Israel Matzav

Ground Zero imam says he supports the State of Israel. But....

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam of the Ground Zero victory mosque, declared himself a supporter of the State of Israel in a radio interview this past week. And yet, he refused to condemn Hamas. How do the two go together? Former Federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy explains.

In repeatedly refusing to condemn Hamas during the WABC radio interview, Rauf took pains to offer the caveat that “the targeting of civilians is wrong. It is a sin in our religion. Whoever does it, targeting civilians is wrong. I am a supporter of the state of Israel.” Nonetheless, the interview was a public-relations disaster. Attempting to contain the damage, Rauf’s office put out a statement: “Imam Feisal has always condemned terrorism (see his . . . hundreds of speeches). Hamas is both a political movement and a terrorist organization. Hamas commits atrocious acts of terror. Imam Feisal has forcefully and consistently condemned all forms of terrorism, including those committed by Hamas, as un-Islamic.”

These are clever assertions. They give Rauf’s admirers ammunition to plead his case but leave his Brotherhood friends pacified. Yes, Rauf now appears, finally, to concede that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Yet it is one he cannot bring himself to condemn because, voila, it’s also a “political movement” (just like the Muslim Brotherhood!). Rauf condemns “terrorism” in the abstract, but don’t ask him to condemn specific terrorists. Being against “terrorism” is safe: The Brotherhood does not consider attacks by Hamas to be “terrorism” — they are resistance (as in “the Islamic Resistance Movement” — Hamas). Rauf declares that “targeting civilians is wrong,” but when it comes to Israel, a country fighting for its survival, Brotherhood ideology emphasizes that all Jewish men and unmarried women are drafted into the armed forces, and most remain in the reserves for years thereafter; therefore, most Jewish Israelis are not considered civilians by Hamas.

But wait a second, you say: Didn’t Rauf declare outright that he is a “supporter of the state of Israel”? He certainly did, but he was careful not to say in what form. In fact, he supports a state of Israel stripped of its Jewish character. Earlier this week, a 2005 speech was uncovered in which Rauf explained that he sees Israel, with its growing Arab sector, becoming “post-Zionist,” “secular,” and “multicultural.” He perceives its “identity” as a Jewish state having “shifted enormously” since its founding. Consequently, he rejects the so-called “two-state solution” — the American government dream of a Jewish state and a Muslim state, co-existing side-by-side in peace. Instead, Rauf concluded, “My own personal analysis tells me that a one-state solution is a more coherent one than a two-state solution.”

One state, no longer a Jewish state, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River — you know it’s funny: That just happens to be Hamas’s plan.

Indeed.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:46 AM