Hamas is Still Defiant

SCOTT NELSON/AFP Palestinian youths wave an array of flags at a Hamas rally Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 In a sun-lit office in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk looks at home. But he is a new resident of Syria, having arrived just three years ago after being expelled from Jordan. In 1997, he was deported from the U.S. after being held as a suspected terrorist for two years. After being largely sidelined by the Oslo peace process, Hamas is now back at center stage in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Western governments, Israel and many Palestinians believe the group represents a major threat to regional stability. Less than a week after devastating Hamas suicide attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa, and as Hamas activists were being rounded up by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Abu Marzook outlined his defiant perspective from the group's exile base in the Syrian capital. Excerpts:

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