The Hamas Tightrope: Between Political Institutionalization and Armed Struggle

Hamas, which was established as a social-religious movement, has evolved from a terror organization and violent non-state actor into a semi-state actor in control of the Gaza Strip and its population, endowed with the political and national responsibility of a national actor. This development has handed Hamas the obligation to maneuver between realizing its identity as an ideological resistance movement and implementing its responsibilities as a governing entity. In particular, it must balance elements that encourage violence against others that seek to restrain violence, while managing the tension between the need to institutionalize itself as a national actor and what it sees as its duty to maintain the ethos of resistance. The relatively restrained manner in which it faces these tensions gives external players, particularly Israel and Egypt, opportunities to limit the movement’s level of violence and focus on its institutionalization processes.