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The Truth about Hamas, "Israel", and Bibi's Failure at Gymnastics

--- Abdur-Rahman Sohail, North American Resistance Committee (NARC)

Article first appeared on the Muslims Against Imperialism facebook page.

The history of Muslim Brotherhood collaboration with imperialism and its rejection of militant resistance against the Zionist Entity is not a concealed one. Opposed to the United Arab Republic led by President Nasser and the other socialist pan-Arabist states, the Brotherhood branch operating in Gaza maintained this shameful policy both before and after the zionist usurpation of Gaza in 1967. Perhaps not to the same degree- but not dissimilar from forces of takfiri destruction today- the Muslim Brotherhood prioritized fighting those it classified as "deviants" and "secularists" over resisting the forces of colonization, occupation, and imperialism (if at all). Subsequently, the Zionist occupation not only granted permits for all of their mosques and institutions in Occupied Palestine, but they also provided them with financial grants to conduct their operations. The organization's nonviolence towards "Israel" and [often violent] opposition to the Zionist Entity's greatest threats and foes proved the Muslim Brotherhood of Gaza to be a perfect partner against both the radical Arab Republics and the Palestinian groups making up the PLO.

The role of the Brotherhood outfits in Palestine was limited to social, academic, and charity spheres. They lacked any sort of national or political program aside from opposing the policies and ideologies of the Arab Republics and the parties within the PLO. Due to their opposition to armed struggle against zionism, the Palestinian Brotherhood did not possess anywhere near the popularity or political support of the parties within the PLO and remained a fringe, sidelined group operating mainly as a dawa and civil society organization. However, as the War in Lebanon raged on and with the intifada approaching, some leaders and many members of the group found it increasingly impossible to remain nonconfrontational with the "Israeli" aggressors who brutally occupied them, as per the Brotherhood's official policy. Thus, Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Resistance Group), or Hamas was formed by now-former members of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, granting them freedom from the policy constraints of the multinational organization.

Hamas did in fact form from the same mosques and institutions permitted and supported by the zionist occupiers. But the very formation of Hamas was a repudiation of the Brotherhood's position of non-aggression towards "Israel" and the policies that resulted in zionist tolerance and promotion of the group. Hamas, after its founding and participation in the intifada, was never supported by the zionist entity, but only tolerated at first. Just a few short years before the creation of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was arrested by the Zionist Entity in 1984 for gathering weapons, but was released the next year in a legendary prisoner swap coordinated by the PFLP-GC's Ahmed Jibril (freeing 1500+ Palestinians for a few "Israeli" soldiers). When questioned about the intended use of these weapons, the Sheikh allegedly responded that both occupying aggressors and rival Palestinian groups were potential targets. As a result, the "Israelis" didn't focus very much on the group after its founding in 1987, as Hamas members at the time were largely involved in countering other Palestinian groups and in policing behavior in the streets. However, Arafat's overtures and Hamas' opposition to them would later change the "Israeli" policy [or lack thereof] of indifference to the group. 

 Arafat's history of angering the vanguard Palestinian fronts within the PLO culminated in his 1988 statement accepting the existence of "two states"- "the Palestine state and the Jewish state of Israel", in open contradiction with the PLO's charter. To the principled pan-Arab and socialist fronts in the PLO, to Hamas, and the PIJ, this (and Oslo, which formalized this position) was obviously far worse than his previous offenses of fraternization/collaboration with the pro-Western Arab states and the blacklisted Camp David regime in Egypt. Hamas gained much popular support and ceased to be a group on the Palestinian periphery for its prominent participation in the first intifada along with its loud and principled rejection of Arafat's capitulative overtures. Catapulted to second only to Fatah in political prominence, Hamas joined the Syria-based APF (Alliance of Palestinian Forces), whose formation was a both a denunciation of the PLO and a declaration that the Oslo Accords were non-binding/null because the hollowed PLO no longer represented the Palestinian people. Arafat was able to capture some defectors from a number of parties to his non-militant side, and the PLO-Islamic dichotomy flipped upside down on the "Israelis". The new tolerable partners were Arafat and his allies, namely Mahmoud Abbas, who not only promised non-militancy with "Israel", but engaged in "security coordination" with the Zionist Entity to suppress and imprison resistant forces intent on sabotaging the new "peace" (including Hamas members and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin himself). On the other end, the new Islamic Palestinian movement in Hamas aligned with the "from the river to the sea" and "revolution until victory" position of the old vanguard nationalist and socialist Palestinian fronts. 

More recently, some quotes over the last few years from Netanyahu have been circling about in which he celebrates the flow of Qatari money to Hamas in an alleged effort to undermine the PA. The reasons for these sentiments are manifold and reveal a complex, duplicitous agenda.

-Firstly, one must recognize the submissive nature of the collaborationist PA has no affect on the historic zionist aims to conquer all of Palestine and beyond, and to establish exclusive Jewish sovereignty over all territories interpreted to be part of "Greater Israel"- including the PA-administered nugget territories in the West Bank. The PA was simply a placeholder and a tool to pacify and demilitarize the West Bank, so as to ripen it for complete envelopment and conquest in the future. 

-The official positions of much of the international community, including the US, EU, China, and Russia, voice support for some form of a two-state solution. The PA's position is also in alignment with the "international community". Furthermore, its security coordination with "Israel", amenability to "negotiations", and further concessions for the sake of recognition make it impossible for anyone to paint the PA as a "bad actor" or one that is disinterested in "peace". Thus, whether they know it or not, the collaborationist PA's existence and the alignment of international bodies with its two-state solution aims represent a troublesome obstruction to the zionist project of conquering the West Bank and beyond.

-The "Israelis" have been increasingly abandoning their deceitful dual-rhetoric and lip-service to the two-state [dis]solution, which was always but a temporary ploy to facilitate their long-planned conquest and expansion. 

-The successful operations of the Lion's Den resistance across the cities and villages of Palestine showcased the PA's failure to serve its purpose in the eyes of "Israel". The decades of PA policing in the West Bank and enforcing on behalf of the Zionist Entity against militant resistance proved fruitless and extremely porous.

-On the other side of the equation, the purpose of "Israel" allowing and promoting Qatari non-military aid to be funneled to Gaza was similar in intent to the US proposal for Qatar to host Hamas' political leadership in 2011- to moderate the group, seduce them with much-needed aid for Gaza, and to dissuade them from ending extended state of ceasefire/truce/hudna (opposed by Islamic Jihad and PFLP) with a wide-reaching resistance campaign.

-The "Israeli" public disavowal, cold-shouldering, sidelining, and ignoring their former PA partners was to quietly and gradually swallow PA-administered territories. Simultaneously, Hamas was presented by the "Israelis" to the propagandized world masses as a bad-faith, non-negotiable boogeyman representing Palestinian non-commitment to "peace"- "peace" the "Israelis" never believed in themselves. This provided additional cover to the "Israelis" to continue their policy of harassment, aggression, and expansion.

-After numerous flare-up confrontations between the Resistance in Gaza and the Zionist Entity and signs of reconciliation with Syria, Hamas-Qatar relationship hit a near-breaking point in early 2020, with threats to expel Hamas and cut off its funding. After things cooled down, the aid continued in hopes of maintaining the status-quo.

What was the result of all these games? Ultimately, Netanyahu's complex schemes were a failure all across the board- both the West Bank and Gaza. The Lion's Den proved that PA security coordination with "Israel" failed to destroy and pacify resistance in the West Bank, which is FAR from fit-for-conquering. Meanwhile, the PA faces extinction and unprecedented popular sentiments of its illegitimacy/inadequacy- its only chance for survival being radicalization and reconciliation with Hamas and the resistance forces in Gaza. On the other front, al Aqsa Flood proved to the Zionist Entity and the reactionary collaborators that Hamas was NOT getting complacent, but was actually long-planning a great resistance operation to be conducted in concert with the other principled fronts of Palestinian resistance.

Hamas is a Palestinian creation, NOT an "Israeli" one. The PA, birthed after the wicked forced "marriage" at Oslo between rapist and victim, is faced with a choice between certain death or exacting retribution for the sin of its own creation. Reality differs from Ron Paul and Mehdi Hasan's soundbites, which helped popularize the false cliché that Hamas was created by "Israel".