Israel recognized Hamas, a Palestinian opposition organization, as a "terrorist" organization, and did everything in his power to destruct it during a fresh two-week operation in the Gaza Strip. But fewer people realize that Israel helped make Hamas as a counterweight to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1980.

Why did Israel aid to make Hamas, and how did he usage his resources for this purpose? erstwhile Israel took violent action in the Gaza Strip, did it strengthen Hamas and how the Palestinians' conflict divided and weakened erstwhile Hamas challenged the HR, a secular and nationalist organization? The OWP, established in 1964, had in its statutes a clause calling for the demolition of Israel. But erstwhile the Oslo trial for peace between Israel and the OWP began, this clause was removed from the Palestinian charter, granting designation to the judaic state. Similarly, the Israeli government in the late 1980s. and 1990. abolished the ban on contacts with the OWP and recognized it by signing the historical OWP-Israel agreement on 13 September 1993, in which the then US president Bill Clinton mediated. If the OWP recognized Israel, Hamas opposed the peace process with the judaic state and called for the demolition of Israel.

Gaza, which was occupied by Israel as a consequence of the Arab-Israeli War in June 1967, patronized Mujam al-Islamiya, which was created by Palestinian spiritual sheik Ahmed Yasin and viewed her as a harmless organization engaged in charitable and caring activities for the Palestinian community of Gaza. Mujama al-Islamija later became Hamas before Intifada I began in December 1987. Israel considered Mujama al-Islamia and her successor Hamas to be little evil than the OWP and believed that sharing Palestinians would service the interests of the judaic state. While Israel called the OWP a terrorist organization and a serious threat to its interests, Hamas was besides against the OWP due to its secular and nationalist views. Thus both Hamas and Israel were seen as natural allies against the OWP. But later, erstwhile Hamas killed 2 Israeli defence Forces (IDF) personnel in Gaza in 1988, Israel turned against Hamas, but it was besides late. Hamas, who had previously referred to himself as a caring and charitable organization in Gaza and received Israel's favor, changed tactics and utilized the OWP peace process with Israel to gain the widespread support of those Palestinians who were disappointed in Jaser Arafat's repair of fences with the judaic state, despite killing hundreds of Palestinians in Intifada I.

The grief of Israeli officials who have helped to make Hamas is well documented. For example Avner Cohen, a hebrew born in Tunisia who was an Israeli authoritative in the Gaza Strip in 1970 and 1980, lamented that "Hamas, to my large regret, is the work of Israel." He watched the muslim movement take shape, push aside secular Palestinian rivals, and then evolved into what is present called Hamas—a group of militants who now call for the demolition of Israel. Cohen argued that "instead of trying to halt the Islamists from beginning, Israel tolerated for years, and in any cases encouraged them as a counterweight to lay nationalists from the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Fatahu Jaser Arafat. Israel collaborated with a crippled, half-blind clergyman named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even erstwhile he laid the foundation for what would become Hamas." Does this mean that Hamas was smart adequate to sneak distant from the clever Israeli intelligence services, portraying himself as a caring and charitable organization to settle in the Gaza Strip and then face Israel?

From 1967 to 2005 Gaza was administered by the Israeli army. In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, but erstwhile Hamas took control of this Palestinian enclave in 2007, he imposed a land, air and sea blockade of this territory. About how Israel helped make Hamas, says Andrew Higgins, an Israeli authoritative who worked in Gaza in 1980. In an interview with "The Wall Street Journal"in 2009 he stated, "When I look back at the chain of events, I think we made a mistake, but at the time no 1 thought of possible consequences. The Israeli military administration in Gaza favorably looked at a paralyzed clergyman who founded a wide network of schools, clinics, libraries and kindergartens. Sheik Yassin founded the Islamist group Mujama al-Islamiya, which was officially recognized by Israel as a charity and then, in 1979, as an association. Israel besides supported the creation of the muslim University of Gaza, which presently considers it a hatchery of militants. The university was 1 of the first targets hit by Israeli combat aircraft during operations in 2008-9. Mujama Yassina turned into Hamas, who, as can be argued, was an Israeli Taliban: an muslim group whose predecessors were established by the West in a fight against the left-wing enemy. Israel imprisoned Yassin in 1984 for 12 years in prison after discovering hidden weapons depots, but was released a year later.

The same Sheik Yasin, who was patronized by Israel against the OWP, died in an Israeli raid in 2004. By that time, Hamas emerged as a powerful militant organization that took control of Gaza's OWP and proclaimed herself an Islamist organization calling on the people of Gaza to respect the Sharia, in peculiar imposing hijab as a code of dress for women. Is it the shortsightedness of the Israeli prime ministers Manahan Begin and Icchak Rabin that they could not realize the actual motives of Hamas, which proved more dangerous than the OWP? The clashes between the secular OWP and muslim Hamas became common in the Gaza Strip – a origin of satisfaction for Israel, who wanted to see Palestinian interior fights. Brigadier General Shalom Harari, then a military intelligence officer in Gaza, says he received a call from Israeli soldiers casting a checkpoint on the way from Gaza. They stopped the bus carrying muslim activists who wanted to join the fight against Fatah in Birzeit. "I said, "If they want to burn each other, let them go," recalls Harari. The Israeli military thought at that time came to the conclusion that it would be large if Islamists and socialists continued to fight each another due to the fact that it would take their attention to the fight against Israel.

Moreover, Brigadier General Icchak Segew, who was an Israeli military politician in Gaza in the early 1980s, told the reporter New York Timesthat he helped finance the Palestinian muslim movement as "a counterweight to secularists and leftist from the Palestine Liberation Organization and Fatah party, led by Jaser Arafat (who himself called Hamas "the creation of Israel"). General Segev even admitted that he himself financed Hamas with money from Israeli taxpayers, which were later utilized to kill the same people who financed him.

Two conclusions can be drawn from the above considerations. Firstly, it was in Israel's interest to support and patronize the treatment first of Mujamy al-Islamija and then Hamas. This besides means that, like the US, which created and fed various groups of jihadists in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Israel cannot escape work for creating Hamas. Secondly, the emergence in Hamas' popularity in 1990, followed by the weakening of the OWP and the Palestinian community, strengthened the Israeli business of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza. Hence the constant gehensities of Palestinians.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30Th, 2021.

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https://tribune.com.pk/story/2302309/how-and-why-israel-helped-create-hamas