How and why Israel helped create Hamas?
2021
Israel has declared Hamas, a Palestinian resistance organisation, a ‘terrorist’ outfit and did everything under its power to liquidate it during its recent two-week long operation in Gaza. But, not many people are aware of the fact that it was Israel which had helped the creation of Hamas as a counter to Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) during 1980s.
Why Israel helped the creation of Hamas and how it utilised its resources for the purpose? Has Israel by taking brutal action in Gaza strengthened Hamas and how the Palestinian struggle got divided and weakened when Hamas challenged PLO, a secular and nationalist organisation? Formed in 1964, PLO had a clause, in its charter, calling for the destruction of Israel. But when the Oslo process was launched for peace between Israel and PLO, that clause was removed from the Palestinian charter, granting recognition to the Jewish state. Likewise, the Israeli government in late 1980s and early 1990s lifted ban on maintaining contacts with PLO and recognised it when the historic PLO-Israeli accord, mediated by then US President Bill Clinton, signed on September 13, 1993. If PLO recognised Israel, Hamas opposed peace process with the Jewish state and called for the destruction of Israel.
Gaza, which was occupied by Israel as a result of June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, patronised Mujama al-Islamiya which was formed by a Palestinian cleric Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and viewed it as a harmless organisation involved in charity and welfare work for the Palestinian community of Gaza. Mujama al-Islamiya later became Hamas before Intifada-I was launched in December 1987. Israel considered Mujama al-Islamiya and its successor organisation Hamas a lesser evil as compared to PLO and thought that dividing Palestinians will serve the interest of Jewish state. If Israel termed PLO a terrorist organisation and a major threat to its interests, Hamas was also against PLO because of its secular and nationalist outlook. That is how both Hamas and Israel were viewed as natural allies against PLO. But, later on when Hamas in 1988 killed two Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) personnel in Gaza, Israel turned against Hamas but it was too late. Hamas, which earlier labelled itself as a welfare and charity organisation in Gaza and got favors from Israel, changed is tactics and exploited PLO’s peace process with Israel to gain popular support of those Palestinians who were disillusioned with Yasser Arafat’s mending of fences with the Jewish state despite the killing of hundreds of Palestinians in Intifada-I.
Regrets among those Israeli officials who helped the creation of Hamas are well documented. For instance, Avner Cohen, a Tunisia-born Jew who was an Israeli official in Gaza dealing with religious affairs during 1970s and 1980s, lamented that “Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation”. He observed the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then evolved into what is today Hamas — a militant group that now calls for Israel’s destruction. Cohen argued that “instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. Israel cooperated with a crippled, half-blind cleric named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even as he was laying the foundations for what would become Hamas”. Does it mean that Hamas was clever enough to dodge shrewd Israeli intelligence service by portraying itself as a welfare and charity organisation in order to get itself establish in Gaza and then confront Israel?
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2302309/how-and-why-israel-helped-create-hamas
Blowback: How Israel Went From Helping Create Hamas to Bombing It
February 19 2018
Hamas wants to destroy Israel, right? But as Mehdi Hasan shows in a new video on blowback, Israeli officials admit they helped start the group.
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict/