What Was Hamas Thinking?
The illusion that the Palestinian questioncan be swept aside while Israeli apartheid persists has been shattered, andPalestine is back at the top of the global agenda, suggests
Tareq Baconiin his
Foreign Policy article. The shift to all-out violence is inkeeping with the movement’s understanding of the role of armed resistance as anegotiating tactic -one that the movement has historically relied on to secure concessionsfrom Israel. Inthe absence of any real diplomatic prospects for Hamas, its choices were eitherslow strangulation as the governing authority of the Gaza Strip, or adecisive blow to disrupt the assumption thatPalestinians were defeated and subservient and that Israel could maintain itsapartheid regime. That Hamas opted for the latter suggests that it is behavingstrategically and operating on the belief that it is playing a long game.
https://foreignpolicy.com
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