Hamas not part of al Qaeda’s war – Op Ed

Hamas is not part Al-Qaeda’s broader war against the West, one of its leaders wrote in the Los Angeles Times. “Our movement is continually linked by President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ideologies that they know full well we do not follow, such as the agenda of Al Qaeda and its adherents,” Mousa Abu Marzouk, a deputy chief of the Damascus office of the terrorist group wrote in an op-ed article that appeared on Tuesday. “But we are not part of a broader war. Our resistance struggle is no one’s proxy, although we welcome the support of people everywhere for justice in Palestine.” In the article, Abu Marzouk defended as “resistance” Hamas actions against Israel that have been described by human rights groups as war crimes and rejected Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. The New York Times and the Washington Post recently ran op-eds by a senior Hamas official in the wake of the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.