Mustafa Barghouti is no ally of Hamas. A Palestinian reformer who has long advocated for nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation and frequently opposed both Hamas and Fattah in elections. But he doesn't see Israel's attacks on Gaza as a strike against Hamas. He sees them as the butchery of the Palestinian people. His response should be read in full. Not because it's necessarily right, but because it's important. This is what the process of radicalization looks like. Barghouti is not a member of Hamas. He is not a terrorist. But his countrymen, friends, and family are being killed. He says that "the massacre could presumably provoke a new generation of suicide bombers." If so, will it have been worth it? Having run for office in Palestine, he says that the bombing "will not undermine Hamas." What exactly is being accomplished here? Indeed, as Spencer Ackerman argues, what we're seeing may be nothing less than the end of the international isolation that has hampered Hamas. Israel is making them into a legitimate and popular resistance -- akin to Fatah under Arafat -- and under those circumstances, few governments in the region will find it tenable to oppose them. Elsewhere, Marc Lynch examines the Arab press. "Almost every Arab media outlet, even those bitterly hostile to Hamas, is running bloody images from Gaza," he says. There are protests roiling the streets from Amman to Cairo, and many of them are aimed at pro-Western Arab governments. In Egypt, for instance, the Muslim Brotherhood is leading street demonstrations and shaking the parliament. Syria has cut off its indirect talks with Israel and Jordanian parliamentarians are calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. Lynch predicts that that the regional environment will not soon recover, Hamas may well be strengthened against Fatah, and we can look forward to "an even more poisoned, polarized and toxic regional environment for a new President who had pledged to re-engage with the peace process."
