The Genesis of Hamas- On Charlie Wilson, Gaza and All That- An Egyptian Husni Chi Minh Trail? Islamic Monuments Endangered by Greed
The Genesis of Hamas and World media: 
The war in Gaza is widening the rift between Arab rulers and the ruled. There are exceptions, like some pockets in the Gulf region, where the issue of Iranian influence and the Shi'a-Sunni rift is always important. Hamas is a totally Sunni organization, a local offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that had strong support in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region during the eighties when the oligarchies feared the secular PLO and its various factions. There probably is no such thing as Palestinian Shi'as. But yes, Virginia, there are Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia.
Hamas gets some financial aid from Iran, and perhaps some weapons, although it is puzzling how they get through the tight Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
One plausible Arab legend about the fundamentalist group has it that the Israelis supported the growth of Hamas as a useful rival to the secular PLO during the first Palestinian Intifada (uprising) of the 1980s. Like the fundamentalist Mujahideen in Afghanistan, the fundies of Palestine have come back to bite those who supported them. No, Charlie Wilson had no hand in the genesis and rise of Hamas. Many conservative Arab regimes, of the polygamous tribal types, supported and nurtured it as well, fearing what they considered the 'socialist' PLO types. Incidentally, most of those 'socialist' PLO types turned into entrepreneurs during the 1990s under Arafat and his pals. With the flow of post-Oslo Western aid they discovered the joys of kelptocracy and secret bank accounts.
“A street war in Gaza. Israel is assassinating whole families.…” al-Qabas
“The forces of the Zionist occupation have deliberately bombed the mosques in Gaza with heavy bombs. They bombed them over the heads of the people praying inside. They did not deny it: they claimed falsely that Hamas followers were hiding in them….This is, then, not a war on Hamas or on terrorism, it is a war on Islam….It is time to rise in support of Islam and Muslims…yada, yada, yada.” alwatan
This chap is not exactly volunteering to go to Gaza. He is urging the umma, that means others, to go and fight.
“Iran seems to be very clever in investing her foreign policy through regional extensions that try to win her more loyalties in the region- with the goal of influencing domestic Iranian politics…”Alarabiya.
“After the ground assault, what has Ehud Barak got left?...” Elaph, quoting alQuds alArabi
“Why don’t we dissolve the Arab League? Have the Arab states resigned from history as well, just after they seem to have resigned from geography? Having left their lands and borders for the two empires that still long for regional hegemony: the Ottoman and the Persian Empires…..” Elaph, quoting the conservative Lebanese daily al-Nahar
“The Chief of the Supreme Judicial Council in Saudi Arabia, Shaikh al-Lehaidan has called the demonstrations against the Israeli assault on Gaza a ‘corrupt' practice that distracts people from worshipping Allah’….” alQuds alArabi.
I knew they had some free speech somewhere in Saudi Arabia.
“An American television network reported that officers of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers are currently in Egypt helping monitor the border with Gaza and prevent arms smuggling to the Palestinian resistance through tunnels.” aljazeera
But how do these weapons get to Egypt? And from where? How do they enter past the all-pervasive security services, the multiple and rival security services to keep things nice and balanced. None of that American nonsense about team-players in Arabia.
“al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, promised to defeat the Israeli army….It promised more surprises… and claimed that the occupation is covering up and downplaying its losses.” Aljazeera
Maybe, but I shall believe it when I see it. I need to be shown the proof (I am not from Missouri either).
“His unconditional approval of Israel's brutal invasion of Gaza could be Bush's final war crime. Will Obama choose a different path?....” Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation.
“A Memo to Obama on Israel: The following humble suggestions are based on my 70 years of experience as an underground fighter, member of the Knesset and founding member of a peace movement in Israel.” Uri Avnery, The Nation.
“Leader of the Society for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Mecca has called for erasing such historic Islamic landmarks as the birthplace of Prophet Mohammed in Mecca. He said that some ignorant people and those who ‘innovate’ practice pagam-like and polytheistic practices at these sites….”al-Rasid
These people have been busy for years trying hard to destroy all historical monuments of Islam, with some success- and to the despair of the few liberals in the country who dare speak about it. In Mecca they have had a strong ally called “boundless greed of developers” whereby the small town of Prophet Mohammed’s birth looks like a huge strip mall.
Remember how the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha monuments in the nineties? They used explosives, but their Saudi mentors use bulldozers financed by the greed of the potentates. This is where the Taliban got the ideology from. If they had their way the Via Dolorosa would be diverted and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher would be leveled to make room for a five star hotel.
My two cents:
There are some similarities between the Israeli campaign in Gaza and its 2006 campaign against Hezbullah in Lebanon. In both cases the Israelis were trying to defeat a local armed force with strong support among the population under attack. In both cases there was some provocation by the other side. In the Lebanese case, the Israeli reaction to the provocation was overwhelming but the results were quite underwhelming. Hezbullah clearly won that battle to such a worrying extent that Saudi and other satellite Gulf media now regularly call it the “defeated Hezbullah”: a clear sign that it won that round.
It is not clear yet how the Gaza campaign will fare: probably better, from an Israeli point of view, than the Lebanon campaign. Hamas probably does not have the assets that Hezbullah had, including the rugged Lebanese landscape and the easy access to weapons. During the 1967 War, Gaza was taken within hours from Egypt- in fact the fate of the whole thing including the West Bank and Sinai were decided withing a few hours.
In addition, the only source of arms into Gaza now would be Egypt, which is hostile to Hamas: which deepens the mystery as to how Hamas got all those rockets. Israel tightly controls the land and sea routes, except for a sliver of border with Egypt. Are there 'renegade' military and security elements in Egypt that turn a blind eye to Gaza-destined weapons? Is a police state really unaware of the movement of rockets through its territory?
Meanwhile, much of the pro-Saudi Arab media is focusing on Iran rather than on the two warring sides. Hamas is talked about as a surrogate for the mullahs in Iran, which is most likely highly exaggerated. The Muslim Brotherhood are as doctrinally hostile to the Shi’as as the Wahhabis of al-Qaeda types. Still, anything is possible in politics: politics makes strange bedfellows (a la Stalin, Churchill and FDR).
It is still a great mystery how Iran smuggles such large rockets into Gaza through Israeli and Egyptian hostility. Is there a secret Husni Mubarak Trail across, or underneath, the Sinai? Imagine a Husni Mubarak Trail, and he probably doesn’t even know it, even when he is awake. But he ain’t no ‘Ho’, as in Chi Minh of course.
Cheers
mhg
m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com
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