Hamas is now talking “non-violent resistance.” According to The Guardian, it’s part of the organization’s rapprochement with the PA, and also a move
towards the more progressive Islamism espoused by groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo.
I’ll skeptically wait and see if Hamas is really changing its spots. After all, its founding charter and 24 years of ideology won’t simply disappear in a soothing puff of lavender and Songbird.
And as Michael Totten points out, we (and reporter Phoebe Greenwood) should be very, very careful applying words like moderate and progressive to the Brotherhood (and Hamas, which is an affiliate):
I’ve always scoffed at those who describe the Muslim Brotherhood as moderate. It’s not at all an objectively moderate organization, and certainly not by any Western standard. Conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans are moderates. These guys are authoritarian theocrats. If a Christian counterpart existed in the United States, they’d be called fascists.
They really are moderate compared with the Salafists, though. The Salafists are the Taliban-style totalitarians that produced Al Qaeda.
Why is this happening now? Probably because when Iran and Syria sneeze, Hamas (and Hezbollah) catch a cold. With international sanctions leaving both terror groups feeling financially under the weather, Hamas clearly can’t continue without new sugar daddies international credibility.
They haven’t earned that yet.
