@asayeed @Alon @BenRossTransit i think Hamas’ position is more ambiguous. it is the inheritor of Palestinians mimetic Westphalianism, like Fatah, sure. But it is also founded from the Muslim Brotherhood and allied with Iran, both of which in different ways (of as yet indeterminate compatibility) represent anti-Westphalian traditions. 1/

@asayeed @Alon @BenRossTransit it is a national liberation movement and a canny political actor so, sure, when it interacts with governing elites in Turkey and Qatar it is happy to confine its ambitions to the territory between the river and the sea. but i think at its roots it’s allied with the broader pan-Islamist cause, the Zionist entity is a sharp foreign object that must be removed before the wound to the greater umma can be healed. 2/

@asayeed @Alon @BenRossTransit i think particularly Egyptian elites, who struggle (very illiberally) to suppress pan-Islamist yearnings—it’s the Muslim Brotherhood that wins elections—are sensitive to this aspect of Hamas. /fin