SCHANZER: GAZA BECOMING TALIBAN-ESQUE

In 2005, Israel handed the Gaza Strip over to the Palestinians, which were led at the time by the Palestinian Authority. In 2007, Hamas violently wrested complete control of Gaza. Hamas is a group inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood and is similarly Sunni - just like the Taliban.

Jonathan Schanzer at the Jewish Policy Center reports that Hamas is beginning to turn Gaza into something resembling a swath of land in Afghanistan.

..in the two years since the 2007 coup, the Gaza Strip has steadily exhibited the characteristics of "Talibanization" -- a process mirroring the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s whereby the Islamist organization imposed strict rules on women; discouraged activities commonly associated with Western or Christian culture; oppressed non-Muslim minorities; imposed sharia law; and deployed religious police to enforce these laws. This has only served to underscore the dangers associated with the rise to power of Islamist groups in the Muslim world.

Any guesses as to how Ismael Haniyeh, Hamas leader and Gaza overloard responds to such accusations? Hint: The same way the Obama Administration responds to charges that it's spamming the American people with Health Care emails from David Axelrod:

Ismael Haniyeh, the ascendant ruler of Gaza, officially denied accusations by the PLO and some Palestinian media outlets that Hamas intended to establish an Islamic emirate.

Nothing to see here.

Schanzer continues:

The Islamization of justice in Gaza has been compounded by the emerging strength of the "Authority for the Propagation of Morality and Prohibition of Vice," aimed to "fight those who are being corrupted by Satan, and do not observe sharia law." The vice squads were not new; they had operated in Hamas-controlled neighborhoods in Gaza and the West Bank for years. Under Hamas rule, however, they began to operate in wider territory and with impunity.

Authority for the Propagation of Morality and Prohibition of Vice? Is there a Czar in charge of that department?

Be sure to read SCHANZER'S ENTIRE PIECE.

Isn't it interesting how a country like Honduras sees worldwide outrage when it removes a president from office who is found to have been laying the groundwork for keeping himself in office, which would have blatantly violated his country's Constitution yet not a peep at this insanity taking place in Gaza?