Hamas integral part of Palestinians

Italy’s foreign minister on Tuesday insisted that Hamas represents an integral part of the Palestinian Arabs, and must therefore be engaged rather than shunned.

While I don’t agree that Hamas’ crimes should be overlooked and the group granted legitimacy, I do agree that it is a “significant and substantial” component of Palestinian Arab society, a “ground roots movement,” to use the words of Massimo D’Alema.

And that in itself is very telling of Palestinian society.

Hamas does not exist in a bubble, it is not some self-contained group of radicals completely disconnected from those around it.

Hamas’ members - the thousands and thousands of gunmen and suicide bombers - are all recruited from among the Palestinian Arab public. There is obviously a very large pool of potential recruits for the group to fish in.

Then there are the opinion polls that show widespread general public support for both Hamas as a movement, and its acts of violence against Israel’s Jews.

And, of course, we have Hamas’ landslide electoral victory in last year’s parliamentary election, when a huge majority of Palestinian voters chose the terror group to lead them.

D’Alema is right - Hamas is a significant and substantial part of Palestinian Arab society, a group that enjoys widespread support from a general public that also provides the group with a steady supply of fighters.

The lesson that D’Alema and the rest of the international community fail to take from this is that a society that can give birth to and provide a firm power base for a group such as Hamas is not a society that is ready for peace with Israel.

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