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Pushing the 2-State Path in Gaza
(New York Times) Jodi Rudoren - To define Ezzeldin Masri's battle as uphill is an understatement. He runs the Gaza branch of OneVoice, a group that promotes a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Gaza, the ruling Hamas party of Islamic militants opposes negotiations with Israel. Masri, 43, the son of a school principal, was sent by his parents to Chicago in 1990. He earned degrees at Northeastern Illinois University and "lived next to Jews in Skokie." He returned in 2003. A week after Hamas wrested control of Gaza in 2007, "masked men with guns" broke into the office "and confiscated all my files and computers." "The population of Gaza is not interested in the two-state solution," he explained. "They are interested in the right of return." So the breakdown of American-brokered negotiations this month barely registered a blip. 62% of Gazans oppose extending the talks, compared with 52% of West Bankers, according to a recent poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.