In
“Toppling Hamas is not the solution” (November 5), Jeff Barak writes, “According
to a Lebanese newspaper report over the weekend, there is a 10-step incremental
accord on the table, including a prisoner swap toward the end of the process,
to ensure long-term quiet.”
Long-term
quiet? Barak should read what Prof. Raphael Israeli writes about the Islamic
understanding of the term hundna (cease-fire) and or tahdiah (calm). A hudna
cannot last more than 10 years, a tahdiah up to 1 year.
As Israeli explains : “Since a peace plan is out of the question, Hamas resorts instead to the Hudaybiyya precedent set by the Prophet himself, when, constrained by his weakness at the gates of Mecca, Muhammad consented to a 10-year hudna. Unlike Western cease-fires, which hinge on consent from both parties, hudna is unilateral and the party implementing it can reverse it anytime they like."
So much for the dream of long-term quiet with Hamas. Hamas will break the hudna whenever it likes.
MLADEN ANDRIJASEVIC
Beersheba
As Israeli explains : “Since a peace plan is out of the question, Hamas resorts instead to the Hudaybiyya precedent set by the Prophet himself, when, constrained by his weakness at the gates of Mecca, Muhammad consented to a 10-year hudna. Unlike Western cease-fires, which hinge on consent from both parties, hudna is unilateral and the party implementing it can reverse it anytime they like."
So much for the dream of long-term quiet with Hamas. Hamas will break the hudna whenever it likes.
MLADEN ANDRIJASEVIC
Beersheba
