The conventional wisdom says it's the other way around, that Palestinians turned to Hamas because they were fed up with corruption and instability, or disappointed with the peace process-and that they embraced Hamas despite the party's Islamist platform. Virtually everyone following the Palestinian election-Palestinian academics, politicians allied with Fatah, and even the Israeli military and Western diplomats-bought into this wisdom. The prediction was that Hamas would capture at best a third of the seats in the Palestinian legislature.(Hat tip: Martin Kramer, whose blog also led me to some of the "Linkim" links)
How is it that these analysts all made the same mistake? Part of the explanation lies in the tendency of the largely secular Palestinian elite to underestimate the strength of Islamism . . .
Interviews in the West Bank and Gaza over the past six months seem to bear out [Cleric Nizar] Aweidat's claims. Most Hamas voters described themselves as committed, religious Muslims who supported Hamas first because of its religious credentials and then because of its promises to provide more services and curtail corruption.
Tags: Israel, Palestinians, Hamas
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