Has Hamas leadership realized the errors of its policy in aligning itself with oppressive Arabian regimes and abandoning the Islamic Republic, the one true friend of the Palestinian people? Recent statements by Hamas officials gives cause for guarded optimism.
In recent days Hamas has been signaling its desire to reconnect with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Some statements expressed in public by Hamas officials — all the way up to deputy chairman Musa Abu Marzuq — amount to a confession of the serious mistakes of the past five years. We are beginning to hear statements by Hamas higher-ups that Iran has been solid in its support of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian resistance. Mr. Abu Marzuq broke with “diplomatic parlance” when he expressed compliments regarding Islamic Iran’s support for Palestinians in the areas of offering supplies, training, finances, and support second to none. He went as far as to say (diplomacy be damned) that this type of support has been known (at least to the two sides) and on the table (for all to see).
The obvious reasoning here is that Hamas has come to realize that it gambled on “Sunni” traitors (using the distasteful terminology in circulation) in the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. What we may be witnessing is the beginning of the eclipse of the Hamas moderates led and misled by Khalid Mash‘al and his “Qatar-first” lieutenants. It should never be forgotten that Mr. Mash‘al (who currently resides in Qatar) and his inner circle made their deplorable decision to relocate from Damascus to Qatar and to take sides in an inter-Arabian affair that has turned sectarian in the interim years.
The time has arrived to emerge from a period of secret discussions by Hamas officials to look back and figure out that Hamas had been duped and dissipated by the all-time munafiqeen — the a‘rab of Arabia. These poor Hamas officials, invited to plush palaces and served lavish lunches by their “allies,” the contemporary Ibn Salluls (Judas’) in Doha, Riyadh, Kuwait, and other Arabian centers of perfidy during the Arabian Spring, were convinced that the days of the Syrian regime are numbered. Not to worry… a matter of a few months and Bashar and his henchmen will be history… These Hamas-Palestinians were told not to repeat Yasir ‘Arafat’s mistake when he sided with Saddam Husain’s invasion of Kuwait. They were told by these Arabian double-dealers that the Palestinian issue is paramount and no Arab or Muslim should ever think about abandoning the cause of Palestine.
To this writer it is painful to review the amateurish mistakes and wild errors of the Hamas leadership (excluding its military wing). Hamas announced its support for the now imprisoned Egyptian president Muhammad Mursi who concocted a statement for jihad in Syria and shut down the Syrian embassy in Cairo. All of this was lined up with the fatwas of Shaykh Yusuf al-Qardawi and the Saudi preacher Muhammad al-‘Arifi, both of whom attended a conference of Islamic scholars in Cairo chaired by then President Mursi (June 2013), who is currently languishing in a Cairo prison. This, of course, fed into inter-Arabian tensions as relations between Cairo and Damascus turned sectarian and sour.
In the case of the Saudi Ibn Salluls the time would be very short between words supporting Hamas and policies confronting Hamas’s big brother: al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (The Muslim Brotherhood). Faced with what the Saudi royals and their advisers perceived to be an encirclement by forces of Islamic self-determination — Islamic Iran and the Ikhwan — the Saudi regime declared an undeclared war against their nemesis: Islamic self-determination. The Saudi anti-Islamic establishment came out in full support of General ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, the coup-installed president of Egypt. This was during the reign of the late Saudi King ‘Abdullah. That was followed by a Saudi decision to interrupt its relations with their dear Hamas guests who just a few months earlier were making their rounds and receiving red carpet receptions all over Arabia. King ‘Abdullah then died (January 2015) and was replaced by the current King Salman; and nothing has changed. This king met with a Hamas delegation in Makkah last year but nothing came out of it. Bare in mind that Hamas went the whole nine yards and supported the Saudi declaration of war against Yemen known as ‘Asifat al-Hazm. We don’t know whether Saudi Arabia asked Palestinians loyal to Hamas to become boots on the ground in Yemen. There is some speculation to that effect but nothing has been confirmed.
The way things appear now, Khalid Mash‘al has run his course. He will no longer be the chairman of Hamas and Musa Abu Marzuq is angling his way to the top of the Hamas pyramid sensing that there is a pre-explosion status quo in Ghazzah and sensing that the military wing of Hamas is gaining momentum and popularity. In light of this we can better understand the statements of reconciliation toward Islamic Iran and Syria coming from Hamas quarters. Much depends on how Hamas restructures its decision-making process to see how Islamic Iran will respond to these pronounced overtures from Hamas.
It appears that the Syrian leadership plays a role in the relationship between Islamic Hamas and Islamic Iran. And the Syrian leadership showed a stiff resolve in freezing Hamas out of its sphere of influence as long as Khalid Mash‘al remained the head of Hamas. Hizbullah tried to thaw the lines of communication between Islamic Iran and Hamas, but Damascus remained as cold as ice.
Elections for positions in the Hamas politburo are coming up. Khalid Mash‘al occupied the chairmanship for four terms. With him retiring from his take-a-chance decision making, the possibilities are that the relations between Tehran and Ghazzah will see a noticeable improvement.
Within Hamas the unheard voices that favored and still favor a strong relationship with Tehran have never been given an opportunity to express themselves. They are being vindicated as the majority of Palestinians and a majority of Arabs and Muslims feel and see how the Arabian regimes have stabbed the Palestinians in the back, yet again. These regimes took the Palestinian issue from the spotlight and are putting Iran in the spotlight, trying to convince everyone that Iran is the enemy of the Muslims! The Arabian budgets and treasuries have been hemorrhaging in these past years like never before: not on weapons to liberate Palestine but on weapons to fuel civil wars all over the Muslim world. Some of the take-away lessons from all this include the following:
1. Educated Muslim youth brainwashed by Wahhabis, impoverished Muslim youth grasping at straws for survival, and mercenaries from hither and yon will (painstakingly said) find their final resting place in the Syrian war zone.
2. Compare this with when ‘Arafat supported Saddam and earned the ire of Arabian royals; it took him ten years to be readmitted into their ranks. Hamas supported the Saudi-Qatari-Turkish axis thereby exasperating Islamic Iran! How long will it take for Hamas to be accepted by Islamic Iran? Time will tell.
3. Let us assume that Hamas is stuck between a rock (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey) and a hard place (Islamic Iran, Hizbullah, Syria), as some would say. So, who are the ones who are helping the Palestinians in word and deed? Are they Arabia and Turkey who never fired a bullet against the Zionists? Turkey has diplomatic relations with the racist, apartheid regime. And Saudi Arabia is clandestinely on its way to have the same. Or are they Islamic Iran, Hizbullah, and Syria who liberated south Lebanon, defeated the Israeli military, and challenged the Israeli nuclear monopoly in the Muslim East? The answer is yours.
4. Hamas is reevaluating its decisions in light of recent developments. With the recent victories of the popular mobilization in Iraq against Da‘ish, the tide against Da‘ish has also been turned in Syria. Fallujah is almost totally liberated and the next stop is Mosul. Tens of thousands of sq. km. have been wrested from the takfiris in Iraq and Syria. Turkey’s double-dealings have been exposed. The Saudi military adventure in Yemen is backfiring. Saudi Arabia ditched the Palestinians and is working behind the scenes to normalize relations with the Zionist enemies of divinity and humanity. The bubble of the Arabian Spring has burst and the Ikhwan in Egypt are in no position to console their Hamasi kindred.
5. Leadership is key. Hamas’ current leadership appears to be more interested in dollars than devotion; interested in bread and butter than in bullets and bombs; interested in the smirks of America’s Arabians than in the smiles of Islam’s Iran. And so they have been beating the path to the capitals of finances extending their hands for donations. Sometimes they are given the loot and sometimes they are given the boot. Consequently their statements are contradictory and they turn out to be an “Islamic” version of the PLO.
6. As desperate as Hamas has been made put to be, who in his right mind would object to Hamas going for additional help to Islamic Iran, and on the way there withdrawing from that club of traitors called “The Arab(ian) League”? And why not? Most of the members of that League are falling over each other to gain Israeli recognition and protection. And if Islamic Iran wants to help Hamas, why should there be any Muslim objecting? When Venezuela can help Hamas, why should anyone stand in Iran’s way? And even if North Korea offers support to Hamas, why should anyone raise an objection? The objective is the liberation of Palestine and anyone willing to help is most welcome.
7. The Ikhwan are in an operational status of self-destruction. Their political, military, and popular losses in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, and Tunisia are overwhelming. It would make for an interesting research paper to trail the regression of the Ikhwan’s leadership to their attachment to and reliance upon the anarchist Wahhabi-Saudi establishment and its offshoots in the Arabian Peninsula. The Ikhwan never proved, beyond a shadow of doubt, that they are independent from those filthy-rich fanatics. With all the talk about Saudi-Israeli public and private meetings we haven’t read one statement by the Ikhwan that assails this high treason and treachery by the coroneted kings and imperial amirs in Arabia.
8. Hamas needs to take a hard look at itself. It was elected to office by Palestinians not Egyptians. But it made its decisions in the past five years as if Egypt and Arabia are its country and not Palestine. The decision to liberate Palestine comes from the refugee camps and not from the Doha Sheraton or the Istanbul Meridian or the Riyadh Hilton!
9. We ask Mr. Mash‘al and his deputies and assistants: how does it feel to live in a 5-star hotel indulging in materialistic luxury after having tasted the freedom offered to you and the Palestinian cause in Damascus? Even the Syrian people didn’t have the freedom you had!
Some of you want this world and some of you want the final [world] (3:152).