Quote Originally Posted by Kent Magpie View Post
It was always thus - in my day it was the PLO. Israel defeated / discredited them... and they became Hamas. I feel this is history repeating itself.
PLO did not become HAMAS.

If you watch the documentary I cited earlier you'd see that the PLO (Arafat) and Rabin had agreed a Peace Deal (Oslo Accord) and the two men considered each other as partners. Unfortunately Arafat did not control all the extremists and Hamas didn't go along with the deal. So really Hamas defeated the PLO, not Israel.

Rabin being then assassinated by a Jewish right-wing extremist, and Arafat failing to achieve the agreed Palestinian liberation, and subsequently also died in somewhat mysterious circumstances, shows how hard this all is without having misinformation.