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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (34615)	7/18/2002 6:56:15 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

What hit me was, "wait a minute, there is a terrorist group that has not made that mistake. It is Hamas! They have built up an infrastructure, using charities, et al, in Palestine." And I realized that they are the natural successor to the PLO in Palestine. A much stronger one than the PLO has ever been. We are actually doing them a favor by getting rid of the present PLO structure, which has never been anything more, at it's heart, than terrorist bandits. Well, I think I agree, but without the hyperbole. From what little I know and read, it looks to me as if Hamas is at least as proficient as a social services agency for the Palestinians as the PLO and I've seen arguments they are much better. I have no way to evaluate that information but it has looked credible. Perhaps Tek knows more. There are several dimensions along which to make choices: religious-secular is one and it's my understanding that the PLO is more secular than Hamas, more comfortable with separation of church and state, etc.; and there is the corruption dimension in which the PLO appears to be more corrupt than Hamas. As for Kepel, he writes serious stuff. FWI, Tek recommended it sometime back. I bought a copy on the basis of that recommendation and haven't regretted it. Kepel's last book largely involves comparative political sociology in which he looks at the relevant nation states in the ME and the strategies of "radical Islamists" and their consequences. And from that comparison derives the notion they are on the wane. And the WTC-Pentagon attacks were the work of their weakness rather than their strength.