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Gaza ruins beg questions of Hamas
From the BBC!!!
Standing on a newly formed hillside of rubble in the destroyed Jabaliya refugee camp, five young men all claim to be resistance fighters. "All of Gaza are mujahideen," they said. But when asked which of them had actually fired a gun in the three week-long battle with Israel, none gave a convincing answer.

As armed Hamas policemen climb out from under their beds and remove their wives burkhas return to Gaza's street-corners and traffic-lights, many in Gaza are wondering where they were when it came to fighting the Israeli Army. Hamas still has enough power and influence here that few will criticise the Islamist movement openly. But when Hamas called for a rally to celebrate what it has been calling a historic victory over the Israelis, the citizens of Gaza voted with their feet - they stayed at home. In the past Hamas could easily call tens of thousands into the streets, but this time only party stalwarts could look around the devastation and believe this could be victory, and relatively few green flags unfurled in the crowd.

Hamas supporters claim that many more Israelis died in the three weeks of the war than Tel Aviv's official count of only 13 dead. Likewise they believe the official Hamas announcement that Israel killed only 48 fighters among over 1,300 dead in Gaza. But that begs another question: if so few Hamas fighters died, were they really out there fighting?
Ooooooooh. Awkward...
A man settling in to sleep next to the remnants of his home gave a more sober appraisal. Yusef, a farmer from Jabaliya, was burning old kitchen cupboards to keep himself warm, as nightfall brought the winter's cold. Israeli bombs destroyed his house, he said, but they were not the only ones to blame. "I blame Israel and Hamas both," he said. "I just want to live."
Posted by: trailing wife 2009-01-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=260504