I promise I'll stop blogging about Hamas soon, but it's fascinating to watch the media story play out. The top story of the Globe & Mail today is Hamas: Separate classes for girls and boys. Hamas "will overhaul the Palestinian education system to separate boys and girls and introduce a more Islamic curriculum". Based on the past campaign against Sharia law in Ontario, the inference is clear: give those crazy Muslims power, and the first thing they do is attack women's rights.

Of course, Hamas leader Sheik Mohammed Abu Tier is not calling for mandatory veiling, or banning alcohol. But it's a slippery slope. Sharia is a bad thing.

You gotta respect a guy who hennaes his beard - Sheik Abu Tier (Photo: Oded Balilty/AP)

But I'd argue Sharia law is not the reason Hamas is in power. It got elected because it's the one major party to openly support the Palestinian national movement: "The armed struggle against Israel will continue as long as Israel continues its occupation of Palestinian lands", Abu Tier said. And, despite their protestations, the bourgeois press understands this too:

Israel has said it will ignore a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, and several countries, including the United States and Canada, have suggested they will not deal with Hamas unless it deletes language in its founding charter calling for the destruction of Israel.

The Globe and Mail has never questioned the legality or morality of the Occupation - which has killed dozens of women and men and destroyed thousands of families, not to mention immiserating whole generations of Palestinian women. You could call that an act of misogyny. But anti-feminism is what 'they' do - just like in Iraq and Afghanistan. Feminism is ignored until it's convenient.

The hysteria even confuses Hamas:

Mr. Abu Teir expressed dismay at how news of Hamas's victory was received in the West, saying he didn't understand why the West, after years of giving money to a Palestinian Authority run by the corrupt Fatah movement, was now considering withholding aid.

“Why is the West worried? We're not thieves. Had that money been given to us, it would have found many good uses.”

Perhaps the sheik doesn't understand how the west mobilizes human rights against its political enemies, while willfully ignoring its own transgressions. But, as he gets used to the exigencies of power, I suspect he'll figure it out pretty quickly and use it to his own ends.

Oh yeah, one more thing: the article says "Palestinians regularly use Israeli hospitals, roads and the Israeli electricity grid, and the Palestinian Authority relies on Israel to collect sales taxes on its behalf." So what if the Israelis steal their farmland and water, encase them behind a wall and invade their cities? That's a good deal, right? Right?...