Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me This Month Is Hamas' One Year Anniversary?!

Rinat Malkes offers one possible reason:

The Hamas regime itself downplayed their one-year anniversary, which took place this month, for fear of sparking unrest. In the media, the event was overshadowed by the negotiation of a ceasefire with Israel.

For ordinary Gazans, the occasion was less about celebration and more about evaluation of the past year, economically, politically and socially.

The conclusion: over the past year Gaza has become more conservative, more religious and more hopeless.

Just how bad depends, as always on who you ask. On the one hand, there is Professor Mkhaimar Abu Saad, a political science analyst from Al Ahzar University. According to Professor Saad

the past year was undoubtably the worst in Palestinian history. The break in relations between the Islamic Hamas and the secular Fatah, headed by Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas has not only divided the Palestinians themselves, but made international hopes for a final solution to the Arab-Israel problem an even more distant prospect. Unemployment rates in Gaza reached 75% of Gaza’s population and the average annual income, which had been $1500 per capita, dropped to a mere $600 as a result of Hamas rule.

On the other hand,Professor Assad Abu Sharekh of Gaza University believes in giving credit where credit is due. He claims that

Hamas cannot be denied credit for bringing peace back to the cities of the Gaza. He is certain that Gaza is a much safer place today than it was last year.

“A year ago, there were gangs shooting, killing, attacking and robbing during daylight without any fear of punishment. It sounds strange, but Gaza today is a safe place, you are not afraid of walking on the streets anymore. There’s law and order and the corruption has completely gone.”

Read the whole thing.

I suppose if you consider the above-mentioned rise in unemployment and drop in average family income to be worth the money siphoned off for building Kassams to fire at Israel--then yeah, Hamas is squeaky clean.



Gee, you'd think more people would be celebrating...

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