His purpose in visiting the parliament was to call for a year-long cease-fire in the Muslim tradition of hudna, which provides for a temporary end of hostilities without long-term political strings attached.
We have even offered a hudna [truce] of 10-20 years, to build confidence, to make a better climate".
Hamas would also agree to a hudna, a ceasefire plus a political engagement, which depending on circumstances and on whom in Hamas you talk to could be 18 months, ten years, or even 50.Plainly, differences rumble within in Hamas.
This was the first incident of terrorist violence in an Israeli town since the Palestinian militant groups, and Fatah, announced a three-month hudna, or armistice, on June 29th.
Palestinian observers cite the hudna as evidence that pragmatic accommodation with the hard-liners is possible despite their uncompromising ideology.
Hamas officials still demand a complete and unconditional opening of all access points into the territory, and say the most they will offer Israel is a limited hudna, or truce.
But if Israel retreats to its 1967 borders, Hamas would generously grant the infidels a hudna or truce, initially for ten years.If you are concerned about religion's effect on politics, there is no more discouraging place to visit than the tiny sliver of land that is Israel-Palestine.
In an interview with an American Jewish newspaper, Musa Abu Marzouq, Hamas's deputy head, described a long-term agreement with Israel as a form of hudna, or truce, which Hamas could accept.
"These organisations used to be weak, but now they are among the mainstream on the Palestinian street".Meanwhile, ask spokesmen for the militants about hudna, and they reply that for now they are offering only tahde'a (calm).
They are not yet ready even to discuss a hudna, or truce, like the one they declared after the last Sharon-Abbas summit in June 2003.
