Wanted: a Caliphate

"We are Muslims," says Munir, a Hamas activist and former member of Fatah, who is not an official Hamas spokesman. "We vote for Islam because Islam is the solution - on every level....From a religious perspective, Muslims cannot legitimize a State of Israel in this region. The Islamic movement would lose its identity if it recognized Israel as a state."

"People don't turn to religion out of despair. Palestinians are religious by nature. They are what you call mesorati [Munir uses the Hebrew word] - traditional. An overwhelming majority are mesorati. And secondly, the PA may have failed, but in the meantime, the Palestinians have grown up. This process of maturation has led them to seek a better alternative."