A Lack of Morality
The Forward’s interview with Mousa Abu Marzook raises important questions about who currently speaks for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, while confirming the organization is in no position to be recognized as a legitimate Palestinian interlocutor.
Abu Marzook’s statements are further evidence that Hamas lacks a cohesive voice. While some point to apparent statements of moderation by certain leaders, Hamas’s basic tenets of rejecting the Jewish state, embracing armed conflict, and perpetuating anti-Semitic conspiracy theories remain constant.
Abu Marzook emphatically and proudly asserts that Hamas will “never recognize Israel as a state.” He unabashedly defends Hamas’s acts of violence against Israel and the organization’s policy of targeting innocent civilians. His outrageous equation of Israeli army operations against terrorist elements that result in unintentional and regrettable civilian losses with Hamas’s deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians is a clear demonstration of the lack of morality that pervades the group’s leadership.
One can only assume that Abu Marzook’s endorsement of a hudna, or ceasefire, with Israel is intended to cloak Hamas’s extremist practices in a false façade of verbal moderation.
Until a clear leadership structure arises within Hamas — one that renounces the organization’s violent and anti-Jewish charter, accepts Israel’s legitimacy and abides by the Middle East Quartet’s principles for negotiating with Israel — the international community must continue to shun Hamas and publicly reject its terrorist interests. More than anything else, the Abu Marzook interview confirms that Hamas is far from interested in moving in that direction, preferring instead to pursue violence and rejection over peace.
Abraham Foxman is the national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
