Morsi’s Hamas Connection. By Jonathan S. Tobin. Commentary, February 8, 2013.
The Hamas-Egyptian Alliance. By Khaled Abu Toameh. Gatestone Institute, February 8, 2013.
More posts on Morsi and Egypt here and here.
Tobin:
Apologists
for the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt have spent much of the last year
attempting to argue that the Islamist movement is not the extremist group its
critics make it out to be. They claim it is not only moderate in its religious
views but that it is a pragmatic organization that can be a stabilizing force
in the region. The whitewash of the Brotherhood’s ideology is made possible by
both the general ignorance of the American people about the group’s origins and
its beliefs as well as by the willingness of many in the American media to buy
into the transparent propaganda they’ve been fed about their goals. However,
the hate speech of President Mohamed Morsi and his putsch to seize total power
in the manner of his authoritarian predecessor Hosni Mubarak, as well as the
group’s efforts to impose their version of sharia law on the rest of Egyptian
society, should have cured them of their ignorance.
But the
latest evidence of the radical nature of the Brotherhood government comes from
its ally Hamas. Under Morsi, Egypt has become a helpful friend to the Gaza
regime, a marked change from the hostility that Mubarak demonstrated toward it.
But as Khaled Abu Toameh reports at the Gatestone Institute website, friendship
between the Brotherhood and Hamas is a two-way street. He reports that Egyptian
media outlets are saying that a large number of Hamas militiamen may have
crossed from Gaza into Sinai in the last week and then headed to various
Egyptian cities to help the Brotherhood suppress pro-democracy and
anti-Islamist protests that have broken out across the country. If true, this
not only means that the ties between the supposed “moderates” of the Brotherhood
and the terrorists of Hamas are closer than ever, but that Morsi is seeking to
use these killers as a counter-force against possible action by the Egyptian
army to check his attempt to seize total power.
That
operatives of a group that is labeled by the United States as a terrorist group
may have become the shock troops of the leader of an allied country like Egypt
may be shocking to many Americans. But it will come as no surprise to anyone
who is aware that Hamas was founded as an offshoot of the Egyptian Islamist
movement. The connection between the two groups as well as their supporters in
other Muslim countries is no secret.
. . . . . . . . . .
The
alliance between Hamas and the Brotherhood has great advantages for both
groups.
Morsi’s
Egyptian followers may be highly organized, but they lack the experience in
street violence and terror that Hamas members have. They also may have scruples
about killing and torturing fellow Egyptians. The Palestinians are used to
ruthlessly suppressing dissent in Gaza. Hamas staged a bloody coup in 2006 to
oust Fatah from control there and thus knows what it stakes to secure power.
On the
other hand, Hamas’s stock among Palestinians has risen markedly since the
Brotherhood took power. Egypt no longer enforces the blockade of Gaza. Rather
than worrying about holding onto Gaza, as they may have done when they were
locked in a vise between the Israelis and Mubarak’s Egypt, they are now
thinking seriously about how best to wrest control of the West Bank from their
Palestinian rivals.
The
Hamas connection should send a chill down the spines of anyone who still held
onto hope that the Arab Spring would produce more, rather than less, freedom
for Egypt. But it should also remind Americans that they are still sending more
than $1 billion a year in U.S. aid and selling F-16 aircraft to Morsi’s Egypt.
Members of Congress who continue to back this foolish policy need to ask
themselves whether it makes sense to funnel taxpayer dollars to Egypt in the
hope of supporting regional stability if what they are really doing is
bolstering a government that depends on Hamas terrorists to stay in power.
