Hamas divulges'peace initiative'
Leader reveals to WND truce plan, but explains aim is to destroy Israel
 
By Aaron Klein
 

JERUSALEM – Hamas, which catapulted to power in this week's Palestinian elections, will soon make public a "peace initiative" in which it will offer to trade strategic land with Israel, cease attempts to capture parts of Jerusalem, and sign a 10-year renewable cease-fire with the Jewish state, a top Hamas leader told WorldNetDaily during an exclusive interview.

But the Hamas leader said the plan, which he justified using Islamic tradition, is a temporary machination to ease international and U.S. hostility toward his group in hopes of receiving financial assistance, explaining Hamas will not give up its goal of destroying Israel.

The top Hamas leader told WorldNetDaily his group held a series of meetings the past few months in which it decided if Hamas wins elections it will offer Israel a temporary truce during which the group will build an interim Palestinian state.

"We will be ready for a long interim agreement based on a period of cease-fire that can go to 10 or even 15 years like it was done by the Prophet Muhammad with the enemies of the Muslims. During this period we will build our state on the strong basis of honor and with an honest administration," the top Hamas leader said.

Hamas officials, including overall Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, who resides in Syria, formulated a "peace proposal" they said would be acceptable to their group in which the Palestinians would offer to trade certain lands with Israel, the top Hamas official revealed.

"With the territories we will be ready to discuss the possibility that the three big settlement compounds will remain under the power of the occupation (Israel) and in exchange we will receive territories for the Palestinian independent state," said the Hamas leader.

The leader told WND the "three settlements" he was referring to are Ariel and Gush Etzion, two large regions in the West Bank that contain many of the area's major Jewish communities, and western and peripheral sections of Jerusalem, which he said Hamas considers "Israeli settlements."

Hamas, in exchange, would want the eastern sections of Jerusalem, the parts of the southern Israeli Negev desert that border the Gaza Strip and the Jordan Valley, which extends from outside Jerusalem toward Jordan and encompasses most of Israel's major water supplies.

FULL STORY at

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48535