BOOK
REVIEW Compromising
ideologies Inside
Hamas by Zaki Chehab
Reviewed by Simon Martelli
The
astonishing electoral success of Hamas in
Palestine last year sent shock waves around the
Middle East, and silenced those commentators who
argued that political Islam was burning itself
out. For some, the rise of the militant Islamic
movement is a clear example of Washington's
attempt to promote democracy in the Muslim world
backfiring spectacularly. For others, the election
of Hamas was a deeply regrettable decision by the Palestinian
people, which justified
economic isolation to prevent a terrorist
organization from ruling.
Either way, it
was a turning point in Palestinian history. Time
will tell whether Hamas can maintain its support
at the level of mainstream politics and continue
on its path of defiance. Zaki Chehab has no
crystal ball. But with his book Inside Hamas:
The Untold Story of Militants, Martyrs and
Spies, the London-based Arab journalist has
given us a colorful first-hand account of a
movement, both despised and revered, that must yet
play a central role in any
resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. As Gaza
sinks further into a state of anarchy, this is a
well-informed contribution to a highly emotive and
pressingly topical issue.
Despite its
violent history, only a small fraction of the
Hamas budget has gone toward its military
operations, with the lion's share being allocated
to its social and welfare programs. These
programs, along with Hamas' clean-handed
administration and moral discipline, were inspired
by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, and have
characterized the political activities of its
Palestinian offshoot. At the parliamentary
elections in 2006, Hamas' clean image contrasted
sharply with the rival secular party Fatah's
history of bad governance, corruption and failed
negotiations with Israel. Fatah was left
completely shattered after 40 years in power.
After the movement's inception, which
coincided with the first Intifada and was loosely
tolerated, as the author points out, by the
Israelis then looking for a way to undermine the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hamas
developed its military wing, the Izzedin Al Qassam
brigades, "initially armed with nothing more
dangerous than plastic guns and knives". Chehab
charts the painful and violent years of the 1990s,
after the Oslo Accords, when many disillusioned
Palestinians volunteered themselves for suicide
missions, and touches on the important role Iran
and Syria played in supporting and sheltering the
movement.
The evidence that al-Qaeda is
extending its gruesome activities west of Jordan
makes for chilling reading, especially in light of
British Broadcasting Corp journalist Alan
Johnston's kidnapping in Gaza last month. Unlike
the international terrorist network however, Hamas
leaders have insisted they will always act in the
interests of their people and that their struggle
will never go beyond the borders of Israel and
Palestine.
As a journalist who has
reported extensively on Palestinian issues and
spoken to most of the key figures over the years,
Chehab's style is anecdotal and engaging, though
sometimes at the expense of analysis. He is at his
best when discussing the prominent personalities
that emerged within the movement, as they are
successively eradicated by booby-trapped mobile
phones or missiles fired from Israeli helicopter
gunships.
And their stories provide
insight into the nature of the movement. Sheikh
Ahmad Yassin, the crippled "father" and spiritual
leader of Hamas, whom the author interviewed many
times before Yassin's assassination in March 2004,
is portrayed as a man of charisma, inner strength
and deeply held religious conviction, but also as
a pragmatist.
Arrested in 1989 and
tortured to the point of collapse, Yassin remained
in prison until his release in 1997, which was
negotiated by the late King Hussein of Jordan in
exchange for two Mossad agents who had tried to
kill another Hamas leader, Khalid Mishal, in
Amman, the Jordanian capital.
From his
cell, where fellow prisoners competed to serve
him, Yassin urged Hamas members to participate in
the 1996 election for Palestinian self-rule. In
this way, Yassin set Hamas on the road to
political compromise, which he decided was
necessary so as not to "give our opponents a free
rein to negotiate our future as Palestinians".
Ismail Haniyeh, who was to become prime minister
10 years later, was one of those who participated,
despite being accused of treachery by other
factions in Hamas.
But Yassin and his
successors' strategic decisions were only ever
temporary measures, since their long-term goal has
never changed: to reclaim the whole of Palestine
as it had been before 1948, with Jerusalem as its
capital. In the words of one senior Hamas
official, speaking after the election, "You will
never find anyone in Hamas who will recognize
Israel's right to exist. If you do, he is a liar."
In itself, however, and as some observers
have pointed out, this does not entirely preclude
the possibility of an agreement with Israel now
that Hamas is in power. After all, the hardline
Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein signed up to a
peace agreement with the British and Irish
governments in 1998 that eventually paved the way
for a power-sharing assembly, despite decades of
violent opposition to British rule.
Contrary to the claims of those who saw
the Hamas election victory as dashing any hope of
peace, new opportunities for a long-term interim
agreement could yet emerge, say the optimists,
with the moribund peace initiatives of the past
being replaced by bolder and fairer solutions for
the Palestinians. The prospects are hardly
encouraging.
The decision by Israel, the
United States and Europe to cut off the Hamas
government's operating funds and block its
free-trade channels abroad has seen Palestinian
living standards rapidly deteriorate, sparking
vicious internecine fighting between Hamas and
Fatah and severely undermining the security
situation in Gaza. This was only mitigated by
Saudi Arabia's concerted efforts to broker a
fragile peace agreement between the two factions
in Mecca in February.
The formation of a
national-unity government led by Haniyeh and
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arose in the
wake of the Mecca meeting, and there remains hope
that they can maintain a united front that enables
them to do business with Israel.
Hamas is
not a hostage to its ideology. But in the absence
of any significant concessions from Israel, the
movement will never discard its core ideological
position and make the transition to parliamentary
politics. It will not just be the Palestinians who
pay the price for Hamas' failure to do so.
Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of
Militants, Martyrs and Spies by Zaki Chehab. I
B Tauris & Co Ltd, March 2007. ISBN-10:
1845113896. Price US$34, 240 pages (hardcover).
Simon Martelli is a British
freelance journalist specializing in Middle
Eastern affairs.
(Copyright 2007 Asia
Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
central role in any
resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. As Gaza
sinks further into a state of anarchy, this is a
well-informed contribution to a highly emotive and
pressingly topical issue. 
