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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas leader Khaled Mashal: October 7 paved the highway towards the removal of Israel
2023-11-02
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Related:
Khaled Meshal: 2022-06-23 A decade after split, Hamas and Syria said in talks to renew ties
Khaled Meshal: 2014-07-27 Haaretz: SoState Kerry is a tool
Khaled Meshal: 2013-01-31 PLO's Erekat welcomes Hamas acceptance of two-state solution
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
A decade after split, Hamas and Syria said in talks to renew ties
2022-06-23
[IsraelTimes] Sources tell Rooters that talks underway to mend relationship; Syria shuttered Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, offices in 2012 after terror group backed violent mostly peaceful opposition against President Assad

A decade after breaking with Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
 and decamping from Damascus, Hamas is in talks to resume ties with Syria, according to members of the terror group Tuesday.

Hamas and Syria have been on the outs since early 2012, when the group’s leadership came out against Assad’s brutal crackdown on the uprising that would turn into the Syrian civil war. Syria shuttered Hamas offices in Damascus months later, at the time officially closing the book on the relationship.

An anonymous official from the terror group said that Hamas and Syria were now engaged in "high-profile meetings," toward reconciliation, Rooters reported.

Syrian officials did not answer Rooters’ request for comment.

Hamas, an gang sworn to Israel’s destruction, moved its headquarters to Syria in the late 1990s.

Since leaving Damascus, Hamas’ leadership has been based mainly in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, Egypt and the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 Strip.

Hamas’ opposition to the Syrian government at the beginning of its civil war also angered their mutual ally Iran, which reportedly ceased funding the group, a claim denied in 2016 by the Islamic Theocratic Republic.

By 2017, relations between Hamas and Iran
...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence...
were hailed as "fantastic" by Gaza’s ruler Yahya Sinwar.

Israel and Hamas have fought several wars since the terror group seized control over the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas set up a joint operation center in Beirut during last year’s 11-day conflict with Israel, according to Ibrahim al-Amine, editor of the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily al-Akhbar.

Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist terror organization was founded in 1987 at the beginning of the First Intifada as an offshoot of Egypt’s Moslem Brüderbund. The group has repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction and has been responsible for dozens of deadly terror attacks.
Rudaw adds:
The rupture that followed saw Hamas abandon its headquarters in the Syrian capital, where the group's former chief Khaled Meshal had lived for many years.

Top Hamas officials subsequently relocated to Doha and Istanbul.

Hamas has voiced anger over a recent diplomatic rapprochement between Turkey and Israel.

Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Beirut on Tuesday, for meetings aimed at "strengthening cooperation and fraternity between the Palestinian and the Lebanese people", a Hamas statement said.

There was no immediate indication that Haniyeh's visit to was tied to the Syrian outreach.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Haaretz: SoState Kerry is a tool
2014-07-27
Haaretz is the WaPo/NYTimes of Israel. They represent the leftist, dovish segment of the population. They personally like Kerry and can't believe he is as stupid as it seems.
Kerry's latest cease-fire plan: What was he thinking?

The draft Kerry passed to Israel on Friday shocked the cabinet ministers not only because it was the opposite of what Kerry told them less than 24 hours earlier, but mostly because it might as well have been penned by Khaled Meshal. It was everything Hamas could have hoped for.
Israeli rubes self-identify. Back when I used to read the New York Times, I also read Ha'aretz. It now occurs to me that my father never did, though he'd been a technocrat for Labour during his Israeli period. Daddy read the international edition of the Jerusalem Post.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
PLO's Erekat welcomes Hamas acceptance of two-state solution
2013-01-31
[Al Ahram] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,'s approval of the two-state solution reveals the tendency of the movement to cooperate with the political platform of the Paleostine Liberation Organisation (PLO), senior Paleostinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state...
 told the Saudi Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper Wednesday.

Erekat, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, stated that the decision of the Islamist movement to accept a state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital stems from its willingness to pave the way for further inter-Paleostinian reconciliation.

"Hamas has to maintain this orientation in case of a future revival of talks with the Israeli side, as the two-state solution signifies the cornerstone of the PLO's position towards the grinding of the peace processor," he noted.

Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea...
 Erekat welcomed the recent meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Meshal and Jordan's King Abdullah II, calling on the international community to understand that Amman is a "partner" to the Paleostinians.

Meshal said Monday that the world "must respect" Paleostinian reconciliation talks during a visit to Jordan, a palace statement said.
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Africa North
Meshaal meets Morsi in Cairo
2012-07-20
The leader of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement which rules the Gaza Strip, met new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Thursday and hailed Morsi's election as the start of a "new era" for Egypt and the Palestinians.

It was Khaled Meshal's first visit to Egypt since Morsi won the country's first free leadership vote.
I'm surprised Khaled came out of hiding. He's usually afraid of his own shadow...
The founding of Hamas was inspired by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood - Egypt's oldest and most established Islamist movement - but the Palestinian group now operates independently because of its location and the conflict with Israel. Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, is regarded by the West as a terrorist group for its refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Meshal and Morsi discussed ways to ensure that Gaza, which borders Egypt, gets the gas and petroleum it needs despite an Israeli blockade of the territory.

"We have entered a new era in Palestine's relationship with Egypt, the big sister
Is that not an insult in that part of the world, implying the powerlessness and unimportance of the passed over female? Elder brother, on the other hand, would be both a compliment and imply mutual rights and responsibilities. One wonders that Leader Meshal dared say such a thing.
and the leader of the Arab nation," Meshal said after the meeting. "We were happy with what we heard from President Mohamed Morsi and his vision to handle all these issues."

The talks lasted almost two hours, twice as long as Morsi's meeting a day earlier with the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority and leader of Fatah, Hamas's rival.
Guess who the strong horse is, Mahmoud...
Hamas was isolated by Egypt under Morsi's ousted predecessor Hosni Mubarak, as well as by other Gulf and Arab states and the West. Morsi is under pressure from many in his movement to help ease the Gaza blockade. Palestinians accuse Egypt of being complicit in the blockade by closing its border with Gaza.

Egypt's army-backed government decided in February to let more fuel into Gaza and increase electricity supplies.

But Hamas has yet to see any sign of a policy shift since the election of Morsi, who is keen not to upset Egypt's ally, the United States, and weaken his hand in a struggle with the powerful military.

Meshal said Egypt's presidency and intelligence services would continue to shepherd a reconciliation process between Hamas and Fatah that began last year.

"Egypt has a key role in this," he said, adding that Hamas "remains strategically committed to the reconciliation".
Where reconciliation means the PA agrees to leave Hamas in charge of the Gaza Strip, stop harassing Hamasniks in the West Bank, and wage war on Israel, at least.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Bracing Honesty: Senior Hamas Official Says No Permanent Israel-PA Deal
2012-04-21
Moussa Abu Marzouk's statements, made in interview to The Forward, reflect a harder line than the stance of the group's political leader, Khaled Meshal.
Bottom line, it's hudnas all the way down, except when it's taqqiyah.
Any agreement the Paleostinian Authority might reach with Israel would be subject to significant changes, a senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, official has told the American newspaper The Forward.

Moussa Abu Marzouk said in an interview to be published next Friday that if Hamas came to power, any treaty would be an interim truce, a hudna,
One of those maximum ten years jobbies Mohammed specialized in, back in the day, to be broken as soon as the Muslim party was rested and rearmed.
not a permanent accord. This would be the case even if a referendum ratified the deal.

Marzouk's statements reflect a harder line than the stance of the group's political leader, Khaled Meshal, who is seen as Marzouk's main rival.

Meshal has repeatedly said Hamas would honor any agreement signed between the PA and Israel if the Paleostinian people supported it.

Marzouk told The Forward there is no sign of an agreement between Fatah and Hamas on setting up a unity government.

Marzouk opposed Meshal's recent efforts to achieve a reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. According to an agreement signed in Doha, Qatar, Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
 would serve as prime minister of a caretaker government until elections for the president and parliament.

But Marzouk and two top Hamas leaders in Gazoo - Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
 and Mahmoud al-Zahar - objected. Zahar even said Meshal had reached the agreement without consulting the other members of the leadership.

In recent weeks, Hamas has held a number of election campaigns for the group's political bureau - in Gazoo, in prisons and in regional councils abroad.

Marzouk's statements are seen as a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to advance the peace talks with the PA, because he can only "do business" with Hamas.

Hamas' leaders and the Israeli government appear to agree it is impossible to solve the conflict at the moment, only to manage it.

The Forward's assistant managing editor, Larry Cohler-Esses, met Marzouk in Cairo, where the Hamas leader moved after leaving Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
Marzouk, 61, said his organization would not recognize Israel as a state. "It will be like the relationship between Leb and Israel or Syria and Israel," he said. This means a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty as Israel has with Jordan or Egypt.

Cohler-Esses told Haaretz the interview had been arranged by the Hamas official's American attorney Stanley Cohen.

"On a personal level he was very interesting with a sense of humor. But I was certainly not optimistic after the things he said," Cohler-Esses said.

He said it was hard say who Marzouk was targeting with his comments, noting that Marzouk would be running in elections. Cohler-Esses said he sometimes "wondered if he was talking only to me or to his Shura council" - Hamas' political and decision-making body.
Ynet adds:
Abu Marzook was deported from the US in the mid 1990s after Hamas was officially entered into the State Department's terror watch list. He moved to Damascus and has since served as Khaled Mashaal's deputy.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas demands Palestinian elections be held in E. Jerusalem
2011-12-08
Israel expected to object to May presidential, parliamentary elections taking place in East Jerusalem; Senior Palestinian source accuses Hamas of trying to torpedo election.

Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, will only agree to hold presidential and parliamentary elections next May if voting takes place in East Jerusalem and Hamas is allowed to participate, Haaretz has learned - a condition to which Israel will almost certainly object.
Since Israel considers East Jerusalem to be an integral part of Israel, the answer is almost certainly 'no'...
This puts Hamas and Fatah's agreement to hold elections in the West Bank and Gazoo in a different light. A senior Paleostinian source told Haaretz that Hamas had set the condition in an effort to torpedo the elections and thus avoid the risk of being forced out of power in the Gazoo Strip. Hamas, however, is expected to blame Israel for blocking the democratic process, so that international pressure to allow them to run will be brought to bear, as it was before the parliamentary elections in January 2006. The Paleostinian Authority is also expected to press for Hamas participation to embarrass the Israeli government.

The agreement to hold the election was reached two weeks ago in Cairo by Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshal and PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
 in a meeting held as part of the two factions' reconciliation efforts.

Israel is expected to object to any Hamas activity in the eastern part of the capital. The Israeli government will also be subject to public pressure to reject Hamas' participation in elections altogether, after Hamas won the 2006 elections by a large majority and also came out ahead in the regional elections in East Jerusalem.

Both Hamas and the PA are aware there is only a slim chance that an Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will allow Hamas to run, which is why many participating in the reconciliation talks don't believe the elections will take place.

A senior Israeli source said that the government isn't likely to allow voting in East Jerusalem if Hamas participates, but added that it would be difficult to prevent Hamas' participation in West Bank voting, let alone in Gazoo.

As part of its reconciliation demands, Hamas also wants Egypt to open an embassy in the Gazoo Strip, where it has had no official presence since the Hamas takeover of the Strip in 2007.

In less than two weeks, representatives of all the Paleostinian groups will meet in Cairo for several days of talks, at the end of which the leaders will meet to set a date for elections. It isn't yet clear whether a new transitional government, headed by someone agreeable to both Hamas and Fatah, will be established.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas: PA can't give up Jerusalem in direct Mideast peace talks
2010-08-28
[Haaretz] Palestinian negotiators are not mandated to surrender Jerusalem or any part of Palestine, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency quoted Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as saying on Friday, with the Hamas strongman dubbing upcoming direct peace talks as the latest in a string of Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.

On Tuesday, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal said that the upcoming U.S.-backed direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were illegitimate and the result of coercion by Washington.

Talks between the two sides had been were shelved two years ago, but the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is hoping for a breakthrough during the new rounds of negotiations set to begin September 2.

Speaking in Ramadan fast-breaking meal in the Gaza town of Khan Younis late Thursday, Haniyeh claimed that "no negotiator who would give up Jerusalem has a national mandate," adding that "Palestinians across the globe will not support any movement holding absurd talks with Israel."

The Hamas prime minister, referring to the Palestinian prisoners' families present at the meal, said that the "prisoners, the injured and the families of martyrs will not authorize anyone who wants to give up Palestine and Jerusalem after they have sacrificed for years and struggled to keep it."

"The occupation has failed to break the will of the Palestinian people, not by increasing its attacks or increasing the number of dead, not by injuring prisoners or isolating the resistance from its people," the Hamas leader said.

"Israel is trying in dozens of ways to achieve its goal, and now it is through negotiations," Haniyeh added, saying that next upcoming negotiations were the latest in a long list of Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.

On Monday, Haniyeh said the Palestinian people will gain nothing from direct Middle East peace talks with Israel.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Following alleged Dubai mess, the Mossad chief must go - Haaretz
2010-02-19
Haaretz assumes, like so many, that Mossad is actually involved in this. What if someone else done it? Should the Mossad chief go then, too?
An important figure with many followers goes overboard and gets exiled to a faraway village in the north. That creative solution comes courtesy of the rabbinical forum "Takana." But the sanction meted out to Rabbi Mordechai Elon should also be applied to another gentleman, who anyway already resides in the north: Maj. Gen. (ret.) Meir Dagan, the belligerent, heavy-handed chief of the Mossad.

The State of Israel did not claim responsibility for the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. The entire matter is treated as AFMR - According to Foreign Media Reports. We can still argue both sides of the broader issue at hand: assassinating senior officials in hotels (see under Rehavam Ze'evi) and in public (Imad Mughniyeh, Fathi Shkaki, Abbas Mussawi, Ali Hassan Salameh, and the list goes on). But we could also narrow the question to the quality of the performance in Dubai. And what must have seemed to its perpetrators as a huge success is now being overshadowed by enormous question marks.

If the perpetrators were from the Mossad (AFMR, of course), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be walking around with an acute sense of deja vu. Once again, an assassination of a senior Hamas leader in a friendly Arab country; once again, an operation designed to kill someone quietly and inconspicuously; once again, a diplomatic mess; and once again, it is all happening on Netanyahu's watch. In 1997, it was Khaled Meshal in Jordan. This time, it's Mabhouh in Dubai.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas: Next war with Israel will be widespread
2010-02-12
Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal warned Friday that should another war erupt with Israel, the majority of battles would not be contained to the Gaza Strip as they were during the conflict last winter. Meshal told the London-based Al-Hayyat that Hamas was not interested in seeing another war, but would embark on steadfast defense of the Palestinian people should one begin.
We would get our asses kicked yet again if we start another war, but we have super-secret defenses that will punish the Zionists elsewhere! (Just don't ask exactly where).
Meanwhile, a senior defense establishment official said Friday that Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been warned to stay on high alert amid Hamas plans to abduct Israeli troops. The Shin Bet cleared for publication on Thursday that it arrested a prominent Hamas activist in Gaza, who infiltrated into Israel with the intention to abduct an Israeli soldier, murder him, and negotiate over the body. This was not an isolated incident, the defense official warned on Friday. "The attempt along the Egyptian border to attack and abduct, which was foiled in December, was not a one-time procedure," said the official. "The terrorist organization won't hesitate at any chance to grab another bargaining chip against Israel."

The militant arrested in December was named as Salman Abu Atik, a 43-year-old Gaza resident and a prominent Hamas official who was involved in arms smuggling in the past. According to the Shin Bet, Atik was taking orders from another prominent Hamas man. It is believed that Atik exited Gaza through a tunnel into Egypt, where he attempted to enter Israeli territory. He was found in possession of $15,000 in counterfeit bills, a gun, and a silencer.

Following information released in Abu Atik's investigation, another Hamas man, Ibrahim Zuara, was arrested on December 31. Zuara, 44, was in possession of two explosive devices each weighing 31 kilograms. Zuara was apparently supposed to place the devices in heavily populated areas ten days after his entrance into Israel. Zuara also confessed to his involvement in planning the soldier abduction.

The Be'er Sheva court indicted Abu Atik on the charges of attempted murder, illegal army training, arms smuggling, and additional charges. On Feburary 2, Zuara was also indicted and charged with attempted murder, attempted kidnap, and arms smuggling among other charges.
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India-Pakistan
US kills FBI-wanted terrorist in Pakistan strike
2010-01-16
Ay Pee, so here's the summary:

On January 9th an CIA Predator missile killed FBI-wanted terrorist Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, who was involved in the 1986 Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking.

Wikipedia has an article. Mr. Rahim (or perhaps Abdulrahim, it's hard to know) was a member of the Abu Nidal Palestinian terror group, and along with three others was released by the Pakistani authorities in 2008. He was supposed to have been deported to the Palestinian territories at that point — perhaps neither Mahmoud Abbas nor Khaled Meshal wanted him back.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Are Hamas and Islamic Jihad planning a merger?
2009-07-01
"Only the aid from Iran continues to come in, and that too is only for bereaved families and for charities," Islamic Jihad Deputy Secretary-General Ziad al-Nahla, who is based in Damascus, recently told the Saudi-based newspaper Asharq Al Awsat. The problem is that a large part of the donor funds intended for Jihad is deposited in banks in the West Bank, where the funds are confiscated. "We can still guarantee the minimum necessary and the money reaches the Strip via the tunnels, just like the weapons," explained Nahla. The freeze on aid to Islamic Jihad is part of an overall effort by Hamas and senior Jihad officials to merge the two movements and create a joint leadership coalition in preparation for the possible reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah and the formation of a national unity government. The goal is to have Jihad fighters join Hamas' military establishment and to fold Islamic Jihad's administrative officials and civil infrastructure into the Hamas government and civil mechanisms. Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ramadan Abdallah Shalah, Nahla and some of the organization's leadership in Gaza, such as Mohammed al-Hindi, support the merger with Hamas and are working to promote it.

Hindi's opponents, however, such as Abdallah al-Shami and Nafez Azzam, object to the merger because they see it as eliminating the Jihad organization. This is the source of the big dispute within the organization and the economic pressure on its Gaza branch. One of the public expressions of this dispute occurred several weeks ago at a gathering in Gaza: Hindi talked about the Palestinian Authority's arrest of Jihad activists in the West Bank and "forgot" to criticize the arrest of organization members by Hamas. In response, Shami stood up and left in a demonstration of anger. Islamic Jihad activists also mention the pressure placed on them by Hamas during the tahadiya (cease-fire), when it arrested activists and confiscated the weapons of Jihad members who wanted to continue shooting at Israel.

As an organization, Islamic Jihad still adheres to its positions and criticizes those of Hamas, which recently made specific mention of the "1967 borders" in reference to the Palestinian state. So far, Islamic Jihad has refused to join the conciliation talks with Fatah and it rejects outright the Arab initiative and the Egyptian plan for reconciliation. The disagreement between the organizations attests also to the new direction Hamas adopted following the Cairo speech of U.S. President Barack Obama and the deepening ties between Syria and Washington. Shalah and Khaled Meshal, the Hamas political leader in Damascus, are already preparing the organizational foundation for the next stage, and judging by Meshal's declarations it is moving closer to the positions of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with regard to a negotiated solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There is still no formal recognition of the State of Israel here, but even a long-term tahadiya agreement would obligate Hamas to demonstrate its complete control in the Gaza Strip to prove that it is a trustworthy security force. Such control cannot tolerate rebelliousness from Islamic Jihad. Thus the moderate economic pressure that Islamic Jihad in Damascus is exerting on its "daughter" in Gaza, and the quiet with which it is reacting to the confiscation of funds in the West Bank.
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