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Hamas Offers Decades of Armed Struggle

[Daily Star-Lebanon] Michael Young - It is worth questioning what Hamas has made of Gaza, a territory that could have once served as an encouraging example of what Palestinians could achieve when Israeli occupation ended. Instead, what we have is a failed political order, and one cannot blame this solely on Israeli pressures. Hamas has chosen the armed struggle, which required overcoming Fatah in Gaza before transforming the area into a garrisoned statelet. Hamas has been unable to give Palestinians a normal life despite a six-month cease-fire. The only thing Palestinians in Gaza can look forward to is the prospect of more carnage ahead. Hamas is not a state-building enterprise; it is a military movement that plays politics to retain the military option. The dystopia it offers is many decades more of the gun, leaving no room for discussion of an alternative, more desirable Palestinian future. If you live by the gun, you will probably die by the gun. That's the promise of the Middle East today, where weapons have become the ornaments of men, and where the foulest dictatorships end up looking like a good bet.
2008-12-26 06:00:00
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