Opinion
The victory Hamas has already won
Hamas is not as exposed as the Islamic State — not even close. Hamas and its terrorists have held or expanded their popular support across the Muslim world.
Ross DouthatContributorIn 2014, a new state was formed in the heart of the Middle East. It had a capital, a government, an army and almost 12 million subjects — a larger population than Jordan or Israel. It also had a commitment to butchery, savagery and fanatical violence that quickly earned it the enmity of the entire civilised world.
That universal enmity made it hard to imagine how this state of many names — the Islamic State, ISIS, Daesh — could long survive. At the time, I offered a speculative analogy to the Bolsheviks in Russia, another ruthless bunch of revolutionary terrorists who faced general opprobrium and foreign interventions but survived to govern Russia for several generations.
Subscribe to gift this article
Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.
Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?
Introducing your Newsfeed
Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.
Find out moreRead More
Latest In Middle East
Fetching latest articles