Has Reuters read the Hamas Charter?

One of the most demonstrable, insidious, and persistent myths associated with the Middle East conflict over the last 80 years is that the Palestinian Arabs seek an independent state -- alongside an independent Jewish state.  If this were truly the case, they would have had one as long ago as 1937 when the Peel Commission endorsed it.  They would have had one in 1947 when the Partition Plan was adopted by the United Nations.  They would have had one when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians 91 percent of the West Bank (also, Judea and Samaria) and all of Gaza at the Camp David Summit in 2000.  And they would have had one in 2008 when Israeli PM Ehud Olmert offered them 97 percent and 100 percent, respectively, of the same.  All of these offers, by Britain, by the UN, and by Israel, have been roundly -- and violently -- rejected by the Palestinian Arabs.

One would think that given this historical record of rejectionism, the media would come to recognize that the Palestinian leadership is not interested in an independent state alongside an independent Jewish state.  One would think that given what the democratically elected Palestinian leadership says publicly about their own objectives, it would be apparent to the media that the Palestinians are not interested in a state at all:

But even if the links have become distant from each other, and even if the obstacles erected by those who revolve in the Zionist orbit, aiming at obstructing the road before the Jihad fighters, have rendered the pursuance of Jihad impossible; nevertheless, the Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah’s promise whatever time it might take. The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!  [Hamas Charter]

Alas, if one thought that the media (Reuters) would come to its senses about the genuine goals of the Palestinian people, one would be sadly mistaken:

Egypt has become openly frustrated with what it views as Hamas's stubborn resistance to a pact that would mend the worst rift in decades in the Palestinian independence movement.

The "Palestinian independence movement", indeed.