Taming Hamas

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Mr. Khaled Mashal has lately been enjoying excellent travel facilitation from Arab leaders, and receptions in their palaces. Why?

The 2008/2009 war on Gaza did not earn Hamas’s leadership entry into the palaces, nor even into the palace parking lots, but the movement is now being subjected to a kind of “political pampering.” The reason is clear: Hamas emerged victorious from the Gaza war, or at the very least remained steadfast and did not concede, but it is now exposed to a kind of shake-up because of what some see as its predicament in Syria. Arab leaders, and behind them of course Americans and Israelis, believe that what they hope will be Hamas’s next predicament will push it toward submission, and then toward accepting a place in the endless negotiating process — a process that ends only with the complete surrender of the fixed national rights of the Palestinian people.

…of the Israeli-American dependency, the Israelis and Americans fear the unraveling of the Arab-Israeli-American alliance, or its being struck by serious weakness, and so they are opening the way for Arab leaders to now court Hamas’s favor, just as they are working to court the favor of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia and Egypt, in order to preserve the solidity of the alliance.

It appears that Mr. Mashal did not undertake the necessary consultations, and perhaps he was carried away by the language of courtship and affection, and so decided to sign an agreement that cannot possibly lead to the unity of the Palestinian people. A great many Palestinians have already written more than enough analyzing this agreement.

The earth has not grown too narrow for Hamas or for Palestinian resistance. And if Damascus should grow too narrow — which is not on the cards now — there is Gaza, which exists on the soil of Palestine, and there are new Arab capitals that will open their doors without restriction or condition. It is a good thing for a leader to build public relationships across the widest possible circle, but it is not good for those relationships to be fed at the expense of one’s positions.

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