generalspeaking

Leading Hamas

"Even with the carnage and their homes reduced to rubble, they say, 'Mr. Khaled Meshaal, we don't want to emerge from this war without breaking the siege. We were dying slowly. Now we are dying instantly because of the F-16s and all the Israeli and American technology."
"I did not experience lost or wayward years in my youth, but was committed to prayer and religiosity from a young age."
"I was, thank God, raised in an atmosphere of religion, morality, conservatism and commitment."
Khaled Meshaal, head, Hamas 'political wing', Doha, Qatar

"He raises money for the organization. I'm not going to tell you he steals half of it or part of it, but there's no question when you have a lot of money, you can live a more comfortable life. Over the years, he's definitely accumulated a significant amount of money. He definitely can be considered very, very rich."
Alon Ben-Meir, fellow, New York University Centre for Global Affairs

"The Palestinians voted for Hamas because they promised them change and reform. They didn't build any schools. They just built tunnels. And he is living in Qatar in very good condition."
"Meshaal wants what all other political figures want. To stay in power."
Shlomi Eldar, Israeli journalist, author, To Know Hamas

Khaled Meshaal lives in voluntary exile from Gaza. It is not safe for him to live in Gaza. It is not safe for him to live openly anywhere, so he is seldom seen in public. He has safe haven in Qatar, where Hamas is celebrated as a champion of the Palestinian people, a courageous counter to the Zionist entity that took Palestinian land and placed upon it a Jewish nation, the bane of the existence of all pious Muslims, aware that deconsecration of land dedicated to Islam is forbidden.

Mr. Meshaal is reputed to be living in a Doha luxury hotel And that he can very well afford it, since he is also reputed to be in possession of an immense amount of wealth, milked from his very own organization's funding by generous patrons of the 'cause'. He is seen as a "living martyr", having survived a targeted assassination when Mossad agents injected him with a lethal dose of poison in 1997, but were caught in the act and arrested. Pressure from various sources forced Israel to deliver a potent antidote.

"This was the beginning of Khaled Meshaal [as a significant force]", commented Shlomi Eldar who wrote the book, To Know Hamas. And now, Mr. Meshaal is overseeing the conduct of yet another offensive mounted by Israel in response to continuing and ongoing missile and rocket bombardments of Israel. "I think this war will give him even more leverage and more power", Khaled Al Hroub, director of the Cambridge University Project for Arab Media, author of a number of books on Hamas, stated.


Mr. Eldar feels that Khaled Meshaal as head of 'political' Hamas has a distinct position within the organization as a skilled fundraiser. And without doubt an equally skilled manipulator of public relations for Hamas. Reaching out successfully to the Western media for sympathy for the battered Palestinians. However, Mr. Eldar states, the real power behind Hamas lies within the military wing, and its leader is a little-spoken-of-man in the West: Mohammed Deif.

One thing is well enough known, the kind of corruption that their predecessor in the PLO, Yasser Arafat indulged in, runs rife through Hamas as well; all well steeped in pernicious avarice. Funding for their terrorist activities is generally available through a variety of sources through Mideast state financing or the generosity of wealthy patrons. Although Hamas has seen a cutback in its funding, Qatar's endless wealth is there for the plumbing.


And rumours of Mr. Meshaal's fabulous wealth have not yet been proven, unlike the wealth amassed by Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei and Russia's Vladimir Putin. It remains to be seen, however, whether Hamas will emerge from this current crisis entirely unscathed. As far as the Hamas leadership is concerned, no amount of self-sacrifice the people of Gaza commit to is quite enough; and no amount of dedication to the personal safety the Hamas leadership is sufficient.

There are enough Palestinians living in Gaza who view Hamas as their oppressors, hoping to be shed of them. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy recently undertook a poll, finding 66% of Gazans considering corruption a huge problem in the organization. And among them, a mere 3% envisioned Mr. Meshaal a suitable president of an Palestinian state.

Not enough among them have thought carefully through to the disabilities and disequilibrium in their lives that the Hamas administration has brought them. Instead of civil infrastructure and responsible government, all the funding Hamas absorbs has been used to acquire weapons with which to attack Israel and to build tunnels rather than building the infrastructure for a state and employing its people in a manner that befits their needs.

It is telling that recently Hamas murdered thirty Palestinians in Gaza whom they accused of aiding Israel.

Labels: Gaza, Hamas, Palestinians

posted by Pieface @ Monday, August 04, 2014