Hamas says that if only Jews still were in Gaza, it would be able to stage peaceful protests. Without them, the only choice is violence.
The odd logic was stated by senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, who explained why the terrorist organization cannot agree to non-violence protests, such as the Arab Spring uprisings.
"Against whom could we demonstrate in the Gaza Strip? When Gaza was occupied, that model was applicable," Zahar was quoted as saying by the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency.
Gaza was the home to more than 9,000 Jews from the early 1980s until 2005, when the Sharon government engineered their expulsion with the supposed aim of ending rocket attacks by Gaza terrorists. Hundreds of Jews in Gaza has been killed and wounded in shooting and bombing attacks.
Now that the Jews are gone, Hamas apparently wants them back so they can be targets of peaceful protests instead of rifle fire and bombs.
Without the Jews, according to Zahar, the publicly-stated non-violent strategy by the Ramallah-based Fatah party will not work. He disputed claims by Fatah that Khaled Mashaal, the supreme leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, agreed to adopt its policies.
"We only discussed that as a slogan," he explained. "We can't use the same means seen in Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia because they are inappropriate in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria]. “Egypt got rid of the British occupation with arms, and since we are resisting occupation, we should use all means including armed resistance."
Zahar dismissed the idea of only staging “rallies and waving flags." Hamas previously has said that the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and the release of more than a thousand terrorists and security prisoners for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit last October prove that violence is the only recourse for Arabs.