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- Islamic terrorist group founded in 1987
- Received funding from Saddam Hussein
- Receives funding from Iran
- Responsible for many suicide bombings and terrorist acts against Israeli targets
- In 1995, entered into an alliance with the Palestinian Authority
- "There is no other solution for the Palestinian problem other than jihad [holy war]."
Hamas' landslide victory in the Palestinian elections this week stunned Israel, prompting the acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to hold an emergency cabinet meeting, after which he announced that peace talks with Hamas are out of the question. It is expected that Israel will now speed up construction of the partially completed anti-terrorism separation barrier that runs along and through parts of the West Bank. To understand why Israel has reacted with such alarm to the election results, one must look at the nature and objectives of Hamas.
Hamas (Harakat al-Muqawamat al-Islamiyya - "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a radical fundamentalist group that was founded on December 14, 1987 by the 69-year-old Muslim Brotherhood organization. As a single Arabic word rather than an acronym, "Hamas" means "zeal." With tens of thousands of loyal supporters, its strength is concentrated principally in the Gaza Strip and a few areas of the West Bank. The group's leadership is dispersed throughout these same areas, with a few senior leaders residing in Syria, Lebanon, and the Gulf States.
Hamas is best known for using violent means - including suicide bombings against Israeli military and civilian targets - of pursuing its desire to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic Palestinian state. Though it receives some funding from Iran, Hamas is supported primarily by donations from Palestinian expatriates around the world and private benefactors in Arab nations. Some clandestine fundraising takes place in Western Europe and North America as well, and there was a significant financial connection between Hamas and the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.
The Hamas Covenant, written in 1988, declares: "There is no other solution for the Palestinian problem other than jihad [holy war]. All the initiatives and international conferences are a waste of time and a futile game."
When in 1990 Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chief Yasser Arafat took Iraq President Saddam Hussein's side in the impending Gulf War, Saudi Arabia responded by diverting part of its usual PLO funding instead to Hamas.
After the Gulf War and the start of PLO Oslo peace process negotiations with Israel, Iran reportedly "pledged $30 million a year to uncompromising Hamas, and agreed to train thousands of Hamas activists in Iran and in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon."
"We do not accept…any agreement made by Israel and its supporter America. Our enemy only understands force - so they will get it soon," said Hamas co-founder and "spiritual leader" Sheikh Ahmed Yassin of an October 2000 Israeli-Palestinian cease fire agreement. He warned that his militants would use "stones, guns and explosions," as they did days after he spoke with a car bomb in Jerusalem that killed two young Israelis.
"Surprise the enemy with your operations and brave resistance," said a Hamas leaflet, "with arms, knives, Molotov cocktails and all available resistance tools and forms."
After a "violent incident" in 1994 between Hamas and Arafat's Fatah, the two groups have reached what appears to be a "good cop, bad cop" partnership aimed at manipulating Israel and the West. While Arafat talks peace and calls for Israeli restraint, terrorists from Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam ("Allotment of the Power of Religion"), have continued to carry out terrorist and suicide bombings against Israel.
Fatah was "never different from Hamas," said PLO political chief Farouq Al-Qaddoumi on January 3, 2003. "Strategically, we are no different from it."
By 1994, Hamas had said it would cease military operations if Israel and its settlers withdrew completely from the "occupied territories" and restored the "Green Line" of 1948 patrolled by international forces.
The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram on September 20, 1995 reportedly published the full text of a proposed agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian National Authority. It included provisions "to recognize the right of brothers in Hamas to participate in the institutions of the Palestinian National Authority at all levels," and "to establish a permanent coordinating committee consisting of the two parties 'Fatah and Hamas' to consider all issues."
Hamas founder and leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin was killed on March 22, 2004, by Hellfire missiles fired by Israeli helicopter gun ships. Yasser Arafat declared three days of mourning and praised Yassin.
Yassin was immediately replaced by Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz al Rantisi, who escaped an Israeli assassination attempt in June 2003. The 54-year-old pediatrician declared himself Yassin's successor without waiting for any formal succession process by the Hamas leadership. He initially threatened retaliatory attacks against both Israel and the United States, but later said that Hamas would target only Israel. On April 17, An Israeli helicopter launched a strike on Rantisi's car, killing him and two others -- one of them a bodyguard.
In April 2004 Yasser Arafat told the German magazine Focus that he was prepared to include Hamas and Islamic Jihad in a new leadership structure to operate in parallel with the Palestinian Authority.
"Forming a unified Palestinian leadership does not contradict the Palestinian Authority," Fatah Central Committee member Hani al-Hassan told Fatah-connected newspaper Al-Ayyam, "as it is an internal Palestinian factional issue."
"We think that all political movements should take part in the political decision-making process," said senior Hamas figure Sheikh Said Siam. "We want a political partnership along new guidelines which take into account the weight of the various movements."
Hamas, most of whose supporters live in Gaza, is among the strongest and most popular of Palestinian movements. This is attributed partly to its zeal, partly to the social services it provides to the poor where the Palestinian Authority has not, and largely to a perception among Palestinians that Hamas, whatever its faults, is more honest than those formerly in positions of power in Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
In March 2005, FBI Director Robert Mueller stated that Hamas was capable of attacking targets not only in Israel but in the United States as well. "Of all the Palestinian groups," said Mueller, "Hamas has the largest presence in the United States with a strong infrastructure, primarily focused on fundraising, propaganda for the Palestinian cause, and proselytizing. Although it would be a major strategic shift for Hamas, its United States network is theoretically capable of facilitating acts of terrorism in the United States." In October 2005 an FBI counterterrorism agent in New York reaffirmed Mueller's assertions, stating "We have information Hamas agents have been on U.S. soil the past few years and that the group may currently have up to 100 agents operating inside America." The agent made these comments shortly after Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Zahar had warned that President Bush's actions in the Middle East are "placing America in danger."
Terrorism expert Steve Emerson has stated, "Hamas has an extensive infrastructure in the U.S. mostly revolving around the activities of fundraising, recruiting and training members, directing operations against Israel, organizing political support and operating through human rights front groups. While Hamas has not acted outside Israel, it has the capability of carrying out attacks in America if it decided to enlarge the scope of its operations."
In August 2005, the founders and political leaders of Hamas joined forces to publicly announce that their organization's attacks against Israeli targets would continue even after Israel's impending withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Claiming credit for the Palestinian "victory" that was purportedly forcing Israel out of the region, senior Hamas member Ismail Haniyye characterized Israel's withdrawal as a "retreat" that was "a result of resistance and our people's sacrifice." "It is evidence that resistance is able to achieve our national goals," he added. Promising more violence, Haniyye declared, "Hamas confirms its adherence to resistance as a strategic option until the occupation retreats from our lands and holy places. Our movement reaffirms that it will protect its military apparatus and Al Qassam Brigades and its weapons and keep them for defending our land."
On November 30, 2005, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said that his group would not renew a truce with Israel scheduled to expire at the end of the year, accusing the Jewish state of having violated its agreement to release Palestinian prisoners, end attacks on Palestinian areas, discontinue assassinations of terrorist leaders, and end the confiscation of Palestinian lands. Mashaal also restated Hamas' rejection of U.S. and Israeli demands for his organization to disarm. "All circumstances on the ground, the regional political atmosphere and the Palestinian situation are not encouraging to renew the truce," Mashaal said. "Hamas is not going to renew the truce because Israel did not abide by the conditions of the truce."
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