Israel Matzav

A straight thinker: Hamas' terror is not a reaction to the occupation

"Israel's right to exist is today the international criterion for distinguishing between the terrorist camp and the camp of life," says Magdi Allam, the Egyptian-Italian journalist and writer who is now visiting Israel.

"On one side, there is the Hamas government, Iran, fundamentalist Islam and even parts of the extreme left and right in Europe." On the other side, he says, are Western countries and "supporters of the right to live." The West, he believes, has consistently failed to grasp its situation: It does not understand that it is under attack, and it is trying to conduct a dialogue with the Muslims attacking it.

"The West thinks the Islamic terrorism that struck New York, London and Madrid is a reaction, a kind of uprising of the poor against the wealthy," he says in an interview with Haaretz. According to Allam, the West does not understand that it is facing an organized attack that is gradually gaining supporters around the world. Following September 11, he says, a new and dangerous front has emerged of Muslim radicals and extreme left- and right-wing elements that must be dealt with forcefully.

"Denying the right to exist of Israel necessarily leads to approval of the use of violence and terrorism in order to erase Israel from the map," he notes. "This is the main characteristic of the 'culture of death' that advocates killing those who deny Islam."

Allam says there should be a law that stipulates that any statement against Israel's right to exist - whether made during an imam's sermon in a mosque or in a press statement - should be deemed a criminal offense.

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"I oppose any middle way," he says. "I oppose any type of dialogue just for the sake of dialogue. Hamas is part of the global Islamic front. It is an organization that prefers to worsen the conditions of its citizens rather than recognize Israel. The terrorism it wages against Israel is ideological terrorism. It would be a big mistake to think that it is resistance, because they are not trying to promote a Palestinian state. They have simply been trying, ever since the signing of the Oslo Accords, to destroy every effort to achieve peace."

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"The integration of Muslim immigrants in Europe has failed," Allam says. "The multicultural model that was tried in Britain and Holland led to the creation of Islamic ghettos; the governments that thought granting freedom to their citizens would turn it into a shared value were mistaken. Many Muslims saw freedom as a green light to enforce Islamic law and create their own society within a society."

The French model of assimilation also failed, he says, and the Muslims in the suburbs of the large French cities do not see themselves as citizens of the Republic.

One of the events that illustrated integration's failure, Allam believes, is the Mohammed cartoon affair. This made it possible "to draw the battle lines" between those who advocate Islamic law and citizens of the West - and the picture that emerged, he says, is not encouraging. "Most European governments chose to denounce the publication of the drawings," he says, "and this was a big mistake." This February, Allam published an open letter supporting the right of European newspapers to publish the drawings of the prophet in the name of freedom of expression.

Integration will have a chance only if the European countries change their approach, he says.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:47 PM