Hamas: Politics, Charity, And Terrorism in the Service of Jihad

Matthew Levitt

Yale University Press, Mar 22, 2007 - History - 324 pages

How does a group that operates terror cells and espouses violence become a ruling political party? How is the world to understand and respond to Hamas, the militant Islamist organization that Palestinian voters brought to power in the stunning election of January 2006?
This important book provides the most fully researched assessment of Hamas ever written. Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism expert with extensive field experience in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, draws aside the veil of legitimacy behind which Hamas hides. He presents concrete, detailed evidence from an extensive array of international intelligence materials, including recently declassified CIA, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security reports.
Levitt demolishes the notion that Hamas' military, political, and social wings are distinct from one another and catalogues the alarming extent to which the organization's political and social welfare leaders support terror. He exposes Hamas as a unitary organization committed to a militant Islamist ideology, urges the international community to take heed, and offers well-considered ideas for countering the significant threat Hamas poses.

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Review: Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad

User Review - Goodreads

I only managed to read half of this and even that was a real struggle. The author is a treasury department official and this reads like a government policy paper. The author doesn't seem to feel that ...

Review: Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad

User Review  - Nathan Beaton - Goodreads

Write a review.... .

Contents

• INTRODUCTION: 1
• Origins of the Hamas Dawa: 8
• CHAPTER 2: 33
• How Hamas Finances Terror: 52
• CHAPTER 4: 79
• CHAPTER 6: 124
• Foreign Funding of Hamas: 143
• State Support for Hamas: 171
• Will Hamas Target the West?: 203
• Displacing the Hamas Dawa: 229
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: 251

About the author

This book was written while Matthew Levitt was a senior fellow and director of terrorism studies at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the Department of the Treasury or the United States Government.
 
Matthew Levitt is Senior Fellow and Director of the Stein Program on Terrorism, Intelligence and Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Hamas: Politics, Charity, And Terrorism in the Service of Jihad
• Author: Matthew Levitt
• Contributor: Dennis Ross
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Yale University Press, 2007
• ISBN: 0300122586, 9780300122589
• Length: 324 pages
• Subjects: History / Middle East / General; Political Science / Terrorism