Letters to the Editor | 23 June 2007

Lie of the land

Sir: In the past few weeks Hamas has shown itself to be a merciless, power-hungry organisation with little interest in the well-being of its own people, let alone that of its Jewish neighbours, so Dr Hamad must be laughing into his cup of Earl Grey tea at the ease with which he has manipulated Clemency Burton-Hill (‘Tea with Hamas’, 16 June). Her naivety is breathtaking, as is her willingness to pass on his fanciful assertions to the rest of us without challenge.

It would not take much research to show Hamas for what it is: a fundamentalist Muslim organisation which gets its money and its orders from Iran. In Dr Hamad’s Promised Land, women like Clemency Burton-Hill have no place outside the kitchen and the breeding chamber.

Like Dr Goebbels, the Hamas leadership has learnt that the bigger the lie, the greater the willingness of some to accept it for the truth. Israel withdrew from Gaza 18 months ago, so Gaza is no longer ‘occupied’, as claimed by Dr Hamad. His further claim that Hamas has held a ceasefire since 2005 should be seen against the reality of a daily barrage of rocket fire on nearby Israeli towns and the abduction of Gilad Shalit 18 months ago. One could go on, but Dr Hamad did in the end give the lie to his own narrative by claiming that his parents came from Tel Aviv, a city founded by Jews and inhabited almost exclusively by Jews both historically and in recent times. Tel Aviv is the cultural and economic heart of the Jewish state.

Yes, there is something ‘psychological’ about Dr Hamad and his henchmen: they hate Israel and wish to destroy it.

Anne Segall
London W8