At Last! Palestine's first home game

From a well-known football (soccer) magazine called Fourfourtwo (FFT) based in the UK, May 2011 issue:

"After decades of playing in exile, the Knights have finally come home. Muddy and bruised, FFT squeezed its way into their historic 2012 qualifier.

Palestinian football has come a long way since the country's FA (Football Association) was dissolved in 1948, after the creation of the state of Israel and the ISrael FA in its place. The Palestine FA was reformed in exile in 1962 and recognized by FIFA in 1998 - virtually Sepp Blatter's first act as FIFA president. As ever, Blatter's decision was not without controversy. You cannot have a national team without a representative state, said critics, but whatever you think of Blatter, he has always promoted football as an agent for social and political change. A national football team is as potent a symbol of statehood as a flag or anthem and Blatter encouraged Palestine's nascent team morally and financially while the world turned its back. As Palestine was rocked by the second conflict (intifada) with Israel, the Knights played football in exile, rising to 118 in the FIFA rankings five years ago. Palestine's women's team are currently in the top 100.

Now, with talks of declarations of statehood in the air, the Palestine team has come home. A friendly was played with Jordan in October 2008, but never have they hosted a competitive match until now. In June they will start qualification for the 2014 World Cup on home soil and the Asian Football Confederation has said that all matches involving Palestinian teams under its jurisdiction will be played here. "It's the story of a fight, a bureaucratic difficulties, and of kids loving the game," says the superbly-named Jerome Champagne, adviser to the Palestine FA and until recently one of Blatter's closest aides. "The Thailand match is very important, not only for Palestinian football, but for the fight to create a Palestinian state."

The significance of the team's return to home soil cannot be overstated. In the temporary capital, Ramallah, just a few miles from Gaza, normalcy prevades. You can buy a beer; watch a Champions League match in a bar. There is a five-star hotel. There are no guns. There is a determination to show the rest of the world that despite everything, Palestine is normal. Football plays a big part in that.

"Football is much, much more than a game," says Champagne. "Bill Shankly said football is more than just a question of life and death. Here, football is fundamental for kids to have fun, discipline and education. But it is definitely much more than just a game." In a hotel basement, the Palestinian FA president, Jibril Rajoub, is holding court. A bear of a man, he speaks in a curt, deliberate manner that demands attention, thudding his fist against the table for emphasis. He simultaneously glowers and mocks and charms. He tells FFT he hasn't slept in three nights, so busy is he getting everything ready for the game. The strain shows across his weathered face. "Politics has nothing to do with sport," Rajoub pronounces, but then embarks on a 40-minute lecture telling us why sport is so intrinsically entwined with the country's political landscape. "You will never meet a Palestinian without having involvement in direct or indirect political activities," he admits.

Rajoub is also a senior figure within political party Fatah - the largest faction of the PLO - and once served as Yasser Arafat's national security adviser. Aged 58, he has dedicated his life to the cause of Palestinian freedom and served 17 years in as Israeli jail. Here, he learned Hebrew and English and rose through the Fatah ranks on his release into exile in 1988. He says that violence is part of the past and that the Palestinian struggle has moved on. "The world has changed, what was good last century is not suitable this century."

One of Fatah's policies in the West Bank has been to implement a bottom-up approach towards statehood, improving the quality of life and building institutions. The belief is that by creating normalcy, the case for independence becomes irresistible. "It is a rational decision to expose the Palestinian cause through sport, therough football, through the ethics and values of the game," says Rajoub. "I do believe that it is the right way to pave the way for statehood for our people." With such high stakes imposed from the top, the burden of responsibility rests heavily on the young shoulders of the Palestinian Olympic team. But then few footballers understand their duties to their compatriots as inherently as Palestine's. "We have 100 per cent responsibility to paint a smile on the faces of each Palestinian man, women, boy or girl, wherever they are," says defender Nadeem Basem Barghot. He says Palestinians all over the world, including the refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon, will be tuning in to the game.

The players are paid just under £2,000 a year and put up in dormitories situated in the eaves of the Faisal al-Husseini Stadium. FFT is shown the accomodaions: it would be inconceivable to Europe's mega-rich stars. Conditions are basic, but the Palestinian FA are proud of how far they have come. Five years ago the stadium was razed by Israeli forces, the pitch used as a parking lot for tanks as they engaged in a major campaign of West Bank incursions.

Barghot says the team's "main problem" is harrassment and interference from Israel. For the Thailand game the Palestine coach Mokhtar Tlili called up 12 players from Gaza, but only 4 were allowed to cross over. "We don't meet all the time so don't have proper team harmony," says Barghot. "Other problems are when the Israelis don't give permission to leave the Palestinian territories [for matches]. We must wait for permissions before we decide the team." The players shyly deflect questions about their personal struggles under occupation.

According to left-wing Israeli human rights group B'tselem, 6,330 Palestinians in the occupied territories have died at the hand of Israeli security forces in the last 10 years. "Every player in the squad," says a Palestine FA official, "will have lost at least one family member, or know someone who has died in the conflict with Israel."

So that's the build up and the background, but what about the match itself? Palestine, trailing 1-0 from the first leg, tear into Thailand but despite creating several clear-cut chances, lack the craft and guile to score. The absence of their eight Gazan players is telling. However, it is one of those permitted to cross between the occupied terrirtories who makes a breakthrough shortly after half-time. Abdulhamid Abuhabib strikes a sweet 25-yard volley that soars into the top corner of the Thailand goal, sending the crowd into raptures. But as wind and rain lash the stadium in to second half, the players freeze. Hailstones pummel the open terraces and the crowd thins. Thailand have a man sent off, but the breakthrough will not come. In the dying moments of normal time, Abuhabib sends a diving header wide with the goal at his mercy. Extra-time beckons, and the temperature plumets further. As penalties near, we are joined in the press box by an unexpected visitor. "It it goes to penalties I'll be too nervous to watch," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad tells an incredulous FFT. "I'll look the other way." It gets even more surreal when a piper, dressed in bright yellow waterproofs like a trawlerman, joins us and leads the Prime Minister in a round of patriotic chanting.

Abuhabib might have spared his leader the pain of a shootout, but sends a spectacular bicycle kick over the crossbar in the last minute. Spot-kicks follow. Both teams score their first five, but Palestine miss both their sudden-death penalties and Thailand prevail 6-5. Afterwards the mood is bittersweet. Barghot, like several of his colleagues, leave the field in tears. But the belief lingers what has passed has a signifcance far beyond football. "Today was a political victory,but I wish it was a football victory too," says Coach Tlili. "The world now will see Palestine in different eyes - in sport's eyes," says Rajoub. " This is a new launch for the Palestinian people toward freedom and independence."

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Next up: Israel?
After years of conflict, hopes are high that Palestine will eventually meet their neighbors on the football pitch

Most of the world's great adversaries have come face to face on the pitch. Iran faced the USA at the 1998 World Cup in a tepid encounter. Iran and Iraq routinely meet, most recently at the AFC Asian Cup in Qatar, as do Serbia and other remnants of the former Yugoslavia. Last year, South Korea pitched (unsuccessfully) to host the 2022 World Cup, with North Korea slated to host some matches. Israel have even played tournaments in Iran. But what of Israel and Palestine? Because they play in different confederations it is unlikely they will ever meet unless their two federations agree a friendly.

"As soon as the occupation disappears I don't see any reason not to have a friendly match between us and the Israelis," says PFA president, Jibril Rajoub. "Before the end of occupation? No way."

Israel wants to retaliate from the Palestinians even when the criminal is unknown

On Saturday, March 12th, we all woke up to the news of the inhuman murder of an Israeli settler family of 5 in the illegal Israeli settlement of Itamar north of the West Bank. Israel quickly pointed the finger at the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority and blamed them for their death, without having any clues or names of who might have committed this immoral act.

Hours after the news broke out, the Israeli cabinet approved 500 additional housing units in several illegal settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in what it described as "revenge against the Palestinians". The "revenge" doesn't end there, so far Israel has detained 300 people in the West Bank city of Nablus (neat the Itamar settlement). So far, there are no suspects.

New reports show that it is possible that foreign workers might be behind the murder considering they have access into the settlement.

It is not new that Israel is using the tactic of blaming Palestinians/Arabs/Muslims whenever a crime is committed.

 It is no secret that Israel is getting isolated from the world for failing to comply with its obligations, the first one is to freeze all illegal settlement activity. So it is in my belief that Israel wanted something like this as an excuse to enforce more restrictions on Palestinians and build more illegal settlements.

The Palestinian Authority, Palestinian factions and citizens condemned this cruel crime, and called for the murderer to be brought on trial in Palestine (if he was Palestinian).

Al-Jazeera's 'Fail'-Leaks (edited)

Many of you might have been shocked to read 'The Palestine Papers', Al-Jazeera's version of 'Wikileaks' concerning the Palestine-Israel talks, that (in conclusion) mention how the Palestinian Authority (PA) offered concessions to Israel, including the opportunity to annex all East Jerusalem settlements to Israel, in an alleged land exchange ratio of 1:50 (wouldn't that equal the entire West Bank?!), compromises on the right of return and so on.


One would wonder, and I must ask, if this truly happened, why didn't Israel accept? Where is their signature on this?


Then there's the issue with the timing, Al-Jazeera has admit to have been in possession of these documents for months, then why release them now and not months ago when they received them? Why did they decide to reveal these documents now, at a time when the Palestinians are winning foreign and diplomatic relations at the expense of Israel?


The media's job is to broadcast the news, and Al-Jazeera has done a good job at ignoring or giving minimal attention to many important news, including the "fever" of recognitions in South America, who are now up to 9 countries (Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Paraguay), bringing the total to over 110 countries that recognize a Palestinian state. The European Union is showing its intention to recognize a Palestinian state if Israel does not stick to its obligations according to international law. Which brings me to another question: if the PA offered land to Israel, why is it seeking international recognition on that land?


If you notice the way of presentation and writing of these documents, first and foremost, there is no source. If I were to write a paper for one of my courses and present it to my professor without a source he would throw it in my face (credits to a friend of mine for this example)! If Al-Jazeera is very confident of the document's authenticity, why not include the source?


If Al-Jazeera was an indifferent news channel, as it claims, they would ask to review the documents with the PA, they can also include all Arab countries in the process since they are all in possession of the authentic documents.

Al-Jazeera is owned by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who enjoys excellent relations with the U.S. (the best out of all Middle East countries). Just a few kilometers away from Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar, is the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, called Al-Udeid (there are 2 bases actually, the other is called As Saliyah), a very important base for the U.S. in its invasion of Iraq. Sheikh Hamad Al Thani has made several visits to Israel, even after the Israeli offensive on Gaza, he would criticize Israel on TV, but his meetings with them prove otherwise. Israeli leaders like Shimon Peres and Tvipi Livni have also made visits to Qatar, where they visited Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, yet Al-Jazeera never mentioned any of this! Not to mention that Sheikh Hamad overthrew his own father (Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, who was forced to live in exile for years) to become Emir of Qatar.

There's no denying that the primary beneficiaries of this dirty media campaign are the U.S. and Israel, who is feeling the pressure from the international community to freeze illegal settlement activity. It is very unfortunate that Qatar, a country we thought supported the Palestinian cause, is putting so much effort into creating more division among Palestinians and serve the interests of Israel, especially after the Palestinian leadership refused to hold any talks with Israel unless it freezes settlement activity, including in East Jerusalem. One might recall a report released by Wikileaks, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to leaders of the Jewish community in the U.S:  "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is the most dangerous Arab leader and we must get rid of him".


We must also keep in mind that whatever conclusion is reached between the Palestinian leadership and Israel will be up for referendum, where every Palestinian (inside Palestine and all around the world) will have the right to vote on the final solution.


It is important that we analyze the news that we read before we react to them. After all, there are two sides to every story but only one of them is true, and the truth of the documents will be revealed soon.

Netanyahu: "Mahmoud Abbas is the most dangerous Arab and Palestinian leader, we must get rid of him".

Wikileaks revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during his closed meeting with leaders of the Jewish community in the U.S: "President Abbas is the most dangerous Arab and Palestinian leader that Israel faces in its history." He continues to say: "President Abbas destroys the image of Israel in several ways, while in the mean time he builds a Palestinian state from the inside through Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad".

He goes on to say: "We tried to use Hamas against him and we failed, we even used people from Fatah against him and still we failed. On the contrary, he gained popularity, therefore we must get rid of him, and we need your help to weaken him." (end of Wikileaks revelation).

It is no secret that Israel is considering getting rid of President Abbas, just like they got rid of Yasser Arafat and Khalil Al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) before him. This proves that President Abbas's strategy of a peaceful struggle is most effective, it has gained international support for Palestine, for example every single country in the world today believes that building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is an obstacle to peace, even the U.S, Israel's biggest ally. The non-violent struggle showed the real face of Israel, and finally we Palestinians are taking the initiative of building our state, despite all the constraints from the occupation and the internal conflict.

Israelis must understand that in order for there to be any chance of achieving peace Israel must dismantle its settlements (and the wall, build one outside 1967 borders if Israel needs a wall) and withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, even before sitting at a table to discuss a peace deal. The Palestinian leadership has constantly agreed to a foreign presence to guard the borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, whether it's NATO or another side agreed upon by both sides. This way the issue of borders and security would be solved, and this doesn't take a long time to solve. Then afterwards we move to more, non-negotiable, obligations that Israel must follow, such as the issues of refugees, prisoners and water. Only then will it be known as a two-state solution.

We must keep in mind that any country that is recognizing Palestine now is not doing so because it is against Israel, but rather taking a stand in the middle, recognizing a Palestinian state on 1967 borders is being impartial and fair, that should be the standard, it's not a pro-Palestinian stand. Taking all this into consideration, the Palestinian leadership is going by international law and UN resolutions, it's now up to Israel to carry out it's obligations.

In order for there to be total peace, there must be an Israeli government that is serious about achieving peace.

Can Latin America Be A Role Model for Palestine? (translated article)

I read this very good article online in Arabic written by Nasser Laham, a journalist from Ma'an News Agency that travels with President Mahmoud Abbas, who usually gives some interesting details that other news agencies and reporters don't get a hold of. I will try my best to translate it:

"- Brasilia - Ma'an dispatch Nasser Laham - I watched president Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) very quietly throughout the journey to Latin America, asking myself in every hour 'what does Abu Mazen want to tell us, himself, and the Fatah leadership through the warm relations with Latin America? how were the people of this continent liberated from colonialism and dictatorships? How did these countries turn into the biggest producers and exporters in the global economy? And how will we Arabs learn from all this? Questions that stole our hearts with joy as we stood in solidarity with tens of thousands of people who gathered in the rain in Brasilia when President Lula - a friend of the Palestinian people - handed over power to newly elected president Dilma Rousseff, his pupil from the same political party.

I felt proud as a Palestinian when president Lula warmly shook the hand of our president, and I felt it even more when more of the continents' presidents shook his hand especially Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez who said to him: "you are going in the right direction and we are with you until the establishment of a free Palestinian state."


So it is freedom, we say freedom not money, privileges. or position. Freedom is the key.


The moment was a historical one, important, big, and far away from the preoccupied Arab and local news agencies creating details of the problems of this or that, far from party media and the insults that they make us hear every day, here we see nations freed, freed first from the illusion, greed, and dependence of its decisions on strangers. Their creativity excelled in the project of human civilization, and their necks drink water from the river of freedom that never runs out.


In the Middle East we have seen in the past decade nations crumble, armies run away, capitals fall, and our cities shatter under bombardment, let alone heroes are imprisoned and leaders executed. I see that we must rise again, not to carry weapons and fight, but to think first and regain the confidence in ourselves and free ourselves from delusions and sophistry, magic and palmistry. At the same time that Arab satellite channels are busy hosting fortune-tellers on New Year's eve, here the people are free dancing samba and salsa in the streets restoring their dignity and raising the banners of victory.


Some time back, the U.S. President issued a warning to Brazil, President Lula replied: "Don't forget that Brazil is an independent and powerful nation". When I heard this I couldn't help but hear myself saying: "God bless you, Lula!", not because he challenged the U.S., but because this president, who began his life mopping shoes in the streets of poor neighborhoods, is now in the moral strength that allowed him to say so.

To seize the moment I asked Dr. Monjed Saleh - Palestinian Director General of Latin American issues - to explain more to me about the people of Latin America. Dr. Saleh, a native of Kufl Haris who studied in Cuba in 1981, said a lot and I allowed myself to re-formulate the information that he gave me in the form of stories.


Almost all of the people of Latin America are now liberated from tyrants and oppression without resorting to violence or massacres, but through community-based programs and a national struggle and using the ballot to vote in heroes and leaders that did not go against international order or shut down their embassies or borders, instead they set up national laws that protected them from tyranny and international companies that came to loot their property and turn them into hired slaves.


For your information, a U.S. citizen will need a visa to enter most of these countries. So as the U.S. requests a visa from them to enter its territory, in return they ask every American to obtain a visa before entering theirs.


One of the strange and bizarre stories that I have heard here, El Salvador - its capital is San Salvador with a population of around 10 million people - has witnessed five years ago presidential elections and two of the people that nominated themselves were originally from the city of Bethlehem, the first from the well-known Al-Saqqa family, the other also from a well-known family named Handal. The nominee from the Al-Saqqa family represented the right-wing party while the other represented the left-wing party, Al-Saqqa won the presidency, but unfortunately the Palestinians didn't get much use out of it as much as the Israel did, who managed to get an ambassador from El Salvador of Jewish origin appointed in Tel Aviv!

As for Argentina - the capital Buenos Aires has a population of 40 million people - was headed by a man of Lebanese origin, Carlos Menem, now led by President Cristina de Kirchner, one of the bravest leaders in the continent who met president Abbas, keeping in mind that these nations have respect for the women and their capabilities, the women participate in all aspects of life, working as police, firefighters, police and politics, not just machine-breeding slaves as some in our region.


Peru - the capital Lima has a population of around 25 million people - now headed by Alan Garcia, a leftist, but now part of the centerist party.


As for Paraguay, the capital Asuncion has a population of 10 million, a country with very little resources, elected two years ago a priest named Fernando Lugo, who studied in the city of Beit Jala near Bethlehem, but was slapped with 8 lawsuits and admitted to 5 of them where women said they gave birth to his children. Paraguay's government and people are kind and respectful to Palestine, they know a lot about it since Lugo was in Beit Jala when Sharon occupied it in 2002, this really affected Lugo.


Uruguay - it's capital Montevideo has a population of 4 million people - currently led by 76-year-old President Pepe Mujica, who in his earlier years was part of the rebels in Tupac Amaru and in his body are 6 bullets. A free man and a fighter who knows the meaning of freedom.


At the ceremony that we attended for the inauguration of President Dilma, the media was busy filming vice-president Michel Temer, a Lebanese national, and his beautiful wife Marcela.


Although the Lebanese presence is ever increasing in the Amazon countries, the first of them to immigrate some 130 years ago, around 6 million today, which is 3% of its 194 million population, none of them have reached a political position like the one Temer was able to reach. The largest Arab communities in Latin America are Lebanese, Syrian then Palestinian.

Temer's wife, over 42 years his junior, a former beauty queen now called "Carla Bruni America" because she is a former model of Italian origin exactly like the wife of the French president, Sarkozy.


Ecuador - it's capital Quito with a population of 15 million - currently led by Rafael Correa, a part of Alba, the axis led by Venezuelan President Chavez.


Bolivia - capital: La Paz, it's president is Evo Morales. Strangely enough, it is 4000 meters above sea level, Brazilian football players cannot play in its stadiums and are forced to use artificial air to continue playing, they don't get to enjoy a victory because they're not accustomed to this weather.


FYI, countries like Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela give Palestinian students scholarships annually.


Back to the Palestinian expert Dr. Saleh who says Europe has consumed almost all of its natural resources who now turn to this rich continent, the first ever in the world in terms of alternative energy, recycling waste and biggest exporter of rubber, coffee and agricultural products.


The Mountains of Bolivia, for example, are rich with in diamonds, gold and uranium. Brazil and Argentina have immense agricultural production whereas Chile is the biggest exporter of copper, and Venezuela is the biggest oil-exporting country in the world after Saudi Arabia.


In response to our question about the percentage of religious affiliation, our Palestinian expert tells us most of the people here are Catholic Christians, clergy are mostly loved by the people because they helped the rebels, and stood by the people, not by the side of tyranny.


At the end of the report there was a sigh of relief when Dr. Saleh answered my question: Do Brazilians and Latin Americans work as servants in richer countries? He answered quickly and without hesitation "no, no, they work in professions, they're not servants".


So, how can there be any cooperation between us except for religious tourism? Since it is a rich continent and doesn't need the Arabs? He answered: "They are interested in importing stone, olives, and popular embroidery paintings from Palestine, they love them!"


the bottom line is that President Abbas wanted to tell us, the delegation that's accompanying him: Look, the origin of the matter is that we feel the importance of liberty and to breathe the air of freedom, get over our internal differences and others will help liberate our country. To draw lessons that victory comes from the issuance of men, and not by violence alone will revolutions be won, but with leaders and with nations that believe in themselves and their cause.


As Jesus said: What good is a man if he gained the world but lost his soul?


Before we liberate the land, we must first free our souls from fear and internal differences. From now until September we can achieve the dream of Yasser Arafat, the founding of the state of Palestine with (East) Jerusalem as its capital. "

For those who prefer reading the article in Arabic: http://www.maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=347278

How Israel Created Hamas

I had this posted on my facebook a few months back I just wanted to post this here.

I felt there was a need to get into detail regarding the truth about Hamas, Israel, and the things leading up to this day, where Hamas refuse to sign any unity or reconciliation agreement with the Palestinian Authority, and how Israel is using the internal Palestinian division as an excuse to fend off any chances of achieving peace.


First, I want to provide you with what Yasser Arafat said regarding Hamas, this was about 9 years ago:

Dec. 21, 2001 (EIRNS)—In interviews with leading Italian publications, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat went into some detail regarding the genesis and operation of Hamas. To Corriere della Sera on Dec. 11, he said, "We are doing everything possible to stop the violence. But Hamas is a creature of Israel which, at the time of Prime Minister [Yitzhak] Shamir [the late 1980s, when Hamas arose], gave them money and more than 700 institutions, among them schools, universities and mosques. Even [former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin ended up admitting it, when I charged him with it, in the presence of [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak." 
In an interview with L'Espresso on Dec. 19, Arafat said: "Hamas was constituted with the support of Israel. The aim was to create an organization antagonistic to the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization]. They [Hamas] received financing and training from Israel. They have continued to benefit from permits and authorizations, while we have been limited, even [for permits] to build a tomato factory. Rabin himself defined it as a fatal error. Some collaborationists of Israel are involved in these [terrorist] attacks. We have the proof, and we are placing it at the disposal of the Italian government."

When asked what he thought of "these sons of Palestine who blow themselves up and spread death among Israeli civilians," Arafat answered: "Israel does not allow us to live a normal life. Youth who have nothing to eat, who don't see any future in front of them, are easy prey of the Islamist movements, which have large amounts of financing at their disposal. And where the money comes from is known. President Bush froze in one bank in Texas alone, $61 million. Where does this money come from?" The interviewer asked: "Where?" Arafat: "Ask the U.S. administration, which knows all the details. Ask the Italian government too, and some Arab countries." 

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This other part is from a magazine, written in 2002, the piece is titled "How the Zionists Use Hamas As A Tool of Provocation":


From its beginnings over a century ago, the object of the Zionist movement has been to create an ethnically and religiously exclusive "Jewish state" through conquering the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. "A land without people for a people without land," was the slogan. But since Palestine was actually populated by Arabs, they had to be made to disappear, through selective or wholesale expulsion and massacres, such as is taking place now on the West Bank. To realize their program, the Zionists have often resorted to provocation, even against "their own people" - for example, the Mossad's 1951 bombing of the Baghdad synagogue, in order to provoke the flight of the Iraqi Jews. And from Theodor Herzl, Ze'ev Jabotinsky and David Ben Gurion to Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon, the Zionists have always been prepared to "do business with" the worst anti-Semites.

Following this logic, the state of Israel helped create and foster the growth the Islamic fundamentalists. It is by now well-known how U.S. intelligence agencies created Osama Bin Laden, using the Saudi-born Yemeni millionaire to recruit "holy warriors" (mujahedin) to fight against the Soviet army in Afghanistan, and how the CIA's dogs of war later slipped the leash, turning their religious frenzy against the "infidels" of the West. Similarly, and in close connection with U.S. operations in Afghanistan, Israeli leaders nurtured the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) as a counter to the secular nationalist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), then allied with the Soviet Union. Even after Hamas turned to suicide bombing against Israelis, the Zionist authorities favored it over the PLO.Moreover, Israel's military machine has deliberately provoked terrorist attacks by the Islamic fundamentalists which then become the excuses for its war on the Palestinians. 

The Zionist leaders want anti-Semitic terror. They need attacks on Jews in order to tighten their hold on the Hebrew people in the Israeli garrison state and to solidify their support from the imperialists, without which Israel could not survive. 

The 1967 war - in which the Israeli army seized East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria - gave rise to a nationalist Palestinian opposition grouped together in the PLO. The largest single component was Fatah, headed by Yasir Arafat, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood who became a protégé of Egyptian nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. The PLO also included smaller nationalist groups allied with Syria, as well as the Palestine Communist Party (PCP) and two groups that cloaked their nationalism in Stalinist rhetoric, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) of George Habash and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) of Nayef Hawatmeh. At the time of their founding, the PFLP and DFLP modeled themselves on the Vietnamese National Liberation Front and saw themselves as fedayin (guerrilla fighters) in a national liberation struggle. 

In the Palestinian lands which the Zionists occupied in 1967, the fedayin completely dominated the resistance and remade the PLO, which had been founded by Nasser in 1964 as the Palestinian nationalist umbrella organization. Nevertheless, the nationalist guerrillas were vulnerable in tiny Gaza, where nearly a million people are crammed into 140 square miles, most of it desert. For several years, the fedayin/PLO attacked Zionist military targets, achieving modest successes until the Israeli army laid siege to Gaza in 1971. Israel bulldozed hundreds of homes in the refugee camps and deported tens of thousands, including 15,000 suspected PLO fighters who were packed off to camps in the Sinai desert. As the Zionists brutally repressed the PLO, they sought to bolster the then-unimportant Islamic fundamentalist organizations centered around the Gaza-based Muslim Brotherhood. 

Just as the CIA sought since the 1940s to foster Islamic-led counterrevolution in Soviet Central Asia (considered by the Cold Warriors to be the "soft underbelly" of the USSR), the Zionists believe that their aims can be served by manipulating Islamic fundamentalist groups. One of the most important leaders of Hamas was a top operative in U.S. imperialism's anti-Soviet operation in Afghanistan. ABC News correspondent John Cooley, writing in the International Herald Tribune (13 March 1996), noted: "A key Hamas organizer was Abdallah Azzam. He was a tough, brilliant and charismatic Palestinian from Jordan. He supervised training for the CIA's Afghan guerrillas in Peshawar, Pakistan, where a car bomb killed him in 1989. In the earlier 1980s he toured the United States, recruiting Arab-Americans for the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan." 

The Israelis sought to use the Islamists in order to wield the club of religion against the alleged "godless Communists" in the PLO. In the CIA-funded "holy war" against modernizing nationalists and Soviet troops in Afghanistan, revolutionaries stood four-square with the Red Army, while pro-imperialist "leftists" cheered Washington's mujahedin. In 1978 the Zionist government sought out Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and helped him found an Islamic social works organization, Mujama. According to a study by Beverley Milton-Edwards, Islamic Politics in Palestine (Tauris, 1996): 

"In 1978 Israel's civil administration in Gaza encouraged Sheikh Yassin and his colleagues to submit an application to register the Mujama as a charitable society. Permission was granted; as such official [recognition] was frequently denied to other Gazans during this period, the decision was viewed with suspicion by the local political community. Although the Mujama described itself as a charity, the Israelis were well aware of its political aspirations.... When the Mujama started to exert its influence over already existing institutions as a means to undermine the nationalists, the Israelis stood by." 

With Israeli collusion, Mujama set up the Islamic University of Gaza, to inculcate students with anti-PLO propaganda. The Mujamists chanted, "How can uncovered women and men with Beatle haircuts liberate our holy places?" Students who were insufficiently convinced of the anti-PLO line were brutally attacked, and sometimes acid was thrown in their faces. Mujama professed to be an education and charitable organization, but its real purpose was to attack PLO-allied institutions such as the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRC), a welfare and health care organization. In 1979, Mujama lost a municipal election in Gaza to the PRC, and appealed to the Israeli government to overturn the results! When the Israelis balked, knowing that overt Zionist support would have exposed Mujama as their tool, the Islamists took action. 

"A demonstration then started out from the grounds of the [Islamic] university. Most of the people involved in the march and subsequent attacks were Mujama supporters. The demonstrators, ignoring the Israeli army soldiers stationed along their way, set off in the direction of the PRC building. According to Shalom Cohen, 'Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets shouting Allahu Akbar (God is great), down with Communism, long live Islam.' 

"During the demonstration the Mujama militants attacked cafes, video shops and liquor stores. When they arrived at the offices of the PRC they set the building on fire. The offices were destroyed, including approximately 80 per cent of the books in the library... Throughout the attack the Israeli authorities failed to intervene." 

The PRC issued a statement denouncing the complicity of the Israeli forces: 

"The tacit approval of the authorities, if not their actual connivance in what happened, was displayed by their attitude of non-interference. While they usually display great alertness to combating even peaceful demonstrations of young students within schools, here they stood indifferently watching a violently destructive demonstration marching to its objective." 

At the time of the intifada of 1988, the second main Muslim fundamentalist organization in Palestine, Islamic Jihad, had been weakened by Zionist repression. Seeking to capitalize on the upsurge of militant protests by Palestinian youth, Hamas emerged from Mujama's ranks as its fighting organization. While PLO supporters preferred mass action, Hamas specialized in shootings, often of Israeli army personnel. Yet at the height of the intifada. Sheikh Yassin and Dr. Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas would meet with the likes of then-defense minister Yitzhak Rabin, while meetings with the PLO were prohibited by law. As Milton-Edwards notes: 

"The relationship between Hamas and the Israeli authorities was, however, at its strongest during the second year of the Intifada. The Israelis had been quick to extend legitimacy and status to Hamas in an attempt to marginalise the PLO. Leaders of Hamas were regularly filmed at meetings with top-level Israeli officials and the message the Israelis were sending out was that they regarded Hamas as the type of people with whom they could work.... 

In addition the Israelis continued turning a blind eye to the large amounts of money coming into the country destined for Hamas coffers, while at the same time actively stopping the flow of PLO funds in support of the Intifada." 

In May 1991, following George Bush l's murderous war against Iraq, U.S. ally Saudi Arabia diverted all monies -reportedly $28 million per month - from the PLO to Hamas. This was punishment for Arafat's support for Saddam Hussein and a reward for Hamas' condemnation of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (which Hussein had informed the U.S. ambassador about beforehand), the pretext for "Operation Desert Slaughter." Hamas, as far as the Zionists and the U.S. imperialists were concerned, was an asset. 

But it was the Oslo "peace process" that gave Hamas its chance to win support in the Palestinian population: while the PLO was clamping down on any opposition to the accords with its myriad police forces, organized in cooperation with the CIA and Israel's Shin Beth, Hamas began carrying out indiscriminate bombings of civilian targets. Some of these actions were suicide bombings, in which a mujahid (holy warrior) would blow himself up in a crowded Israeli bus or market place. Between 1994 and 1998, Hamas killed around 150 Israeli civilians in this way. With Arafat closely tied to the Zionists and their U.S. backers, Hamas made temporary alliances with dissident factions within the PLO, and gained a reputation as "militants." Many of its new supporters did not agree strongly or at all with the Islamic goals of Hamas, but they were revolted by the apparent collaboration with the Zionists by leaders of Fatah, Arafat above all. By its double strategy of "negotiating" with the PLO and building up Islamic fundamentalism, Israeli rulers succeeded in fostering sometimes deadly rivalries among the Palestinian political leaders. 

The Zionists also periodically provoked Hamas into carrying out a terrorist action against Israeli civilians whenever they were trying to derail peace talks with the PLO or to launch a broad attack on the Palestinians. A favorite tactic is to launch an attack on a prominent religious shrine. In September 1990, Zionist fundamentalists held a provocative march on the A I Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, predictably leading to an outburst of protest which was then bloodily suppressed by the Israeli police and army, leaving at least 21 dead. Israeli leaders were chomping at the bit to use the impending U.S. war on Iraq as a pretext to drown the first intifada in blood. At the time, George Bush I told Likud prime minister Shamir to cool it because he needed Arab support for his war. At the end of September 1996, the government of Likud prime minister Netanyahu provoked a slaughter of Palestinians by opening a tunnel under Al Aqsa, in order to undercut U.S. president Clinton's plans for negotiations with Arafat. And then, once again in September 2000, there was Sharon's provocative promenade in front of Al Aqsa, accompanied by 1,000 top Likudniks and 3,000 police and troops. This set off the second Palestinian intifada and with it a new wave of Hamas bombings, the latest being the Passover massacre at Netanya which provided the trigger needed to launch Israel's "Operation Defensive Shield." 

Liberal commentators who admit that Israel created Hamas sometimes maintain that it is Israel's "Frankenstein monster," which got out of control and now has supposedly become Zionism's fiercest opponent. On the contrary, Israel's rulers continue to cynically provoke Hamas terror as a way of pushing their "final solution" against the PLO and all Palestinians. The Zionists have engineered the Palestinian "opposition" they want.