The Israel-Hamas war is not a war between Israel and Hamas.
It is a war between the Muslim Brotherhood and, ultimately, the freedom-loving, democracy-driven Western world. Hence why all Westerners should defiantly pick a side if they appreciate what they have.
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To understand the current situation in Gaza, we have to go back to 1928, when the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt, but remained a fringe group in politics across the Arab world.
Abd al-Rahman al-Banna, the brother of the Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, went to British-era Palestine and established the Muslim Brotherhood there in 1935. Al-Hajj Amin al-Husseini, eventually appointed by the British as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in hopes of accommodating him, was the leader of the group in British-era Palestine.
Another important leader associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in British-era Palestine was Izz al-Din al-Qassam, an inspiration to Islamists because he had been the first to lead an armed resistance in the name of “Palestine” against the British in 1935.
In the years preceding World War II, the Muslim Brotherhood grew connections with Nazi Germany, maintained via the Deutsches Nachrichtenbüro (the official central press agency of the German Reich) in Cairo. Amin al-Husseini himself received funds from the Abwehr (Nazi Germany’s military-intelligence service). Being interested in strengthening a militant anti-British organization, Germany may have funded the Muslim Brotherhood as early as 1934.
al-Banna and other members of the Muslim Brotherhood voiced admiration for aspects of Nazi ideology, including its militarism and its centralization revolving around a charismatic leader, but opposed others like its racial policies and ethnic nationalism.
The outbreak of World War II ended the relationship between Germany and the Muslim Brotherhood, yet over the course of the war, the Muslim Brotherhood displayed pro-Evil Axis sympathies. Worried, the British kept the Muslim Brotherhood under firm control by temporarily banning its newsletters, surveilling its meetings, and arresting various provincial leaders.
Between 1938 and the early 1940s, the Brotherhood formed an armed wing called the “Secret Apparatus” — a successor of the “battalions” established in late 1937. Its goal was to fight the British until their expulsion from Egypt, as well as British collaborators and Jews in British-era Palestine.
It also protected the Muslim Brotherhood against the police and infiltrated the Communist movement. The “Secret Apparatus” was led by a committee of five, with each of them commanding one tightly knit cell. Only the most committed members, mostly young students or men with salaried jobs, were invited to join.
New members of the “Secret Apparatus” were taught to obey, given weapons, underwent heavy physical training, and brainwashed with the concepts of Jihad and underground operations. The result was a zealous elite force. Its first operation was allegedly towards the end of World War II, when members of the group threw a bomb at a British club. Militarized youth sections were also raised, namely the junior kashafa (“scouts”) and the more senior jawala (“travelers”).
After World War II ended, the Muslim Brotherhood opposed the United Nations’ involvement in British-era Palestine from April 1947, with the latter eventually voting for partition into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, in November 1947.
Consequently, the Muslim Brotherhood prepared for war, with volunteers entering the region as early as October 1947. On November 30th, 1947, British-era Palestine descended into a civil war fought between the local Jewish community (known as “HaYishuv” in Hebrew) and the Arab Higher Committee, a branch of the Arab League — eventually ending in a Palestinian defeat by May 1948.
The end of British-era Palestine and Israel’s declaration of independence on May 14th resulted in an invasion by five Arab states the very next day, among them Egypt. Muslim Brotherhood fighters assisted the Egyptian army northeast of Gaza, although some were also active in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank). The war was an Arab failure, resulting in a truce fiercely opposed by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Within a short period of time thereafter, Egypt ended up cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood on Egyptian soil. But after Israel’s resounding victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, Islamic fundamentalism started to replace the popularity of secular Arab nationalism. The movement was also supported by Saudi Arabia, with which it shared mutual enemies like communism.
Following the war, Gaza’s iterations of the Muslim Brotherhood did not actively participate in armed resistance against Israel, preferring to focus on social-religious reform and the restoration of Islamic values. This outlook changed in early-1980s Gaza, and Islamic organizations became more involved in Palestinian politics, led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian of humble origins and a quadriplegic.
The idea of Hamas began to take form in late 1987, when several members of the Muslim Brotherhood convened the day after an incident in which an Israeli military truck crashed into a car at a Gaza checkpoint, killing four Palestinian day-workers. They met at Yassin’s house and decided that they too needed to react in some manner, as protest riots sparking the First Intifada erupted.
A leaflet issued in December 1987 — calling for resistance — is considered to mark Hamas’ first public intervention, though the name Hamas itself was not used until 1988, when it published its official charter, wherein it defined itself as a chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood and its desire to establish “an Islamic state throughout Palestine.”1
To many Palestinians, Hamas appeared to engage more authentically with their national aspirations, since it provided an Islamic version of what had been the Palestine Liberation Organization’s original goals: armed struggle to liberate all of “Palestine” (you know, “from the River to the Sea”) rather than territorial compromises to which the Palestine Liberation Organization acquiesced.
Creating Hamas as an entity distinct from the Muslim Brotherhood was a matter of practicality; the Muslim Brotherhood refused to engage in violence against Israel, but without participating in the First Intifada, the Islamists tied to it feared they would lose support to their rivals, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Palestine Liberation Organization. They also hoped that, by keeping its militant activities separate, Israel would not interfere with its Islamist social work.
Thus, the Israel-Hamas war is really Israel versus the Muslim Brotherhood, but it does not end there. This war represents a microcosm for a bigger battle of civilizations: the Muslim Brotherhood versus the Western world, with Israel on the front lines of the latter.
For example, as part of the evidence compiled in a trial involving the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (which was found to be funding Hamas), the U.S. government obtained a document issued by the Muslim Brotherhood titled, “An Explanatory Memorandum for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Goals in North America.” Among other things, the goals included establishing a Muslim Brotherhood-led movement in the U.S. and “presenting Islam as a civilization alternative.”
The memo went on to explain that a Muslim’s role in North America is a “grand jihad” which involves “eliminating and destroying the western civilization from within…” until Islam becomes “victorious over all other religions.”
The document acknowledged the connection between the Muslim Brotherhood and dozens of Muslim American organizations, one of them being the Islamic Association for Palestine which, interestingly enough, also issued a fascinating memo used in the Holy Land Foundation trial.
The Islamic Association for Palestine’s 1991 document was beyond damning, with the organization admitting that their cause was not about indigeneity, nationalism, or land. In fact, they never even “believed in Palestinians or other nationalities” and considered such markers “mere geographical divisions and nothing more.”
According to the Islamic Association for Palestine, the “Palestinian cause” was really just “Islam’s cause in Palestine.” The memo read:
“… our dealing with the Palestinian cause is not from a national or regional perspective...but it is mandated by Islam.”
It elaborated that the Palestinian cause was unique and deserved special attention precisely because it involves “a struggle with the Jews … who constitute a danger to Arabs and Muslims [worldwide].” For this reason, the Islamic Association for Palestine stressed the need to form special committees for Palestine which would publicize “the savagery of the Jews.”
The strategy was clear: Similar to how longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rebranded the “Palestinian cause,” there was a need to reverse victim and offender; there would now be a soft war aimed at showcasing the “crimes of the Jews.” Despite the foresight of its success, the “soft war” strategy seemed akin to a blindfolded dart thrower striking a bullseye.
The Muslim Brotherhood ideology also inspired the Khomeinist movement in Iran, and Sayyid Qutb, one of the most influential Brotherhood theorists, has always been popular among Iranian Islamists. Although Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, did not openly acknowledge the Brotherhood’s influence, current Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has translated Qutb’s work into Farsi. According to Mohsen Kadivar, a prominent Iranian theologist, Qutb is Khamenei’s favorite writer.
What’s more, the Muslim Brotherhood is chiefly sponsored by Turkey (a NATO member) and Qatar (which has major non-NATO ally status), more avenues by which to subliminally “infiltrate” the West.
Another such avenue is via Western academia. According to a recent report published by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy:
The infamous organization “Students for Justice in Palestine” has ties to terrorist organizations including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
This organization receives millions of dollars in financial support via non-transparent channels to fund their activities.
Students for Justice in Palestine’s ideology and actions are steeped in illiberal and antisemitic ideology.2
Hatem Bazian founded Students for Justice in Palestine in 2001 at UC Berkeley as an offshoot of the General Union of Palestinian Students formed in Cairo in 1959 by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Another notorious antisemitic organization, “Jewish Voice for Peace,” is also connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and its aim of eradicating Israel and democracy.
“This isn’t an extremist branch,” said Charles A. Small, the Founding Director and President of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. “It’s a core element of the Muslim Brotherhood.”3
Small added that Qatar is “investing in our best universities in the United States and Europe and Canada and around the world, buying the media of record, buying PR firms and law firms, using this trillion dollars and assets as soft power to portray the Qataris as a, you know, a moderating force in the region, a friend of the West and a friend of other people.”
But there is more.
“I think what’s very important to understand is that Qatar is a tiny country with less than 350,000 citizens, [and] they’re giving more money to American and European universities than any other country in the world. So why would a tiny country of less than 350,000 citizens give more money to Western universities than China, Russia, European allies, or Canada?”
The answer, according to Small, is found in the deep connection between the royal family of Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood. The royal family has a spiritual oath to the Muslim Brotherhood, so they follow all its religious edits and fatwas (Islamic legal rulings) to the letter.
Qatar’s rulers “represent the Brotherhood in their use of soft power and political influence that they’re exercising throughout the world,” said Small.
Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf Qaradawi, who also launched Islamic Studies at Oxford University, argued that the True Believer is obligated to complete the work of Hitler.4 And the requirement to annihilate the Jewish People, a core element of Qaradawi’s teachings, is followed by the Qatari regime.
“The Qatari regime’s goal and the Muslim Brotherhood’s goal is to remove, isolate, distance Israel from the West and from the United States, to destroy it. And to use antisemitism as a way to fragment and weaken and then destroy the Great Satan, the United States of America,” according to Small. “This is their stated objectives and goals that was uncovered by Swiss security 40 years ago.”
Perhaps someone should remind the Qataris and their Muslim Brotherhood friends that every regime which has tried to annihilate the Jewish People has, in turn, disappeared.
And the sample size is plenty.
“Hamas Charter.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas_Charter.
“National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP): Antisemitism, Anti-Americanism, Violent Extremism and the Threat to American Universities.” Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.
“How Muslim Brotherhood ideology and cash gained a foothold in Western universities.” Calcalist Ctech.
“Report: Qatar Pulling Strings on US Campuses, While Muslim Brotherhood Funds SJP, JVP, University Riots.” Jewish Press.
As always, thank you for providing such detail about this dangerous group. The Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar are Satan's children. They are a cancer that is spreading and the West is on standby waiting for its destruction. There is no alternative for Israel but to continue to show strength and demolish them in Gaza and in the north with Hezbollah. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see the Arabs shamed one more time.
Excellent article!
There's always more in plumbing the depths of the Muslim Brotherhood:
1. " outbreak of World War II ended the relationship between Germany and the Muslim Brotherhood" Actually Haj Amin al-Husseini and his entourage took refuge in Berlin at the start of the war, developed a friendship with Himmler (plenty of photographs of them), raised an SS division of Yugoslavian Muslims, received assurances during Rommel's North African campaign that members of "Eichmann's department" would be sent to deal with the Jews in Palestine. Lots of details in "Rommel's Desert War" by Martin Kitchen.
2. Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood served as spies for the German Afrika Corps
3. Hassan al-Banna wrote extensively after the war about his admiration for Nazi Germany and regret it had lost the war. His grandson, Tarik Ramadan claims those writings are "out of context". Ramadan has tried to impose a moratorium on the debate how Muslims should go about executing gays.
4. Sayyed el-Quttub left Muslim Brotherhood to found Islamic Jihad, a more secretive organization with the same goals. After his execution by the Nasser regime, one of his disciples got refuge in Saudi Arabia and taught at the University of Medina. One of his direct students was Osama bin Laden.
The unbroken thread continues.