Hamas Credo Led It to End Cease-Fire

RAMALLAH, West Bank — On the wall of the Israeli government press office in Jerusalem on Monday was a stack of yellow Post-it notes pasted one on top of the next, with the number 10,048 scrawled on the top one. That was the number of Palestinian rockets and mortar shells fired into Israel from Gaza since 2001.

It was quickly out of date, and other Post-its will soon be stacked on top.

For Israel, the tally has prompted internal debate about how to counter the threat from Hamas’s homemade rockets and those of other armed Palestinian factions.

For Hamas, the very existence of that number in an Israeli office is an achievement. As plumes of smoke rise from Gaza, it is Hamas that dominates the television news and newspaper headlines.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/world/middleeast/30hamas.html?th&emc=th