Israeli Defense minister Shaul Mofaz dubbed them a “serious threat to the security of Israel,” while the western press has called them variously the “wild card of the Middle East” (CNN) or the “homemade rockets that may change the Middle East” (Time). For a weapon that didn’t claim a fatality until June 28 of this year, the Qassam rockets have gained widespread notoriety. Qassam rockets are primitive homemade rockets developed by Hamas’ military wing, the Izzedin Al Qassam brigades, during the Aqsa Intifada. Palestine Report’s Ghazi Hamad looks at the Palestinian debate surrounding the weapons. Read more about Divisions emerge over Qassams 

This week Palestine Report Online interviews Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, PCPSR, on the recent turmoil in the Palestinian territories. Shikaki says, “There is a very serious problem within the Palestinian political system. We have a significant component of Palestinian national activists who feel they have been marginalized during the last decade of the peace process, and that they have been marginalized by the old guard in the nationalist movement, and [this component] have exploited the last four years of the Intifada.” Read more about Elections are the only way