In front of him was a copper model of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock, dusted clean, though the rest of the room was shabby. Behind him was a treadmill, unplugged and wedged into the corner, its disuse perhaps explaining his tubbiness. Framed like this, Sheik Jamal Salim sat for an interview with TIME a few days before the beginning of the Aqsa intifadeh last year, predicting that such an uprising against Israel was imminent. The sheik argued that it was not Hamas fundamentalists like him who endangered peace, but Israel. "I'm not dangerous," said the sheik, 43. "I'm a victim."
He...