Commentary: A History of Violence

“GAZA, June 21 — In a gesture of support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, Egypt has organized a summit meeting for him and the leaders of Jordan and Israel that is to take place on Monday, Israel announced today. The meeting is to be held in Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s favorite resort for such events, Sharm el-Sheik on the Red Sea, and represents an effort by the American allies Egypt, Jordan and Israel to further isolate the radical Islamic movement Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip last week, routing Fatah.” (Egypt Arranges Peace Summit in Support of Abbas. NY Times. June 21, 2007)

Hamas-- aka Islamic Resistance Movement -- is an Islamic fundamentalist organization which became active in the first intifada against Israel in the 1980s. Operating primarily in Gaza, Hamas is an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood and is dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic Palestinian State that encompasses all the territory now claimed by Israel. The party is a powerful player in Middle East politics—it’s now the strongest opposition group to peace with Israel-- but I think it is wrong to think of them as just another Iranian proxy. In reality it was the Egyptian branch of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood which was significant in the formation of  Hamas.

Early last year Hamas made a loud splash in the Palestinian parliamentary elections when the party won a decisive majority in the legislature. According to official statistics Hamas won 76 of the 132 seats in parliament, while Fatah, dominant for decades, took only 43. Hamas was in a strong position to obstruct what's left of the peace process. If allowed to take root, they would be in a position to usher in a greater role for Islam in Palestinian society and government. This represents a dangerous turn of events for Israel.

The reaction was quick and devastating (counter-productive?). Immediately the US, Russia, EU, and UN challenged Hamas to renounce violence, recognize Israel, and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. Hamas balked at the notion. The US and the EU cut-off assistance to the Hamas-led government and banks worldwide refused them access to loans. Israel withheld millions in monthly tax and customs receipts. The resulting fiscal crisis crippled the Hamas-led government and led to increasing poverty levels in the Palestinian territories. By the end of 2006, tensions in the West Bank and Gaza were rising. Fatah and Hamas clashed repeatedly.

In a last ditch effort to avoid a possible civil war Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement to form a national unity government earlier this year. Unfortunately, the honeymoon was short-- tensions between the rival factions continued to escalate. Sporadic fighting finally went full blown in May. By June fear reigned in the region. Last week a mini-civil war broke out leaving the Hamas gang in charge of Gaza and the Fatah crew running the West Bank. The unity government is fractured in two.

Mr. Abbas announced a new emergency government for the West Bank over the weekend. The international community has thrown their support behind him. The EU, Israel and the US have announced that they are prepared to lift the economic sanctions on the new government. There appears to be a united strategy, among Arab and western governments, along with Israel, to alienate Hamas and to bolster Mr. Abbas and Fatah, which is secular but deeply corrupt.

Burning down the house:

The Bush administration’s handling of the on-going conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and now between Palestinian factions, has been nothing short of disastrous. Under their watch the situation has deteriorated tremendously; tensions and fear are at an all-time high. Our foreign policy in the region has consistently neglected the Palestinians’ grievances, especially since 9/11. Whether you’re for the policy or not, it clearly isn’t working.

Ironically we may have brought much of this on ourselves; the formation of Hamas was nurtured by the Israeli and US governments in the late 1980s. We viewed the new group as a religious counterweight to Arafat and the militant PLO-- Fatah's forebearers. This was nothing new, our intelligence services had been in business with Islamic fundamentalist armies in Afghanistan for years. Now Hamas is seen as a terrorist organization in the eyes of Israel and the US—just like those guys we helped birth in Afghanistan.

When the Palestinian Authority was formed in 1993 under the Oslo peace accords, the office of the President was occupied by Arafat, who had been a deadly adversary of the Israelis and US for decades. The two powers conspired over the years to mitigate Arafat’s power, frequently pitting him against an increasingly dangerous Hamas Frankenstein— it became so bad that he was finally forced to retreat to his bunker under intense Israeli shelling. As Arafat fell in stature so did his office, to the benefit of the Prime Minister post. This came back to haunt us when Hamas won the Prime Minister seat in the 2006 elections.

In November 2004 when Arafat finally died, he had presided over the PLO movement for almost 50 years, the lid came off of Palestinian politics. We bear responsibility for missing a very important opportunity in the wake of Arafat's death when Abbas was elected with a big majority as president of the Palestinian Authority. Instead of empowering him economically, we regrettably did nothing. Now, unfortunately for us, we're experiencing the blow-back from that decision.

Finally, the fiscal crisis brought on by western sanctions after the Hamas election victories was like throwing a log on the fire. With no working smoke alarms in place it was only a matter of time before the house went up in flames.

Mubarak's stake?

Aside from their geographical proximity, Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood off-shoot. Egypt is the home of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mubarak has fought a deadly turf war with them for years. The militant group advocates fundamentalist Islamic reform in Egypt which is quite threatening to Mr. Mubarak’s more secular regime. Hence, the group gets tracked by Mubarak’s police and is periodically subjected to mass arrests. Even so, it remains Egypt's most popular opposition. Amazingly, in the 2005 parliamentary elections the Brotherhood's candidates, forced to run as independents because the MB is banned politically, still won 88 seats (20% of the total) to form the largest opposition bloc. According to news reports, the electoral process was marred by many irregularities, including the arrest of hundreds of Brotherhood members.

A victory for Hamas could serve to embolden Egypt’s Brotherhood faction. Like in Egypt, Hamas won a significant number of electoral seats and, like in Egypt, they've been outlawed. Mubarak likely believes that a Hamas success obtained through violence may set the Egyptian Brotherhood on a similar path. 

This week Abbas went on record saying he can no longer negotiate with members of Hamas, whom he calls “murderous terrorists.”

Good luck Mr. Mubarak… this will be no picnic at the beach….

Hamas overture for talks rebuffed by Fatah

Israel to release funds for Abbas 

Haniya decries Israeli "blackmail" 

Israel announces mass prisoner release 

Al-Qaeda seeks unity with Hamas 

13 Killed as Israeli army enters Gaza 

Hamas rejects outside force for Gaza 

Cite:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hamas.htm

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