Hamas 4.0: the Upgrade

The Bogeyman

The Bogeyman is faceless, nameless, and evil. hiding in the dark.

That’s also Hamas, according to what used to be called the “mainstream” media but is now increasingly and more accurately referred to as the “legacy” media.”  Their legacy? Tales for children. YOU.

No one ever asks who the Bogeyman is. No one asks who Hamas is either. They are just dark malignancies.

In fact, Hamas is the Bogeyman. It is hiding under your bed—in tunnels, which take you to the rubble of a city where children die. Clutch your teddy bear and cry. It is all darkness and death.

Governments use the media to teach you to fear, the better to control you. Whatever you do—don’t look into the shadows, they tell you. Just do as you are told. You look anyway—children can’t help it — but you can’t see anything. And you are afraid.

Who is Hamas?

Who is Hamas?  

Then again, who the fuck are you? That is a question you're not supposed to ask yourself, along with many others. Just remember what you have been taught.

The Bogeyman is the Bogeyman. Hamas is Hamas. You have a name too—the same name as hundreds if not thousands of other people. So you need a Social Security Number and a phone number.

If you really want to know the "Who"—you must learn the What and the Why and the How and the Where.

Then you will maybe know who you are—and maybe who Hamas is.

Now, why don't you and Teddy look under the bed again?

The Origin Story: Hamas 1.0

Shine a light underneath there and you'll find lots of old stuff—books and articles and photos.... They tell a story.

Hamas is the expression of a community. A people bombed and shot and forced to flee, taking refuge in places like Gaza. That was the Nakba. And it did not end in 1948.

Although the Six Day War has been billed in the Western media as a preemptive strike against Syria, Jordan and Egypt who were massing to invade poor little Israel, it was nothing of the kind.  It was a sneak attack by Israel on unprepared enemies, which allowed the Zionists to take the Sinai, Gaza, the Golan Heights and the West Bank—a continuation of the Nakba.

This whole story about the threat of extermination was totally contrived, and then elaborated upon, a posteriori, to justify the annexation of new Arab territories….  Mordechai Bentov 1971.

It’s taken 50 years for these facts to get a public airing in the West—to reveal what Palestinians already knew—that Israel’s “occupation” was really annexation aiming at eventual ethnocide.

The Six-Day War led to the Yom Kippur war of 1973, which proved that the Arabs could fight—and that the Israelis could lose: and it was the US that won that war for the Israelis in the end.

Win one, lose one….

Arab unity at the time cost the US and the UK, and other Western countries economically. The temporary demonstration of power led to political changes—the formation of Likud, an alliance of right-wing Zionist parties—and recognition of the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people by the Arab states—although not by Israel or the West.

Eventually, the Yom Kippur War led to the Camp David Accords, a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel signed by Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, and the “two-state” solution.

Which was never a solution, since the only two states that mattered—were the US and Israel. 

With the Camp David Accords and the good offices of Jimmy Carter and later Reagan, Egypt got back the Sinai.  That clearly influenced the PLO to think that with American help, they could work out a compromise solution for Palestine—get something at least!

Just click your heels and wish yourself to Oz'.  

Sadat was soon assassinated by Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which led to his bagman and a temporary CIA favorite Hosni Mubarak taking over.

This was also when Hamas got its start.

Palestinian imam and activist quadriplegic. Ahmed Yassin Hamas set up in Gaza as the Mujama al-Islamiya charity in Gaza in 1973 by to promote Islamic values by means of community development and civic restoration – initially healthcare, education, and social order. Guns and bombs came later along with the name “Hamas” —short for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement). Yassin was not a pacifist.

Mujama? Hamas? What’s in a name?

Mujama al-Islamiya had drawn support from the diverse West Asian Sunni community – including the Qataris and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas did too.

Journalists, who like writing, but don't much like reading, don't worry about silly things like foreign names, just epithets like “terrorist” which is what the Muslim Brotherhood was supposed to be.

They didn’t care to look at the basic human needs that Mujama and the circumstances that gave rise to its militancy as Hamas—the desire for freedom.

It hadn't taken Mujama long to evolve. In 1984, the Israelis found weapons hidden in a mosque and jailed Yassin and others. Yassin was released in 1985 as part of the Jibril Agreement.

This was how Hamas 1.0 came to be.

So…Hamas was young once—but it has gotten older.  It’s had its infancy, its childhood, its adolescence. 

The times are a-changin’?

Hamas still provides social services—healthcare and schools and the like—on which the people of Gaza rely—making it both populist and popular. It still Islamicist.

After the Six-Day and the Yom Kippur wars, it quickly became clear that Palestine remained de facto a semitic Bantustan.

In 1980, Israel had declared Jerusalem its capital—”complete and united”—effectively annexing East Jerusalem. The message was clearly "fuck you', UN". And they began expanding settlements in the occupied territories, contrary to both UN resolutions and international law—a kind of creeping annexation.

Despite what Bob Dylan sang back in the 60s—the times weren’t a-changin’—not for Palestine anyway.

That was the realization that drove radicalization in Palestine. It had spurred the evolution of Hamas from charity to political agent—and created other resistance groups as well.   

Hamas’ 1988 charter was very much in line with the Sunni fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood doctrine—and therefore hugely popular with the Western media.

The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.’ (Article 6)

Most importantly, Hamas identified Zionism with Judaism.

Zionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates River.  When they have finished digesting the area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’.’ (Article 32)

HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism... Islamic groups all over the Arab world should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jew.

Hamas was therefore labeled anti-Semitic—or rather, anti-Jewish—since Palestinians are Semitic people—more so than most European Jews who are far removed genetically from their ancestors. The Israelis prefer that no one realize that Arabs are Semites.

From 1983 to 1993, Yasser Arafat was in Tunisia. Realizing that the PLO could not win militarily against either Israel or the US-==-and certainly not against both together—he focused on diplomacy.

In 1988, he acknowledged Israel's right to exist, just as Hamas announced its charter. He offered a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, hoping this would find favor with the Americans, and amend the image of the PLO as an organization of violent, bloodstained extremists.

He did everything but shave.

This change in tactics forced the Israelis to tolerate the Muslim brotherhood and Qatari support for Hamas—seeing Sunni fundamentalism as a counter to the secularism of Arafat’s PLO, with its extensive support in the Arab world. The Zionists needed to look moderate in the eyes of the Americans—or at least for the American media—lest somebody notice they were on the same political spectrum is Nazis and racists. Yes, politics is a spectrum disorder.

So Hamas, which just gotten a name in 1987, ended up a chained dog fed with scraps by the neighbors. It would snarl and bark and be beaten bloody. But somehow kept alive.

Israel's attitude to Hamas as always been ambivalent.

You're probably wondering what happened to Hamas's spiritual leader, Yassin?

In 1989, Yassin was again arrested by Israel and this time sentenced to life imprisonment on murder charges. In 1997, the imam was released from Israeli prison in exchange for two Murder…er …Mossad agents. The Israelis attempted to assassinate him in 2003, then succeeded in 2004 with a missile attack using an American-made Apache helicopter, killing Yassin and two others.

Lesson: terrorism is not terrorism if you have an Air Force

Getting political: Hamas 2.0

In the 70s, Palestinians had had lots of kids. Happens after wars.

By 1987, those kids were old enough to throw stones—which led to the first Palestinian intifada.

Israeli overreaction to these kids hurt them in the American media with images of Israeli soldiers brutalizing children. 1200 Palestinians died.

The large number of Palestinian casualties provoked international condemnation. In subsequent resolutions, including 607 and 608, the Security Council demanded Israel cease deportations of Palestinians. In November 1988, Israel was condemned by a large majority of the UN General Assembly for its actions against the intifada. The resolution was repeated in the following years.

Arafat was likely fully aware that Israel would not obey new UN resolutions any more than it would comply with previous resolutions to return to its pre-1967 borders. Not unless the Americans demanded it—and were prepared to go beyond the usual rhetoric to enforce those demands—which they were not going to do.

How nice it would be if words were deeds! As Gideon Levy has recently said, the US could’ve ended the occupation at any time and still can. 

 The US could have brought the Israeli occupation to an end within months. If the United States would have used Israel's dependence on America to push Israel out of the occupied territories, Israel would have no choice but to obey. But the US had no intention to do so and I don't see any intention right now.  Gideon Levy

In the 1990s there was a flood of Jewish immigrants expected from Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.   

The Israelis—wanted a Greater Israel—room for new Jewish citizens. Israeli settlements expanded rapidly. Lebensraum? Or Manifest Destiny? Maybe both.

Arafat was a realist and knew the best he could hope for in the short term from the West was recognition of the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in some kind of compromise which allowed the creation of a Palestinian state with a degree of autonomy.

At this point, AIPAC was growing more and more influential in US politics and the Zionists wanted even fuller control of the US government and public opinion—which in fact they would get with time. They needed good PR. They had to appear negotiation capable.

Arafat’s initial attempt to engage Jimmy Carter was a smart move and carried over into the Reagan administration. The Zionist response was equally smart.

The violence of the Intifada continued until at least 1993 when the first Oslo Accord was signed, and Arafat returned to Palestine—ironically to Gaza at first

Israel recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. In return, the PLO recognized Israel. Quid pro quo. The “two state” solution.

 A second Oslo accord was signed in 1995. 

Then, in 1995 Yitzak Rabin was assassinated, and Israel moved to the Right.  Israelis didn't so much as renege on their agreements as just ignore them.

As you can see… Palestine remained Bantustan Redux. 

Bantustan Redux

When the Camp David Summit 2000 failed to deliver and the times clearly weren't a-changin’, no matter how many times the song was sung, violence broke out again.

The result was the Second Intifada, which was much more violent than the first.

The first intifada had been spontaneous. This second one appears to have been instigated by the PLO itself.

The Palestinians moved beyond children throwing stones. There were shootings, suicide bombings, and rocket fire.

The Israelis responded viciously. They didn't just break kids’ arms and legs with sticks this time.  4300 Palestinians died – and about a thousand Israelis.

Israel was not happy with the PLO. 

But it had that dog. The snarly one. Of course, they had to beat it again—which they did by murdering Yassin, just to show who was master.

Once upon a time, the Israelis had tried Village Leagues—institutionalized “native authorities” under colonialist control, as in apartheid South African Bantustans. That hadn't worked. So it was back to simple “divide and conquer”. As long as they could keep the Palestinians factionalized, they could keep them weak.

Israel is believed to have poisoned Arafat in 2004, and whether or not this is true, it ensured the accession of the malleable Mahmoud Abba to run Fatah—the PLO—and the Palestinian Authority, which only had “authority” to do what the Israelis told it to do. 

Abbas and Sharon and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan attended the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit—which ended the Second Intifada.

The Palestinian Authority then scheduled an election for 2006 in which Hamas was running as the most moderate of the many radical resistance groups—window dressing— to give the appearance of democratic process and further legitimize Israel in the eyes of the American public. “See we are democratic!” Another one of those American things. Come to think of it, maybe Manifest Destiny is more appropriate than Lebensraum.

With their neutered lapdog Mahmoud Abbas in place, the Israelis and the Americans were confident that Hamas could not win—although they took various steps to make sure the dog did not escape its chains. 

One of the steps was the Israeli removal of their settlements from Gaza in 2005.

They (Hamas) want to change the essence of the conflict from an Algerian paradigm to a South African one. From a struggle against 'occupation,' in their parlance, to a struggle for one-man-one-vote. That is, of course, a much cleaner struggle, a much more popular struggle – and ultimately a much more powerful one. For us, it would mean the end of the Jewish state. Ehud Olmert,

The Americans know how to buy elections—they gave millions to the PLO to campaign.  The Israelis threw Hamas supporters in prison and tried to keep the group from campaigning.

Democracy American-style: money and dirty tricks. Oh how 2024!

Hamas 3.0 Hamas: elected to run the Palestinian Authority

But Hamas won.  That surprised the Americans—unpleasantly —it was distinctly un-American and not following the script! 

Olmert had been right about the power of one man/one vote!

But this was the point at which Hamas became Hamas 3.0.

The US should never have allowed elections if it didn't have control over who was going to win!  (Hillary Clinton)

The US and Israel did as the Democratic Party did in 2016—they refused to recognize the results. Accordingly, the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, never got to form a new PA government led by Hamas.

After the election in January 2006, there was a brief spat of fighting between Hamas and Fatah—with the West Bank controlled by the PLO/Fatah and Gaza controlled by Hamas—both really at the mercy of Israel. The PLO was the house-trained —the inside dog; Hamas was the outside dog and shit all over the place.

Then, in May 2006, five prisoners in Israeli jails representing five Palestinian factions—Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)—released what is now known as the Prisoners Document.  It called for an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967, the Palestinian right of return, adherence to the UN Charter and international and reform of the PLO to represent the different communities and factions of Palestine, and election of a new Palestinian council. This is what Israel feared most—unity among the Palestinian factions and coherent and rational demands.

Negotiations have been ongoing since that time between the PLO and Hamas, with help from outside parties, including Syria, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE. Obviously, there has been little progress, thanks to the soft pedaling of the PLO.

With the compliant Mahmoud Abbas in place, settlements that Israel had removed from Gaza were replaced by new settlements on the West Bank, dispossessing the local people.

Israel continued its incremental, gradualist colonization. Fatah got more corrupt. Gaza suffered. Hamas was forced to adapt.

Hamas was heavily dependent on support from others. First, from the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt and Qatar. Also, from Syria. But as a Sunni Islamicist organization, it at first at least did not get much support from Iran and only marginally from Hezbollah—although it had been careful to withdraw from Syria once its Muslim brotherhood sponsors began to actively promote radical Islamists fighting the Syrian government. That position was to pay off later with indirect support from both Iran and Hezbollah. And, of course, from Syria

Hamas holds internal elections every four years.   The PLO is supposed to—but hasn't, undermining local support. 

Hamas’ elections mandate change within the organization and increase representation. 

2017 and new Hamas 4.0

2017 elections brought in Yahya Sinwar to replace Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza.   Haniyah became chairman of Hamas's political bureau in Qatar.

Sinwar joined Hamas in 1987, an acolyte of Sheik Yassin. His life has always been the Liberation of Palestine. He is a “hardman” who was responsible for rooting out and executing Palestinian collaborators. He spent 22 years in Israeli prisons, a lot of the time in solitary. He is both loved and feared. He will do whatever it takes.

So, Sinwar sought reconciliation with Syria, Hezbollah, Iran and Fatah—and promulgated a new Hamas charter, which charted—“chartered”— a new direction.

Israel was not happy about him and try to assassinate him in 2021.  They did not succeed: it was Sinwar who organized and planned the October 7 attack, with weapons and training from Iran.

Assassination of political figures is another thing the Israelis borrowed from the Americans! But they are better at it.

Sinwar in the rubble of his home

The previous charter had been very much a fundamentalist statement. This new one opened the way to cooperation with just about everyone in West Asia, including Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthis—not to mention the people of the West Bank—and possibly even right-thinking people in the Jewish community and Israel. The new charter positions Hamas as the spokesperson for all factions and Palestinians everywhere. Hamas has the support of almost all Palestinians—77%.

29. The PLO is a national framework for the Palestinian people inside and outside of Palestine.  It should therefore be preserved, developed and rebuilt on democratic foundations so as to secure the participation of all the constituents and forces of the Palestinian people, in a manner that safeguards Palestinian rights.

What this tells you is that Hamas intends to solve its problems with the PLO by taking over and taking its name: PLO/Fatah will become PLO/Hamas.

In October of 2022, Fatah and Hama and 12 other Palestinian factions had signed an agreement including provisions for presidential and parliamentary elections within a year.  Obviously, that didn’t happen.  

The October 7 attack — carefully prepared for at least a year— pre-empted that.  When those elections do occur, we know who will win.

The charter of Hamas 4.0

Most Palestinians are Muslims—but not all: it is multiethnic, multi-confessional community. And the new charter guarantees its character.

Still, while upholding the centuries old multicultural and multiethnic character of Palestine and defending the rights and freedoms of all religions, this document insists on the rights of Palestinian Muslims and the sanctity of their holy places, specifically the Al Aqsa Mosque’

6. The Palestinian people are one people, made up of all Palestinians, inside and outside of Palestine, irrespective of their religion, culture or political affiliation.

The difference between Hamas 3.0 and 4.0 is easy to see.

In 2009, a woman could be arrested for not wearing a hijab.  In 2021 when a policeman tried to arrest a female journalist for not wearing a hijab, he ended up in jail.

Hamas apologized to Palestinian journalist Riwa Murshid on Friday, after she was attacked by a member of the Islamist terror group’s security services, allegedly because she was not wearing a hijab.

For Palestinians, Israel's attempts to deprive them of access to the Al-Aqsa mosque is religious intolerance.

7. Palestine is at the heart of the Arab and Islamic Ummah and enjoys a special status. Within Palestine there exists Jerusalem, whose precincts are blessed by Allah. Palestine is the Holy Land, which Allah has blessed for humanity. It is the Muslims’ first Qiblah and the destination of the journey performed at night by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. It is the location from where he ascended to the upper heavens. It is the birthplace of Jesus Christ; peace be upon him. Its soil contains the remains of thousands of prophets, companions and mujahidin. It is the land of people who are determined to defend the truth – within Jerusalem and its surroundings – who are not deterred or intimidated by those who oppose them and by those who betray them, and they will continue their mission until the Promise of Allah is fulfilled.

You will notice that the charter makes reference to Islamic reverence for Jesus Christ and therefore tolerance of Christians—in contrast to the opinions of right wing Zionists.

11. The blessed al-Aqsa Mosque belongs exclusively to our people and our Ummah.

1 2. The Palestinian cause in its essence is a cause of an occupied land and a displaced people. The right of the Palestinian refugees and the displaced to return to their homes from which they were banished or were banned from returning to – whether in the lands occupied in 1948 or in 1967 (that is the whole of Palestine), is a natural right, both individual and collective. This right is confirmed by all divine laws as well as by the basic principles of human rights and international law. It is an inalienable right and cannot be dispensed with by any party, whether Palestinian, Arab or international.

 No. Israel you can’t tear down the mosque and rebuild the temple as a kind of Zionist theme park.

The new charter explicitly condemns hatred of Jews. 

16. Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.

In fact, this is the ancient Qur’anic tradition of religious tolerance, usually forgotten in Islamic sectarian strife—but now remembered. 

 O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise (each other). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. . (Quran 49:13)

Hamas recognizes that Israel is the vehicle for Western colonialism, neocolonialism and neoliberalism.

In stark contrast to the brutal treatment of Palestinian women and children held captive in Israeli prisons, Hamas treated its Israeli hostages taken on October 7 with kindness, solicitude and respect.  Makes you wonder about all those (undocumented) Israeli reports of Hamas taking the time during their attack under fire to behead babies and mutilate, rape, and eventually kill women.

17. Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish problem, anti-Semitism and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage. The Zionist movement, which was able with the help of Western powers to occupy Palestine, is the most dangerous form of settlement occupation which has already disappeared from much of the world and must disappear from Palestine.

Hamas insists on justice.  Simple, rational justice.

13. Hamas rejects all attempts to erase the rights of the refugees, including the attempts to settle them outside Palestine and through the projects of the alternative homeland.

Compensation to the Palestinian refugees for the harm they have suffered as a consequence of banishing them and occupying their land is an absolute right that goes hand in hand with their right to return. They are to receive compensation upon their return and this does not negate or diminish their right to return.

It rejects the two-state solution—which in fact, many Israelis also reject.  Gideon Levy is not alone in Israel in wanting a single democratic, multi-confessional, multiethnic state—one man/one vote. Netanyahu and his right-wing friends have always wanted a single state too—one Jew/one vote.

19. There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Whatever has befallen the land of Palestine in terms of occupation, settlement building, Judaization or changes to its features or falsification of facts is illegitimate. Rights never lapse.

The charter is in many respects progressive, celebrates diversity – and is maybe even a little woke.

33. Palestinian society is enriched by its prominent personalities, figures, dignitaries, civil society institutions, and youth, students, trade unionist and women’s groups who together work for the achievement of national goals and societal building, pursue resistance, and achieve liberation.

34. The role of Palestinian women is fundamental in the process of building the present and the future, just as it has always been in the process of making Palestinian history. It is a pivotal role in the project of resistance, liberation and building the political. 

What happens next?

Obviously, Hamas 4.0 is now inclusive.

Its new charter positions itself to represent the diversity of competing sectarian interests that characterizes the Palestinian people- both secular and Islamicist, Christian —and most important of all Jewish—for what are even Askenazi Jews in Israel but Palestinians after close to a century?

Yahya Sinwar spent 22 years in Israeli prisons serving four life sentences for murder. He speaks fluent Hebrew. He knows Israel now in a way which few Palestinians can. He understands how Israelis think. When he planned the October 7 attack, he was thinking ahead, aware of the consequences but willing to take risks.

Betty Lahat, a former warden of Hasharon Prison and head of the Israel Prison Service’s Intelligence Department, told the Maariv newspaper that Sinwar used his time in jail to learn as much as he could about Israelis.

“He’s a very intelligent person who invested in his intellectual development and in an in-depth understanding of Israeli society,” she said.  The Times of Israel.

He also knows how Palestinians think—and that he must maintain a delicate balance using violence strategically, not only to make sure the Israelis learn that their extremism will be answered by Palestinian extremism but to keep the more radical Islamic Palestinian factions in line.

On November 30, for example, there was a bus stop shooting in East Jerusalem carried out by two gunmen who the media said were members of the Qassam brigades, which is unlikely, given the Nimr brothers’ atypical weaponry (M16 and pistol) and apparent lack of experience and training. They were locals incensed by Israeli killings in Gaza.

More likely they were designated "affiliates" after the fact.

Four Israelis died. Three were killed by the gunman. The fourth was killed by the trigger-happy IDF with his hands up, begging for his life. This is becoming a familiar pattern – Israelis killing Israelis.

Hamas took responsibility, which as the leader of the Palestinian resistance, it had to, saying the attack was “a direct response to the unprecedented crimes committed by the occupying forces, including brutal massacres in the Gaza Strip, the killing of children and widespread violations against Palestinian prisoners.”

Which of course is quite true. On November 28 and 29, the IDF killed a 7-year-old child and a number of teenagers in the West bank. There are reports of many other apparently gratuitous murders. What does round—comes ‘round.

Jenin “terrorists”. May they rest in peace

The multipolar world

In the multipolar world being created by Russia and China, the monopolar, anachronistic hegemonism of the American Empire and its EU and Israeli Trojan horses can only inhibit growth and development—leading to economic decline and collapse.   

Whatever the ideological order economic underpinnings, the reality is that the future of West Asia is a different, multipolar civilizational order. In West Asia, Israel can no longer play its assigned role as an American colonialist proxy. It must become part of a unified Palestinian state, such as the Hamas charter envisions.

Israel will not agree to such changes but will be forced to because it is collapsing financially.

The cost of the Israeli war on Hamas is estimated to be $53 billion by 2025. But this is a conservative estimate. Barron’s previously estimated $400 billion over a decade. These new numbers indicate direct and indirect costs of up to $600 billion over a decade—a lot for a country with a population just a little more than New York City.

Up until now it's been the US taxpayer paying for Israel—but how much longer can that continue? The US taxpayer has barely enough money to keep its own oligarchs in BMWs and caviar.

If Hamas becomes the new PLO and takes the West Bank, one can expect more conflict—which Israel cannot pay for all by itself.   The ante ups.

Once dedollarization takes hold, the American economy declines and BRICS rises. The Middle East is “middle” no longer, “East” —sandwiched between the “West” and Asia. It is West Asia. It belongs to Asia which is the Future. The US and Europe are unfortunate history.

Maybe it will be time to give Israel its independence.

At some point, as Israeli liberals like Gideon Levy think, reality has to take hold.  That means a one state solution, such as envisioned in the Hamas charter-- with reconciliation through justice. Without justice, it can never work.

But don’t expect anything soon.  Don’t expect the killing the stop right away.

Uncle Sam won’t let it.

Lies written in ink can never disguise facts written in blood. Lu Xun (thanks to my friend Schagen)

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Notes

Once again, this article took longer than I expected to finish. Like a lot of people, I read the legacy media—critically and skeptically—but find myself caught up in contradictions and misinformation—and still end up often confused. So, I read and read, read and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. I am indebted to my Palestinian and other Arabic speaking sources—who naturally would prefer to remain anonymous. They are not journalists and politicians or ideologues—just people—and they helped.

In the end, truth resides with ordinary people—not with those who are paid to manufacture it. It lies in diverse points of view—in actual experience—not in editorial direction.

I hope you liked this article. Hope it raised questions in your mind. Writing it raised questions in my mind.

Last time, I posted a picture of me and a tiny kitten. Cappy (after Cappuccino) grew up and was adopted by a singer for whom I was writing lyrics. Last I heard she was in Germany. Here she is with her bestie, Honey. Buy a coffee in memory of Cappy here. It’s cold here in Tokyo and I have to buy my boy cats hot water bottles.

Julian