The Palestinians need to resist Israeli occupation rather than enact reforms tailored to United States and Israeli needs, the founder of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas said in remarks published on Wednesday.
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the Hamas leader who lives in the Gaza Strip, told Al-Hayat that carrying out reforms on Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority would be a mistake.
"The American-tailored reforms are not in the interest of the Palestinians (...) and are not currently required. Now, we need resistance, and we need to defend ourselves against Israel," Sheikh Yassin said.
"The United States want to place the men they back within the Palestinian Authority to serve their interests and those of Israel," he told the daily.
Washington can "impose its men on the security services by saying to Abu Ammar (Arafat): Name this one to this position, and that one to another position."
Sheikh Yassin added Israel, "wants to get rid of people who cooperate with the resistance within the Palestinian Authority to replace them with people who agree to guarantee (Israel's) security."
He added that Hamas had discussed whether to stop or pursue suicide bombings and that a decision had been taken "to pursue the resistance in all its forms, including martyrdom operations." (Albawaba.com)
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