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A year after the Gaza War, Hamas faces one of its most complex challenges yet: how to develop a practical political agenda without compromising its basic tenets and ideology of resistance. The movement is divided over issues such as the use of violence, how to confront Israel, and options for renewing a Palestinian unity government. While Hamas firmly rejects a final agreement with Israel, there are signs that it seeks some accommodation and stabilization of the conflict. Are these merely tactical maneuvers or strategic changes in Hamas' approach? How is Israel responding to these changing dynamics? Can Hamas and Fatah overcome their divisions and rebuild a unified government? The outcome of these debates could dramatically alter Palestinian politics and the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Haim Malka is deputy director and senior fellow in the Middle East Program at CSIS. His principal areas of research include violent non-state actors, the Arab-Israeli conflict, North Africa, and political Islam. Before joining CSIS in 2005, he was a research analyst at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, where he concentrated on Israeli-Palestinian issues and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Malka spent six years living in Jerusalem, where he worked as a television news producer covering the region. He holds a BA from the University of Washington in Seattle and an MA from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He is a frequent commentator in print, on radio, and on television, and the author of numerous articles on Hamas and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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