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Originally Posted by Azure
Did it increase? How does one measure support for someone that literally gives you no other option but to support them?
Hamas rules Gaza with terror and keeps the Palestinian people living in fear.
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Yes, it has very much increased, and support for Fatah's peace seeking stance has vanished, leading that party to take a more militant stance in order to stay politically relevant.
From the
NY Times:
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Just three months ago, Hamas, financially strapped and diplomatically isolated, agreed to a reconciliation deal with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and his secularist Fatah faction after a bitter, seven-year division, on minimal terms that analysts said reflected the Islamic group’s weakness.
Now Hamas — which refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist and is considered a terrorist organization by much of the West — is being hailed in the West Bank as the champion of armed resistance, while Mr. Abbas, who leads the alternative camp advocating a negotiated peace deal with Israel, is being excoriated for having failed to achieve a Palestinian state after 20 years of intermittent and fruitless Israeli-Palestinian talks.
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