The Islamic Resistance Movement (known by its Arabic acronym, Hamas), which emerged during the first Intifada in 1987, grew more powerful in the 1990’s, after the return of the PLO’s Yasser Arafat and the creation, as a result of the Oslo Accords, of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas’s rejection of the Oslo Accords bore political fruit as it became increasingly clear to Palestinians that the handshakes on the White House lawn would not produce the coveted end to the Israeli occupation, or even of Israel’s illegal settlement activities.