We’re privileged to re-post Andrew Higgins’ outstanding piece of journalism in today’s Wall Street Journal, which combines an impressive historical summary with contemporary analysis. He establishes how Israel assisted with the creation and growth of Hamas from the late 1970s. (I’ve known this for years from academic works; however, many people — including a number I’ve encountered on the Net in recent weeks — refuse to accept the evidence.)

More importantly, however, Higgins offers lessons which Israel’s leaders conveniently forgot for the sake of this conflict:

When it became clear in the early 1990s that Gaza’s Islamists had mutated from a religious group into a fighting force aimed at Israel — particularly after they turned to suicide bombings in 1994 — Israel cracked down with ferocious force. But each military assault only increased Hamas’s appeal to ordinary Palestinians.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Andrew Higgins, Arieh Spitzen, Avner Cohen, Azzam Tamimi, Baker Abu-Baker, Barack Obama, Birzeit University, David Hacham, Efraim Halevy, Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Fatah, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Gaza, Hamas, Intifada, Iran, Islamic University of Gaza, Israel, Khaled Mashaal, Mahmoud az-Zahar, Mahmud Musleh, Mossad, Mujama Al-Islamiya, Muslim Brotherhood, Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization, Palestinian Authority, Red Crescent, Roni Shaked, Sayyid Qutb, Sderot, Shalom Harari, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Wall Street Journal, Yassir Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, Yitzhak Segev, Yosef Kastel

The Iraqi Government’s ploy to stem news coverage of Muntazar al-Zaidi’s case, by releasing his supposed letter asking for a pardon, seems to have succeeded — at least with the British and American press. There is nothing this morning except a summary in The Guardian, which leads with the confirmation by an Iraqi judge of al-Zaidi’s beating.

The valuable McClatchy News Service, however, is onto what may be a significant development: the defense of al-Zaidi in the streets. It reports on a small but vocal demonstration outside Baghdad’s Green Zone, joined by some politicians, al-Zaidi’s family, and protesters from outside Baghdad. Other rallies took place throughout Iraq.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: George Bush, Intifada, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, Muntazar al-Zaidi, Nouri al-Maliki, Shoes