Courcy’s Intelligence Brief
Hamas seeking to capitalize on Muslim Brotherhood advances
The congress held last week, from 12-14 July, by Tunisia’s new ruling party, the Islamist Ennhada Movement, deserved more attention than it received, not least because of the comments made to the congress by the head of the Palestinian Hamas movement’s political bureau, Khaled Meshal.
During his visit to Tunisia, Meshal called for an Arab-Islamic programme for liberating Palestine. He said: “We must engineer a new Arab-Islamic strategy to liberate Palestine and we must, once and for all, turn the page on negotiations and concessions.”
Meshal added: “Resistance will continue to be out strategic path. This is what forces enemies out. We have not taken Gaza without force. Southern Lebanon was not liberated without force. Egypt too recovered the Sinai not through negotiations but after the 1973 war...Force is what grants you respect.”
Meshal’s view is that the post-Arab Spring rise of the Muslim Brotherhood provides the Palestinians with an unprecedented opportunity. The Muslim Brotherhood now holds power in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt, and it participates in government in Algeria, Sudan, Somalia, and Iraq, as well as providing the major opposition parties in Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, and Yemen. In Libya, the MB-affiliated Justice and Construction Party won a disappointing 17 of the 80 seats reserved for political parties but it is thought to have the allegiance of a significant proportion of the 120 seats reserved for independent members.
Meanwhile, during a visit to Cairo on 13 July, the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, said that he was confident that Egypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood president, Muhammad Mursi, would shield Gaza from an Israeli attack and fully open the border with Egypt. Speaking at a mosque in Cairo, Haniyeh said: “We are confident that Egypt, the revolution led by Mursi, will never provide cover for any new aggression or war on Gaza. We are [also] confident that Egypt, the revolution led by Mursi, will not take any part in blocking Gaza.”