Hamas

[Aplomb]

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/rev...rvice_ID=10217 Who are Hamas?

1/26/2006 9:00:00 PM GMT

Hamas, acronym of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah ("Islamic Resistance Movement"), is a Palestinian anti-occupation organization closely related to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The organization is popular among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It also has a following in the West Bank, and, to a lesser extent, in other Middle Eastern countries and throughout the Palestinian diaspora, including within Israel. The movement's popularity stems from its paramilitary activities, and from its provision of welfare and social services to the Palestinian poor.
The organization's goal has been used by the Israeli government to justify the assassination of its leaders. Assassinations and assassination attempts on Hamas leaders have been carried out in the past by the Israeli Air Force in the occupied territories, and by car bombings, shootings and even poison injections by Mossad agents outside Israel and the occupied territories.

• Background

Hamas uses political activities to pursue its goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel and the secular Palestinian Authority. As of 2004, Hamas' strength is concentrated in the Gaza Strip and a few areas of the West Bank. Israeli military operations during the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2002 put pressure on Hamas in the West Bank following several bombings in Israel for which Hamas claimed responsibility. Hamas has also engaged in peaceful political activity, such as running candidates in West Bank Chamber of Commerce elections. In December 2004, one of Hamas' leaders stated that the group was seriously considering participating in the upcoming Palestinian Authority legislative elections, but the group boycotted PA Presidential elections as it had in the past. In May 2005, Hamas won over one third of the municipal councils in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, seizing control of them from Fatah, which the BBC describes as "the biggest force in Palestinian politics."
According to UPI, Israel supported Hamas starting in the late 1970s as a "counterbalance to the PLO".

• Beliefs

The thirty-six articles of the Covenant detail the movement's Islamist beliefs regarding the primacy of Islam in all aspects of life. The Covenant identifies Hamas as the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine and considers its members to be Muslims who "fear God and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors." Hamas describes resisting and quelling the enemy as the individual duty of every Muslim and prescribes revolutionary roles for all members of society; including men and women, professionals, scientists and students.
The slogan of Hamas is "God is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of God is the loftiest of its wishes." Hamas states that its objective is to support the oppressed and wronged and "to bring about justice and defeat injustice, in word and deed." Hamas believes that "the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf (trust) consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day," and as such, the land cannot be negotiated away by any political leader.
The Hamas Covenant cites the long-discredited anti-Semitic fraud, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, describing it as "the embodiment of the Zionist plan to usurp Palestine". Hamas dismisses the Freemasons, Lions Club, and the Rotarians as organizations promoting "the interest of Zionism." It accuses those organizations, and the "Zionist invasion" in general, of being "behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds."

• History

Hamas was funded directly and indirectly during the 1970s and 1980s by various states including Saudi Arabia. The political/charitable arm of Hamas was officially registered and recognized within Israel at this time: indeed Israel supported and encouraged Hamas' early growth in an effort to undermine the secular Fatah movement. Hamas abstained from politics throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, concentrating on social issues such as exposing corruption, administration of waqf (trusts) and organizing community projects. Towards the mid-80s, however, the movement was taken over by an armed faction led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
The acronym "Hamas" first appeared in 1987 in a leaflet accusing Israeli intelligence services of undermining the moral fiber of Palestinian youth as part of their recruitment of "collaborators." The use of violence by Hamas appeared almost contemporaneously with the First Intifada, beginning with the so-called punishment of collaborators, progressing to attacks against Israeli military targets.
According to the semi-official Hamas biography "Truth and existence," Hamas evolved through four main stages:
1. 1967-1976: Construction of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip in the face of "oppressive Israeli rule";
2. 1976-1981: Geographical expansion through participation in professional associations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and institution building, notably al-Mujamma` al-islami, al-Jam`iyya al-islamiyya, and the Islamic University in Gaza;
3. 1981-1987: Political influence through establishment of the mechanisms of action and preparation for armed struggle;
4. 1987: Founding of Hamas as the combatant arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine and the launching of a continuing Jihad.
While this reflects the activities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the organization in the West Bank developed differently, with less emphasis at the beginning on the creation or control of public institutions. The Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank constituted an integral part of the Jordanian Islamic movement, which for many years had been aligned with the Hashemite regime. Furthermore, the Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank represented a higher socio-economic profile, consisting of merchants, landowners, and middle-class officials and professionals. By the mid-1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood held a significant portion of the positions in West Bank religious institutions.
On January 26, 2004, senior Hamas official Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi offered a 10-year truce, or hudna, in return for a complete withdrawal by Israel from the territories captured in the Six Day War, and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin stated that the group could accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Rantissi confirmed that Hamas had come to the conclusion that it was "difficult to liberate all our land at this stage, so we accept a phased liberation." He said the truce could last 10 years, though "not more than 10 years."
On March 22, 2004, Yassin was assassinated in an Israeli missile strike. Rantissi replaced him as the leader of Hamas.
On April 17, 2004, Rantissi was also assassinated in an airstrike by the Israel Defense Forces. Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas in Syria, said Hamas should not disclose the name of its next leader in Gaza.
On April 18, 2004, Hamas secretly selected a new leader in the Gaza Strip, fearing he will be killed if his identity is made public. (NYT). However, Israel believes that the new leader is Mahmoud al-Zahar; the second-in-command, Ismail Haniya; and third-in-command, Sa'id A-Siyam.
As of 2004, Israeli military and intelligence sources believed that the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been significantly weakened by Israeli military operations. Israeli sources have noted that no prominent attacks have been claimed by West Bank-based Hamas members, even though the Hamas leadership had reputedly ordered an escalation of attacks after the assassinations of Yassin and Rantissi. The West Bank has been under increased Israeli military control since Operation Defensive Shield was launched in April 2002, which severely limited the mobility and organization of the remaining Hamas membership.
In the Gaza Strip, on the other hand, Hamas is generally seen as a major force, rivalling Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
In 2004, in a prelude to the planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces carried out a number of military attacks on Gaza cities and refugees camps, seeking to draw out and kill Hamas-affiliated gunmen. Awareness of high casualties during such incursions has led the Hamas leadership to instruct its activists to avoid putting themselves needlessly in the line of fire.
On September 26, 2004, Hamas leader Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil was assassinated by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria. Khalil was described variously as "mid-level," "senior," a "distinguished member," and "believed to be in charge of the group's military wing outside the Palestinian territories."
On 12 September 2005 Israeli soldiers withdrew from the Gaza Strip and declared an official end to Israeli military rule in Gaza, and since Israel still retains control of the airspace and sea the Palestinan Authority say that the occupation is on-going.

• Activities

The first attack by the group was in response to the 1994 masacre in Hebron of 29 Muslim worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque by settler Baruch Goldstein.
Hamas has also attacked Israeli military and security forces targets (mostly inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip and occasionally inside Israel).
Hamas runs many relief and education programs. These programs are viewed variously as part of a sincere social development agenda.
Hamas devotes much of its estimated $70-million annual budget to an extensive social services network. It funds schools, orphanages, mosques, healthcare clinics, soup kitchens, and sports leagues. “Approximately 90 percent of its work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities,” writes the Israeli scholar Reuven Paz. The Palestinian Authority often fails to provide such services; Hamas’ efforts in this area explain much of its popularity.
The work of Hamas in these fields is in addition to that provided by the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). The charitable trust Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was accused in December 2001 of funding Hamas.
Hamas receives funding from Palestinian expatriates, from the Islamist regime in Iran, and from private benefactors in Saudi Arabia and in other Arab states. Some fundraising and propaganda activity take place in Western Europe, North America and South America.
Hamas is believed to operate dozens of websites. A current listing can be found at Internet Haganah. The main website of Hamas provides translations of official communiques in Persian, Urdu, Malay, Russian, English, and Arabic.
Source:
Wikipedia.org

Highlighted in red are the words from this article used as the caption under the photograph for the article.

When you check out the source: Wikipedia, you find a couple of interesting things. One is an alert right off the top that the neutrality and factual accuracy of the article are disputed. The other is that certain select information is missing and was not printed in the press painting a much cleaner portrayal. This for instance was ommitted:

Quotes from Hamas Charter

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up."

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

"The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion... It relies greatly in its infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations it gave rise to, such as the Freemasons, The Rotary and Lions clubs, and other sabotage groups. All these organizations, whether secret or open, work in the interest of Zionism and according to its instructions..."

"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."[17]

Suicide attacks are an element of what the group sees as its asymmetric warfare against Israel. Because the group considers all Israel to be a "militarized society", i.e there is mandatory military service for most Jewish men and women, and Israelis to be participants in an illegal occupation of Palestinian land, Hamas does not distinguish between Israeli civilian and military targets. This failure to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, and the group's willingness to target civilian facilities such as commuter buses, supermarkets,and restaurants has earned it the label of terrorist organization.
Hamas also fights a guerrilla war against the Israeli military and security forces in its effort to drive them from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As well as suicide bombings, Hamas operatives plant bombs and carry out shooting attacks on civilians and non-civilians alike in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The organization's goal to unite all Israeli and Palestinian lands under an Islamic State, which would see the end of Israel in its entirety, has been used by the Israeli government to justify the assassination of its leaders. Assassinations and assassination attempts on Hamas leaders have been carried out by the Israeli Air Force in the occupied territories, and by car bombings, shootings, and poison injections by Mossad agents outside Israel and the occupied territories.

[Malsua]

IOW the inmates are now running the asylum.

-Mal

[catfish]

It will be interesting to see how long the honeymoon lasts. Give it a couple of months and when the economy isnt any better and the people find out terrorists dont make good politicians, they will be kicking themselves and trying to kick Hamas out of power.

Things just got worse for Palestine.

[Sean Osborne]

The election of HAMAS to a position of power within the Palestinian Parliment is at the same time the best of all possible election results as well as being an omen of the larger war directly ahead. It is a manifestation of the paradigm shift occuring in the Middle East.

First and foremost in my assessment is a political fact of what the election of HAMAS will bring to Palestine. No one has mentioned this since the election.

1.) By their own admission, Palestine under Hamas-imposed Islamic law (shari'a) will become, officially, an Islamic apartheid state.

“We in Hamas,” Masalmeh announced, “intend to implement this tax someday. We say it openly – we welcome everyone to Palestine but only if they agree to live under our rules.”Since along with this tax, Islamic law stipulates that Jews and Christians must submit to a series of humiliating and discriminatory regulations, ensuring their second-class status in line with the Qur’anic stipulation that they “pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued” (9:29).


a·part·heid
n.

1. An official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites.
2. A policy or practice of separating or segregating groups.
3. The condition of being separated from others; segregation.

2.) Do I think the above will actually occur? No, not really.

HAMAS has less than 60 days to renounce terrorism, to renounce it's Charter calling for the destruction of Israel and accept the right of Israel to exist as it currently exists - or HAMAS will be militarily destroyed, annihilated.

The "Palestinian" people themselves have voted this reality into existence. They have voted for all-out existential war with the State of Israel. Those "Palestinians who survive this war will have their independent Palestine... but on the terms that Israel and signatory guarrantor nations will dictate as part of a comprehensive peace pact following an overwhelming Israeli victory on the battlefield.

[Malsua]

I can't imagine Hamas reforming enough to be tolerated. That said, I'm unsure exactly how Isreal can defeat them without inflicting massive Pali casualties. That will get all the regular commies, socialists and anti-semites riled up and the lapdogs at the UN will make all sort of trouble for Isreal.

I'm also unsure just exactly what Isreal is supposed to attack. The enemy is thoroughly intermingled with everyone else mostly because those "civillians" tacitly support attacking Isreal.

With Sharon down for the count, no one has the juice to obliterate Hamas. It's not a good time for Isreal, that's for sure. What needs done isn't something they are allowed to do. They may just do it anyway as it's going to be vital to their continued existance.

Not gonna be pretty.

-Mal

[Backstop]

Sheesh...I don't know what's wrong with you guys.

The MSM says that Hamas will 'moderate' itself.




Seriously, I wonder where this all will go...

[Aplomb]

Will somebody please explain the rules of war regarding this situation as it currently exists. Here's what I'm thinking: that now that Hamas is in power, being involved in the government, the next time they execute a "terrorist attack" isn't it going to be considered an "act of war" on Israel?

[catfish]

Will somebody please explain the rules of war regarding this situation as it currently exists. Here's what I'm thinking: that now that Hamas is in power, being involved in the government, the next time they execute a "terrorist attack" isn't it going to be considered an "act of war" on Israel?

The rules are made up as we go along. Remember the al-Asqa Martyrs Brigade, Arafat's personal army of terrorists?

[ExplodedMind]

Sean wrote above: "HAMAS has less than 60 days to renounce terrorism, to renounce it's Charter calling for the destruction of Israel and accept the right of Israel to exist as it currently exists - or HAMAS will be militarily destroyed, annihilated."

What is the source of that threat, and who exactly has made that statement?

Thanks in advance...
EM

PS. Did anyone see Spielberg's statement that he is, if it becomes necessary, ready to die for the USA and Israel?

Hamas calling: "Mr. Speilberg, we're ready for your closeup!"
em

[Sean Osborne]

With Sharon down for the count, no one has the juice to obliterate Hamas.

Mal,

Within the Kadima party there is one man who is uniquely qualified to deal with HAMAS the way they need to be dealt with... Shaul Mofaz. Do a Google on him.

Of course, I am placing odds that in the coming Israeli election on March 28 Bibi Netanyahu will emerge with a landslide.


Either of these men has exactly the tools and temperment to do that which is now mandatory for the survival of Israel.

There is no appeasing terrorism, nor butchers be they in Tehran or Khan Younis or Gaza or Ramallah. Jerusalem knows this.

[Aplomb]

Either of these men [Shaul Mofaz, Bibi Netanyahu] has exactly the tools and temperment to do that which is now mandatory for the survival of Israel.

There is no appeasing terrorism, nor butchers be they in Tehran or Khan Younis or Gaza or Ramallah. Jerusalem knows this.

Good thing, I guess.

Get this...

Suicide Bombers' Mother Elected to Palestinian Parliament
'Mother of the Struggle' Says She Would Sacrifice Remaining Sons for Jihad


GAZA, Jan. 26, 2006 — Mariam Farahat, who was elected to the Palestinian parliament, can work a crowd like a veteran politician — shaking hands and greeting supporters. When she gets on the stage at a Hamas rally, she is the star attraction. She was one of Hamas' most popular candidates in Wednesday's election.

In Gaza, Farahat is known as Um Nidal, or Mother of the Struggle — a mother who sent three of her six sons on Hamas suicide missions against Israeli targets.

"We consider it holy duty," she told ABC News. "Our land is occupied. You take all the means to banish the occupier. I sacrificed my children for this holy, patriotic duty. I love my children, but as Muslims we pressure ourselves and sacrifice our emotions for the interest of the homeland. The greater interest takes precedence to the personal interest."

She is most famous for her presence in a Hamas video, showing her 17-year-old how to attack Israelis and telling him not to return. Shortly afterward, he killed five students in a Jewish settlement before he was killed himself.

Um Nidal's home has become a shrine to her dead sons, with admirers and other members of Hamas often dropping by.

Um Nidal is not your typical Hamas candidate, but she does represent an extreme wing of the party — one that is wildly popular despite being downplayed in this election.

"I had no desire to join the parliament or the political arena," she said. "It was enough … the pride of jihad, and I found that I have to complete my social and political duty."

Destroying Israel is not something Hamas has promoted much during this election campaign. But at the grassroots level in Gaza, where Um Nidal campaigns, most Palestinian supporters believe it was the violent attacks against Israel that forced them to pull out from the Gaza Strip last fall.

"This is our strategy," she said. "We are working on two parallel lines — the political and the jihadist."

Um Nidal is now a politician, but she says violence is still an option. And she does have three sons who are still alive. If necessary, she says, they will follow in their brothers' footsteps.

ABC News' Wilf Dinnick contributed to this report.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1536576

video here: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1546682 ..."it was the way she gave up her children for her nation, without tears, that won their support."

[Malsua]

Good article..

--------
http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn...t-steyn29.html

At least Hamas is open about its evil intentions


January 29, 2006
BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST


I was at a county fair in New Hampshire last summer and stopped by the National Guard tent. They had those "Support Our Troops" ribbon stickers for sale -- one on a Stars-and-Stripes background, one of them just plain yellow. I've never liked the whole yellow-ribbon thing: It's too victimological, too passive, too enervated. One of the distinctive features of that immediate post-9/11 moment of near national unity was the blessed absence of yellow ribbons. It would have been the wrong symbol for an America full of righteous anger.


But four years on, and there are "Support Our Troops" yellow ribbons a-plenty. "What's the idea behind that?" I asked the National Guardsman manning the display.
"Well," he said, "a lot of people don't support the war and they aren't comfortable with the flag-colored ribbon but they support the troops."

It seemed to me unlikely that people who were uncomfortable with the national flag were likely in any meaningful sense to be supportive of the national army. But a couple of weeks later, driving past a house in Hanover, N.H., I saw an even sillier qualification: "Support Our Troops. Bring Them Home Now" -- so they can sit around the barracks feeling like losers until they're needed for some hurricane-relief operation.

Joel Stein (no relation) of the Los Angeles Times took a lot of heat last week for coming right out with it and saying that he didn't support the troops and that it was a humbug phrase that he and his anti-war comrades shouldn't have to use as cover for their position. Good for him. He's right. It's empty and pusillanimous, the Iraq war's version of "But some of my best friends are Jewish . . ." If you're opposed to the mission, if you don't want to see it through, if you're supporting a position whose success would only demoralize those serving in Iraq and negate their sacrifice, in what sense do you "support the troops"? Stein ought to be congratulated for acknowledging that he doesn't. We armchair warmongers are routinely derided as "chickenhawks," but Stein is a hawkish chicken, disdaining the weasel formulation too many anti-war folks take refuge in.

The Palestinian elections were similarly clarifying. The old guard -- Yasser Arafat's Fatah cronies -- had their own take on the "But some of my best friends are Jewish" routine. For years they insisted, at least in the presence of Americans and Europeans, that they were in favor of a "two-state solution" -- Israel and Palestine living side by side -- at the same time as they supported and glorified and financially subsidized suicide bombers and other terrorists. Insofar as their enthusiasm for a two-state solution was genuine, it was as an intermediate stage en route to a one-state solution.

Hamas, by contrast, takes a Joel Stein view: Why the hell should we have to go tippy-toeing around some sissy phrase we don't really mean? Hamas doesn't support a two-state solution, it supports the liquidation of one state and its replacement by other, and they don't see why they should have to pretend otherwise. And in last week's elections for the Palestinian Authority they romped home. It was a landslide.

As is the way, many in the West rushed to rationalize the victory. The media have long been reluctant to damn the excitable lads as terrorists. In 2002 the New York Times published a photograph of Palestinian suicide bombers all dressed up and ready to blow, and captioned it "Hamas activists." Take my advice and try not to be standing too near the Hamas activist when he activates himself. <--

Oh, no no no, some analysts assured us. The Palestinians didn't vote for Hamas because of the policy plank about obliterating the state of Israel but because Fatah is hopelessly corrupt. Which is true: The European Union's bankrolled the Palestinian Authority since its creation and Yasser and his buddies salted most of the dough away in their Swiss bank accounts and used the loose change to fund the intifada. After 10 years you can't blame the Palestinians for figuring it's time to give another group of people a chance to siphon off all that EU booty.

So I'd like to believe this was a vote for getting rid of corruption rather than getting rid of Jews. But that's hard to square with some of the newly elected legislators. For example, Mariam Farahat, a mother of three, was elected in Gaza. She used to be a mother of six but three of her sons self-detonated on suicide missions against Israel. She's a household name to Palestinians, known as Um Nidal -- Mother of the Struggle -- and, at the rate she's getting through her kids, the Struggle's all she'll be Mother of. She's famous for a Hamas recruitment video in which she shows her 17-year-old son how to kill Israelis and then tells him not to come back. It's the Hamas version of 42nd Street: You're going out there a youngster but you've got to come back in small pieces.

It may be that she stood for parliament because she's got a yen to be junior transport minister or deputy secretary of fisheries. But it seems more likely that she and her Hamas colleagues were elected because this is who the Palestinian people are, this is what they believe. The Palestinians are the most comprehensively wrecked people on the face of the earth: After 60 years as U.N. "refugees," they're now so depraved they're electing candidates on the basis of child sacrifice. To take two contemporaneous crises, imagine if the population displacements caused by the end of the Second World War and by the partition of British India had also been left to the U.N. to manage and six decades later they were still running the "refugee" "camps," now full of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, none of whom had ever lived in any of the places they're supposed to be refugees from. Would you wish that fate on post-war Central Europe or the Indian subcontinent?

So what happens now? Either Hamas forms a government and decides that operating highway departments and sewer systems is what it really wants to do with itself. Or, like Arafat, it figures that it has no interest in government except as a useful front for terrorist operations. If it's the former, all well and good: Many first-rate terror organizations have managed to convert themselves to third-rate national-liberation governments. But, if it's the latter, that too is useful: Hamas is the honest expression of the will of the Palestinian electorate, and the cold hard truth of that is something Europeans and Americans will find hard to avoid.

As with Joel Stein, you're always better off knowing what people honestly think. For decades, the Middle East's dictators justified themselves to Washington as a restraint on the baser urges of their citizens, but in the end they only incubated worse pathologies. Western subsidy of Arafatistan is merely the latest example. Democracy in the Middle East is not always pretty, but it's better than the West's sillier illusions.

[ExplodedMind]

Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hanson are our two paragons of clarity on the War against Islamofascism. Steyn gets the nod for humor injection, and Hanson for deep thought.

The other side has, uh, let's see, Joel Stein and Molly Ivins.

EM

[Malsua]

Yeah, Steyn and VDH are fantastic at cutting through all the nonsense and getting to the point. Both are must reads for me.

-Mal

[Aplomb]

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles...e.asp?ID=21194

Hamas Moves Into South America
By Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu
FrontPageMagazine.com | February 10, 2006

Wasting little time since it triumphed in what may well be the last “election” held in Palestine for a long time, the terrorist-group-turned-political-party Hamas has opened channels to sympathetic states in the Western Hemisphere. Guess where? Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil. Expect Cuba, Mexico, and Chile to be next on the list. It doesn’t stretch the imagination to figure why: Hamas is seeking to establish its legitimacy.

The Hamas leadership can find guidance for this practical strategy from close-to-home historical precedent. Yassar Arafat used the same trick to convert his international image from terrorist to statesman. That the gullible West bought into the act made a point with Hamas. By going out of its way to seek full diplomatic recognition from America’s and Israel’s enemies Hamas is effectively using the gambit of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” a strategy that is as old in the Middle East as history itself.

Hamas will join other rogue states making the smart move to establish friendly relationships with deteriorating states within the Western Hemisphere inimical to American interests. The selection of Venezuela, of course, is a brilliant coup. Emerging dictator Hugo Chavez would afford diplomatic recognition to a dung pile if he thought it would tweak America and George Bush. It is an easy stretch for him to roll the red carpet out for Hamas, and serves his interests at the same time.

Chavez may or may not have scored high on his SATs but he is a demonstrated survivor whose raw cunning and clever manipulation have him sitting at the top of one of the strongest states in Latin America. Chavez is eager to promote his “Bolivarian” dream state that will swallow up neighboring Columbia, possibly Panama, Ecuador, and parts of Peru to form a Maoist-Leninist dictatorship stretching from Atlantic to Pacific while controlling the Panama Canal. We can already see his proclivity to employ surrogates to do his dirty work while he postures, preens, and threatens.

Both the Iranians and North Koreans have secretive missions already in place in Caracas. Hamas will soon join them. Chavez will soon be in a position that Fidel must envy but was never able to achieve, that of regional puppet-master with sufficient petrodollars to purchase weapons and the connections to willing dupes to implement his strategies. Already we see an order for 100,000 Soviet-era small arms tagged to be transferred to the FARC narco-terrorists in Colombia, for the purpose of bringing down the elected democratic government there. If Colombia falls, the way will be open for him to begin consolidation of the mega-state of his vision.

Other recent elections in Bolivia, especially, and in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, portend a hard left-turn among the largest countries of South America. It is no coincidence that Hamas will be calling on these capitals with diplomatic credentials, ready with its false face in place to enter the masquerade ball that is called international diplomacy.

By reinforcing Hamas across the board: with diplomatic recognition, offering a base in the New World, under-the-table funding for anti-Israeli and anti-American attacks, and conferring upon it a legitimacy that the terror organization would never achieve on its own, Chavez and other Latin leaders are effectively checkmating a policy of isolation and financial starvation that may be used by America and the EU to try to keep Hamas in check.

Some observers, such as Charles Krauthammer, have written that they advocate total isolation of Hamas from the world community, including a complete cessation of the billions in U.S., UN, and European aid money that is typically unaccountable and goes into personal secret bank accounts. Krauthammer asserts this money, even if made more transparent, is “fungible,” thereby permitting Hamas to divert other funds toward its core policy of eradicating Israel and Western influence from the region.

Krauthammer goes on to note that with its stated desire for a “one state” solution to the Middle East problem, eradicating Israel, “this election was truth in advertising.” Hamas is at least “more honest” than its predecessor. “Everyone is lamenting the fall of Fatah and the marginalization of its leader, Mahmoud Abbas. This is ridiculous. The election exposed what everyone knew and would not admit: Abbas has no constituency.”

As Victor Davis Hanson captures the issue, “encouraging democracy is still vital to offer a third choice other than dictatorship or theocracy — especially when we now recognize the general Middle East rule: The logical successor to a Shah is a Khomeini; a Zarqawi wishes to follow a fallen Saddam; a propped-up Arafat ensures Hamas; and a subsidized Mubarak will lead to the Muslim Brotherhood.” In

No country in which armed bands of violence-addicted young men roam the streets with automatic weapons and grenade launchers opening fire on foes and innocents alike can be characterized as enjoying a free election. The very idea of legitimizing it is a gross prostitution of the democratic process. It is exactly the same use of democracy to overthrow democracy that took place in 1930s Germany and italic, and more recently in Venezuela and Bolivia. When dictators fear the ballot box, they crack heads and jail opposition leaders.

To quote Hanson again, “Puritanical zealotry always feeds off autocratic corruption — as if lopping hands and heads is the proper antidote to military courts and firing squads.” So if Fatah was as corrupt as we know it was, how could we rationally have expected anything better than Hamas?

There will be those – and they pop up consistently when democracy seems to be faltering – that will decry the mission of trying to bring democratic process to those they deem incapable of dealing with it. Such fatuous abandonment of principle only hastens the rise of the dictator whether theocrat, autocrat, or communist.

As Amir Taheri notes, “the best way to kill the monster of Islamism is democracy,” and his dictum is equally applicable for other aberrations and political manipulation of the voting process. Hamas is now in power in a failed, dysfunctional, aggressive state and is making alliances with others in the international community who have serious mischief as a foundation for national policy. We need to be resolute, tough, and realistic in our approach to them, realizing that in the Middle East a bad moon has risen.

Click Here to support Frontpagemag.com.

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Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu has been an Army Green Beret lieutenant colonel, as well as a writer, popular speaker, business executive and farmer. His most recent book is Separated at Birth, about North and South Korea.

[Aplomb]

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubI...pub_detail.asp

Hamas' International Strategy Works Print Mail

By Michael Rubin

Posted: Thursday, February 8, 2007

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bitterlemons-international.org

Publication Date: February 8, 2007

Resident Scholar Michael Rubin On January 26, 2006, Hamas celebrated its election victory. Ismail Haniyeh, who would assume the premiership, rededicated his organization to violence. "Our fighting is only with the Zionist enemy," he explained. "We will continue our dialogue with all brotherly factions in the Palestinian territories." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice lauded the election process, but condemned its victors. "You cannot have one foot in politics and the other in terror," she explained. "Our position on Hamas has therefore not changed." Nor did Hamas change. To mark the six-month anniversary of its election the group staged a cross border attack on Israel, killing two soldiers and kidnapping 19-year-old IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit. It continues to endorse missile strikes on Israeli civilians. And despite Haniyeh's calls for dialogue with Fateh, Hamas stewardship has led to daily clashes with rival Palestinian factions. Blame for the violence lies not only in Gaza and Ramallah but also in Riyadh and Tehran. Hamas is not autonomous. Saudi donors helped launch the group in 1987 and provided a steady flow of cash until at least 2004. In October 2002, the World Association of Muslim Youth made Khalid Meshaal, the Hamas Political Bureau chief and an unapologetic advocate of terrorism, a guest-of-honor at its annual convention in Riyadh. After Saudi authorities, worried about blowback, cracked down on funding Sunni extremists, Iranian authorities picked up the slack. Canadian intelligence estimates that Tehran provides Hamas up to $18 million per year and welcomes Hamas fighters into its Revolutionary Guards training camps. So where does Hamas stand a year into its tenure? As a governing force, it has failed. While Hamas leaders say they do not have money to pay civil servants, they find sufficient cash to conduct military operations. Where Hamas has succeeded, though, is in convincing some governments that it now deserves legitimacy. First, there was Turkey which under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is more Middle Eastern than European. Less than a month after Hamas' election win, Erdogan invited Meshaal to Ankara. A European Union travel ban collapsed soon after when the Swedish government offered Hamas minister Atef Adwan a visa. It was not long before European officials and many non-governmental organizations insisted that the western world had an obligation to fund Palestinian relief even though, with money fungible, such assistance mitigated pressure upon Hamas and enabled it to spend more on weapons. European equivalence signals Hamas' sponsors that their strategy works. Europe's rhetoric may be strong, but its resolve is weak. An Arab boycott of Israel can last more than half a century, but the West's boycott of terrorist groups cannot last a month. Saudi princes and Iranian revolutionary foundation managers understand they should ignore Brussels and perhaps even Washington and continue to launch, fund, and sustain groups that embrace terrorism and eschew democracy. Washington, however, has given Hamas and its radical sponsors perhaps their greatest victory. Not only did the Bush administration fail to insist that forfeiture of armed political party militias should be among the ground rules for legitimate democratic participation, thus allowing a Trojan horse into the election, but once the scale of Hamas' victory became known the White House rewarded Middle Eastern terrorist groups and their sponsors with an effective abandonment of the Bush democracy agenda. Whereas Rice once spoke about the need for democracy and reform at the American University of Cairo, in her recent trips to Egypt she has appeared beside Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and said hardly a word about reform. Neither the State Department nor the US ambassador in Cairo have spoken about the arson attack on the Ghad party headquarters, the kangaroo court conviction of its leader Ayman Nour, Mubarak's postponement of municipal elections or the videos of Egyptian police torturing dissidents that surfaced in November 2006 after thieves stole several police officers' cell phones at a wedding reception. The State Department has quietly squirreled away and diverted funding to support Iranian democracy and no longer, in practice, supports reform in Saudi Arabia. Fathi al-Jahmi remains imprisoned in Libya, where five Bulgarian nurses also face a firing squad. Arab states and Iran have used Hamas to revert to a comfortable state of affairs in which they pay rhetorical heed to Palestinian political demands but, in practice, are indifferent. They fund terrorism that prolongs conflict and causes the Palestinians to further spiral into a morass. Their investment in Hamas has paid huge dividends. It will not end the Jewish state but, for the region's kings, hereditary presidents and ayatollahs, it sidetracks the far more worrisome agenda of democratization, reform, and accountability. Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at AEI.