Should Hamas recognize Israel?
Some factions within Hamas' political leadership think that recognizing Israel might be the only way to relieve the situation of the Gaza Strip and ensure the survival of the Hamas movement.
Gaza residents have been telling a macabre joke in recent weeks: Once the Egyptians finish building the huge fishponds they’re planning in Rafah, tens of thousands of tunnel workers will have to take up diving.
Not long ago, Egypt announced that in an effort to stamp out the smuggling enterprise through tunnels from the Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip, it was planning to set up an enormous system of fishponds 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) long. How the ponds will be built, how the large quantities of water will be transferred from el-Arish and when the work will be completed all remain a mystery at this stage. These unknowns aside, the plan’s detractors and the concerned people in Gaza say that the project — if ever implemented — would take so long to complete it would give the tens or hundreds of thousands of unemployed people enough time to find new ways to adapt to the fishponds.
