Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Hamas Rising

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/25/hamas_rising
 
 
Hamas Rising
 
Countries across the Middle East are opening their coffers to support 
the Palestinian cause -- but the funds are increasingly being diverted 
in a direction that portends renewed conflict with Israel.
 
The U.S.-supported Palestinian Authority (PA), on the one hand, is 
rapidly heading for the poor house. Even after a promised $100 million 
injection of funds from the Saudis (which has not yet been delivered), 
the PA will still be suffering its worst cash crunch in years. It has an 
estimated budget shortfall of $1 billion for 2012 and has already 
stopped making payroll to its government employees. Yet regional leaders 
seem nonplussed about their longtime client's budget woes; their pledges 
of support continue to go unfulfilled.
 
Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, Hamas -- the Islamist faction that 
violently wrested control of the area from the PA in 2007 -- is riding 
high on the beneficence of its new allies. After a rocky period during 
which Iran's largesse to Hamas dried up, and Syrian President Bashar 
al-Assad's ongoing slaughter in Syria forced the group's external 
leaders to flee from their headquarters in Damascus, the group has 
regained its footing.
 
Hamas has two of the Middle East's emerging Sunni powerhouses to thank 
for its change of fortunes.
 
Qatar, despite an uneasy alliance with Washington that hinges on hosting 
a key U.S. airbase and now a new missile-defense station, has quietly 
become one of the Palestinian Islamist party's most generous new 
benefactors. In February, Hamas officials announced they had signed a 
$250 million deal with the Qatari government for reconstruction projects 
in Hamas-controlled Gaza. Doha is also providing funds for sports and 
housing projects in the Gaza Strip, according to other media reports.
 
Perhaps the greatest beneficiary of Qatari support is Khaled Meshal, the 
head of Hamas' external operations. As Assad's crackdown on Syria's 
predominantly Sunni opposition grew ever bloodier, Asharq al-Awsat 
reported in February that Meshal would leave Hamas headquarters in 
Damascus permanently and carry out his work from Qatar. Indeed, Qatar 
appears to be the new global headquarters of the Hamas politburo: A June 
2012 Congressional Research Service report confirmed Meshal's relocation 
to Doha, noting that the Gulf emirate is the place where he "conducts 
his regular engagement with regional figures."
 
The Qataris also appear to be helping Hamas reintegrate into the Sunni 
fold. That's a tall order, considering that Hamas had long been on the 
Iranian dole -- the party is best known as an ally of the mullahs that 
has unleashed rocket attacks and suicide bombings across Israel, killing 
hundreds. But while the Iranian weapons pipeline still appears to be 
robust, known Iranian economic assistance has dwindled to small building 
projects -- and Qatar is exploiting this window of opportunity. In late 
January, for example, Qatari Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad 
al-Thani accompanied a Hamas delegation to Jordan, the first time the 
group had made an official visit to Amman since Jordan's King Abdullah 
expelled it in 1999.
 
Turkey's Islamist government has also embraced Hamas, both economically 
and diplomatically. In December, the International Middle East Media 
Center, run out of the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, cited Turkish 
sources claiming that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had 
"instructed the Ministry of Finance to allocate $300 million to be sent 
to Hamas' government in Gaza." Hamas denied this, but Reuters and the 
Israeli newspaper of record, Haaretz, published subsequent reports, 
citing different sources, confirming this financial relationship.
 
It is in Ankara's interest to keep direct assistance shrouded in secrecy 
-- after all, it has a reputation to uphold among its NATO allies, who 
designated Hamas for its terrorist activity. But other Turkish 
assistance to Gaza is easier to document. In January, for instance, the 
Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that the country would "help 
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip repair mosques," while its competitor, 
Zaman, quoted Turkish officials confirming that the country is "engaged 
in projects to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza," including the 
construction of a $40 million hospital.
 
Turkey, like Qatar, has also been an advocate of Hamas in the diplomatic 
arena for several years now. The ill-fated Turkish-led flotilla of 2010, 
after all, was designed to draw attention to the Israeli siege of Gaza 
and received government sponsorship. And Erdogan famously told an 
American television audience last year, "I don't see Hamas as a terror 
organization. Hamas is a political party."
 
Erdogan is not alone in his sentiments. The political tide across the 
Middle East is also highly favorable to Hamas. Most obviously, the 
victory of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsy in Egypt's 
presidential elections has energized Hamas. Following the Brotherhood's 
victory, Haniyeh expressed confidence that "the revolution led by Morsy 
will not take any part in blocking Gaza" -- a reference to the blockade 
enforced by fallen dictator Hosni Mubarak.
 
The Palestinian Islamist group also enjoyed a red-carpet welcome in 
Tunisia, where the Islamist al-Nahda party has taken the reins of power. 
This was a particularly galling development for the rival West Bank 
government, given that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the 
Palestinian nationalist organization that Yasser Arafat founded and 
Abbas now heads, had previously used Tunis as its headquarters in exile.
 
With Islamist movements gaining strength across the region, Hamas's 
political rival has simply lost its mojo. The Palestinian Authority, 
created 18 years ago to midwife a two-state solution with Israel that 
has yet to materialize, is sorely lacking in popular appeal. It doesn't 
help that the PA earned a reputation for being corrupt and ossified -- 
two qualities that brought several Arab autocracies to their ends.
 
The PA's Western allies, meanwhile, are becoming less willing to 
underwrite its activities. Despite a denial issued by the PLO to Foreign 
Policy, Saudi, Palestinian, and Israeli sources have reported that the 
White House is indeed threatening to cut aid if Abbas attempts to pursue 
recognition of Palestinian statehood again at the United Nations this year.
 
Hamas, unlike the PA, has never needed Western handouts. Since its 
inception in 1987, the group has operated entirely on regional cash. And 
despite its recent fallout with Iran and Syria, its platform of 
resistance to Israel enjoys wide appeal in the new Sunni regional order.
 
Washington once had the clout to deter countries like Qatar, Turkey, and 
Egypt from backing a designated terrorist group. But after the great 
regional tectonic shifts of the past two years, U.S. consternation has 
become a secondary consideration for these new governments.
 
True, Hamas's new donors could moderate its politics. This is certainly 
the line that Turkey and Qatar will take. But more likely, the increased 
cash flow to Hamas will herald a new wave of rejectionism and -- given 
Hamas's track record -- possibly a new wave of violence in the 
Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
-- 
Namib
 
Necessaria sunt immutabilia (A. G. Baumgarten)

 
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/25/hamas_rising
 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BmEGm-mraE