Another day, another rocket launched at Israeli civilians, this one at the port city of Ashkelon. You know, I'm really surprised by this. Because after Cast Lead Hamas declared that they wouldn't accept any long-term truce. Plus Meshaal is saying that that Hamas's glorious victory is the first step in a global jihad that extends far beyond the destruction of Israel:

Meshaal is a professional deceiver who masters sending mixed messages. Shortly after the guns fell silent in the Gaza Strip due to an internationally enforced cease-fire, he said that Gaza battle laid the ground for a serious "strategy of liberation" that would extend beyond Palestine. During the war Hamas attended a quasi summit in Qatar alongside with Syria, Sudan, Iran (the neo-rejection front led by the messianic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) where the Arab Peace Initiative spearheaded by Saudi Arabia was called dead.

So naturally I listened to all that and got the same vibe as foreign policy experts like Jimmy Carter - we should "trust Hamas":

I wonder if he means we should trust Hamas when they say that the Gaza War killed any chance for peace or when they say they were never going to make peace anyway. Or maybe he means we should trust Hamas when they insist that Jews planned the Holocaust to kill off handicapped Jews. Or maybe he's talking about how the "Jewish Lobby" caused the financial meltdown.

Although given the foreign policy circles that Carter runs in, he actually might have meant the "Jewish Lobby" thing. Seriously.

References and previously after the jump...