Inside Hamas

Zaki Chehab
May 2007     ISBN: 156025968X

"Inside Hamas could hardly be more timely."
--Christian Science Monitor, June 26, 2007

One of the few journalists not to be surprised by Hamas's victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections was Zaki Chehab, one of the Arab world's leading reporters and among the first to interview members of the Iraqi resistance in May 2003. As a Palestinian raised in UN refugee camps in Lebanon, Chehab has unique access to and understanding to key figures, making Inside Hamas a rare window into the much-discussed but little understood radical movement.

Tracing the rise of Hamas, Chehab reveals how the group developed with the implicit encouragement of the Israelis-- their first weapons cache was purchased from Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency, who wanted to weaken Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. He uncovers the extent of the Israeli intelligence service's penetration of the organization, even at the highest levels.

Like Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon, Chehab shows how Hamas built a formidable social base in Palestine through its welfare programs. He also explains why in the face of the endless complexities, disappointments, and delays brought about by the Oslo Peace Accord, Hamas's strategy of armed struggle offers the Palestinian people a seductive, simple and deadly alternative.

Revealing for the first time how Hamas prepares their "martyrs" for suicide bombing attacks, Chehab also investigates their relationship with other groups, such as Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. The picture that emerges is of a political leadership driven above all else by a desire for power.

Zaki Chehab is one of the Arab world's leading journalists. He is political editor of the London-based Al Hayat and of the Arabic TV channel LBC. For over twenty-five years he has covered Middle Eastern conflicts as a commentator for the Arab and Western media, including CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera.