ARE the tables turning in Gaza? Whenever Egypt wanted to stop Israel and the Palestinian enclave fighting in the past, they would call the Islamist movement, Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007. In the last round of mutual shelling that began on March 12th, the most serious bout of violence for more than a year, it got in touch with another even more extreme Islamist group, Islamic Jihad. Within minutes, calm was restored. Islamic Jihad thus claimed credit for the fighting—and for the subsequent truce.Within 20 minutes, says an Islamic Jihad veteran, his group fired 130 rockets from underground launch-pads at a stretch of Israeli land eight kilometres (five miles) inside Israel. “We are sending a message,” he said. “Next time the Israelis assassinate a Gazan, [Binyamin] Netanyahu knows we will hit Tel Aviv,” he added, referring to Israel’s prime minister.Hamas has lost several regional patrons, notably Syria and Egypt, while Islamic Jihad seems to be gaining appeal. Some Arabs prefer its dogged determination to fight Israel from Palestinian soil to Hamas’s pan-Islamic vision and its support for the various arms of its parent organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood, in Egypt and Syria. Iran now seems to be providing Islamic Jihad with dollops of aid, plus weaponry that is more advanced than anything Hamas can field. Flush with Iranian cash, Islamic Jihad has been trying to...
From The Economist: Middle East and Africa
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