Ayalon slams Hamas article publications
Israel's ambassador to U.S. sends complaint letter to Washington Post, Los Angeles Times editors following publication of opinion pieces written by terror group leaders
WASHINGTON – Israel's Ambassador to the United States Danny Ayalon sent a complaint letter to the editors of the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, after the two newspapers published articles written by Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal and Mousa Abu Marzouk.
Ayalon expressed his disappointment over the publication and said that it was an inappropriate move considering the fact that Hamas is defined by the United States as a terror organization, which calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and continues its terror attacks against Israeli citizens.
He wrote that while he had respect for the freedom of press, he would have expected from a respected newspaper to be aware of the difference between legitimate support and hateful incitement.
In the harsh letter, Ayalon said he found it hard to believe that an American newspaper would take part in Nazi literature, and that nonetheless Mashal and Abu Marzouk were the modern version of Goebbels and Der Sturmer.
He added that it was unacceptable for such major American newspapers to allow the leader of a terror organization to voice his opinion.
'We shall never recognize legitimacy of Zionist state'
Mashal and Abu Marzouk recently published articles in the opinion pages of The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, two of America’s most prominent publications.
In his Washington Post article, Abu Marzouk wrote that “for meaningful dialogue to occur there should be no prejudgments or preconditions. And we do desire dialogue. The terms of the dialogue should be premised on justice, mutual respect and integrity of the parties."
Mashal wrote in his LA Times piece that ”we shall never recognize the right of any power to rob us of our land and deny us our national rights. We shall never recognize the legitimacy of a Zionist state created on our soil in order to atone for somebody else's sins or solve somebody else's problem."
