On Sun, 15 Oct 2006, Colin Brace wrote:
> ...beginning in 1967 through the late 1980s, Israel helped the Muslim
> Brotherhood establish itself in the occupied territories....
>
> "Israel started Hamas," says Charles Freeman, the veteran US diplomat
> and former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "It was a project of Shin
> Bet [the Israeli domestic intelligence agency], which had a feeling
> that they could use them to hem in the PLO". (p. 191)
This is both absolutely true (and not at all a secret in Israel) and also not true. The crucial link is "the late 80s." Basically what Israel supported was the chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. Hamas -- an acronym for the arabic for "Islamic Resistance Movement" -- i.e., a military organization -- grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was not one. It happened very suddenly, in a matter weeks, in 1987, when the first intifada began; Rabin mounted what he called the Iron First policy, i.e., mass beatings that qualify as torture as punishment; and Sheik Hassin was completely outraged. He then in a flurry created Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood's military wing.
Eventually, today, the wing has become the name of the chicken, esp. in the West. But the point to keep clear is that when Israel was supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, it wasn't a military organization at all. It was a totally a social service organization. They why they saw as such a great counterweight and why they supported. Their made it stronger. And then when it suddenly became a military organization much more implacable and non-negotiable than the PLO, they said Ooops! This they certainly were not going to support.
Now of course this being the middle east, there are myriad conspiracy theories, and who knows but some of them might even have a grain of truth, that there was support after that point. Because goddam it there are just so many times when the extremists on each side seem to be dancing a two-step.
But just to make the established record clear (the one that everyone agrees on, and that Seth Kulick and Colin have been quoting experts asserting as established truth) -- on that established record, Israel built up the Muslim Brotherhood, which got stronger, and then (in response to the intifada) turned into Hamas -- but that's not exactly the same as saying they supported Hamas, which shocked them from the moment it appeared. It's a fine point, but an important one.
And this bears on Michael Hoover's question as to whether Hamas has ever acknowledged support. As Hamas defines itself, as the military wing, there is no established proof it was ever supported, and both it and Israel deny it vehemently.
Michael