GAZA/DOHA (Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Monday dropped its longstanding call for Israel’s destruction, but said it still rejected the country’s right to exist and backs “armed struggle” against it. 
 
 In a policy document presented in Doha by its leader Khaled Meshaal, Hamas also said it would end its association with the Muslim Brotherhood, a move apparently aimed at improving ties with Gulf Arab states and Egypt, which view the Brotherhood as a terrorist group. 
 
 Israel responded to the announcement by accusing Hamas of trying to “fool the world”, while the group’s main Palestinian political rival, the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas, also reacted coolly to the policy shift. 
 
 The publication of the policy document comes two days before Abbas is due to visit Washington, and days after President Donald Trump told Reuters he may travel to Israel this month and sees no reason why there should not be peace between Israel and the Palestinians. 
 
 “We don’t want to dilute our principles but we want to be open. We hope this (document) will mark a change in the stance of European states towards us,” Meshaal told reporters. 
 
 Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, said in the document it agreed to a transitional Palestinian state within the borders of 1967, when Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a war with Arab states. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. 
 
 “Hamas advocates the liberation of all of Palestine but is ready to support the state on 1967 borders without recognizing Israel or ceding any rights,” said Meshaal, in a shift that brings Hamas more into line with the position of Fatah. 
 
 “TERROR TUNNELS” 
 
 Israel said the document aimed to deceive the world that Hamas was becoming more moderate. 
 
 “Hamas is attempting to fool the world but it will not succeed,” said David Keyes, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They dig terror tunnels and have launched thousands upon thousands of missiles at Israeli civilians. This is the real Hamas.” 
 
 Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal gestures as he announces a new policy document in Doha, Qatar, May 1, 2017. REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon 
 
 Founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Egyptian Islamist movement, Hamas has fought three wars with Israel since 2007 and has carried out hundreds of armed attacks in Israel and in Israeli-occupied territories. 
 
 Many Western countries classify Hamas as a terrorist group over its failure to renounce violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist and accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements. 
 
 Meshaal said Hamas’s fight was not against Judaism as a religion but against what he called “aggressor Zionists”. 
 
 Fatah spokesman Osama al-Qawasme upbraided Hamas for taking decades to join Fatah in accepting a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, a position Hamas used to criticize Fatah for. 
 
 “Hamas’s new document is identical to that taken by Fatah in 1988. Hamas is required to make an apology to Fatah after 30 years of accusing us of treason for that policy,” Qawasme said. 
 
 It remained unclear whether the document replaces Hamas’s 1988 charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction. Meshaal said the document would “guide Hamas’s daily political activity”. 
 
 Abbas’s Palestinian Authority has engaged in peace talks with Israel on the basis of seeking a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, although the last, U.S.-mediated round collapsed three years ago. 
 
 There was no immediate comment on Monday from Egypt and Gulf Arab states to the Hamas document. 
 
 “For Hamas ... it’s a signal of their desire to align with conservative Sunni elements in the region and create some immunity (from Saudi pressure),” said Beverley Milton-Edwards, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Centre and author of a book on Hamas. 
 
 But while the document could strengthen Hamas’s position in the Palestinian Territories and the Middle East, she said, it was unlikely to lead “to any definitive swing in opinion in the group’s favor in the United States or even Europe.” 
 
 Slideshow (9 Images) 
 
 Meshaal said Hamas remained part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “intellectual school” but was “an independent Palestinian organization”. 
 
 U.S.-allied Arab states including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia classify the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. The 89-year-old Brotherhood held power in Egypt for a year after a popular uprising in 2011, but was then removed by the army after mass street protests. 
 
 The Brotherhood denies links with Islamist militants and advocates Islamist political parties winning power through elections, which Saudi Arabia considers a threat to its system of absolute power through inherited rule. ||||| FILE -- In this Dec. 8, 2012 file photo, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, left, and Hamas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh wave to Palestinian Hamas supporters during a rally to commemorate the 25th anniversary... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE -- In this Dec. 8, 2012 file photo, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, left, and Hamas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh wave to Palestinian Hamas supporters during a rally to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Hamas militant group, in Gaza city. The new political program of Hamas, published Monday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Islamic militant Hamas on Monday unveiled what had been billed as a new, seemingly more pragmatic political program aimed at ending the group's international isolation. 
 
 With the new manifesto, Hamas rebrands itself as an Islamic national liberation movement, rather than a branch of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed by Egypt. It also drops explicit language calling for Israel's destruction, though it retains the goal of eventually "liberating" all of historic Palestine, which includes what is now Israel. 
 
 It's not clear if the changes will be enough to improve relations with Egypt which, along with Israel, has been enforcing a crippling border blockade against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since the group seized the territory in 2007. 
 
 Hamas clung to hard-line positions that led to its isolation in the first place. The group reaffirmed that it will not recognize Israel, renounce violence or recognize previous interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals — the West's long-standing conditions for dealing with Hamas. 
 
 The five-page program, a result of four years of internal deliberations, was presented at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, by Khaled Mashaal, the outgoing Hamas leader in exile. The group has said Mashaal's replacement is to be named later this month, after the completion of secret leadership elections. 
 
 The document reflects a "reasonable Hamas, that is serious about dealing with the reality and the regional and international surroundings, while still representing the cause of its people," said Mashaal. 
 
 A copy of the program was distributed to journalists in Gaza who followed the news conference by video link. 
 
 The new platform seemed to cement the ideological divide between Hamas and its main political rival, the Fatah movement of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. 
 
 Hamas drove out forces loyal to Abbas in its 2007 takeover of Gaza, a year after defeating Fatah in Palestinian parliament elections. Reconciliation efforts have failed. 
 
 The Hamas manifesto was released at a time of escalating tensions between the two sides. In recent weeks, Abbas has threatened to exert financial pressure, including cutting wage payments and aid to Gaza, as a way of forcing Hamas to cede ground. 
 
 Leaders of the group have vowed they will not budge. 
 
 The war of words with Hamas was seen as an attempt by Abbas to position himself as a leader of all Palestinians ahead of his first meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday. The U.S. president has said he would try to broker Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a peace deal, despite repeated failures over the past two decades. 
 
 In the past, Hamas has sharply criticized Abbas' political program, which rests on setting up a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War. 
 
 In its founding charter, Hamas called for setting up an Islamic state in historic Palestine, or the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, which also includes Israel. 
 
 The new program for the first time raises the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in the 1967 lines, saying it's a "national consensus formula." However, the wording suggests Hamas considers this to be an interim step, not a way of ending the conflict. 
 
 The document does not contain an explicit call for Israel's destruction, but says "Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea." 
 
 "There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity," the document says. 
 
 The Palestine Liberation Organization, now led by Abbas, exchanged letters of mutual recognition with Israel in 1993. 
 
 The Hamas document said it considers armed resistance against occupation as a strategic choice and that the group "rejects any attempt to undermine the resistance and its arms." 
 
 Over the years, Hamas has carried out shooting, bombing and rocket attacks in Israel. Since 2008, Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza have fought three cross-border wars. Abbas has been an outspoken opponent of violence, saying it undercuts Palestinian interests. 
 
 While the founding charter was filled with anti-Jewish references, the new document stresses that Hamas bears no enmity toward Jews. It says its fight is with those who occupy Palestinian lands. 
 
 Mashaal is to step down as Hamas leader later this month. Two possible contenders for the No. 1 spot are Moussa Abu Marzouk, a former Hamas leader, and Ismail Haniyeh, a former top Hamas official in Gaza. 
 
 The Mashaal announcement was initially scheduled for 7 p.m. (1600 GMT) Monday, but was delayed after a Doha hotel withdrew consent at the last minute to host the Hamas news conference. Hamas scrambled to find a new venue. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Laub reported from Ramallah, West Bank.
– The militant group Hamas on Monday unveiled what had been billed as a new, seemingly more pragmatic political program aimed at ending the group's international isolation. With the new manifesto, Hamas rebrands itself as an Islamic national liberation movement, rather than a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed by Egypt. It also drops explicit language calling for Israel's destruction, reports the AP, though it retains the goal of eventually "liberating" all of historic Palestine, which includes what is now Israel. It's not clear if the changes will be enough to improve relations with Egypt which, along with Israel, has been enforcing a crippling border blockade against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since the group seized the territory in 2007. Despite the softening of tone in some areas, Hamas clung to hard-line positions that led to its isolation in the first place. The group reaffirmed that it will not recognize Israel, renounce violence, or recognize previous interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals—the West's long-standing conditions for dealing with Hamas. Israel responded to the overall manifesto skeptically, saying that Hamas was trying to "fool the world," reports Reuters. The new platform for the first time raises the possibility of establishing a transitional Palestinian state within lands captured by Israel in 1967, but the wording suggests Hamas considers this to be an interim step, not a way of ending the conflict.