the love of the people

I had one of you ask me why Hamas has not won an election in years past. The answer is, this is the first election Hamas has participated in, otherwise the PA would have been demolished years ago.

Here's the thing I have to say: Hamas won not because the majority of Palestinians are terrorists. I feel like that is being so misrepresented on the US news. It is true that most Palestinians are fundamental Muslims, but it is not so that they are all Hamas members, or that all of them have the aim of destroying Israel.

Palestinians love Hamas because Hamas is the leading social group in the Palestinian territories. They are seen as the only group "fighting for" the Palestinians. They provide food, shelter, education, clothing, housing, etc. for thousands and thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps. They have won the love of the people because they are giving to the people.

Many Palestinian Christians are stuck because the only way they can give their children education is if they attend a Hamas school. It is the only school offered to their children. And there, at the Hamas school, generations are being taught radical Islam. Hamas is the group that comes to their tent at the refugee camp bearing clothes, food stamps, blankets, etc. Hamas is the group that, when they lost their homes, fought to the death trying to win their home back. Hamas is going into these refugee camps and winning the hearts of the people by crying with them, standing with them, helping them through, encouraging them, empowering them, and . . . teaching them about fighting back.

I don't blame the President's response, we will not work with them until they denounce their goal to destroy Israel. I don't know the better political solution. But neither do I blame the Palestinian people for electing the one political group into power that seems to be working to bring about change for them.

Hamas would have been elected years ago, had they not openly rebelled from the democratic process because it was too "western" for them.