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Thursday 07 August 2014Iran saving Hamas from bankruptcyYnetnews Operation Protective Edge has increasingly weakened the Hamas organization and inflicted long-term damage on it. Tunnels which have been dug for years were bombed by the IDF's Engineering Corps within hours, dozens of the organization's activists were killed every week, and missiles obtained with great effort were mostly "wasted" thanks to the Iron Dome system. The civilian population in Gaza, which is paying the highest price, is accusing Israel outwardly, but knows very well that Hamas has sacrificed it to advance its goals. If the defeat is in fact certain and Hamas has hardly reached any achievements, why did it avoid the "hudna" (truce) proposed by Egypt? Why, while the Arab world fails to stand by Hamas and its friends avoid getting involved, are the organization's leaders insisting on their delusional conditions for a ceasefire? The only logical answer can be found in Iran. 'Hashim's Gaza' Iranian efforts to spread Shia Islam in Gaza have been growing in recent years, quite unsuccessfully. One of the methods is an attempt to endow the city with a religious aura. The Gazans are proud of the city's Arab and Muslim heritage. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad al-Shafi'I, the founder of one of the four schools of Sunni Islam, is believed to have been born in Gaza in the eighth century. Hashim, the great-grandfather of Islamic prophet Muhammad, is buried in the ancient northern Gaza. The Hashemites are named after him. According to Sunni Islam, Hashim lived about two generations before the beginning of Islam and was an important and generous merchant. He was an idolater, however. Nonetheless, Sunni dynasties (the Mamluks and Ottomans) respected his heritage and built a mosque in Gaza which they named after him. Although Gaza is referred to in Islam as "Hashim's Gaza," the Strip's Sunni population is banned from worshipping his grave . Salafi groups in the Strip have attempted in recent years to prevent religious rituals at the gravesite and have even desecrated the tomb. Shiite elements have tried in recent years to turn Hashim's tomb into a pilgrimage site in order to give the fighting in Gaza a religious nature. Hamas' struggle against the distribution of the Shia is embarrassing the organization and creating a rift with Iran. There is no doubt that once the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip comes to an end, the tactical alliance between the two organizations will fall apart and the Islamic factions will resume the fighting against each other the Strip's control. Hamas' betrayal of the Iranian-Sunni axis during the civil war in Syria sent the organization into a situation of economic and political isolation. Now that it is surrounded by enemies, Israel and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's Egypt, Hamas has no choice but to court Iran again. The blocking of the Qatari aid by Saudi Arabia and Egypt and the Iranian failure to continue transferring funds deepened the Gaza-ruling organization's distress and forced its leaders to do everything in order to survive. Israel has operated several times against ships disguised as commercial vessels. In 2002, Shayetet 13 commandos raided the Karin A ship, in 2011 it was the Victoria ship, and in March is was the Klos C ship in the Red Sea, which was carrying missiles and a lot of ammunition some 1,500 kilometers from the southern resort city of Eilat. Alongside the weapons, the commandos found instructions in Persian and Arabic. Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei called on the Palestinians in recent days to expand their struggle from Gaza to the West Bank. The Arab press has reported that Khamenei plans to issue a "fatwa" (Islamic decree) calling on all Muslims to launch a jihad (holy war) against "the Zionist enemy." Dr. Yaron Friedman, Ynet's commentator on the Arab world, is a graduate of the Sorbonne. He teaches Arabic and lectures about Islam at the Technion, at Beit Hagefen and at the Galilee Academic College. His book, "The Nusayri Alawis: An Introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria," was published in 2010 by Brill-Leiden. |