With Hamas having won an overwhelming majority of seats in the 2006 parliamentary elections and now having taken control of the Gaza Strip, there couldn't be a more appropriate time to recall one of my favorite ironies:
According to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years.
Israel "aided Hamas directly -- the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)," said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies.
Israel's support for Hamas "was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative," said a former senior CIA official.
In particular, Israel wanted to derail the ever-menacing threat of peace posed by the PLO's unwelcome (and increasing) willingness to pursue negotiations:
Hamas, unlike the PLO, was unwilling to compromise in any way with Israel, refusing to acquiesce in its very existence.
But even then, some in Israel saw some benefits to be had in trying to continue to give Hamas support: "The thinking on the part of some of the right-wing Israeli establishment was that Hamas and the others, if they gained control, would refuse to have any part of the peace process and would torpedo any agreements put in place," said a U.S. government official who asked not to be named.
Keep this in mind whenever you hear an Israeli official bleating the well-worn talking point that Israel doesn't have a "partner for peace" on the Palestinian side.
UPDATE: The irony just deepened considerably...:
ISRAEL’s new defence minister Ehud Barak is planning an attack on Gaza within weeks to crush the Hamas militants who have seized power there. ...
The Israeli forces would expect to be confronted by about 12,000 Hamas fighters with arms confiscated from the Fatah faction that they defeated in last week’s three-day civil war in Gaza.
...along with the potential for tragedy.
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