Syriano, George Banna:
It has been said that the Palestinian issue has theoretically become the Arabs’ main concern, but in practice their main concern has produced nothing but negatives,They have all failed to find a solution to the problem like the solution we know in South Africa and in many newly formed countries around the world such as Nationalist China or the establishment of Yugoslavia and then the collapse of Yugoslavia, and other new countries in Europe and outside Europe.
Some Arabs differ from the Brotherhood regarding the Palestinian issue, The enlightened view the issue as a rejected settler colonialism, because it secures a homeland for some and deprives others of their homeland. The enlightened does not link religion to the issue of the occupation of Palestine. The occupation, even if it partially wears the cloak of religion, is not religious but colonial. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood sees the Palestinian issue as a kind of continuation of the religious conflict, which was born about 1440 years ago, and one of its results was the massacre of Banu Qurayza, then the issue of Khaybar and the issue of the necessity of emptying the peninsula of infidels, The issue, with this logic and in this form, is not solvable, as there are no solutions to problems wrapped in the guise of sanctities.
The logic of the Muslim Brotherhood’s liberation background is very different from the logic of the civil liberation background, which allows for solutions, while the sacred values do not allow for any solution, because every solution involves concessions, and the sacred values do not concede anything, The Brotherhood wanted to throw Israel into the sea, and Hamas’s slogan of eliminating Israel remains in place to this day, despite the local and global military situation, which only allows one to say that Hamas is afflicted with madness, The proof of Hamas’s madness was its undertaking of the latest adventure, which no one with an ounce of sense would undertake, In addition to all of this, we want to recall what Ambassador Gamal Bayoumi, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, said in a statement to Al-Nahar newspaper: “I was told by Palestinian friends whom I respect that Hamas is seeking to establish an Islamic emirate in Gaza, and that the Palestinian cause does not concern them at all. That they would abandon the Palestinian cause and make the goal of achieving the Brotherhood’s goal of establishing an emirate is a sad thing.”
Regardless of Hamas’s political-military madness, the Muslim Brotherhood has historically made no significant efforts for Palestine, Hassan al-Banna expressed this in 1948, promising to send ten thousand fighters for the purpose of liberation. However, his fighters did not liberate a single inch of Palestine because the Brotherhood had no real presence in this war, The group’s leader, Hassan al-Banna, admitted in his memoirs that the number of volunteers led by Ahmed Abdel Aziz did not exceed a few hundred. This prompted the Brotherhood, after their losses in this war, to abandon the war of liberation and turn to guerrilla warfare, They did not even engage in guerrilla warfare, but rather contented themselves with the slogans that emerged after the United Nations’ decision to divide Palestine into three parts on November 19, 1947, and after the withdrawal of British forces in 1948.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Hamas succeeded in distorting and weakening the Palestinian Authority, which had become the recognized representative of the Palestinians, by breaking away from the Palestinian consensus. This fragmented Palestinian unity, and division became the defining characteristic of the current phase. However, the Brotherhood-affiliated Hamas achieved a kind of Brotherhood autonomy outside the Palestinian Authority, The separation did not advance a peaceful, consensual solution; rather, it complicated the resolution of the issue, as Hamas’s solution became one of war, Hamas did not understand that it would not win any war against Israel. Every operation or military confrontation was accompanied by more suffering for the Palestinians, and all of Hamas’s wars were of the same nature as the Al-Aqsa War and its consequences. The Al-Aqsa War was predictable, as proceeding on the reckless path that Hamas took would lead to disasters and the complete destruction of Hamas, Israel is now forced to destroy Hamas and Gaza along with it, no matter the cost. No rational person doubts Israel’s military capability to do so.
As usual, Iran exploited the 2021 war, which lasted 11 days (Operation Jerusalem Sword), and the recent war (Operation Al-Aqsa Flood) to secure an ally, Hamas needed an ally, even if that ally was its religious and ideological enemy. Therefore, Hamas threw itself into the arms of the mullahs and Hezbollah. It did not use the funds provided to it by the European Union and others to improve the living conditions of Gazans, but only to enhance its military capabilities: weapons, tunnels, and so on! Thus, it developed the problem in a military direction, from which there is no positive hope, Development in the military direction led to wars and to falling into the merciless Israeli trap, It fell into the Israeli trap due to its shortsightedness. Here is Iran watching the suffering of Gaza, and here is Syria acting with neutrality, extreme caution, and surrender, and Hezbollah is skirmishing as usual to remind people that it is fighting and resisting. What did Hamas gain from this operation? And what did the Gazans gain from Hamas’s operation? Here it can be concluded that their lives in the medium and long term will be better without Hamas and without the Brotherhood’s Gaza Emirate. The only partial way out of the deadly predicament is to reintegrate Gaza with the West Bank so that the Palestinians can obtain some gains that enable them to live better. Throwing themselves into the Iranian lap and Nasrallah’s lap was suicide.
The practice of hypocrisy and exploitation is not limited to Iran, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood in general, Here, we want to recall, for example, the position of the Moroccan Muslim Brotherhood. Former Moroccan Prime Minister and Secretary-General of the Justice and Development Party, Saad Eddine El Othmani, offered thanks and congratulations to Hamas after its supposed victory in the war against Israel, while simultaneously normalizing relations with this entity and recognizing it five months before Hamas’s illusory victory. It can be said that the Muslim Brotherhood employs two discourses: one populist, speaking of jihad, struggle, and freedom, cloaked in values, and this discourse is often public and vocal; and another, more subtle, through which they exploit the Palestinian cause, far removed from the values these slogans publicly claim to uphold. This latter stance truly reflects their position on the Palestinian issue.