The Gaza Strip is a perfect illustration of what happens after decolonization. The British once governed it as part of Mandated Palestine. That excellent writer George Macdonald Fraser gives a brilliant account of it in a short story with the title “The Night the General Danced.” In short, in this story a Scottish regiment garrisoned in Gaza is enjoying a night of Scottish dancing when Jews and Arabs in Gaza City start exchanging fire. The general gives orders, his men take control, and the Jews and Arabs have to recognize that people stronger than them are keeping the peace.

The Gaza I knew from the 1960s was a sleepy, run-down place of great charm. The then-mayor, Rashad al-Shawa, was a gentleman of the old school, always courteous. I used to sit drinking coffee in the garden of Dr. Faraj, the only local psychiatrist. The hotel in the central square had plumbing from the British firm of Armstrong. There was a workshop in which craftsmen were copying French furniture in the style known as Louis Quinze, and humorously called Farouk Quinze by the rich Egyptians who bought it.

Yasser Arafat militarized the Strip. For him, the sole purpose of independence was that Arabs should be perpetually exchanging fire with Jews. Once terror had become the order of the day, brutality was the only political coinage. Hamas has won control of Gaza because its brutality is absolute. To stand against it is suicidal. Craftsmen now make missiles that are certain to kill as many Palestinians as Jews, if not more. Independence has come to mean unbreakable tyranny.

Tim Whewell is a BBC correspondent with whom I have worked, and he reports that a French lady and a Gazan by the name of Khamis Abu Shaaban have discovered a damaged grand piano in Gaza. Heroically, they have managed to obtain funding for repairs. A Russian pianist, Yelena Lidowi, has lived in the Strip with her Palestinian husband for 15 years, and gives concerts on this instrument. So does Sara Aqal, a local teenage prodigy. So the rejected culture of Europe returns and is the answer to Hamas.