Blowback: Hamas Was a Creation of Mossad

Hamas is a Creation of Mossad
by Hassane Zerouky

Global Outlook, No 2, Summer 2002

www.globalresearch.ca 23 March 2004

Thanks to the Mossad, Israel's "Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks", the Hamas was allowed to reinforce its presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, Arafat's Fatah Movement for National Liberation as well as the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression and intimidation

Let us not forget that it was Israel, which in fact created Hamas. According to Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the Islamists against the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)."


Left: Ahmad Yassin 1987-2004

Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Islamic movement in Palestine, returning from Cairo in the seventies, established an Islamic charity association. Prime Minister Golda Meir, saw this as an opportunity to counterbalance the rise of Arafat’s Fatah movement. .According to the Israeli weekly Koteret Rashit (October 1987), "The Islamic associations as well as the university had been supported and encouraged by the Israeli military authority" in charge of the (civilian) administration of the West Bank and Gaza. "They [the Islamic associations and the university] were authorized to receive money payments from abroad."

The association set up orphanages and health clinics, as well as a network of schools, workshops which created employment for women as well as a system of financial aid to the poor. And in 1978, they created an "Islamic University" in Gaza. "The military authority was convinced that these activities would weaken both the PLO and the leftist organizations in Gaza." At the end of 1992, there were six hundred mosques in Gaza. Thanks to Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, (Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks), the Islamists were allowed to reinforce their presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, the members of Fatah (Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine) and the Palestinian secular Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression.

In 1984, Ahmed Yassin was arrested and condemned to twelve years in prison, after the discovery of a hidden arms cache. But one year later, he was set free and resumed his activities. And when the Intifada (‘uprising’) began, in October 1987, which took the Islamists by surprise, Sheik Yassin responded by creating the Hamas (The Islamic Resistance Movement): "God is our beginning, the prophet our model, the Koran our constitution," proclaims article 7 of the charter of the organization.

Ahmed Yassin was in prison when, the Oslo accords (Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government) were signed in September 1993. The Hamas had rejected Oslo outright. But at that time, 70% of Palestinians had condemned the attacks on Israeli civilians. Yassin did everything in his power to undermine the Oslo accords. Even prior to Prime Minister Rabin’s death, he had the support of the Israeli government. The latter was very reluctant to implement the peace agreement.

The Hamas then launched a carefully timed campaign of attacks against civilians, one day before the meeting between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, regarding the formal recognition of Israel by the National Palestinian Council. These events were largely instrumental in the formation of a Right wing Israeli government following the May 1996 elections.

Quite unexpectedly, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered Sheik Ahmed Yassin to be released from prison ("on humanitarian grounds") where he was serving a life sentence. Meanwhile, Netanyahu, together with President Bill Clinton, was putting pressure on Arafat to control the Hamas. In fact, Netanyahu knew that he could rely, once more, on the Islamists to sabotage the Oslo accords. Worse still: after having expelled Yassin to Jordan, Prime Minister Netanyahu allowed him to return to Gaza, where he was welcomed triumphantly as a hero in October 1997.

Arafat was helpless in the face of these events. Moreover, because he had supported Saddam Hussein during the1991 Gulf war, (while the Hamas had cautiously abstained from taking sides), the Gulf states decided to cut off their financing of the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, between February and April 1998, Sheik Ahmad Yassin was able to raise several hundred million dollars, from those same countries. The budget of Hamas was said to be greater than that of the Palestinian Authority. These new sources of funding enabled the Islamists to effectively pursue their various charitable activities. It is estimated that one Palestinian out of three is the recipient of financial aid from Hamas. And in this regard, Israel has done nothing to curb the inflow of money into the occupied territories.

The Hamas had built its strength through its various acts of sabotage of the peace process, in a way which was compatible with the interests of the Israeli government. In turn, the latter sought in a number of ways, to prevent the application of the Oslo accords. In other words, Hamas was fulfilling the functions for which it was originally created: to prevent the creation of a Palestinian State. And in this regard, Hamas and Ariel Sharon, see eye to eye; they are exactly on the same wave length.

© Copyright H ZEROUKY 2004. This article originally appeared in French in L’Humanité. Translation by Global Outlook, 2002.

Is history poised to repeat itself, as an election looms in Israel and the right wing Likud, under the leadership of Binyamin Netanyahu, is again prominently situated to re-enter history--as a potential potent savior of Israeli security? Is Hamas once more playing a pivotal role in tragic strategic maneuvers that have more to do with Israel than Gaza and Palestine? Or, is this episode merely a continuation--a new chapter in the book of espionage, sabotage and subterfuge, which has been the main theme in the narrative of this occupation for the past 61 years?

Certainly, a viable impetus for the Gaza massacre also, points towards geopolitical calculations on Iran. Since, Hamas' sponsorship have since moved from Tel Aviv and is now placed in Tehran--their motivations pass the test of collusion with the Zionists. Hamas may have been nurtured in its infancy by the Israelis for their own objectives--continuing the status of limbo on final borders that would avail further encroachment on Palestinian lands--however, their paths have ultimately, strayed in contravening directions. The US also sought to add succor to religious groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan during this same period in order to undermine the secular goverment of Afghanistan and their patrons in the Soviet Union. In fact, which Israel was also an important participant, who worked with the Pakistani secret services (ISI), to funnel arms and funds to the Mujahideen. Hamas and the Mujahideen in the sub-continent are classic examples of blowback.

The Israelis are certainly, looking to some sort of supportive action from Hizballah in the North and / or even Syrian action to ease the pressure on Hamas by opening a second front when the ground offensive ensues as a casus belli for their long felt aspirations to attack Iran. Hassan Nasrallah mentions this point in his latest public speech in Lebanon during demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Sa'ad Hariri, the son of the slain Lebanese Prime Minister, [who was seen by his opponents as too close to Israel and their allies in the west and the Arab world] and successful business leader, also pointed out the nature of this trap today during a news conference in France.

It will not be too surprising if some Israeli or Jewish targets outside Israel proper [some hotel, embassy, synagogue, etc.,] are hit by what will be described as terrorists, which then will be attributed to Iranian backing of some sort, to then serve as a pretext to attack Iran. One must remember that it was such an attack on an Israeli diplomat in Europe that led to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. These attacks of course would have to take place in the near future. Sometime before the inauguration of Barack Obama and a few week there after in order to extract the full bang for the buck of the slaughter in Gaza.

The ferocity of the Gaza blitz is fizzing out fast as Israel runs out of palpable targets, known as a target bank--those buildings that propaganda can gloss over as military targets, such as homes of leaders, universities, hospitals, mosques, dairies, printing facilities, factories, police stations, parliamentary offices, power and sewage plants, etc. After all, Gaza is a poor place, eighty percent of which consist of refugee camps, they do not have an elaborate municipal infrastructure to keep bombing for weeks.

Moreover, the IDF is reluctant to execute a ground invasion; even if they indeed enter Gaza, it will be a hit and run affair, lasting a few weeks--such a commando attempt occurred Tuesday night according to Hamas as reported by the BBC world service. The Israelis do not want to remain in Gaza and maintain troops there that would become susceptible to sniper and other guerrilla actions. The Israeli public will want a quick hit and kill result otherwise the Kadima are doomed in the coming elections. The polls are already favoring LIkud during these savage attacks. The Israeli public always goes for the real hawks whilst the so-called doves usually start the wars to give the impression that they too, can kill Palestinians with efficiency.

Be as it may, the Israeli elections are set for February 10, 2009, and the public must be wooed into either Kadima or Likud camps some measurable time prior to that date. Therefore, favorable results in Gaza, those that extremely compromise Hamas and its capabilities to fire rockets and remain defiant will be politically necessary in a month, to reap the full benefit of the maniacal bombardment and an invasion if Israel uses ground forces. But until such time, Israel is shelling the Gaza Strip with artillery batteries, tank shells, from ships at sea and from the air, in order to soften the theater and face less resistance when they finally enter the strip. They have been using thermo bunker busting one ton bombs in an attempt to destroy the tunnel system and underground network of Hamas in Gaza.

Hamas is reported to have constructed underground military facilities, which the Israelis refer to as the "underground city" a strategy first utilized by the Vietnamese that was successfully borrowed by Hizballah in the 2006 war on Lebanon. Nevertheless, these reports emanate from Israeli sources and may be part of war propaganda and may not exist. Israel is therefore, destroying as much as it can now so it can get out as fast as possible; just in time for the last few weeks of a robust and healthy democratic campaign--in the only true democracy in the Middle East. Never mind that Hamas was also democratically elected in an election monitored and managed by the West--to be subsequently, shunned and stunned -- embargoed, listed as a terrorist organization, blockaded, financially censured and finally bombed to smithereens during this past week -- all because Israel and the rich imperial nations did not like the voice of the occupied people of Palestine -- no choice.

Wherefore, whether secular, religious or otherwise, any form of political agitation taken by the occupied people of Palestine, nonviolent or military, in order to exact justice in lieu of their rightful claims to land and sovereignty, will always meet the full brunt of the fury of these descendants of the Holocaust and their backers in the west. The abused child becomes the abuser -- it is psychotic.