Chicago Tribune:

The Israeli-Hamas bond goes back to the very inception of the Palestinian Islamist organization. Israel didn't create Hamas in 1987, but in an effort to counter the more secular Fatah and Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1970s, it gave a variety of Islamist groups political space and leeway. It even granted an operating license for an organization created by Hamas' founder, Ahmed Yassin. Paradoxically, Hamas' very reason for being depended on the existence of Israel — even though its main aim was to destroy it.

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