Image is Everything

Hamas published a glossy magazine highlighting the achievements of its Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades. AP elaborates:

Hamas has used the closure to whip up anger in the Arab world, painting a picture of poverty and hunger in Gaza. But that hasn’t prevented the Islamists from building up a costly media machine.

Last year it launched a daily newspaper, which frequently publishes exclusive interviews with Hamas leaders. The group also runs several internet Web sites, a radio station and a satellite television station that broadcasts news and children’s shows.

Hamas is less tolerant of independent media. It has harassed reporters and media outlets it sees as hostile, and a Hamas-dominated court last week ordered the closure of al-Ayyam, a paper associated with its moderate Fatah rivals, because it published a caricature of a senior Hamas official.

The new Hamas magazine is another sign that the once-secretive militant group is acting more like a government concerned with its own image, said Palestinian analyst Talal Okal.