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Originally Posted by BBKing
I think you may be mistaking them for someone else. Hamas are a) a political party b) enjoying popular support c) have just beaten Fatah d) are clearly keen on imposing some form of order in Gaza*, which is more than Israel ever have or Fatah are capable of currently <snip>
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Some neat parallels there, thanks. Exactly as I said, more than a few worrying parallels with our old nemesis Adolf and his rise to power in 1933. Thankfully Hamas is coralled in the Gaza strip rather than being in charge of a major European power, or else the Middle East really would be in a pickle.
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Obtaining Alan Johnston's release is a calculated act to demonstrate that Hamas are in charge now - he's on the radio now saying that when Hamas took over the whole attitude changed and the jihadis started getting very worried - this should be hammered home to everyone who fancies having an opinion on this - if you get rid of Hamas from Gaza, the crazies who kidnapped Johnston will be *happier* - beware of creating power vacuums just at the moment.
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I agree. However I'm still glad they're penned into Gaza rather than running the whole show right now (i.e. the West Bank, where they could cause some real trouble). And I don't think the fact that they are for the time being acting as a restraint on those more bloodthirsty even than they should prevent us from bearing in mind that they are a dangerous organisation whose avowed aim is the destruction of a sovreign neighbour.
Are they useful? In a way, yes.
Does Alan Johnson, or Israel, or anyone else, owe them any favours? Absolutely not.
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There's the small matter of being an elected political party, too (with a heavily armed wing, but there aren't many Middle Eastern political parties without armed wings, least of all Fatah or indeed most of the Iraqi government coalition).
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So were the Nazis. Again, different scale, but it goes to show that in the grand scheme of things, the fact that you're democratically elected does not give you absolute right to do whatever you want.