WE’LL eat za’atar leaves, weeds and salt, but we won’t be traitors and we won’t be humiliated!” So spoke Ismail Haniyeh, the new Palestinian Prime Minister, who is thought to be among the moderate leaders of Hamas. Before a crowd…
Tag: Hamas
Hamas: A Victory Too Many
The overwhelming victory of Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary elections of January 25, 2006 – it won 74 seats out of 132 – has struck the region like a thunderbolt. No one was as flabbergasted as Hamas itself. It resembled…
Interview with Hamas’ Muhammed Abu Tir
MUHAMMED Abu Tir, 55, has spent 25 years, all told, in Israeli prisons. He finished a term just recently. Without any doubt, he was a man with lots of time on his hands. No longer. We met him on a…
Fatah: The (Ominous) Rise of the Younger Generation
DESPITE the brain hemorrhage of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel will likely go to the polls on March 28, 2006 with a strong show of stability. By contrast, in the Palestinian Authority (PA) elections will take place, on January 25,…
Imposing Democracy, Reaping Chaos
THE New Middle East was the title of a book by Shimon Peres, today Deputy Prime Minister to Ariel Sharon. And now we have the “democratic Middle East,” ballyhooed by none other than US President George W. Bush. Each of…
Hamas: Present Absentee
The Summit at Sharm al-Sheikh FOUR MIDDLE EASTERN leaders assembled on February 8, 2005 at Sharm al-Sheikh: Ariel Sharon of Israel, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdullah of Jordan, and Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the new President of the Palestinian…