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dc--and i think, as i've said, that hamas would have moderated by necessity had the policy choices been otherwise on the part of israel and the united states--and it is in abbas interest to say that about hamas given the internal political rivalry between fatah and the plo. personally, i think it was entirely the fatah's fault that they lost in gaza.
hamas positioned itself as a left opposition. the central rhetorical move that enabled that positioning is the statements about israel. if hamas is kept in this kind of fragmented, untenable situation and has to maintain its own legitimacy at the same time, there's no motivation to abandon that posture---which as i recall (and i could be wrong about this one) there's been indications they'd have been willing to do.
we'll not know for sure because the situation was defined otherwise and now we're watching things slide down the toilet following the logic that followed from that.
would any options have been taken off the table had israel and the united states engaged with hamas? i don't see it. i really don't.
what's sure is this sure as hell hasn't worked.
this really is a debacle.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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