Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

The ‘American’ Brotherhood | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Talk of a Palestinian state has become meaningless today, and it’s all thanks to Hamas. The discussion presently revolves around a crossing – as opposed to a state. Moreover, the battle today is the battle of the Rafah crossing since it has become apparent that the Egyptians are headed in the direction of losing confidence in Hamas, and moving towards the necessity of handing back the crossing to the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the authority of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas, in turn, is fighting to participate in the running of the border without having to pay the owed price – which is to rectify the coup in Gaza.

It has become impossible to talk about the dream of a Palestinian state so long as the Palestinian issue remains stifled at the Rafah crossing, but is this strange? Of course not! From the start, the Hamas ‘brotherhood’ showed no interest in the concept of the state inasmuch as it was keen about the concept of the Ummah. This means that it views the fall of Arab regimes as something that should not be lamented – provided that the goal is to attain a united Islamic state.

This is notwithstanding the fact that anyone questioning or responding to Hamas or addressing its brotherhood cloak is immediately accused of working for the US. This is the fundamental strategy employed by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which is to eliminate all Arab states so that the Ummah may emerge.

And yet, the ones who have benefited the most in the last few years from America’s presence in our Arab region have been Hamas and the MB. Their electoral achievements in Palestine and Egypt came while riding on the shoulders of Condoleezza Rice – who admitted a few days ago in Davos that there had been mistakes, by which she meant the democratic process in the region.

Prior to the Palestinian elections that brought Hamas to power and under intense US pressure to run Palestinian elections, US President George W. Bush looked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the eye during their meeting in the Oval Office and said, if you elect someone from Hamas to be in charge of the Gaza municipality, don’t you think that he will clean up the city and abandon military operations to become more concerned with people’s interests? And with that, Abu Mazen’s hands were tied because Washington did not know Hamas well.

After Hamas reached power through elections and pressure from George Bush, it declared its rejection of the Oslo Accords and the conventions signed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) – in fact, Hamas took arms up against Abu Mazen after the Mecca agreement and yet today, anyone who opposes it is dubbed an American!

The same applies to the ‘mother’ party, The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood which recently attacked the US president during his last visit to Sharm al Sheikh and hinted that they were displeased with the manner by which the Gulf countries had greeted their guest, forgetting that had it not been for the immense US pressure they would not have had such a strong presence in the Egyptian parliament. Moreover, Mr. Nabil Shaath would not have demanded the counsel of the MB in Egypt to resolve the Rafah crossing issue with Hamas if it had not been for that pressure.

The worst thing is that the disciples of Hamas and the MB are lecturing us today on the concept of creative chaos, which was [indirectly] proposed by Condoleezza Rice and through which they have emerged as the biggest stars, leaders and the outcome itself [i.e. the creation]. They are the ones who climbed on the shoulders of the Americans and were empowered by Washington, not their own states, to reach the centers of power they have obtained.

These parties are also the ones that tell us that from a historical standpoint, Gaza is closer to Egypt, which also means that Jordan is closer to West Bank and therefore… there is no Palestinian state.

Indeed, the Arab adage is fitting, “he passed on the disease and fled”.

We have now entered the stage of the ‘American’ Brotherhood.