Hamas Cements Grip on Gaza

Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group who handed Fatah its head and tossed Fatah thugs off rooftops in chasing them from Gaza, is continuing to engage in thuggish acts to maintain its rule.

Hamas apparently subscribes to the cement shoes form of governance, which is common to thugocracies and dictatorships around the world. If you dissent from the party line, you'll find yourself in big trouble. MSNBC claims that lives of Gazans have improved in some ways, but you'd be hard pressed to find any that actually matter - they claim that the gunmen have chased thugs off the streets, but that's extremely misleading.

The thugs that were chased off the streets were the Hamas thugs, who no longer have to hide in the shadows and they're now imposing their will without worrying about Fatah opposing them in Gaza.

For most other Gazans, life sucks. If they don't like Islamist rule, there's not much they can do about it.

Many of Gaza's almost 1.5 million residents, who celebrated Israel's withdrawal two years ago only to fall into civil war soon after, have seen their lives improve in some ways and suffer in others as the result of the political split within the Palestinian Authority and Hamas's brand of rule here.

While Hamas has imposed order on Gaza's lawless streets, gunmen from its Executive Force, a 5,000-member paramilitary unit, have employed repressive tactics against Fatah supporters and local journalists.

International aid is again funding Palestinian government salaries, helping revive parts of Gaza's economy. But the closure of the cargo crossings from Israel for all but emergency aid is depriving Gaza's small manufacturers of raw materials. An estimated 85 percent of the territory's manufacturing sector has been shut down since June and more than 35,000 workers have been laid off, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

"We blame Hamas, the reason for all of this," said Hamdi Badr, 49, who two months ago shut down the clothing factory his family has owned since 1969. "But we don't really know what to do."

The steel shutters of storefront factories along Badr's street are closed, and the only sign of life is dogs sniffing through pyramids of trash. Abbas's government in the West Bank has cut off municipal funds that Gaza once used for garbage collection.

Badr flipped on fluorescent lights over rows of empty sewing machines, ceiling fans suddenly stirring the musty air. He employed 50 people when he closed his doors, and earned $4,000 a month. Now the people and profits are gone.

The same people who were cheering when Israel withdrew from Gaza are now stuck worrying about when the other shoe will drop as Hamas continues to impose Islamist rule and Western culture gets shoved to the side.

The Gazans have no one to blame but themselves for picking an Islamist terrorist group as part of their government. They may claim that they voted Hamas to oppose the kleptocracy of Fatah, but the reality is no different. They have lousy leaders and they keep making the worst choices under the circumstances.