Gaza is a secular society where people listen to pop music, watch TV and many women walk the streets unveiled… Palestinians did not vote for Hamas because it was dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel or because it had been responsible for waves of suicide bombings that had killed Israeli citizens. They voted for Hamas because they thought that Fatah, the party of the rejected Government, had failed them… In the five years that I have been visiting Gaza and the West Bank, I have met hundreds of Hamas politicians and supporters. None of them has professed the goal of Islamising Palestinian society, Taleban-style. Hamas relies on secular voters too much to do that. People still listen to pop music, watch television and women still choose whether to wear the veil or not.
There are two claims made in here. The first is that Palestinians elected Hamas because they were rejecting Fatah corruption and the second is that Hamas is not trying to impose sharia law on the Gaza Strip. You can be confident that the second claim is false because Hamas is in fact very explicitly imposing sharia on the Gaza Strip. You can be confident that the first claim is false because polls showed that Palestinians were pro-terrorism and results reflected those preferences in that pro-terrorism groups picked up support across the board while moderate parties lost support across the board – exactly the opposite of what you’d expect from anti-corruption protest voting. But wouldn’t it be really neat if that things were different?
So in other words, yes, he is just making this shit up out of whole cloth.
References:
* We must adjust our distorted image of Hamas [Times Online]
* Mere Rhetoric Evaluates Palestinian Opinion Poll, Walks Away Unsurprised [Ha'aretz]
* The Less Than Compelling “Hamas Wasn’t Elected Because of the Whole Palestinians Hate Jews Thing” Argument [MR]
* Confirmed: Hamas Goals And Tactics Now Officially Indistinguishable From Al Qaeda [MR]
Previously:
* Hamas Leaders Spent Last Month Bragging About War, Mocking Israeli Restraint
* Carter "Understands" Why Hamas Has To Bomb Israeli Schools And Hospitals
* Leftist Sophistication Watch – Where’s All That Hamas Law And Order We Were Promised?
