How free of a society do you think Hamas runs?

I don't. Hamas operated a brutal authoritarian system as well. It may be that the Palestinians end up getting moved from one brutal authoritarian system to another. But the second brutal authoritarian system will lack even the minor saving grace of being run by people that are from the region and have some connection (familial or otherwise) with the population there.

Again, none of this is an argument that the deal is bad or shouldn't have happened - or that a better one is or ever was on offer. It's not even intended as a criticism of the deal. I personally think this is a very significant accomplishment and one that will merit a great deal of praise if it lasts for a while. Rather, it's just a discussion of the things that make this deal very different from what was ever on offer before, as a way of possibly explaining why this deal got to a "yes" when other ones did not.

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