Despite Hamas's impressive electoral performance, the 2006 elections to the Palestinian Parliament have intensified ideological differences, sharpened political dilemmas, and highlighted tensions within various factions. This may explain why Hamas has espoused a strategy of action combining an ideological platform of continuous struggle for the establishment of an Islamic state in all of Palestine, and an agenda that takes into account immediate community interests and requires short-term recognition of a temporary arrangement in which a Palestinian state exists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alone. While Hamas has ruled out formal recognition of Israel, some leaders have declared a willingness to achieve a long-term ceasefire that would imply recognition of Israel as "an existing reality" in return for an Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders.

"This thoughtful book attempts to formulate a new relationship and a new negotiating strategy between Israel and its Arab neighbors… The innovative proposal put forward is an exchange of asymmetrical assurances: the Arabs will assure Israel that its security, and its existance, are not in danger, and Israel will assure the Arabs that it has no intention of imposing any economic or cultural hegemony. Thus it is hoped that the imbalance between Arab territorial and numerical advantage over Israel, and Israel's economic and technological advantage over the Arabs, will be compensated to the mutual advantage of both."

From the Foreword by HRH prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan.

Since it emerged as a challenger to the PLO during the Palestinian Intifada, Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) has been associated in the public mind with terror and violence. Now two Israeli experts show that, contrary to its image, Hamas is essentially a social and political movement, providing extensive community services and responding constantly to political realities through bargaining and power brokering. The authors lift the veil on Hamas's strategic decision-making methods at each of the crucial crossroads it has confronted: the Intifada and the struggle with the PLO, the Oslo accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, and the dilemmas surrounding the choice between absolute Jihad against Israel versus the option of controlled violence.

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The Intifada of 1987 inspired a new kind of Palestinian radicalism, a radicalism born on young shoulders, a radicalism that conducts its dialog with Israel and the local population via the stone, the slingshot, the petro bomb, and the leaflet.

The leaflet brings the people into the streets and instruct them what to do, and when, and how. They determine the boundaries of the permissible. If one wants to know why the Intifada erupted, what the Palestinians think and what they are fighting for, how they operate and how they perceive Israel, and whether there is anything to talk about, one should read the Palestinian leaflets. They are the documents from which the Palestinians go forth and to which they return.

This book explains the PLO's failure to translate its diplomatic success into territorial gains. It carefully analyzes PLO policy under Yasir Arafat's leadership, which It describes as characterized by a combination of political flexibility and ideological conformity. PLO flexibility has helped the organization gain internatonal status and the world sympathy. However, its consistent refusal to recognize Israel and to endorse U.N. Resolution 242 has hampered its ability to participate in a negotiated settlement.

This detailed study, which draws on previously unexploited Jordanian archives that came into the possession of Israel during the Six-Day War, describes what happened on the two banks during the years 1949 and 1967 and explains the explosive aftermath. Mishal analyzes here for the first time what it meant to the Palestinians to be simultaneously Palestinian, Arab, and Jordanian, and what it meant to the Jordanian government to have this large, dissatisfied group within its borders.