Hamas
ORG
Hamas
Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel, defends the right to use arms to combat Israeli occupation, and considers Oslo null and void. The most Hamas offers is a long-term truce with Israel, as a stage to Muslim rule over all of former Palestine, if Israel agrees unilaterally to pull back to its pre-1967 boundaries and cede East Jerusalem. Hamas could also agree to prolong the current ''cease-fire'' with Israel for a year or more and work to keep a kind of unwritten temporary armistice with Israel. Under this idea, Hamas would tone down its rhetoric, as it is already doing, to try to consolidate its victory and not frighten Palestinians. Hamas said that must be committed to nonviolence, recognize Israel and accept the previous agreements and commitments, like the Oslo accords that set up the Palestinian Authority and the ''road map'' peace plan, which calls for the dismantling of armed groups like Hamas. It is like asking Hamas to convert to Christianity, they concede. Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel, defends the right to use arms to combat Israeli occupation, and considers Oslo null and void.