Steve Clemons, director of foreign policy programs at the New America Institute in Washington, conducted an exclusive interview with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Damascus. Questions ranged from the Goldstone Report to the rift between the Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah. One example of the many thought provoking questions Clemons asks Meshal in the interview:

Clemons: [Are you] a Palestinian patriot or a Muslim patriot? Obviously from an American perspective too many Americans look at...Muslim Brotherhood, Hizbullah, Hamas and they say they are all al-Qaeda, which I know is wrong but I would like to hear how you characterize this.

Meshal: Hamas is a movement of national liberation... We adopt the Islamic thought, because we are part of [a] region that is Arab and Muslim. This is a normal thing, just like when there is a movement in Europe it is Christian. We are a liberation movement but we are an Islamic movement too because we are part of this region naturally.

This video is courtesy of Steve Clemons and the Palestine Note.

Steve Clemons, director of foreign policy programs at the New America Institute in Washington, conducted an exclusive interview with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Damascus. Questions ranged from the Goldstone Report to the rift between the Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah. One example of the many thought provoking questions Clemons asks Meshal in the interview:

Clemons: [Are you] a Palestinian patriot or a Muslim patriot? Obviously from an American perspective too many Americans look at...Muslim Brotherhood, Hizbullah, Hamas and they say they are all al-Qaeda, which I know is wrong but I would like to hear how you characterize this.

Meshal: Hamas is a movement of national liberation... We adopt the Islamic thought, because we are part of [a] region that is Arab and Muslim. This is a normal thing, just like when there is a movement in Europe it is Christian. We are a liberation movement but we are an Islamic movement too because we are part of this region naturally.

This video is courtesy of Steve Clemons and the Palestine Note.