There are some things you're simply not allowed to do in British media,

and prime amongst them is talk about Hamas as if they're anything other than brutal, bloodthirsty, monstrous and irrational.

But that moralistic framing doesn't really tell you anything about anything.

How did Hamas come to govern Gaza?

Why did they choose to contest elections at all?

What was the strategic reasoning behind October 7th?

And what does the future hold for Palestinian armed struggle after more than two years of ongoing genocide?

Terak Bikoni is one of the very few people I've heard addressing these questions in public.

His 2018 book Hamas contained is an immaculately researched analysis of the period between 2007 and 2017,

when Hamas and Israel occupied an uneasy equilibrium.

We talk about the history of Hamas and how the movement might evolve,

but we also talk about his beautiful memoir published this year called Fire in Every Direction, about his upbringing in Jordan. I hope you enjoy the interview. Tarek Bikoni, welcome to Downstream. Thank you for having me. I've been wanting to do this for so long. I've been so, so excited. So we're here to talk about two of your books. One is Hamas contained. the other is fire in every direction. They are two

very different kind of books. I realized when I opened the second one, expecting a follow-up to

Hamas-contained and got a really beautiful memoir instead. How many other people had that experience?

I'm pretty sure quite a few. I leave people on their toes. I was like, when's the

a Sinai going to be in this one. He does not feature.

He does not pop up. So we're going to talk about these two separately.

In terms of Hamas contained, which is really, it's an analysis of the period, you know, post-Oslo, up to 2018.

What led you to write not just a book on Hamas, but that book on Hamas?

Well, I mean, the book came out of my doctorate thesis.

During my doctorate, I was focused on a very particular period.

I was looking at Hamas between 2000 and 2010.

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