Not everyone is happy about the death of Osama bin Laden. According to Reuters:
“We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs,” Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters…
In the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, Haniyeh accused the United States of pursuing a policy based on “oppression and the shedding of Arab and Muslim blood.”
“We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior,” he said.
The Palestinian Authority praised the killing of bin Laden, but they have just entered into a unity pact with their Hamas rivals, so it is unclear what the official Palestinian position is. And see the video above for Palestinian reaction in the streets to the 9-11 attacks.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Too bad Israel helped to create Hamas!
That’s crazy, MOM. That makes as much sense as saying the US created Al Qaeda or rape-victims create their attackers.
Oh, she’s just a mite irritable. It’s been a rough couple of days. First Bin Ladin and now Jeff Hall.
All the good ones are going, hey Mom?
Better be careful, the international Jewish conspiracy knows who you are and how many closely-tailored SS uniforms you own.
Really, you guys don’t know basic historical facts – http://on.wsj.com/3Y58ej . You may want to read a little more widely before calling others crazy.
Seriously? —
First, I did not call MOM crazy. I called her claim crazy, a subtle but important distinction.
Second, there is an incredibly important and not so subtle difference between taking steps to divide and weaken your enemy and “creating” your enemy. Israel no more created Hamas than the US created al Qadea or the Taliban. I know there are people out there who make all of these claims, but those claims are crazy.
The virulent anti-US and anti-Israel strains of Islam existed prior to anything that the U.S. or Israel did. Efforts by the U.S. or Israel to channel the violence of those movements against their other enemies is perfectly sensible policy and does not constitute “creating” those groups. And if those groups become more serious threats in their own right, then it is sensible to denounce and destroy them.
I could go on with the numerous examples of this divide and conquer strategy that no sensible person would blame a country for doing or suggest that they “created” enemy groups by engaging in it. For example, the U.S. facilitated French and Serbian communist partisans to resist the Nazis. Does that mean that the U.S. “created” the French Communist movement or the Yugoslavian government?
What worries me is why people would make such an obvious logical and linguistic slip. No sensible person blames the U.S. for creating al Qaeda, the Taliban, French Communists, or Tito, so why would we think that it is sensible to blame Israel for creating Hamas? It seems like the purpose of the this inconsistent and obvious sophistry is to undermine sympathy for Israel as a legitimate victim of Hamas violence.
I guess I am now suggesting that people who blame Israel for “creating” Hamas are crazy or motivated by ill-will. Of course, MOM can clarify or withdraw her claim to avoid that accusation.
One more thing, “Serious?” — the article to which you link says “Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged [Hamas] as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah.” Does that sound like the same thing as “creating” a group?
I know the article quotes Avner Cohen using the word creating, but
1) I just think that is a form of excessive self-criticism. He feels guilty that he and others did not anticipate and prevent future problems. It is a figurative use of the word “create,” not a literal one.
2) Just because he says it, doesn’t mean he’s right. The actions by Israel in the article seem little more than allowing groups to exist and trying to establish friendly relations with them in the hopes that they will turn out to be better than other groups. No acts of creating are described, like gathering the leaders, giving them instructions, being their primary source of funds or operational support, etc… If tolerating is the same as “creating” then we are “creating” all sorts of groups by tolerating them under the 1st Amendment.
There is also a not so subtle distinction between saying Israel created Hamas and Israel helped create Hamas. The historical record is very clear about Israel doing the latter.
You don’t seem willing to address any of the arguments I’ve raised, “seriously?” so it is a little hard to take you seriously. Did the U.S. “help create” al Qaeda, the Taliban, French Communists, Tito, etc…?
I don’t think any reasonable person would think so, which leads me to wonder about why you, MOM, or others might want to accuse Israel of “helping create” Hamas. I suspect it is because you wish to shift some of the blame away from Hamas to Israel for the atrocities that Hamas commits against Israel. I find this as vile as blaming the U.S. for the 9-11 attacks by suggesting that the U.S. “helped create” al Qaeda.
I am done engaging you and I no longer wish to have you comment on my blog.