| In which the expected is announced to have occurred. |
Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",’s former chief in the Gazoo Strip, Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
, has been elected to lead the Paleostinian terror group, succeeding Khaled Mashaal, the organization announced Saturday.
Mashaal, who lives in exile in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates...
, has completed the maximum two terms in office. He became the leader of Hamas in 2004 following the Israeli liquidations of Hamas founders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.
"The Hamas Shura Council on Saturday elected Ismail Haniyeh as head of the movement’s political bureau," the group’s official website announced.
Haniyeh is expected to remain in the Gazoo Strip, though this may make it harder for him to manage the group’s international ties abroad, as traveling in and out of the Strip is difficult.
Haniyeh had long been seen as the leading candidate, with others in the running including Mashaal deputy Moussa Abu Marzouk and senior figure Muhammas Nazal.
Hamas front man Fawzi Barhoum said the group hoped Haniyeh’s election "would see opening to the region."
The 54-year-old takes charge of Hamas as it seeks to ease its international isolation. On Monday the group issued a new program that accepts the notion of a Paleostinian state in territories captured by Israel in the Six Day War of 1967 while still calling for the destruction of Israel.
| Old milk in a new bottle. |
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
. He has been key to Hamas’s attempts to break out of political isolation following its violent takeover of Gazoo.
Haniyeh: From refugee camp to Hamas leader
[IsraelTimes] Though seen as a relatively pragmatic voice in the group, he remains wholly committed to terrorism and ’liberation’ of Israel.
Haniyeh’s modest home in the narrow alleys of Gazoo City’s Shati refugee camp next to the Mediterranean Sea is under constant guard.
| Sure, it's modest above ground. But it is the sprawling, luxurious tunnel complex underneath, never shown to international journalists, that really matters. |
| Yes, but how much longer than the required three years had they been in Ashkelon? Whether they arrived in 1944 or 944, they still were entitled to call themselves refugees. |
| In other words, he is steeped in indoctrination and doublespeak, with no leavening of reality. |
Haniyeh was jugged
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
several times by Israel during the first intifada, or uprising, which erupted in 1987, and was deported to southern Leb in December 1992 along with hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
members.
He first rose to prominence as bureau chief under Hamas’s spiritual father Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the holy man who advocated suicide kabooms against Israel and who was assassinated by Israel in 2004.
Haniyeh escaped liquidation in September 2003 when an Israeli aircraft bombed a house where he and Yassin were meeting.
In 2006 he led Hamas to a shock legislative election victory over Abbas’s Fatah and became prime minister. The international community however refused to deal with any government in which Hamas participated until it renounced violence and recognized Israel and past peace agreements, which it has never done.
The resulting deadlock led to mounting friction between Hamas and Fatah which culminated in Hamas’s seizure of Gazoo in 2007.
Always dressed impeccably in Western-style suits
| ...translation: spending his money peacocking around instead of on housing for his numerous offspring... |