BFF   

“Most of the missiles are now coming from the Salafi concentrations in the southern part of the enclave –targeting Beersheba and Netivot Thursday morning and as night fell aimed at Ashdod, Ashkelon, Shear Hanegev and the Eshkol region. The firing escalated after Israel laid down its ultimatum. Egypt and Hamas don’t know exactly who is giving Haraka the missiles, except that they are smuggled from Sinai through tunnels managed by Iranian intelligence agents in conjunction with local al Qaeda networks. It is highly unlikely that Hamas will venture to lay hands on these Salafi terrorists at a time when one of its top officials in Gaza, Mahmoud A-Zahar, is visiting Tehran for talks with Iranian leaders who are keen to keep the missile assaults going. His visit marks the Hamas fundamentalists’ return to the Iranian fold – that is if they ever really left it. This, Israeli strategists have chosen to ignore and are treating Hamas as a non-participant in the missile offensive and available to help Cairo bring the terrorists to accept a ceasefire….…….”

Hamas leaders have been touring the region this past month. Ismail Haniyya went to the Gulf states of the GCC before landing in Tehran a couple of weeks ago. No doubt his Muslim Brother brothers in some Gulf states tried to wean him away from the Iranian mullahs. There have been some reports that Hamas may be trying to find new sponsors to replace the Iranians, especially after it distanced itself from the Assad regime in Syria. The reports noted that Hamas leaders are “shopping” for new sources of funds and weapons.
Yet Hamas has not completely broken off with Syria; the Iranians no doubt would have some influence on that. Besides, it may be easy to find new sources of funds among the Gulf potentates, but they will never supply the weapons that Hamas wants. Hamas probably still needs Iranian weapons, and for that they cannot make a complete break with Syria, not yet. Hamas is being especially careful now that the situation on the ground in Syria seems to be shifting against the fractious opposition.
Cheers
mhg


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