Who Is Behind Hamas? (I)

The accusation against Iran was heard by the media in Israel and the United States almost immediately after the attack by militants of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas on an Israeli military base and neighboring towns. Indeed, the leadership of this country has been a moral supporter of the Palestinian resistance organization. As it has always done, however, with words of support for all Palestinians. Then came reports from U.S. establishment officials that there was no definitive confirmation that Iran was behind the attacks. Iran then reappeared in statements by Israeli and American politicians, who began to accuse it of supporting Hamas and of threatening retaliation.

To the average layman in the West, such a reference may seem like a fair accusation, since Iran’s leadership has always supported the people of Palestine and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. And the constant accusations made by the US and Israel against Iran help to make such statements seem credible. However, we are aware of how skillful the countries of the collective West are at media manipulation. And the problem is that average readers and citizens of Western countries, who are targeted by media propaganda, will not double-check the facts and try to critically rethink what they are being fed by the globalist media. Because then they will discover some uncomfortable facts that do not speak in favor of the US and Israel.

We can start by saying that Israel is partly responsible for the emergence of Hamas. Tareq Baconi argues that “when Hamas was founded in 1987 and became a political and military party involved in active resistance to the Israeli occupation, the policy within the Israeli government changed and apparently became less open to allowing Hamas to function. However, this has not prevented the Israeli authorities from encouraging divide and rule tactics between an Islamist national movement like Hamas and the secular nationalism around Fatah. And this has always been a tactic used by colonial forces around the world, and apparently Israeli colonialism is no different. Thus, explicitly and implicitly, it attempted a policy of divide and rule”.

Again, it was the Western media that ran the facts about these connections. In 2009, Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than 20 years, told the Wall Street Journal: “Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation.” Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, stated that he had been given a budget to finance Islamist movements in the Gaza Strip in order to oppose Yasser Arafat and his Fatah movement. Another former Israeli military official, David Hasham, said: “When I look back at the chain of events, I think we made a mistake. But at the time, no one thought about the possible consequences.”

It is also suspicious that Israel turned a blind eye to the fact that the Hamas training camp was located two kilometers from the Israeli border. An IDF spokesman said in comments to CNN that this is nothing new.

However, this seems strange, because if Hamas is considered a terrorist organization in Israel and has occasionally attacked the suspected locations of its leaders, why was the military training camp operating permanently under Israel’s nose?

Perhaps the conspiracy theories that the attack was authorized by Israeli intelligence in order to radically solve the Palestinian problem are not so conspiracy theories?

The second crucial fact is that Iran is not a major sponsor of Hamas. For many years, Qatar has been its main sponsor. According to the Telegraph, “Hamas remains headquartered in Doha, the capital of Qatar, and receives much of its funding from the Qatari government. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies says Qatar has given between USD 360 million and USD 480 million annually to Hamas in recent years, funding social services and strengthening the terror group’s control of power in Gaza.”

Qatar is a small state on the Arabian Peninsula, but quite wealthy and powerful. The country’s leadership seeks good relations with both Iran and the US. Recently, Saudi Arabia imposed a blockade on Qatar due to controversy over its policies in the region. However, relations have recently normalized. One of the reasons for this behavior of Riyadh was the fact of Qatar’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood. In the meantime, it is the parent organization of Hamas, which was born out of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Gregg Roman, director of the Middle East Forum and a former official in Israel’s foreign and defense ministries, claims that under an agreement reached in May 2021, after the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Qatar began sending fuel (worth between USD 7 million and USD 10 million a month) to Gaza via Egypt, freeing up funds for Hamas from resale revenues. They were used to pay the salaries of the Hamas government and to help poor Gazans, but it is likely that the vast majority of it ended up funding terrorist activities.

Gregg Roman is a fierce critic of Qatar, exposing the country’s ties to US politicians. He openly called Qatar a sponsor state of terrorism and accused the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, of funding not only Hamas and the Taliban, but also Hezbollah, the Houthis and even ISIS.  Roman also said that one such politician, Senator J. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, has attracted more than USD 1 billion in Qatari investment in his state’s industry. One of these companies, Barzan Aeronautical, which develops drones and military weapons, is owned by Barzan LLC in Delaware, a subsidiary of the German company Barzan GmbH, which in turn is “wholly owned by the Qatari Ministry of Defense.” Essentially, this means that Qatar “has its own drone research and development center in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.”

Lindsey Graham, by the way, has been an active proponent of war against Iran lately. Probably to divert attention from Qatar and his ties to it.

Qatar has also previously pledged USD 500 million to help rebuild Gaza. Until recently, Israel allowed Qatar to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, taking advantage of Doha’s relationship with Hamas.

By the way, Doha, the capital of Qatar, is the residence of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, who now holds the lower post of deputy head of the movement, is also there.

Khalil al-Hayya, who was deputy to Yahya Sinwar (the previous Hamas leader in Gaza), is also in Doha.

to be continued:

Who Is Behind Hamas? (II)

Who Is Behind Hamas? (I)

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The Alternative World.