Dissatisfaction over the situation for Palestinians living in Gaza was the main motivation behind the Arab Spring, and the Palestinians are emerging as the biggest winners from recent events in the Arab world, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in a special interview with the British newspaper The Independent, published on Saturday. In an interview conducted from Haniyeh's office in Gaza City, the Hamas leader told The Independent, "The Palestinian cause is winning ... With the Muslim Brotherhood part of the government [in Egypt], they [the Egyptians] will not besiege Gaza. They will not arrest Palestinians. They will not give cover to Israel to launch a war. Gaza was a main reason for the Arab Spring. It was people's anger at the regimes that cooperated with Israel and did not recognize the government here. "Israel is disturbed by this," Haniyeh added. "It knows the strategic environment is changing. Iran is an enemy. Relations are deteriorating with Turkey. With Egypt, they are really cold. Israel is in a security situation they have never been in before. The Palestinians are winning more than anybody else due to what's happening in the Arab countries. That will come out clearly in the future." Criticizing the West, and especially the U.S., for supporting the continued blockade on Gaza, Haniyeh told The Independent, "These people [the West] asked us to have elections and respect the result of elections, and we did. We did what we were asked to do. Anybody who asks for democracy to be introduced should respect the results of democracy." Asked if, in the context of upholding democracy, he would respect the results of an election next year if Hamas were to lose, he said "Of course ... We respect the peaceful transition of authority. We will not make the same mistakes others made in not recognizing the result in 2006." Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, defeating Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction. After failed power-sharing attempts, Hamas seized Gaza a year later, defeating Abbas' forces and leaving him with only the West Bank. During the interview, Haniyeh expressed particular ire at Israel's blockade on goods entering and leaving Gaza. He claimed the, "Israelis don't want to see the Palestinian people get anywhere," adding that the blockade in Gaza resulted in such severe shortages that cars had to run on cooking oil because of a lack of fuel. Haniyeh asserted the blockade was "the biggest crime that modern history ever witnessed." Asked about Hamas's previous use and praise of suicide bombings against Israelis, Haniyeh answered, "We only did this because there's bloodshed done by the Israelis. It is a reaction to F16s bombarding people, killing people, women and children. They continued targeting Palestinian civilians and that's what pushed the Islamic fighters to do this kind of operation." However, the Hamas prime minister also revealed that the international community's view of Hamas was important to the group. "The Europeans and Americans have said the martyrdom operations are why Hamas has been put on the terrorist list," Haniyeh said. "But now these operations have stopped. Did they then remove Hamas from the list of terrorist organizations-" Haniyeh concluded by reiterating the Palestinian call for an independent state. "The Israelis must recognize us as the Palestinian people. They have to return prisoners, remove all settlements in the West Bank and not have one soldier on Palestinian land; a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital. We are the victims. They are the victimizer."
'Gaza was the main reason for the Arab Spring,' Haniyeh says
In special interview with Britain's The Independent, Hamas ruler says Arab Spring was triggered by "people's anger at the regimes that cooperated with Israel and did not recognize the government in Gaza.
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