Egypt's War on Hamas

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

For months now, Egyptian authorities have waged a broad campaign against Hamas, accusing it of being a terrorist organization that must not be dealt with, accepted, or assisted in any form.

Accordingly, Egyptian media has waged a fierce campaign against the movement, working to distort it and damage its Arab and Islamic reputation.

Both the official and media levels in Egypt try to justify the accusation with examples and evidence drawn from Egypt’s own reality, but without presenting evidence that rises to the level of hostility the observer senses. The hostility displayed by Egyptian media is marked by intense hatred and rancor, and departs a great deal from the kind of rational hostility that leaves room for future change.

Hamas Is a Resistance Movement

Arab and Islamic resistance movements that direct their arrows against (Israel) ought, by rights, to hold great standing in Arab hearts, and to carry a kind of sanctity.

At a time when Arab armies play no role in confronting (Israel), resistance movements in Palestine and Lebanon play a prominent historic role that covers over the Arabs’ own shortcomings and their cooperation with the Zionist occupation of Arab and Islamic holy sites. They play a role that covers over the shortcomings of all of us — by rights, these movements ought to enjoy the sanctity and respect they deserve, and support in every form.

Hamas is one of these movements — the great Palestinian movement that stood firm, alongside Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, in the face of (Israel) in two extensive wars, in 2008/2009 and 2012.

Israel, which defeated Arab armies, could not defeat Gaza, and the Israeli army withdrew without achieving the goals of either war — for this we ought to hold a grand celebration for the movement, not wage war against it.

But defeat is a permanent fixture of the Arab regimes, and these regimes are embarrassed by victory, always preferring to remain under the domination of invaders. What value, then, does victory hold for those who go searching for defeats?

Beyond that, Hamas is a movement that emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood, which is not known, anywhere in the world, to be terrorist. The Brotherhood is a missionary movement that does not believe in the practice of killing, and has never resorted to killing people as a means of political extortion or imposing facts on the ground.

Hamas is the Islamic Resistance Movement that took up the rifle to confront the Zionist occupation, and all its military actions have been directed against the occupation. If anyone describes it as terrorist, it is (Israel) and the United States — and now Egypt is joining the chorus.

Resistance stands above political disputes, and political disputes must never lead to resisting the resistance itself. Regrettably, on the Arab scene, resistance does not enjoy the protection and respect it deserves.

In Lebanon, broad segments of the population are chiefly preoccupied with opposing and weakening Hezbollah, and in Palestine there are vast masses hostile to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and at the Arab level, many Arab regimes work to subdue the resistance, providing support to (Israel) to eliminate it.

Resistance is sacred and must not be harmed, and political disagreement must remain confined to the political sphere without touching the resistance. Hezbollah, for instance, disagreed with Hamas over Syria, but Hezbollah did not open the door to attacking Hamas, and resistance activities in Gaza remained on its list of priorities, because the Party understands the value of Arab resistance in confronting (Israel).

Hamas and the Israeli Embassy

If the Egyptian regime were truly zealous for Egypt, one would expect it to take measures against the Israeli embassy in Cairo, which constitutes an intelligence den meddling with Egypt’s security and its fate.

(Israel) plants spies inside Egypt, and Israeli and American intelligence activity flourished under Mubarak, such that Egypt, across its various institutions, became infiltrated and eaten away by (Israel) and America — and it would be better for Egypt to cleanse its institutions, including the army and the security services, of agents of (Israel) and America, rather than have the regime spread its poison against Hamas, which is nothing but zealous for Egypt’s security.

Have Egyptian security officials investigated the killing of Copts in Egypt? Have they fully determined who is killing Egyptian soldiers in Sinai? They ought to investigate, and Zionism will not be far removed from carrying out actions that lead to strife within Egypt.

Have Egyptians heard of the Jewish organization that infiltrates protesters in various countries to stir up strife and divert demonstrations from their goals?

We hope they investigate before leveling accusations at Hamas. Hamas cannot open fire on Egyptian soldiers — it opens fire on whoever opens fire on Egypt — while (Israel) is the party with the foremost interest in spreading internal strife across the Arab arena and stirring up splits and infighting.

The matter is exceedingly simple: why does the Egyptian regime attack Hamas while it has not uttered a single word against the Israeli embassy or the Camp David Accords? And why does it refuse scientific investigation to reach the truth, when it is a regime that cooperates with (Israel) on security matters, particularly regarding Sinai?

It is well known that Egypt has no sovereignty over Sinai, and that its army now operating in Sinai could not have entered the area without Israeli permission. There are Egyptians who communicated with Israel and obtained Israeli permission for Egyptian forces to enter, and these forces operate only in coordination with (Israel).

Strangely, the regime accuses Morsi of communicating with Hamas, while never accusing itself of communicating with (Israel). Here the saying holds true: the guilty cannot look people in the eye — but the current Egyptian regime has cast off its garment of shame entirely.

Hatred and Strangulation

Egyptian leaders have grown angry with Palestinians before, criticizing them in their speeches and political statements, and the result was widespread popular hatred of the Palestinian people.

Many Egyptians echo their president, and the current official Egyptian positions, along with the concentrated media campaign against Hamas, are bound to generate hatred among Egyptians toward the Palestinian people as a whole, not just toward Hamas, particularly since most ordinary people do not know what Hamas is, what Fatah is, and know nothing of the Palestinian factions.

Those who generate hatred and animosity commit vile acts, working with full awareness and determination to tear the Arab nation apart, fragmenting it into warring pockets that weaken one another.

Whoever generates hatred and animosity is a criminal, and is, by definition, a terrorist, because he uses people’s feelings and pain to achieve immediate political goals that harm rather than help.

The regime now ruling Egypt claims to be nationalist, describing Sisi as the new Abdel Nasser. So where are Sisi’s positions compared with the positions Abdel Nasser might have taken? Abdel Nasser disliked the Muslim Brotherhood, but he did not stand against resistance, regardless of its political or ideological leaning.

It is clear, across the Arab arena now, that whoever wants to win the favor of (Israel) and America must oppose the resistance movements — that is, must oppose Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees, and everyone who offers these movements support and backing.

This favor is tied to the financial assistance Arab states can offer, because these states cannot provide support without American-Israeli permission. So if the Egyptian regime wants Arab assistance — and it truly does — the road runs through (Tel Aviv).

Striking Hamas and its like is the key to Netanyahu’s heart, and Netanyahu holds the key to the Arab treasuries. Opposing the resistance movements constitutes real, official credentials for obtaining “fodder.”

For this reason, Egyptian authorities are now playing an extremely dangerous role against the Gaza Strip through the tightened siege they impose. (Israel) besieges the Strip, and Egypt destroys the tunnels and has opened the Rafah crossing for only a few days over the preceding months. The people of Gaza suffer, first and foremost, from the Egyptian siege and the destruction of the tunnels, and it is the ordinary, poor people of the Gaza Strip who suffer the most.

What Egypt is now doing against the Gaza Strip is harsher than what Hosni Mubarak used to do. Mubarak used to speak against the tunnels and destroy some of them, and had previously closed the border with Gaza entirely, but he never waged war on the Strip when people destroyed the border and flowed into the Egyptian side of Rafah.

The current regime is making conditions in the Strip even harsher, and its goal in this aligns with the Israeli and Arab-Palestinian goal that the best solution for getting rid of Hamas is to squeeze the people until they revolt.

If (Israel) failed to invade the Strip and eliminate Hamas, then revolution from within constitutes the reasonable alternative. There are those who have worked persistently in this direction for years, but the Egyptian regime judges that Mubarak’s measures were not enough, and the recent Egyptian court rulings are bound to tighten the siege further, with ordinary people paying the price in the end.

This tightened Egyptian siege affects the sick, students, and workers employed in Arab and Western countries, and it also affects the smuggling operations carried out by Palestinian factions, considered vital for obtaining weapons and money.

Egypt has nothing to offer the resistance against (Israel), and it is now preventing the grueling, arduous smuggling operations carried out by resistance elements through extremely dangerous, harsh routes.

Gaza depends, to a large degree, on money smuggled through the tunnels, because the global financial system does not allow money transfers into Gaza; it also depends on smuggling raw materials to manufacture weapons inside Gaza, and smuggling whatever Iranian and Syrian weapons it can obtain. This means Egypt today is working to weaken Gaza before (Israel) — an action inconsistent with the nationalist posture the regime puts on display, and inconsistent with Egypt’s own security, since Gaza’s strength is part of Egypt’s security, Gaza forming a forward line of defense for Egypt.

What Will Hamas Do?

Hamas is not expected to sever its relations with Egypt, or to stop communicating with it — Gaza is bound to Egypt just as the West Bank is bound to Jordan, a bond cultural, economic, and marital in nature, and there can be no separation between Egypt and the Strip, however hard politicians try to do violence to history and geography.

Hamas will keep its channels open, and will try to counter the accusations leveled against it in the media, and Hamas is expected to become active in the media to make the Egyptian people understand the injustice the Egyptian regime is inflicting on it.

Hamas will not refrain from taking part in Egyptian-led activities related to mending the internal Palestinian rift; it will continue pursuing a conciliatory, friendly approach toward Egypt, will not meet the regime’s abuses with abuses of its own, and will try to absorb Egypt’s spiteful policy.

It is a disgrace to the Egyptian regime that it is Hamas that is absorbing Egypt, and not the other way around.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الحرب المصرية على حماس” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.