"Hamas, a mi pesar, es una creación de Israel"

Leon S. Kennedy

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"Hamas, a mi pesar, es una creación de Israel"

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Militantes palestinos llevan el cadáver de un joven en la región ocupada de Naplusa.AFP
Actualizado Martes, 10 octubre 2023 - 08:36

El grupo recibió el apoyo activo de Tel Aviv durante su creación para usarlo contra la Organización para la Liberación de Palestina (OLP), bajo el mismo supuesto que llevó a Washington a apoyar a los islamistas radicales que luchaban en Afganistán contra las tropas de Moscú

El propio general israelí Yitzhak Segev, que actuaba como gobernador de Gaza, reconoció en una entrevista con The New York Times en 1981 algo que en los años subsiguientes admitirían otros muchos oficiales del Estado judío. Israel participó activamente en la creación y expansión de Hamas en la Franja palestina, apoyando con fondos a las mezquitas en las que se adoctrinaba a sus seguidores, pensando que así podían crear una fuerza que sirviera como polo antagónico a quien era entonces su principal adversario, la OLP de Yaser Arafat. "El Gobierno de Israel me da un presupuesto y yo se lo doy a las mezquitas", declaró el uniformado sin reparo alguno.


Quien fuera el responsable israelí de asuntos religiosos en ese territorio hasta 1994 -donde trabajó durante casi dos décadas-, Avner Cohen, también admitió en otra charla con el periódico The Wall Street Journal que "Hamas, a mi pesar, es una creación de Israel". Fue "un error enorme y menso", agregó.

El principio era el mismo que aplicó Estados Unidos en Afganistán en los 80: el enemigo de mi enemigo es mi amigo. Y el resultado ha sido el mismo. Cuando Washington decidió que los grupos islamistas que combatían al ejército de Moscú no eran sino "guerrilleros por la libertad" quizás no se paró a pensar el enorme riesgo que suponía apoyar a militantes inspirados por un ideario radical. O quizás, tanto Estados Unidos como Israel si lo hicieron, pero el cortoplacismo se impuso a la razón.

El hecho es que Hamas se estableció con el conocimiento expreso y el sostén tácito de Tel Aviv, que concedió en 1979 un permiso oficial al Jeque Ahmed Yasin, el fundador del movimiento, para crear lo que se llamó Mujama al-Islamiya, la supuesta organización caritativa de la que surgió la agrupación ulterior. Los israelíes también le permitieron desarrollar la Universidad Islámica de Gaza, donde se formaron muchos de los cuadros dirigentes de Hamas y sus especialistas más connotados en la fabricación de explosivos y armamento.

Eran años en los que Segev se reunía de forma habitual con Yasin, al que incluso facilitó un tratamiento médico en un hospital israelí, o en los que Mahmud Zahar -otro de los fundadores del grupo- se encontraba con quien era ministro de Defensa de Israel, Yizhak Rabin. Los israelíes siguieron coqueteando con el padre espiritual del movimiento incluso después de que en 1984 le detuvieran tras descubrir un alijo de armas en Gaza, que el religioso adujo que iban a usar contra sus rivales de la OLP.

La relación sólo se interrumpió de forma brusca cuando Hamas -que se creó oficialmente en 1987- protagonizó el primer asesinato de dos soldados israelíes en 1989, una acción que provocó la sentencia a cadena perpetua de Yasín y la deportación de casi 400 dirigentes del grupo al Líbano. Ese fue otro error de Tel Aviv, ya que durante su permanencia en ese exilio, los activistas establecieron contacto con Hizbulá, que desde entonces ha apadrinado la formación de sus combatientes en Irán. De hecho, la táctica del asalto aéreo en parapente que han protagonizado los milicianos de Hamas este sábado es algo en lo que se entrenan desde años los miembros de la formación libanesa.

Ahmed Yasin había nacido en una de las muchas aldeas del entorno de Gaza arrasadas por Israel en 1948 y terminó como refugiado en ese territorio palestino. Lo mismo que la población de Huj, la aldea palestina aplastada literalmente en ese mismo año sobre la que se alza ahora la ciudad de Sderot, que este sábado fue parcialmente ocupada por los paramilitares palestinos.

Su extremismo ideológico le llevó a apadrinar el uso de los hombres bomba que provocaron el terror con sus atentados suicidas en Israel, algo de lo que nunca se arrepintió.

Sin embargo, Yasin ofreció en repetidas ocasiones a Israel lo que llamaba una hudna, un alto el fuego a largo plazo que permitiriera la coexistencia entre ambos pueblos. El liderazgo del grupo se retractaban así, al menos de palabra, de sus postulados más extremos, que pedían la destrucción del estado judío.

Un ministro de Hamás, Naser Shaer, me llegó a decir en 2006, que si Israel se retiraba de Cisjordania y permitía la creación de un estado palestino siguiendo la línea establecida en 1967, con capital en Jerusalén Este, para ellos la confrontación habría concluido. "Sí, sería el final del conflicto", dijo.

Esas propuestas fueron rechazadas por Tel Aviv y la misma opción de Hamás por la vía democrática en 2006, desembocó de forma paradójica en el axfisiante cerco que sufre la franja de Gaza desde esa fecha. Con el refrendo de la Unión Europea y Estados Unidos, Israel respondió a la victoria del grupo islamista en unos comicios legislativos intachables con el inicio del devastador bloqueo que continúa hoy en día.

La hipótesis de que en esas circunstancias Gaza se convirtiera en un caladero perfecto para reclutar extremistas ha sido una advertencia repetida por una miriada de observadores independientes desde entonces.

Dos años después de que comenzara el asedio, la máxima responsable de la Agencia de Naciones Unidas para la Asistencia a los Refugiados Palestinos (Unrwa), Karem Abu Zayd, fue una de las muchas voces que se expresaron este sentido. La funcionaria, con décadas de experiencia en crisis humanitaria, explicó que nunca había asistido a un proceso similar, en el que una población era castigada por ejercer el voto democrático y se le impedía importar hasta papel para la impresión de libros escolares.

"El cerco va a empujar a todo el mundo en los brazos del extremismo. ¿Qué hara un joven sin trabajo ni entretenimiento alguno ante las ofertas de los milicianos?", manifestó en una conversación con este diario.

En agosto de 2003, este periodista entrevistó al jeque Yasin en uno de los incontables rebrotes de violencia a los que ha asistido el conflicto entre israelíes y palestinos desde la creación de Israel. El ejército de este último país había asesinado horas antes a uno de los principales acólitos del religioso, Ismael Abu Shanab, y el líder de Hamas fue concluyente cuando el informador le preguntó si en sus represalias se planteaba atacar objetivos civiles.

"Mire, un tercio de los palestinos asesinados por Israel eran niños. Vamos a liberar nuestra tierra. Lo intentamos por la negociación y no pudimos. Volvemos a la única vía efectiva, la militar", concluyó.

Un mes más tarde, el reportero se lo encontró en un acto público, después de que Tel Aviv hubiese bombardeado su vivienda. "La fin de Yasin creará cientos de Yasín", le dijo. Fue la última vez que le vio vivo.


 

ISRAELI WEBSITE CLAIMS ISIS COMMANDER REVEALED AS MOSSAD AGENT

here has long been speculation regarding ties between the Israeli government and the terror group Daesh, otherwise known as the Islamic State. Such speculation has been fueled by Israel’s reference to Daesh as a “useful tool” and its acknowledgment that it views a Syria under complete Daesh control as preferable to the continuation of the current Syrian government. It is supported as well by the extensive aid and even medical treatments that Daesh militants have received from Israel. However, allegations have recently emerged that could suggest that the connection is even deeper than previously believed.

According to a report from the Israeli website Inian Merkazi and Abna news agency, Libyan security forces arrested a Daesh commander in the city of Benghazi — only to find out soon after that the man they had captured, Ephraim Benjamin, was also an agent of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. Benjamin, who was known in Libya as Abu Hafs, had begun work in Libya after the 2011 NATO-led invasion of Libya that ousted former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Middle East Monitor reported that Hafs/Benjamin was said to have become a prominent imam in a Benghazi mosque, before becoming a Daesh leader who commanded more than 200 fighters. Middle East Monitor has since removed the report from its site.

Libyan authorities have allegedly accused Benjamin of gathering intelligence information on Daesh for Mossad and Middle East Monitor noted that some Libyan news outlets took to calling him the “Mossad shiekh.” Inian Merkazi suggested that Benjamin’s arrest showed that Mossad was influential in the rise of Daesh in the region, given that Benjamin began work in Libya in 2011 while Daesh did not begin operation in Libya until 2015.

However, MintPress News was unable to independently verify the claims of Inian Merkaz linking the Daesh commander to the Israeli Mossad.


Related | Israel Launches ‘Humanitarian’ Strikes On Syria, Assad Plays Waiting Game


Other regional media outlets, such as Masr Alarabia, have described Benjamin as being one of Mossad’s “Arabists” — Mossad agents with Arab antiestéticatures who fluently speak Arabic and use local dialects. Such “Arabists” have gained a reputation for infiltrating Palestinian protests and activist organizations, as well as assassinating prominent Palestinians who are vocally against the Israeli occupation.

However, now it appears that Mossad “Arabists” may be involved in more than the suppressing Palestinian dissent. Given that Israel has repeatedly stated it does not want Daesh to be defeated, it is clear that Benjamin, who allegedly commanded hundreds of men in Daesh, was not “gathering intelligence” in order to defeat Daesh but rather to strengthen it.

Given the reports of Benjamin’s arrest, last year’s strange-seeming statement by Israel’s military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevy, makes more sense. Halevy had stated that Israel does not want to see Daesh defeated and also had expressed concern about the recent offensives against Daesh territory, lamenting the “most difficult” situation the group had found itself in at the time. He further added that Israel would do “all we can so as to not find ourselves in such a situation” where Daesh faces defeat.

In light of Benjamin’s arrest, part of Halevy’s concern for Daesh may have been born out of the antiestéticar that a Daesh defeat could put the lives of Mossad agents, as well as years of their work within Daesh, at risk.

Daesh has long been regarded by Israeli think tanks and politicians as a “strategic tool” for furthering Western and Israeli goals in the region. In the case of Syria, Daesh was seen as a covert means of overthrowing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, an event that Israeli intelligence believed would result in Iran’s loss of “its only ally” in the region.

On a larger scale, however, Daesh ultimately serves to help divide whole nations — like Iraq, Syria and others — into pieces. This is a key component of the Israeli strategic plan, otherwise known as the Yinon plan, to dominate the Middle East by dividing and then conquering its neighbors.

With allegations of Israel’s direct involvement in facilitating the terror group’s activities continuing to grow, it’s become increasingly difficult to defend the long-standing assertion that Israel has been a “neutral” figure in the Syrian conflict and the rise of Daesh.



antiestéticature photo | An alleged photo of Ephraim Benjamin, a Mossad agent. Photo | Masralarabia

Israel's historical role in the rise of Hamas

The Jewish state's future will be shaped by the war against a monster it allegedly help spawn+​

264696.jpgHamas fighters take part in a military parade in Gaza in July to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel. | REUTERS
BY BRAHMA CHELLANEY
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Nov 21, 2023

Israel, which withdrew from Gaza in 2005, has come full circle with its invasion of that territory in response to the atrocities perpetrated by the Hamas militants.


But, just as the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to oust from power a terrorist militia whose rise it had facilitated via its Pakistani intelligence connections for Afghanistan's stability sake, Israel is tasting the bitter fruits of a divide-and-rule policy that helped midwife the birth of the Hamas "Frankenstein monster" that it is now seeking to subdue.



Treating the Hamas slaughter of innocent civilians as a kind of Pearl Harbor moment, Israel has vowed to “wipe out” the Gaza-based militia group through a military offensive that is one of the most intense of the 21st century, according to the New York Times. The terrorism-glorifying ideology of Hamas, however, cannot be crushed by military means alone, raising the question whether Israeli forces could get bogged down in Gaza the way America’s Afghanistan invasion turned into a costly quagmire.

The international focus on the war in Gaza has helped obscure the fact that Israel in the 1980s aided the rise of the Islamist Hamas as a rival to the secular Palestinian Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. Israel’s policy was clearly influenced by the U.S. training and arming of mujahideen (or Islamic holy warriors) in Pakistan from multiple countries to wage jihad against Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

The multibillion-dollar American program from 1980 to create anti-Soviet jihadis represented what still remains the largest covert operation in the Central Intelligence Agency’s history. In 1985, at a White House ceremony attended by several mujahideen, then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan gestured toward his guests and declared, “These gentlemen are the jovenlandesal equivalent of America’s Founding Fathers.”

Out of the mujahideen evolved the Taliban and al-Qaida. As then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton openly admitted in 2010, “We trained them, we equipped them, we funded them, including somebody named Osama bin Laden ... And it didn’t work out so well for us.”

Hamas, for its part, is alleged to have emerged out of the Israeli-financed Islamist movement in Gaza, with Israel’s then-military governor in that territory, Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, disclosing in 1981 that he had been given a budget for funding Palestinian Islamists to counter the rising power of Palestinian secularists. Hamas, a spin-off of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, was formally established with Israel’s support soon after the first Intifada flared in 1987 as an uprising against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

Israel’s objective was twofold: to split the nationalist Palestinian movement led by Arafat and, more fundamentally, to thwart the implementation of the two-state solution for resolving the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By aiding the rise of an Islamist group whose charter rejected recognizing the Israeli state, Israel sought to undermine the idea of a two-state solution, including curbing Western support for an independent Palestinian homeland.

Israel’s spy agency Mossad played a role in this divide-and-rule game in the occupied territories. In a 1994 book, “The Other Side of Deception,” Mossad whistleblower Victor Ostrovsky contended that aiding Hamas meshed with “Mossad’s general plan” for an Arab world “run by fundamentalists” that would reject “any negotiations with the West,” thereby leaving Israel as “the only democratic, rational country in the region.” Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official involved in Gaza for over two decades, told a newspaper interviewer in 2009 that, “Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation.”

To be sure, some others, including the U.S. intelligence establishment, have not endorsed the Israeli connection to the rise of Hamas, portraying it simply as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

About seven years before U.S. special forces killed bin Laden in a helicopter assault on his hideout near Pakistan’s capital, an Israeli missile strike in 2004 assassinated Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a quadriplegic and partially blind cleric. By drawing specious distinctions between “good” and “bad” terrorists, Israel and the U.S., however, continued to maintain ties with jihadis.

While Barack Obama was in the White House, the U.S. and its allies toppled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, creating a still-lawless jihadi citadel at Europe’s southern doorstep. They then moved to overthrow another secular dictator, Syria’s Bashar Assad, fueling a civil war that helped enabled the rise of the Islamic State, a brutal and medieval militia, some of whose foot soldiers were CIA-trained. And apparently shocked by the brutality of some of those U.S.-backed militants, and amid questions over the effectiveness of the policy, then-American President Donald Trump in 2017 is reported to have decided to shut down the covert Syrian regime-change program.

Israel, by contrast, persisted with its covert nexus with Hamas. With the consent of Israel, Qatar, a longtime sponsor of jihadi groups, funneled $1.8 billion to Hamas just between 2012 and 2021, according to the Haaretz newspaper.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been in power for much of the past decade and a half, told a meeting of his Likud Party’s Knesset members in 2019 that, “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” adding, “This is part of our strategy — to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

Israel, like the U.S., may have been guided by the proverb, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” But, as history attests, “the enemy of my enemy,” far from being a friend, has often openly turned into a foe.

America’s longest war ended with the Taliban’s return to power. The reconstitution of a medieval, ultraconservative, jihad-extolling emirate in Afghanistan has no direct bearing on a distant America. But Israel’s war against the monster it helped spawn will greatly shape Israeli security.
 
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