…or a failure to democratize?
A portion of the wall between Gaza and Egypt was blown up by Hamas, and Gazans flooded through to get a taste of the Egyptian economy. Says the Washington Times:
Gazans crossed on foot, in cars or in donkey carts to buy cigarettes, fuel, and other items made scarce by an Israeli blockade of their impoverished territory. Across the coastal strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, people pushed into buses and piled into rickety pickup trucks heading to Egypt and a rare opportunity to escape months of isolation.
Police from the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, directed the traffic. Egyptian border guards took no action.
“Freedom is good. We need no border after today,” said unemployed 29-year-old Mohammed Abu Ghazal.
Of course the Hamas agents surely did this to bring weapons in, but the fact that the people of Gaza do not feel free under their tyrants, and do not approve of the policies and their consequences, is apparent.
I hold this up as evidence that Hamas’s public support in Gaza may not be all it’s cracked up to be, and that perhaps they won election through terror, not persuasion.