In the middle of a Newsweek report on women’s support for Hamas, a spokesman for the terror group indicated his organization has a long way to go before becoming a legitimate political party:
In the meantime, some female Hamas loyalists have chosen to take up arms themselves. In January 2004, Re’em Rayashi, a 22-year-old mother of two toddlers, walked toward the Erez checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip, where she detonated a suicide bomb that killed her and four Israeli soldiers. Some reports said that she had committed adultery, and been forced into the mission by her jealous husband. Whatever the motive, her act was generally praised by local Hamas leaders, a reminder that elections are not Hamas’s only preoccupation. “Women must decide for themselves what their priorities are,” says Sami Abu-Zuhry, a Hamas official in Gaza. “Raising children for jihad, or participating in acts of martyrdom.”
Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas insists that Israeli objections to Hamas participation in the upcoming Palestinian elections are undemocratic.
