The elected officials in Hamas after 2006 wanted an army to protect itself, and that is not only very reasonable as a general expectation for the people to have, but normal globally. Until recently in fact, Costa Rico was the only country in the world without an army. No matter how poor an impoverished a country is, it has a right to defend itself and thus have a military, and a police force, which even Costa Rica had. That is what Hamas did is fill that “void” created by Israel. Israel will only let those in the West Bank have a police force, but not an army, that is under their control. The PLO had capitulated the right for the Palestinians to have its own defense force—like every other country has. It’s very natural that when you don’t have a military defensive force of mechanism that you aren’t a country anymore and eventually will disappear into dust and memory. This is not about me liking or condoning the tactics Hamas took, but about the mechanism of expected defensive forces a people must have and expect to defend their people. Once the Palestinians give up having a defensive mechanism to protect their people from invasion or outward hostility, then they are no longer a people, they are the remnants of history, remembered in books and articles, but fading in feeling and power.