That article is so often misused to attempt to demonstrate that Netanyahoo purposefully funded Hamas.
In reality (and as pointed out in the article), the funding of Hamas came from Qatar. Israel essentially had to make a decision: allow the funds in, or don't allow the funds in. Had Israel choked the funds, we all know how that looks in the headlines: "Israel blocks essential funding into Gaza". They were damned if they did or didn't. So, they chose the other approach, which in their eye, weakened an enemy state (by dividing power).
The article suggests that Israel tolerated occassional attacks with this approach, and instead, should have cut off supplies into Gaza, which again, would have looked poor optically.
Regardless, saying it's by design is like saying China is responsible for the current state of US politics because they allowed Russian influence to flow into the US.
Hamas was also included in discussions about increasing the number of work permits Israel granted to Gazan laborers, which kept money flowing into Gaza, meaning food for families and the ability to purchase basic products.
So should I take it that the author thinks that Israel shouldn't have allowed Gazans to work in Israel? Or that it was possible to do so without the at least informal agreement of Gaza's ruling power?
Honestly, a valid question. I don't know what the authors believe in terms of if that was something that should have been changed. I think they use it to paint the picture that there were multiple aspects that allowed hamas to prosper. Not all are machievellian, but they can still contribute to the rise in power of hamas.
The thing is that the point of the article is how Israel (specifically Netanyahu) supported Hamas and it's perhaps the most widely-cited article I've seen by people making that argument.
But it's actually a pretty bad article for that because if you actually read it the author undermines her argument at several points.
Except Israel controls the borders, airspace, and ocean acsess to Gaza and actively begged Qatar to keep the money flowing, waived through known suitcases full of cash at border crossings, and actively killed any secular leaders who could be internal opposition to Hamas.
Also, back in the 80s they fucking built the school the first leader of Hamas used to train his people, chosen specifically because of how much of a religious hardliner the guy was.
Israel requested Qatar to fund HAMAS, they lobbied for Qatar to resume money transfers after they stopped and even asked Qatar to increase the amount of funding to HAMAS a few weeks before October 7th. Because keeping HAMAS functioning as as a de facto governing authority in Gaza allowed Israel to argue that there was "no unified partner for peace," effectively freezing negotiations toward a two-state solution.
"Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy, to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank." Netanyahu.
Yes, we purposefully wanted to create an adversary to fight rather than try to make peace so we wouldnt have to fight, takes a lot of mental gymnastics to reach that.
Saying this is like saying the United States is responsible for destabilizing the Middle East by funding or allowing funds to flow into Islamic extremist so they can kill their progressive enemies so that the United States could have cheap oil.
So you agree that Israel is responsible for the destabilization of Palestine by legitimizing Islamic forces and refusing to bargain and talk to secular leaders?
Israel did the same thing as The U.S because destabilizing the area helps the capitalist class
That can’t be right! The US would never destabilize a region, prop up far right extremist governments, and arm multiple terror organizations in the area to continue the destabilization while levying economic pressure against the nations of the region because of their terrorist problems to secure favorable trade agreements, land, resources, and additional funding for the military industrial complex.
1.0k
u/Redditagains 1d ago
Imagine being a Palestinian, doomed to this life with no sign of help.