Hamas, Israel, and the Gaza Situation
If you are looking for up-to-the-minute details about the conflicts in the Middle East, go to CNN.com or some other news website. They have fantastic maps, interactive displays, and plenty of updated reporting. Here’s the extremely simplified version for those trying to get in the know:
The Gaza Strip is a heavily populated area in Palestine on the Mediterranean coast in Israel bordering Egypt. The term “Palestine” is often used in a general sense to describe the area, although a simple Google search will give you plenty of descriptions, sometimes contradicting each other. Think of it like how Americans call the upper East Coast “New England.”
In the city of Gaza, there is ongoing political and religious infighting between Israeli rule and Hamas among others. Hamas is an Islamic group whose current goal is to make Palestine a fundamentalist state (Source: CNN.com). That means strict accordance to a basic set of beliefs with little or no room for interpretation. Despite democratically winning many local elections and the Palestinian legislative election in 2006, Hamas was removed from their positions and replaced with members of Fatah, the political party led for many years by Yasser Arafat (Source: Wikipedia).
Never going quietly into the good night, Hamas stayed in Gaza and continues to battle Israel for control, often at the expense of civilians. A cease fire with Israel was announced in June 2008 and remained for about six months until both sides opened fire again several days ago. Both parties claim the other “started it,” and efforts are being made by many outside nations to calm the situation. For the record, while Israel is hardly nation of peace, love, and acceptance, Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by several nations including the United States (Source: Wikipedia).
Read on:
CNN.com – Evolution of Hamas
Yahoo! News – Israel mulls truce offer…
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