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Observation mine:
All of the Islamic Small Wars plus most anti-Semitism have at their core the issue of integrity. For many, the emotional and survival value — the value of patronage; the value of not being arrested, tortured, or murdered — of a “loyal lie” trumps the powers of an “uncomfortable truth”. That’s the way it work, and how the greater part of the modern world is going to change that, I don’t know.
As the latest “ceasefire” sets in and news of the latest rounds of Hamas execution of “collaborators” — some whose cell phones had Israeli SIM cards — zip around the web, it would seem well to note who has been “played” most by Hamas in the planning, run-up, and experience of the latest encounter with Israel’s society and its defense forces.
I have often suggested the presence of a “hidden political topology” in Gaza cloaked (and suffocated) by Hamas, which has been known to arrest, torture, and murder dissidents in its midst. Recently, a few again braved arrest to speak their minds.
Palestinian Arab sources said Tuesday that Gaza residents attacked Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri Saturday evening, near the Shifa Hospital.
Abu Zuhri had arrived at the hospital for an interview with a news outlet.
The residents blamed Hamas for the death of family members and for destruction of their homes. Armed Hamas terrorists from the Izzedine al-Kassam Brigades extricated Abu Zuri and arrested the angry residents.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183741 – 8/5/2014.
In Gaza, and for Gazans, the revolution that would be a miracle — the true resistance — never comes: the thugs have the guns, so it seems, and run short on conscience and empathy.
Hamas really does shield its fighting with innocents.
Related
http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/04/20/gaza-hamas-should-end-killings-torture – 4/20/2009
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/03/gaza-arbitrary-arrests-torture-unfair-trials – 10/3/2012.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/21/world/la-fg-hamas-gaza-egypt-20130822 – 8/21/2013.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/thane-rosenbaum-civilian-casualties-in-gaza-1405970362 -7/21/2014.
(6/24/2014)
Once again, Hamas used those sheltering at an UNRWA school as human shields. UNRWA official Richard Engel confirmed the fact in a tweet.
“those killed and injured were apparently around the gate of the UN school…not a direct hit inside the school compound.”
Nevertheless, the photo op of people carrying bloodied bodies of children and women, injured and dying, weeping next to an UNRWA school, far outweighed any cold facts that might have been stated later on.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/obama-betrays-israel-at-un-over-unrwa/2014/08/04/ – 8/4/2014
Today, Abu Marzouk is one of the major billionaires in Hamas. “Arab estimates peg his fortune at 2-3 billion dollars,” Elad says. Another senior-official-turned-terror-tycoon is Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas’s political wing. “Global estimates say Mashaal is worth $2.6 billion,” but Arab commentators, with other sources, say he is worth between 2 and 5 billion, “invested in Egyptian banks and Gulf countries, some in real estate projects.”
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/28/gazas-millionaires-and-billionaires-how-hamass-leaders-got-rich-quick/ – 7/28/2014.
Related to the above:
How Setad came into those assets also mirrors how the deposed monarchy obtained much of its fortune – by confiscating real estate. A six-month Reuters investigation has found that Setad built its empire on the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians: members of religious minorities like Vahdat-e-Hagh, who is Baha’i, as well as Shi’ite Muslims, business people and Iranians living abroad.
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/#article/part1 – 11/11/32013 “Setad” is Ayatollah Khamenei’s “business” vehicle.
The Egyptian street has become inflamed with anger directed against Hamas over the last three years, partly due to what appears to be its financial gains at the expense of the Egyptian people. The tunnels in Rafah, the town straddling the Gaza-Egypt border, for example, saw a flourishing fuel-smuggling industry from Sinai. The fuel subsidized by the Egyptian government was entering Gaza at a low price, but being sold for eight times that. Those who made the greatest profits from the sale of the fuel were Hamas members, even as Egypt often reported shortages for its own people.
Hamas, says Professor Ahmed Karima of Al-Azhar University in Egypt, has long become a movement of millionaires. According to Karima, the organization can count no less than 1,200 millionaires among its members. He did not, however, specify the source of this information.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4543634,00.html – 7/15/2014.
Related
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-the-phenomenal-wealth-of-hamas-leaders-1000957953 – 7/24/2014. Includes video: “Meet the Hamas billionaires”.
Addendum
(8/2/2014)
Hamas turned out thieves, first leaning on and stealing from their own for themselves, and on top of that for what — the destruction of an authentic ethnic global commune with its heart in Jerusalem and its body in the Land of Israel? Perhaps Gazans themselves will call out Hamas for what Hamas has done to them.
I know I should tie off this post, but the idea that people haven’t gotten the whole truth about Gaza — and Gazan’s have not gotten a whole truth either — has been developing for some time. Without further ado:
(7/29/2014)
Additional Reference
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/poll-israel-justified-hamas-gaza-palestine-109717.html – 8/5/2014.
http://www.businessinsider.com/proxy-conflicts-in-gaza-2014-8 – 8/1/2014.
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