we will never accept the principal of forgiveness

November 24, 2008 2:45 PM

Keep up on Palestinian politics? Know your Hamas from your Fatah? And that they are contending for control over the occupied territories? Pretty good, pretty good. Have you heard about the struggle of Hamas to bring the clans of Gaza to heel?
posted by shothotbot (11 comments total)

This appears to be behind a paywall, you know. Flagged as the only content is unavailable without $$$ and/or personal information.
posted by jaduncan at 2:50 PM on November 24, 2008

if this post stays up, a simple replacement of "false" with "true" in the url will bypass the registerwall. The link could be fixed.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 2:53 PM on November 24, 2008

Better link
posted by xmutex at 2:57 PM on November 24, 2008

I know my Hamas from my Baba ghanoush.
posted by gman at 2:58 PM on November 24, 2008

Well, yes, but thanks for the link!

(didn't seem paywalled to me.. suppose it's been fixed...)
posted by pompomtom at 3:00 PM on November 24, 2008

Sorry about the bad link. I dont think the FT charges, but they may require soul sucking registration.
posted by shothotbot at 3:03 PM on November 24, 2008

If I were global dictator, one of my first decrees would be that all disputes in the middle east must be resolved with the use of Team Fortress 2.
posted by mullingitover at 3:03 PM on November 24, 2008

The endless cycle of revenge killing is typical of the self-destructive nature of many tribal societies. The same thing happened in medieval Iceland, the same thing was sanctioned under kanun in Albania and vendetta in Sicily, and the same force seems to be at work here: never forget, never forgive, take revenge when the opportunity presents itself. One of the failings of tribal law is that it cannot provide any way to end these feuds. And as long as that stays true, it will continue to be impossible for the Palestinians to provide any unified face to the Israelis.

Maybe one of the benefits of a Hamas reign of terror is that the clans will find a reason to work together.
posted by 1adam12 at 3:10 PM on November 24, 2008

I initially thought this was going to link to World of Warcraft.
posted by mecran01 at 3:26 PM on November 24, 2008

Bring back the Ottomans... ;-}
posted by sammyo at 3:44 PM on November 24, 2008

It is the will of Allah. Clans don't stand much chance standing up to a relatively strong armed group like Hamas. Hezbullah, in Lebanon, does not have such problems with tribes and continues to get well-armed, though they are keeping a very low profile.
posted by Postroad at 4:05 PM on November 24, 2008