Which Way for Hamas?
Amid the wreckage of Gaza, Hamas's officials struggle to sound upbeat. The burly interior minister, Fathi Hamad, whose predecessor was killed by an Israeli bomb, defiantly shuns security precautions at his makeshift office in Gaza City's main police station. "Claims that we are trying to establish an Islamic state are false," says the minister, who says his preference would be pursuing a degree in media studies. "Hamas is not the Taliban. It is not ... Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins - via The New York Review of Books
The US (and Israel) need to accept Hamas as a fact of life, and as a permanent feature of the political landscape in Israel/Palestine and nearby. G W Bush's fooliish refusal to accept the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections was a blunder still extracting a heavy price.