Hamas “didn’t expect to win”

For confirmation of our assertion that Fatah collapsed in the Gaza Strip, check out Khaled Abu Toameh’s article in today’s Jerusalem Post. Abu Toameh quotes a Hamas official describing the movement’s swift capture of the entire strip as shocking even to themselves.

There is some spin from the official about the validity of the Palestinian security forces in their Fatah-dominated makeup… and he also points out that Fatah’s fighters were demoralized by the fact that their leaders had fled the area, leaving them totally adrift...

Even so, you would expect people to fight if they had been inculcated with a defensive spirit. That Fatah lacked this spirit became glaringly obvious during the confrontations with Hamas.

As the official in the Jerusalem Post story says:

“It was not a matter of a military victory for Hamas as much as it was a psychological defeat for Fatah.”

The groundwork for that psychological defeat was laid well before the Hamas uprising…