Opinion: In today’s pages: Hamas explains itself, Microsoft goes Canadian
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Mousa Abu Marzook, a Hamas political bureau deputy, explains his organization’s goals, particularly why it secured the release of kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston:
It was done as part of our effort to secure Gaza from the lawlessness of militias and violence, no matter what the source. Gaza will be calm and under the rule of law — a place where all journalists, foreigners and guests of the Palestinian people will be treated with dignity. Hamas has never supported attacks on Westerners, as even our harshest critics will concede; our struggle has always been focused on the occupier and our legal resistance to it — a right of occupied people that is explicitly supported by the Fourth Geneva Convention. Yet 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. But we are not part of a broader war. Our resistance struggle is no one’s proxy....
Cherokee citizen Heather Williams explains why it isn’t racist of her tribe to require members to prove a blood connection. Columnist Jonah Goldberg lampoons Madonna’s performance, among other things, at the climate change awareness concert Live Earth.
The editorial board is cautiously optimistic about North Korea’s planned nuclear concessions and some diplomatic efforts to end the peninsula’s 50-year-old war. The board blames U.S. immigration policy for contributing to Microsoft’s decision to open a Canadian office, and asks California to keep its hands off supposedly unclaimed assets.
On the letters page, Bobby Shriver, chief executive of (Product) RED, reacts to William Easterly’s pessimistic take on RED and other Bono-led African aid projects: ‘What Vanity Fair did William Easterly read? He ignores the positive stories contained in the Africa issue and perpetuates a falsehood about (Product) RED.’ Read the rest here.