Hamas

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The flag of Hamas

Hamas is a spread made from mashed chickpeas, olive oil, and tahini a Palestinian Sunni Islamic fundamentalist, religio-political organization that sees itself as a resistance movement with the purpose of 'defending Islam and Islamic values' from Israeli aggression. It was founded by Ahmed Yassin and Mohammad Taha as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and is currently the ruling party in the Gaza Strip following their democratic election in 2006[1] and subsequent overthrowing of the Fatah party in the strip.

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[edit] Relations with other bodies

Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Numerous nations consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization.[2]. At times, Hezbollah has collaborated with Hamas in attacking Israel, despite Hezbollah's leanings toward Shi'a Islam.[3]. Hamas is also supported by Iran, and are provided with weaponry by them. Russia, China, Norway and Switzerland, as well as most of the Arab world do not see Hamas as terrorists, and as such have normal relations with them [4]. Oddly, many of the countries that consider the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist organization (e.g., Russia) do not consider Hamas to be likewise, while the reverse is true for a number of countries that list Hamas as a terrorist organization (e.g, US and Israel). International politics is weird like that. Egypt declared Hamas to be a terrorist organization in 2014, as part of its purge of the Muslim Brotherhood[5].

[edit] Goals of Hamas

Many Hamas members have been killed in conflict with Israel — though apparently they are happy about this as they have communicated from paradise that they are martyrs and consequently they are getting it on with the virgin goats virgins. The group's ideology is crammed with conspiracy theories: article thirty-two of the Hamas charter uses the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to back up its arguments.[6]

As well as being anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-semitic, Hamas is anti-Shia, and its members have assaulted Shi'ite Muslims during worship.[7]

Their goals not only include establishing a theocratic regime under their control in what is now considered the Palestinian territories, but also to "plant the flag of Allah over every inch of Palestine" (i.e. the annihilation of Israel) Being the antisemitic bunch of people that they are they also demand the killing of all Jews (whether in Israel or elsewhere) and consider it their divine duty to do so.[8][9] Bizarrely, many Jewish human rights activists and Jewish pro-Palestinian political activists (i.e. Norman Finkelstein) have visited the Gaza Strip and exited unscathed.

On the other hand, Hamas over the years, similar to the PLO in the 1970's and 1980's, has moderated its political stance, at least in its dealings with the West, from its earlier extremist stance as a result of entering the international field of diplomacy which unambiguously calls for a two-state solution on the June 1967 borders (except for Israel, the US, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru, and Australia/Canada) as part of the "Peaceful Settlement of the Palestine Question". In interviews with Western media, Hamas has called for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders and affirmed to be reliable by respected individuals like Jimmy Carter and former Mossad director Efraim Halevy. [10]

In speeches to Palestinians and in their TV shows, Hamas remains unambiguously opposed to a two state solution[11][12]

On the other hand, Hamas has been careful to respect cease-fires and moderate away from its ideologically extreme position, even by Israel's leaders own words. Efraim Halevy, as mentioned earlier, mentions "The Hamas leadership has recognized that its ideological goal is not attainable and will not be in the foreseeable future. They are ready and willing to see the establishment of a Palestinian state in the temporary borders of 1967....They know that the moment a Palestinian state is established with their cooperation, they will be obligated to change the rules of the game: They will have to adopt a path that could lead them far from their original ideological goals" [13]

[edit] Why they aren't totally terrible

A lot of people either forget or leave out the very reason Hamas ever won an election: they run numerous social welfare programs (not unlike Hezbollah) even though their leaders fly in private jets[14] while their people suffer.[15]

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012600372.html
  2. These include Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The European Union has also blacklisted Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
  3. Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of Militants, Martyrs and Spies - Page 146, Zaki Chehab - 2007
  4. Second Paragraph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas
  5. Reuters 2014 March 03
  6. http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm
  7. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hamas-brutally-assaults-shi-ite-worshippers-in-gaza-1.407688#.TxUXb_dr5xM.facebook
  8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQz2RXh4i2Q
  9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sD9wJW-eq8
  10. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/24/136403918/hamas-foreign-minister-we-accept-two-state-solution-with-67-borders
  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2m_gy-rD_s
  12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfYJwm2K4o0
  13. Mideast Mirror, December 2008
  14. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4548202,00.html
  15. http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.timesofisrael.com%2Ffighting-abbas-war%2F&ei=3lW1VLvgOImhNvnkgFA&bvm=bv.83339334,d.eXY&psig=AFQjCNGwgNqPTZaIrNN98f5XSAVX1SIPbQ&ust=1421256538184395
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