Victims Or Victors?

This should be a somber time for Muslim fundamentalists in the Israeli- occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Over the past three weeks, Israel has deported 415 alleged Islamic activists to Lebanon and jailed 1,000 others; dozens more have been shot in clashes with the army. But far from despairing, adherents of the fundamentalist movement are jubilant. "The Israelis," says a member of Hamas, the main fundamentalist organization, "have done us a big favor. We are the winners in all of this."

Nothing has brought Hamas more attention around the world than the frigid exile of the 415 men expelled by...