_A.jpg "Photo: Yaron Brenner")
Former Shin Bet Chief Avi Dichter
Photo: Yaron Brenner
Dichter compares Hamas charter to Mein Kampf
Former Shin Bet chief says Hamas's charter is as anti-Semitic as Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf
Former Shin Bet chief and Kadima Knesset candidate Avi Dichter on Saturday compared Hamas' charter to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, warning of Israeli complacency towards the Islamic group.
Speaking in Lehavim in southern Israel Dichter said: “I was surprised by the cheer number of people who are not familiar with Hamas’s charter. The charter is not only against Israel, but against the Jewish people. The clause ‘The Tree and the Rock’ states that should the last Jew hide on a tree or behind a rock, the tree or the rock should call the closest Muslim and say, ‘come, Muslim, kill the Jew.’ The charter is fundamentally anti-Jewish, exactly like Hitler’s Mein Kampf.”
Dichter added: “Israel warned clearly that Hamas is tainting the Palestinian Authority with the colors of terror. Hamas was asked to accept three conditions to change its position from an enemy to something else: renouncing terror, respecting all agreements, scrapping Hamas’s 1988 charter.”
According to Dichter, Hamas “set the agenda in the Palestinian Authority, and the Gaza Strip in particular, back in 2001. Neither (Yasser) Arafat nor Mahmoud Abbas dared to face them. The last person to be murdered by Hamas was Moussa Arafat, Arafat’s relative, and although the identity of the murderers is known nothing has been done.”
“Had Arafat decided to fight terror he would have been capable to do so. Both the Palestinians and the Israelis waited for his death because it was impossible to advance with him. Abbas came with big declarations, but his power gradually diminished. He is an exception in the Palestinian leadership. Fatah has to present itself as an alternative to Hamas, and Fatah will become more aggressive and its people will raise funds from different sources.”
'Drop in terror activities in Gaza'
Dichter said terror activities in the Gaza Strip are a drop in the ocean in comparison to prior to the disengagement, praising Egypt’s effort to crack down on terrorists across its border with Gaza.
Dichter commented on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s planned meeting with Hamas leaders saying, “Putin’s invitation to Hamas was a big surptise. How would the Russians feel if the President of the United States were to invite the Chechen leader after it killed tens of children in school?”
Shifting his attention to the March 28 general elections, Dichter said: “Likud’s slogan ‘Strong against Hamas’ is nonsense in my opinion. I suggest to Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) ‘Wise against Hamas.’ Hamas has no chance against Israel.”
He said Netanyahu’s decision to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Jordan merely three years after the peace agreement with the Hashemite Kingdom was a mistake. “The release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin did not alarm me. He is not worth the nails of Mossad agents,” Dichter said of Netanyahu’s decision to release Sheikh Yassin during his tenure as prime minister.
Dichter said Likud’s decision to resign from the government while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was still in hospital was “an irresponsible act, which the public will punish.”
Asked about Iran he refused to comment and sufficed to say: “Israel needs to pass message to the Iranians under the table and there is no chance that a nuclear ambitious country like Iran won’t understand these messages. I am saying: ‘If you want to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.
He concluded by explaining his decision to join Kadima: “I send people to fight and I sent my children to fight without knowing what they fighting for. It is an unacceptable situation. I came to politics to help Israel set its borders.”
