I don’t think the Islamic world ever admits being organized by anyone but Allah or themselves. I’ve heard a lot of people claim Israel security organized them with funding and help from the CIA. Parts of Hamas used to support Israel politics and Israel elections. hmm.. Seems mighty suspicious to me. I don’t buy the theory that Israel controls them now I think they are funded by other people and that is why Israel has a trade embargo on them.
Seems to work fine for me, first time i tried it went 404, since then works everytime must be an AlJazeera thing.... Profile: Hamas Hamas, the Palestinian political movement that controls Gaza, rose to international prominence following its armed campaign against Israel during the second intifada, or uprising, which began in 2000. The organisation, founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood movement, had already achieved widespread popularity in the Palestinian territories for its resistance to the Israeli military occupation and for its social programmes. The pinnacle of that popularity came in January 2006, when the movement won a stunning victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections. But the years since then, marked by a crippling international embargo, internal conflict with rivals Fatah, and Israeli attacks on its members, have proved a testing time for the organisation. And with Israel launching the bloodiest raids into Gaza in decades, the group faces an uncertain future. Hamas, which stands for Islamic Resistance Movement, and also means 'zeal' in Arabic, was founded at the beginning of the first intifada by the religious leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. The movement's main goal is to end the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza but its charter states its long term aim is the creation a Palestinian state on what was called Palestine before the creation of Israel in 1948. It built its popularity on providing support to impoverished Palestinians by constructing schools, hospitals and religious centres. Unlike many other Palestinian political movements, Hamas has rejected membership of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, calling for its restructuring, and has opposed signing peace agreements with Israel, although it has offered Israel a number of fixed-term truces. Leadership Israel has assassinated several of the group's prominent leaders, most notably Sheikh Yassin in 2004, and Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, the movement's leader in its stronghold of Gaza, only a few weeks later. Sheikh Yassin, already confined to a wheelchair at the time of his death, had been revered by many Palestinians for his calls for armed struggle and uncompromising views regarding Israel. Ismail Haniya, the movement's senior figure in Gaza and the deposed prime minister, was a close associate of Sheikh Yassin and once ran his office. Khalid Meshaal, currently exiled in Syria, has also been a senior political leader of Hamas, since 1995, following the arrest and jailing of Mussa Abu Marzouq, the former Hamas political leader. Meshaal had led the Kuwait chapter of the organisation, but left the country when Iraq invaded in 1990. He moved to the Jordanian capital, Amman, where he became head of Hamas and was subject to a failed assassination attempt by Israel. Hamas is reported to be funded by donations from Palestinian supporters both inside and outside the territories, other Arabs and also the Iranian government. Its military wing, the Ezzedine al- Qassam Brigades, which is believed to have several thousand members, has also carried out some of the bloodiest attacks in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Brigades, along with other Palestinian armed groups, have carried out sustained rocket attacks on Israeli towns in the south of the country, often in response to Israeli strikes on Gaza. Second intifada Hamas bolstered its reputation in the 1990s by its efforts to keep order in the often troubled Gaza Strip - something that won it the respect of those who would not normally ally itself with the movement. While the Islamic religion is a key part of Hamas's platform, Palestinian Christians and others have become involved in the organisation. The movement took a tough stance on corruption - a charge often levelled at its Fatah rivals. But it also became known for its suicide attacks on Israel, the first of which was carried out in 1994. When peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down once again in 2000, Hamas joined other Palestinian political and armed groups in the second intifada against Israel. That was marked by a campaign of civil disobedience by Palestinians in the occupied territories, together with an increase in suicide attacks on Israel, often in response to Israeli attacks in the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas had boycotted elections to the Palestinian Authority, as it was a product of the 1993 Oslo peace process, which the group opposed. But as the second intifada wore on and the Palestinian Authority became weaker in the face of the Israeli military occupation, Hamas decided to participate in Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. The group, promising to fight corruption and resist Israeli occuption, defeated their Fatah rivals convincingly, bringing Haniya to power as prime minister. International isolation However, the US, European Union and Israel had branded Hamas a terrorist organisation and, following its 2006 election victory imposed severe economic sanctions on the Palestinian territories. Western powers had demanded Hamas recognise the state of Israel, renounce the use of violence and recognise previous Palestinian-Israeli peace agreements. The Palestinian Authority, which relies on international aid to pay workers, was thrown into crisis by the sanctions and political tensions between Hamas and Fatah grew. Rival members clashed in the West Bank and Gaza as the two sides fought a bloody battle for control in the territories. The two parties agreed to form a unity government in early 2007 in an attempt to gain new international aid. That bid failed and the struggle for power culminated in Hamas militarily taking over Palestinian institutions in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and Fatah leader, taking power in the West Bank. Since then, the group has been increasingly isolated by Israel, which has targeted the territory with increasing military and economic sanctions, including cuts in electricity supplies. After the end of yet another truce in December 2008, Israel launched a massive military assault on the Gaza Strip, in what it says is an attempt to halt continued rocket attacks emanating from Gaza. The massive assault promises to be one the biggest tests Hamas has faced in its 21-year history. Source: Al Jazeera Pics were omitted.
*standing ovation* Well done. I liked that a lot. It's like if we don't make some veiled conspiracy reference, the posters here get a lecture from the almighty on what they should be thinking.
Do you support war and torture, too, Allison? Sometimes that's almost the vibe I get from your threads. You always seem to be on the side of the warmongers and government apologists. I mean, that's OK if you are, just make yourself clear so we know.
No. Never. Ever. I'm an anti-war activist. I'm against all acts of war and destruction. I think the arms race is a race to the bottom, that peace and freedom cannot be achieved through incited violence and aggressive physical strikes and blows. That's why I have little sympathy for either side in this debate. Empathy they've got from me, but I cannot sympathize with any side that condones massacres. Period.
Well, for one, in another thread you seemed to be implying that it was alright for Israel to attack buildings with civilians because they may or may not have housed Hamas fighters. You also claimed that Palestinians were allowed to evacuate after the attacks began, but as of yet have not been able to provide any evidence to support this claim. Most information I have read points to Israel deliberately targeting innocent men, women and children. I haven't heard you condemn this, but maybe I missed it somehow. I don't condone violence from either side, but what Israel is doing is clearly Naziesque and needs to be spoken out against by everyone. Instead you seem content going along with whatever Hiptastic says, when he is one of the biggest cheerleaders for these atrocities.
I play devil's advocate because I can in this debate. Both sides are completely and utterly in the wrong here, so it's no skin off of my nose to consider both viewpoints on the methods of killing from either side. I wasn't implying it was alright for people to kill at all. I was stating a fact that that is what happens. Hamas groups were telling people to run up to the roof tops during the air strikes so that Israelis would not strike their buildings. Like, why weren't they telling people to seek refuge in a basement during air strikes? That's just ludicrous to tell innocent civilians to go out and become a target. I never said that Palestinians were allowed to evacuate after the ceasefire ended in December. I think you are misunderstanding what I said somewhere. I'll clarify; There were Gazans that evacuated the region before the ceasefire was not renewed in Mid December. I know very well the borders are closed, aid is not reaching people that need it and evacuations of the injured poses massive complications when trying to pass through a blockade. It's disgusting and I shame Israel for it. Actually, Hipstatic just stated that he thinks that the ground invasion of Gaza was a big mistake and tragedy.
I have the luxury of being disengaged physically and politically from this conflict in a sense. I'm a humanitarian when it comes to these matters; because truly that is all that matters to me. The politics of the conflict is a sidebar to explain and analyze the why and how human catastrophes and atrocities take form. I'm trying to gain a perspective on the bigger picture of why both sides feel that violence is justified here. There's no agenda in my soul other than that.
I guess the Allies were "Naziesque" because they bombed Germany and civilians died. We were no better than the Nazis! Or maybe the argument is that the Illuminati bankers controlled both sides so its a Hegelian dialect... But the point is you always have to call jews Nazis, is like rule for conspiracy theorists. 100,000 people died in Darfur? Who gives a fuck, the jews are Nazis if they defend themeselves, we want them to sit there and die, like in the holocaust except actually the holocaust was a conspiracy you see, they jews financed it and it didn't really happen anyway and hey Alex Jones is an idiot but did you see that great article on prisonplanet this morning?
You're right, what the allies did to Germany and its civilians was Naziesque. Same with what we did to Japan.
