Word: gaza
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...photo op of Hamas leaders with a free and smiling Briton--BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, released after 114 days of Gaza captivity--is, among other things, a huge publicity coup for Hamas and its leader, Ismail Haniyeh. It allows the embattled Haniyeh to show he can deliver positive results in his new role as the top authority in the Gaza Strip and to say, with some legitimacy, that he can bring stability back to Gaza's lawless streets...
...release was won through strong-arm tactics. A senior Hamas militant told TIME that Johnston's kidnappers, the Army of Islam, were made an offer they couldn't refuse: either they let the Briton go, or they would be hunted down and killed. The group, linked to the powerful Gaza Dogmush clan and its coterie of gunrunners and criminals, had its compound surrounded by 6,000 Hamas gunmen in the 48 hours before Johnston's release...
Freeing Johnston, say Palestinian analysts, may help pave the way toward the release of another Gaza hostage, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, because the Army of Islam is among the militant groups that helped kidnap Shalit a year ago. But he would probably be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, and Israeli officials must first overcome their aversion to dealing with Hamas, a group they still brand as "terrorists...
...into Britain." The group, numbering several hundred, claim to be inspired by al-Qaeda's anti-Western agenda, but Hamas leaders refer to them as kidnappers and guns-for-hire patronized by Fatah security forces loyal to Palestinian President Abbas. It was only after Hamas defeated Fatah militia in Gaza last month, said Johnston, that his abductors became edgy and nervous...
...Johnston is a timely boon for Hamas' leaders who, despite their election victory, are boycotted by the West for refusing to renounce violence against Israel. Britain, which along with the U.S. has steadfastly refused to deal with Hamas, found itself negotiating directly with Haniyeh. Sacked by Abbas after the Gaza clashes, Haniyeh continues to run a Hamas phantom government in Gaza. In contrast to Abbas, whose own authority in the West Bank is shaky, Hamas can now rightly say that it is fully in control of Gaza. Freeing Johnston will help Hamas achieve a measure of international respectability, and, according...