Explore the vast range of titles available.

Many in the United States and Israel believe that Hamas is nothing but a terrorist organization, and that its social sector serves merely to recruit new supporters for its violent agenda. Based on Sara Roy's extensive fieldwork in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during the critical period of the Oslo peace process, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza shows how the social service activities sponsored by the Islamist group emphasized not political violence but rather community development and civic restoration.

Ankara: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met political bureau chief of Hamas Khaled Mashal in Ankara.

To his voice was added that of Khaled Mashal, a leader of the militant Islamic Hamas movement which has a long record of suicide bombings and opposes any peace deal with Israel. He announced that Hamas should continue attacks on Israel despite the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement to take measures to end the violence. Mr Mashal, whom Israel's Mossad agents tried to assassinate by poisoning three years ago - said that his activists would not confront [Yasser Arafat]'s Palestinian Authority even though it was likely to arrest more Hamas activists in the next few days under the agreement between Ehud Barak, Israeli's Prime Minister and Mr Arafat, the Palestinian leader.

\"The weakening of the terror organizations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have created a leadership vacuum external bodies are trying to fill. The most obvious are Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas headquarters in Damascus, both of them egged on by Syria,\" says Ha'aretz military commentator Amos Harel. The Israeli assessments begged the question of whether military operations in Syria might be in the offing. Deputy Defence Minister Ze'ev Boim's answer was prompt. \"The rule that 'anyone who deals in terror against Israel is a target' is a rule that must be stated and one that we must stand behind.\" \"Whether they sink a boat, [attack] a truck convoy or strike storehouses, the time has come for us - even at the price of the danger of conflagration - to set down a red line and declare: 'This is it. We will not allow heavy surface-to-surface missiles to be deployed in Lebanon and pose a significant strategic threat to northern central Israel.' \"

BEIRUT - Hezbollah and Hamas have agreed to continue their resistance against Israel despite U.S. pressure on the groups, a Hezbollah statement said Sunday. Describing Hamas relationship with Hezbollah as \"strong,\" [Khaled Mashal] told reporters after meeting [Hassan Nasrallah], \"We are partners in this march of confronting a common enemy. In the same way south Lebanon was liberated, we have hope that all of Palestine will be liberated.\"

[Khaled Mashal] also briefed [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] about the developments following the ceasefire between Israel and Palestine, and said that Palestinians would never forget Erdogan's contributions in Gaza.

\"Israel is the common enemy. Confrontation with the enemy is our moment of truth,\" he said. \"We must end the political divide and unite around common institutions and around resistance to Israel. Our enemy cannot be treated with words, but only by force. No concessions should be made with Israel, given the new atmosphere in the Arab world.\" - JTA News and Features

Israel asserts that the kidnappings were the result of a deliberate strategy crafted by Syria and Iran, and implemented by Hamas and Hezbollah, to stoke violence on the Palestinian front. [Arye Mekel] tracked the coordination back to a little-noticed January 2006 visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Damascus, during which he met Syrian President Bashar Assad, as well as the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, and two other terrorist groups: Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. At a joint press conference, Ahmadinejad and Assad vowed to fight the plots of \"world arrogance and Zionism\" in Lebanon and called for \"continued resistance\" to Israeli \"occupation of the holy Islamic lands.\" According to Mekel, this \"terror summit\" served to coordinate antiIsraeli activities just as Hamas won the Palestinian Authority elections. \"We know [Hamas leader [Khaled Mashal]] Mashal ordered the kidnapping of [Gilad Shalit],\" Mekel said, \"and we know Syria and Iran have a vested interest in keeping the Palestinian issue alive, and use the Hamas government as a beachhead.\" \"The greatest danger for Israel is that the 'West' and most importantly Washington, will begin to see Israel as a mill stone around Washington's neck,\" wrote Landis, who runs the Syrian Comment blog, in an email to the Forward. \"Now that the pet theory of the neocons - that the road to Jerusalem goes through Baghdad-has proven wrong, many in Washington are beginning to come back to the notion that what happens in Israel and Palestine is important to Washington's image in the Middle East and its success in the war on terror. That is why it is all important for [Israel] to keep the focus off 'occupation' and 'legitimate democratic leaders' where the Palestinians will try to put it, and on terror, dictators, and terrorists, where Israel will put it. By focusing on Mashal and not [Palestinian Prime Minister and fellow Hamas leader Ismail] Haniya, on Damascus and not the P.A., and on terrorism and not occupation, [Israel] can remind the U.S. that the two are in the same camp and fighting the same war.\"

This increased confidence has inspired the Islamists' advance against Western interests throughout the Middle East. In the past half year alone, these maneuvers have been particularly bold. In January, Iran publicly cut the seals on its nuclear plants in outright violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In April, Hezbollah's Sheik Hassan Nasrallah admitted that his organization funds Palestinian terrorist organizations - in striking contrast to the group's previous denials. Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a bizarrely combative letter to President Bush, effectively highlighting his belief that the Iranian regime is working from a unique position of power. In recent weeks, Hamas has increasingly confronted the Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, working to replace his security forces with Hamas operatives. Moreover, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leading terrorist in Iraq, recently declared that America \"is breathing its final breath,\" while Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas branded the United States an \"enemy of Islam.\" For its part, the West has failed to act effectively to stem the Islamists' growing confidence and, at times, has actually reinforced it. Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 was perceived as a victory for Hezbollah. Spain's withdrawal from Iraq after the 2004 Madrid train bombings was a clear concession to Islamist terrorism. More recently, Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was viewed as a victory for Palestinian terrorism, fueling Hamas's political aspirations. The West's lack of determination in confronting Iran on its support for terror and pursuit of nuclear weapons has, to a large extent, convinced Tehran that it can continue using terror and nuclear development to its strategic advantage.