Life, liberty and the pursuit of terrorism

Julian Manyon on why the Palestinians voted for Hamas — and why the terrorists will not be transformed into politicians by the realities of power

Jerusalem

Fundamentalists of any stripe are not to my taste but the leading ideologues of Hamas have a grisly fascination. Mild-mannered, often well-educated, including doctors and scientists in their ranks, they are nonetheless subscribers to a Covenant in which ‘the Day of Judgment will not come about until… the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say “O Muslim … there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”’ It is a world view firmly rooted in the Middle Ages.

I first encountered it when interviewing Khaled Meshal, the neatly bearded professor of physics who is now the overall leader of Hamas, shortly after a sophisticated but botched Israeli attempt to kill him in 1997. Mossad agents had sprayed a deadly toxin into Meshal’s ear as he left his apartment building in Amman.