Hans Rustad 
Dette bildet er tatt like etter at Hamas nektet å forlenge våpenhvilen med Israel. Utenlandske TV-team og journalister ble invitert for å se hvor godt Hamas var forberedt på konfrontasjon. Kanskje er det et resultatet av den isolerte tilværelsen og det mentale buret, kanskje Hamas virkelig trodde de kunne utfordre Israel?
Mohammed Abbas advarte dem klart og tydelig:
«Let me say this clearly. We contacted Hamas and spoke to them bluntly. We spoke to them on the phone and pleaded, ‘Please do not end the cease-fire. Let it continue, so we can avert what has now happened.’ And how I wish we had,» Abbas said.
Abbas has always been a pragmatic politician, more interested in securing real achievements for his people than in being their hero. But today’s comments prompted many Arabs to see him as siding with the Israeli-U.S. camp, alongside an uneasy Egypt.
Iran støtter Hamas, og det øker skepsisen mot Hamas i arabiske hovedsteder. Egne interesser går foran palestinernes. Dette kalles kynisme av kommentatorer som Jan Erik Smilden. Skulle de ofre seg selv?
Hamas’ leder i eksil, Khaled Meshaal, er firkantet, dogmatisk og har ikke noe svar på dagens situasjon, annet enn å rope på flere ofre, mer blod. Palestinerne må spørre seg selv: har vi ikke ofret nok?
In Iran, which has financed and supported Hamas for years, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa, or religious decree, ordering Muslims everywhere to defend Gazans «in any way possible.» Hamas’ leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal was more specific. In an interview with the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, Meshaal sought to make this weekend the birth date of a third Palestinian intefadeh against Israel, to follow the uprisings of 1987 and 2000.
«There is no path except that of martyrdom — armed resistance and martyrdom operations. This is what will support Gaza. This is what will lift the oppression from you. We do not take up arms except in the face of the Zionist enemy. I call upon you to uprise. This is the time for the third intefadeh,» Meshaal said.
