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Hamas Represents Terror To Us, Rule To Others

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Jan 5, 2009 7:47 pm US/Eastern

Hamas Represents Terror To Us, Rule To Others

Not Every Palestinian Falls Under Its Control; Hezbollah Poses Serious Threat To Israel From The South

 CBS News Interactive: Mideast Conflict

Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ― For Israelis, the name Hamas has invoked fear and anger for decades. Many in the world have come to regard them as a terrorist group.

And Hamas is not the only one. In the north, there's Hezbollah. And together, this is a region crushed under the constant threat of attack.

Here in the United States we know Hamas as the face of terror, firing unguided rockets at civilians as part of the 60-year struggle for control of the holy land. It is, however, too simple a picture.

For the Palestinian residents of the region Hamas has also been a political party and a government for the 1.4 million people of the Gaza Strip. It won the Palestinians' parliamentary election of 2006 as much on the strength of promised municipal services and corruption among its opponents as it did on ideological grounds, a series of promises many say it has failed to keep, as it fixated on Israel.

"If Hamas spent more time building up the Gaza Strip, building up the economy, building up the education system and less time worrying about Israel everybody would be better off," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Hamas does not represent all Palestinians. It physically seized control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007 in an armed conflict with its opposition, the more moderate Fatah party, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, collapsing the unity government.

Israel set up a blockade of the strip as a reaction and Hamas only intensified its missile campaign on Israel, leading us to the current military operation. The group receives funding from Iran, as does Hezbollah -- the other heavily armed radical Islamist group facing Israel from southern Lebanon. It fought Israel to a draw two summers ago.

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