"Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, 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."
-Richard Sale
No, you did not read this incorrectly. At one time, Israel viewed Hamas as a tool and even went so far as to directly support them in the early part of its history. Israel created Hamas as a right wing political group that would destabilize Yasser Arafat and his more secular Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), that fought Israel on the grounds that Arabs should have self determination. Arafat actually used to be against the idea of an Israeli State but later changed his mind in 1988 (as an extra point of information, Hamas was officially created in 1987) when he accepted the UN Security Council Resolution 242. Resolution 242 states the following:
(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."
Why would Israel want to destabilize Arafat if he was willing to recognize Israel as a legitimate state? Because Israel doesn't want peace. Israel needs an enemy to justify its occupation of Gaza and its continued expansion. Pro Israel propagandists like to paint Israel as always trying to extend the olive branch and create peace, but this is hard to believe. Israel on the surface pretends to extend an offer of peace with a gun behind their back. And I'm not trying to say Israel is alone in this creation of enemies so that it can justify its existence. They only took a play from the United States playbook.
Why is that? It's because, as Dr. Paul points out above, the United States worked to radicalize Islam in order to fight the Soviets. Former NSA director William Odom said "By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ‘78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation."
Even Jimmy Carters National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said the following:
The Mujahideen were people like Bin Laden and others that would later found Al Qaeda and other extremist groups and take down the World Trade Center in 2001. It is funny how America forgets how it creates its own enemies. Likewise, Israel never talks about how it created its own enemies. It is interesting to wonder if these military advisers and political leaders across the world are either stupid or evil. Stupid in the sense of them thinking they can control extremist groups like Al Qaeda and Hamas to achieve their ends. Or evil in the sense that these groups serve a purpose in the now, and later can make convenient excuses for further militarization and empire building. Both propositions are terrible but it can only be on or the other with them, because they certainly don't have the Israeli, American, or Palestinian people's welfare in mind. They are simply pawns to be moved.
To make matters worse, Israel like us, encouraged the Palestinian people to elect leaders (because spreading democracy at the point of a gun is a good way to spread freedom). Guess which political group won? Hamas. So I don't think Israel should receive any sympathy in their "fight" against Hamas. They made their bed, now they have to sleep in it. These sort of conflicts can only come to peaceful ends when Governments stop thinking they can disregard individuals and move them like pieces on a game board. Israels most hated and dangerous enemy is a democratically elected entity it helped to create, much like how the United States created Al Qaeda.
The solution however, is not more government in order to fix the mistakes that government makes.
More about Israel:
Israel Part 1: The 7th Century to 1948
Israel Part 3: That Awkward Moment When You Realize Nobody is the Good Guy...Labels: al qaeda, Arab, Arab-Israeli War, fallacy, freedom, Hamas, Israel, libertarian, liberty, statism, statist, war, Zionism