. This appears to me to be a well-thought out and serious attempt to show us westerners both sides of the coin. The producer and director of this film are nobody's poodles. Watch the film, listen to what is said, from ALL the speakers, before you criticise. Bravo Messrs Chamberlin and Vazquez. I look forward to more from you.