World : Anarkismo.net: Israel/Palestine: Background to the present conflict

Egypt insists on dissolving the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood offshoot, Hamas, in the 
Gaza Strip. Israel "just" wants to sabotage the yielding/compromise by Hamas to the 
Palestinian West Bank Authority. ---- The relevant political context for the present round 
begins in November 2012, with the agreement between Israel and Hamas under Egyptian 
sponsorship (Hillary Clinton was present as "chaperone"). ---- The November 2012 
transaction took care of two things: ---- 1. a cease-fire between the two sides and ---- 
2. the opening of crossing points for the passage of goods and people (the official 
crossing points have been "supplemented" throughout the years by up to 1,500 "illegal" 
tunnels dug under the border, which have supplied everything the official crossing points 
were unable to supply, together with most of the income to the Hamas regime from funds of 
supporters and taxes).

Overall - according to Israeli security officials - Hamas fulfilled its part "nicely": it 
did not open fire, and most of the time worked to prevent other organizations from opening 
fire. Hamas has sent its men to take action against Palestinian organizations that 
intended to open fire against Israel, something not many people know. In exchange, Hamas 
expected a significant easing of the closure.

This did, in fact, happen (though less than what was promised and expected, but still 
tolerable) as long as the Muslim Brotherhood were in power in Egypt.

But once Sisi took power in Egypt (summer 2013) and abolished the Muslim Brotherhood 
government, the crossings were closed again and again and more importantly, the tunnels 
from Egypt - which were the greatest source of supply and income for Hamas - were 
gradually closed. By gradually cutting off the tunnels beneath the closed border, Sisi has 
strangled the Gazan people and Hamas' system of government.

Hamas found itself in a state which progressively got worse: on the one hand it was 
providing a type of security for Israel (which the Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu 
was so proud of), and on the other hand the closure was getting worse (and reached a level 
where Hamas could no longer pay salaries to 43,000 government officials and military force 
members who Hamas had recruited to manage the Strip). The Hamas government was thereby on 
the verge of collapse. As a result, Hamas gradually decreased their chase after other 
organizations and allowed them to increase the rate of shooting mortars, missiles, etc. It 
also explains why it has responded to the Israeli provocations with all its power.

This is the context that forced Hamas to make an agreement with the PLO/Fatah in April.

Hamas thereby agreed to turn part of its power over to Abu-Mazen (president of the 
Palestinian Authority of the West Bank), mainly the responsibility for government salaries 
in Gaza. There is debate between them about which of the 43,000 will continue in their 
positions and what the role of the 70,000 Palestinian Authority officials who were removed 
from power in the Gaza Strip in the Hamas takeover of 2007 will be. Throughout these 
years, they have received salaries from Ramallah to stay at home and should now return to 
office. But the hottest unsolved question between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is 
the debt of salaries which have not been paid for several months. The status of Hamas' 
20,000-strong armed force has not been settled either. Abu-Mazen claims it is not his 
responsibility, and that Hamas will have to solve it.

There are all sorts of problems and unfinished business with the agreement, but the most 
immediate pressing obstacle is the back payroll. And the minimal condition for Hamas to 
stop the fighting is a return to the previous arangement of re-opening all 1,500 or so 
tunnels.

Hamas have said they have found who will pay - Qatar. But Israel and the Western powers 
together with the various banks involved - each for various reasons, some justified and 
some less - have refused to transfer the money.

The UN offered its services to resolve the problem, but Israel decided to block the 
involvement of the UN diplomatic envoy and actually put a veto on this channel. The 
result: tens of thousands in Gaza, including the security/military wing of Hamas, have not 
got their salaries for months on end.

As Hamas did not stop all the shooting by dissident organizations, Israel started to 
escalate the confrontation with Hamas and even more so following the kidnapping of the 
three settler youths, using it as an excuse (although it has recently declared officially 
that Hamas was not involved).

At present, the Egyptians - who seek to annihilate Hamas - are refusing to return to the 
arrangements which were in place before Sisi started to strangle the Gaza Strip leading to 
Hamas' surrender to the Palestinian Authority (arrangements which Israel, on the other 
hand, will probably support).

Panicked by the "unity agreement" that endangered the continuation of divisions among the 
Palestinians, Israel started the war in the hope of forcing Hamas to find a different 
option. It will probably support such a solution and may even yield to some more 
"openness", as it wants the continuation of Hamas' independent rule in Gaza, giving the 
public the explanation that the alternative will be chaos or rule by the Jihadists.

Both Israel and the Egyptians do not want the agreement for Hamas' surrender to the 
Palestinian Authority to be resolved: Egypt, because it saves Hamas from total collapse 
and Israel, because it would diminish the ability of Hamas to split the Palestinians.

In a surrealistic way we can see the war not as one between Israel and Hamas but a war 
between Israel and Egypt. Egypt wants to destroy Hamas and Israel wants to restore its power.
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