In April 2000 Israel’s former prime minister, Ariel Sharon provoked the fury of Palestinians and other Muslim nations by ordering the attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque. That irresponsible decision led to the birth of the second Intifada.
As the popular uprising against the Zionists spread in the occupied lands, Hamas along with other Palestinian groups took over the leadership of the resistance movement that over time was characterized by religious and national ideals. This is while Sharon now on his deathbed had promised that his iron fist policy would spell the end of the Intifada in less than 100 days.
Today Hamas is a political force to reckon with and if Israel and its western bank-rollers should be crazy if they think they can use money as a weapon against the Palestinians and their newly elected Hamas government.
Political experts believe in this decade there will be more bad news for the occupying power. The usurper state has already suffered humiliation and its ’invincible’ image has gone down the drain in the Muslim region.
For the first time since its illegitimate birth, Israel was forced in May 2000 to withdraw from southern Lebanon following the strong resistance from Hezbollah. The defeat was unprecedented. And now Hamas, the popular movement that has vowed to end the criminal military occupation, is forming the first truly representative government and is in no mood of compromising the values for which it was elected to power.
Before serious illness brought him down, Sharon better known as the ’Butcher of Sabra and Shatila’ had hardly anticipated the political rise of Hamas.
After being kicked out of Lebanon, he launched the policy of ’targeted assassinations’ more fiercely against Hamas leaders to weaken their resolve and break the resistance.
The unquestionable support from US new-conservatives and George Bush made the hawkish Sharon firmer in pursuing his ill intentions. Sharon and his generals gradually gave state-sponsored terrorism a new and more dangerous interpretation in their quest for power and imposing their will on the unwavering Palestinians.
Israel assassinated several Hamas leaders and Palestinian Muslims. The martyrdom of wheel chair bound Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the charismatic leader of Hamas, is enough to demonstrate the extent to which Israel fears the Intifada and its leaders. While Hamas was rapidly losing its top leaders, it continued to uphold Yassin’s vision of resistance until the complete liberation of Palestinian lands. The late Hamas leader had long realized that peace deals like the ones Yasser Arafat had signed in no small number, had nothing for his people and were built on the basic premise of protecting Israel’s ’borders.’
Five years after the above-mentioned developments, Sharon’s incapacitation and the political and economic crises visiting the Zionist regime, Palestinians have made their choice at the ballot box. They want the tried, tested and uncorrupted Hamas leaders to manage their affairs for the next four years.
The landslide political victory of Hamas has opened new vistas for the resistance movement obviously not free of major challenges and opportunities.
Its elected leaders in parliament and government can now also pursue their agenda through political and diplomatic skills.
Aside from the huge ’Hamas earthquake’, another major concern for the US-backed occupiers is the fast increasing population of Palestinian Muslims, especially those willing to die for their cause. Israeli experts maintain that if the 2010 local council elections are held freely across the occupied territories, all councilors in different Palestinian cities be they under the control of the defeated Palestinian Authority (PA) or Israeli occupation will be Hamas members or its staunch supporters.