Friday, March 29, 2024 -
Print Edition

Hamas hate backfires

Have you noticed how the “Arab Spring” has swept the Arab world, or at least tried to — with one notable exception? The Gaza Strip.

What all the autocrats of Egypt, Libya, Syria and others Arab dictatorships have failed to do — to suppress popular feelings for democracy — Hamas in Gaza has succeeded in.

Get this: Even demonstrations against Israel are banned in Gaza. Israel: Hated, the putative source of every social, economic and religious ill in the Middle East, the very country whose destruction is the goal of Hamas — Israel, even demonstrations against it are banned.

Such is the brutality and tyranny of Hamas. And for very good reason, once one enters the twisted mental universe of Hamas. A demonstration is a demonstration. Even a protest against Israel could easily turn into a protest against the Palestinian dictatorship in Gaza. Above all — even above the destruction of Israel — Hamas wants to preserve its power, its absolute control, its Palestinian form of dictatorship.

Alas, it seems that Hamas blew it when the “Arab Spring” in Egypt came on the scene in 2011. The overthrow of the longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak brought in its wake the ascension of the Moslem Brotherhood to power. Hamas loved that. Both Hamas and the Brotherhood shared the same goals: not democracy, not peace with Israel, but the the Islamization of the Middle East, a process that automatically would entail the end of Israel. Hamas puts all its eggs in one basket. It dropped its relations with the Shia (or at least the non-Sunni) segments of the Middle East, such as Iran and Syria. Sunni Egypt was a dream come true.

Except, it wasn’t. The Brothers no longer rule Egypt, and Hamas no longer has strong relations with Iran or Syria. Hamas is holding on for dear life, a condition in which even the expression of hatred for Israel has its potential downside. Oh my.

And Israel is supposed to make peace with the dictators in Gaza?

Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News




Leave a Reply