Hamas on the defensive

The Islamists are again on the defensive

The Economist

(Cartoon by Khalil Bendib)

"HOW quickly the tables have turned. Only three months ago Hamas, the Palestinians’ Islamist movement that rules Gaza, was celebrating the end of an eight-day bombardment by Israel during which its fighters had responded defiantly with rockets that hit Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel killed over 170 Gazans for the loss of six of its own people but then, under mediating pressure from the United States and Egypt, agreed to ceasefire terms that provided for all of Gaza’s crossings into Egypt and Israel to be opened. Gaza’s Islamists hailed the war as a triumph. The siege that they had suffered since 2007 would, they declared, at last be lifted.

But it has not been—at least not entirely. So disillusion has returned.....

Unable to get the siege fully lifted and nervous about grumblings that the movement is veering towards normalisation with Israel, Hamas may be turning intolerantly inwards again. Some leaders are resorting to more virulent Islamist language in order to fend off the charge of truckling to Israel. This week the UN cancelled a marathon race in Gaza after Hamas banned women from running beside men and insisted that they cover their legs. Hamas may let young cadres revive a morality campaign that had previously lapsed.

Such actions will do little to endear the Islamists to Gazans tired of conflict, isolation and factional rivalry. Some Gazans have set fire to themselves in the hope of sparking a Tunisia-style uprising. A recent protest rally, where men and women mixed freely, was Gaza’s largest ever."