www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20152
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epppie since 1 hour 5 minutes
Every time Israel's warmongers and their US supporters tell us how unspeakable Hamas is (about which they may be right), consider the Audacity of their Hypocrisy: "Israel initially encouraged the rise of the Palestinian Islamist movement as a counter to the Palestine Liberation Organization, ... While supporters of the secular PLO were denied their own media or right to hold political gatherings, the Israeli occupation authorities allowed radical Islamic groups to hold rallies, publish uncensored newspapers and even have their own radio station. ... Hamas, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Islamic Resistance Movement), was founded in 1987 by Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who had been freed from prison when Israel conquered the Gaza Strip 20 years earlier. Israel's priorities in suppressing Palestinian dissent during this period were revealing: In 1988, Israel forcibly exiled Palestinian activist Mubarak Awad, a Christian pacifist who advocated the use of Gandhian- style resistance to the Israeli occupation and Israeli-Palestinian peace, while allowing Yassin to circulate anti-Jewish hate literature and publicly call for the destruction of Israel by force of arms. American policy was not much different..."