The glaring farce today is that forces from the Hamas movement are the ones presently guarding the Israel-Gaza border, while al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade and Fatah are the ones bombarding Israeli towns with missiles. As for Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the state of Gaza – or rather, the head of the coup – he gave a speech last Friday in which he stated that there is a local, Arab and international conspiracy that aims to undermine Hamas so as to ensure the failure of the Islamic model of governance.
It may be useful for the world to review this alleged Islamic model of governance, which is responsible for making the whole world fearful. It is a model that cannot even provide electricity except through diesel that is delivered via Israel and is financed as a donation from the European Union (EU).
The Hamas model is incapable of generating electrical power when electricity has been successfully harnessed over 140 years ago. It is a model that cannot fight nor liberate or make peace, and neither can it even secure the most basic level of a decent simple life for the people. All what the Hamas leadership was competent enough to achieve was to blame the Palestinian Authority, notwithstanding the fact that it was originally the one to turn against it and oust it from Gaza. Now it wants the Palestinian Authority to pay for the electricity, natural gas and the salaries of the local workers on its behalf. How is that a model that could pose a threat to regional governments? The truth is that it has nothing to do with history or religion; it only serves to represent those in its leadership.
Hamas officials attribute the decline in their popularity among the Palestinian people to the economic embargo; the power cuts in electricity and the obstruction of paths with the outside world, in addition to a deprivation of international financial aid. This begs the question as to whether the Palestinians genuinely believe in Hamas – for is it rational to think that they would assess the movement in terms of money and electricity?
Throughout history, all the nationalist movements led people who were suffering from hunger, and the people paid the price with their blood – not with 10 hours of electricity and a trip across the Egyptian border.
The truth is that the residents of Gaza, who had become fed up with the corruption of Fatah, crowned Hamas in its place only to discover that the latter was no better than the former in theory or in practice. Hamas’s security forces practice oppression; raiding houses, ruining weddings and penalizing anyone they hear lamenting the bygone Fatah era.
Meanwhile, those who supported Hamas with the intention of combating Israel discovered that it is an impotent organization that has not executed a single operation in over two years. Instead, it has become the cause of misery, suffering and conflict, and has resulted in the severance of family ties.
If the Hamas model of governance is capable of instilling fear in governments worldwide; it is blatantly obvious that it does not scare Israel, which lives contentedly and calmly since Hamas rose to power – as opposed to the situation two years ago during the days of ambushed cars and female suicide bombers. Moreover, Hamas has served Israel’s best interests in a manner the occupation’s military leaders have failed to achieve over the span of 50 years when it opened fire on Fatah forces, executing them in the streets, hurling some of them off the tops of tall buildings and besieging their families.
Hamas has only succeeded in eliminating 1.5 million Palestinians, the population of Gaza, from the Palestinian Authority’s citizens’ list.
Undoubtedly, this is a model capable of terrifying Arab governments, as well as Palestinians locally, since it is the clearest evidence of the death of taboos forever.