Hamas facing reality check

[barb162]

Hamas facing reality check
Referendum could seal Palestinian government's fate

By Storer H. Rowley
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 18, 2006


NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip -- Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh knows how to call the faithful to prayer and preach power politics from the pulpit. In his zealous sermon, blaring out of the packed Izz-al-Din al Qassam Mosque in the sweltering June heat, he was alternately defiant and pious, taking a political stand and calling on God to defend it.

"I confirm to our people, to the Arab world and the entire world, we will not abandon our principles," Haniyeh declared, his message reverberating over loudspeakers through the cinderblock warrens of the sprawling Nuseirat refugee camp, long a stronghold of Hamas and its militants.

snip

Dr. Eyad Sarraj, a prominent Gaza psychiatrist who has advised Haniyeh on occasion but is politically independent, sees Hamas in a no-win situation. "I think Hamas trapped itself by going into the government. They were more powerful in the opposition or on the outside," he observed one recent night, as gunfire between security forces erupted outside the walls of his Gaza City home and bullets ricocheted off his garden walls.

"I don't think they will be able to recognize Israel, and the cornerstone of dealing with the politics of the region is Israel. And you have to deal with Israel if you want to deal with the United States," Sarraj said.

snip

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0606180251jun18,1,3161788.story?page=1&coll=chi-news-hed

[Lefty48197]

1. How you gonna blow up pizza parlors and city busses, without money?

Perhaps Hamas will hold a bake sale to raise money to murder innocent people?

[barb162]

2. There's money

'"Hamas is buying like crazy," the dealer says.'

from the story "The Gangs of Gaza" posted on this forum
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13386990/site/newsweek/