Hamas

Hamas is an Arabic acronym for Islamic resistance movement meaning zeal.

Hamas is divided into political and military branches with the former directing Hamas' vast social service network. The military branch is reportedly divided into three wings: an intelligence arm which gathers information about Palestinians suspected of collaboration, an arm which pursues those who have violated Islamic law and the Izzedine al-Qassam squads who are responsible for most of the terror attacks. The al-Qassam squads are comprised of a few dozen activists loosely organized into small, shadowy terror cells, at times operating independently of each other.

Unlike the more shadowy Islamic Jihad, Hamas is a well-entrenched, all-encompassing presence in daily life in the West Bank and Gaza, administering mosques, schools, clinics, youth groups, athletic clubs and day-care centers. Capitalizing on depleting PLO coffers after the PLO's ill-fated support of Saddam Hussein, Hamas augmented its social service infrastructure, providing Palestinians with essential humanitarian services which the PLO was no longer able to furnish. In fact, 95 percent of Hamas' budget is believed to finance its social service activities.

Why are they so popular?

Many Palestinians are drawn primarily or solely to Hamas' humanitarian services rather than its political and military doctrines. At the same time, the boundaries between Hamas' political/social and its military activities are blurred particularly since Hamas leaders use mosques, kindergartens, and youth clubs as forums for spewing anti-Israel propaganda and mobilizing support for violence against Israel.

When Hamas scored a landslide victory in the Palestinian Authority legislative elections in 2006, the stage was set for a bitter power struggle with Fatah. It has remained steadfast to its pledge never to sign up to a permanent ceasefire while Israel occupies Palestinian territory and its troops are responsible for the deaths of Palestinians.

But if Hamas leaders thought its parliamentary victory would bestow greater credibility on them in the eyes of the international community - or if they thought in any way that they would be given any more leeway - they were mistaken. The new government was subjected to tough economic and diplomatic sanctions by Israel and its allies in the West.

Skirmishes in Gaza with the Fatah-dominated PA security forces escalated to all-out war, in which the well-armed and better-disciplined Qassam Brigades eventually ousted their rivals in May 2007.

The Israeli attacks in Gaza is horrible, and many would think it is unjustifiable. It is definitely wrong to attack civilians and civilian areas, also with reported death counts of 595 killed (close to 195 being children), but let's consider how much brainwashing Hamas has made. Close to 95 percent of their money goes into helping the people. By helping people with medicine, homes, mosques, and schools, they're giving off the impression of their goodness. It becomes easier for the people to accept them. It's not tactic to judge harshly; all countries have done it, and especially the United States. Hamas has done no wrong; we cannot judge them because everyone else has done equally evil things.
I'm not sympathizing with Hamas, nor am I siding with Israel. Israel is going about it the wrong way. The solution would be getting to the people, not killing them. The main thing I want out of this post is to get people to understand the hate and violence. There's really no reason to hate one another, for we have no right to judge.

Quotes from
BBC
ADL