The Muslim Brotherhood has an ideology so extreme, so conspiratorial, and so lacking in contact with reality that it can't help but destroy its own chance of holding political power. From the Religious point of view, it is opportunistic and Leninist- i.e. it prioritizes capturing organs of the State and eliminating rivals rather than promoting Religious laws and values. But, from the pragmatic point of view of the 'deep' State apparatus, it is amateurish, incompetent and consistently myopic. Thus, it has nuisance value- a bogeyman to scare the liberals- but it can easily be turned into a scapegoat.
This, at any rate, was what happened when it won elections in Egypt. Within a year it had proved itself so utterly inept that it ended up getting banned there and in Saudi Arabia. This meant Hamas lost its crucial ally to the West. El Sisi- who had been promoted out of turn by Morsi- sealed the border and turned Gaza into an open air prison.
Turkey bet on the wrong horse when it gave shelter to these lunatics. More recently, Erdogan seemed to be cooling in his support for it as the price of better relations with Egypt and the Saudis. In Jordan, where it should have used Islam to appeal to non-Palestinians, its political wing or wings made a complete mess of things and it appears inert. In Iraq, the Brotherhood is playing second fiddle to Iran and this damages its standing as a Sunni outfit. In America it came close to being designated a terrorist entity after which similar action may have been taken in Europe. Thanks to Hamas's atrocities, the Brotherhood has been given a respite in the Muslim world. But Hamas is showing that it is wholly ideological while defying the commandments of the Religion it claims to follow. It is completely unconcerned with protecting the people whom it rules over. Indeed, its spokesman says that it is the UN's job to look after the people. Its own job is to rape and murder.
This is a politically very damaging admission. Why support a bunch of lunatics who want to use you as cannon fodder? Moreover, why should Arab Sunnis be slaughtered for the greater glory of Aryan Shias? Also, what is the point of attacking a country which learns quickly from its mistakes and emerges stronger from every conflict? The answer is that if you have a crazy ideology you will either do crazy shit or you will be left severely alone to just rant and rave to your heart's content.
Hamas's military wing appears completely under the thumb of Iran which provided the training for the attack. No doubt, the Persians are delighted that Sunni Palestinians have behaved like the rabid dogs of ISIS. It proves the Arab Sunni, and the Arab Caliph they want, is a savage beast. The Aryans or even the Turanians are more civilized. Iran and Turkey had dominated the Arabs for almost a thousand years. Hamas, by its fealty to Iran, was showing that even if Sunni Arabs were capable of killing Jews, they could only only do so with Iranian help and, even then, they would behave like animals and slaughter babies and grandmothers. This is a considerable propaganda coup more particularly at a time when the Arab countries were evincing a keen desire to normalize relations with Israel in the manner Donald Trump had envisaged.
The mistake we made about Hamas was to think it was like Fatah- i.e. cared about ruling territory. But Hamas is like Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. It lives in a fantasy world. What it wants is unconditional support and this is what it has got from bleeding hearts thanks to the horrible atrocities it has committed. Basically, it is saying 'if you care about Palestine then you must support our raping and killing innocent people'. But if you do so, you lose your soul. But that's what crazy ideologies demand of you- unswerving obedience and a complete abandonment of your own sense of what is just and decent.
Many on the Left have soft hearts. Sadly, some also want to have soft heads- i.e. they wish to surrender to some crazy ideology so that they don't have to think for themselves or even to have an independent sense of what is right and wrong. Hamas has given them a moment of clarity. Either they swallow the atrocities and Hamas's abandonment of the people of Gaza, and bleat against Israel, or else they have to find some other cause to pretend to care about. No doubt, some academic is already writing a book praising Hamas for rejecting what Foucault called 'biopolitics'- i.e. protecting the population. Raping and beheading babies and grannies is true Liberation.
The situation in Muslim countries is more complicated. Here it is a case of giving the Brotherhood enough rope while sitting back and laughing heartily at the Palestinians. Obviously, you can't give Visas to these helpless people. That would be 'Displacement' instead of 'Resistance'. Let them stay in place and get killed.
How will Israel win in Gaza? My guess is it will establish 'humanitarian corridors' and take a percentage of the Aid that flows in. It will rebuild its HUMINT capacity and recruit disaffected Gazans who have reasons for vendetta against Hamas members and use them as killing squads. Meanwhile, it will arm a large swathe of the Jewish population some of whom will be trigger happy and then send in the Army to take over 'strategic' land which turns out to be ideal for 'settlers'. The Supreme Court won't object because the land acquisition is supposedly for military purposes.
No doubt, some Latin American and other such countries will cut ties with Israel but this will be more than compensated for if the West cracks down on the Brotherhood and calls Erdogan's bluff. The bigger question is whether attack on American bases by Iranian proxies pushes Biden into joining Israel in attacking Iran. Much will depend on the summit with Xi. Hopefully, there will be no wider conflict. The Brotherhood will get a respite during which it will rant and rave while Palestinian civilians pay the price. Meanwhile, the 'two state' solution is dead in the water. Hamas has no interest in running anything while Fatah is a zombie enterprise. Today, just as in 1946, Palestine is not an economically viable or politically cohesive entity. It can't rule itself. It can only do either corruption or crazy shit. No doubt, the UN has played a role in infantilizing a great people. Still, the Brotherhood is an Egyptian import- one which the Egyptians rejected. Hama's atrocities may have bought it a respite, but the axe is being sharpened for those lunatics all the same. Palestinians need a purely Palestinian entity to defend their interests. The Brotherhood has sacrificed them so as to secure its own survival in Turkey and Doha and so as to help its patrons in Teheran preserve its geopolitical ascendancy in the Fertile Crescent.
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