Jerusalem Post: Israel and Hamas downplay Mashaal's comments

....Both Israeli diplomatic sources and Hamas leaders and spokesmen in the West Bank and Gaza Strip said that Mashal's words did not constitute a change in the movement's policy. "Saying that Israel is an established fact is just a recognition of reality," one Israeli diplomatic source said. "It doesn't say that they (Hamas) accept this fact." The source said that there was nothing in Mashaal's comment that said Hamas had changed its desire to wipe Israel off the map. A senior Hamas official in Gaza City, meanwhile, said, "acknowledging that Israel exists does not mean recognizing its right to occupy the land of Palestine, which belongs only to the Moslems."(09,10)