WoooHooo! No booze and no chicks! Party on!
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Hamas marked the 20th anniversary of its founding with a huge rally Saturday, sending a message of strength and defiance even as it is struggling to keep Gaza the Strip from sinking deeper into poverty.
Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters gathered in a sandy lot and nearby streets, waving green Islamic flags. The crowd appeared to be at least equal in size to a march last month in support of Hamas’ rival, Fatah. That rally drew 250,000 in a major challenge to Hamas.
A large turnout Saturday was seen as critical for the increasingly embattled Hamas, which seized control of Gaza by force in June. Since then, the coastal strip has been virtually cut off from the world, with Israel and Egypt sharply restricting access, and 1.5 million Gazans have been driven deeper into poverty.
Every time the Gaza Strip is brought up, I find it useful to remind everyone that the median age there is 16:
Age structure:
0-14 years: 47.6% (male 361,115/female 344,236)
15-64 years: 49.9% (male 377,927/female 361,824)
65 years and over: 2.5% (male 15,454/female 21,849) (2007 est.)
Median age:
total: 16 years
male: 15.9 years
female: 16.2 years (2007 est.)
Hamas is a great example of what happens when an Islamist terrorist group takes over a failed state. We have watched this train wreck ever since Hamas took over, and due to the presence of the media and their obsession with the Arab-Israeli conflict, the failure of Hamas to initiate any type of progress has been total.
If we abandon Iraq, it will become a much larger and much more dangerous Gaza Strip. Somalia is already, and Afghanistan has been pulled back from the brink, after having been under the control of Hamas’ fellow travelers. This situation will continue to implode, and as I have said before, maintaining the status quo of suffering is in the best interests of states like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.
