'Death-To-Israel Terror Bromance'

A Death-to-Israel Terror Bromance

Hugh Fitzgerald

Sunnis and Shi’a have been going at it, intermittently – sometimes less and sometimes more, depending on the place and the time — for at least 1,300 years. The last few decades have been a period of “more,” with a distinct upsurge in Sunni-Shia conflicts, partly a result of a resurgent and aggressive Shi’ite theocracy in Iran, and partly because the rise in fanaticism among Sunni Muslims has led to more attacks, not just on Infidels, but on Shi’a – whom Sunni takfiris declare not to be true Muslims — as well.

But the Sunni-Shi’a divide can close up when the shared goal of Sunni and Shi’a is the destruction of Israel.

A report on this death-to-Israel terrorist bromance is here: “Hamas and Iran Join Forces to Encircle Israel,” by Yaakov Lappin, Algemeiner, November 5, 2021:

A senior Hamas delegation that visited Iran in October — and met with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei — is the latest sign of the close partnership between the Sunni Palestinian terror organization and the Shiite Islamic Republic.

Hamas has an important role to play in Iran’s scheme to surround Israel with Islamist, heavily armed forces, said Col. (res.) David Hacham, a former Arab-affairs adviser to seven Israeli defense ministers. However, Hacham said that there isn’t a clear consensus within Hamas over just how far it should align with Tehran.

“There is no doubt that in recent years, there has been an improvement in Hamas-Iran ties,” Hacham said. In 2011, a rift developed over the Syrian civil war, with Hamas backing Sunni Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated rebels against Iran’s ally, the Assad regime.

The main source of conflict between Shi’a Iran and Sunni Hamas has been the Syrian civil war. Iran has been determined to support its fellow Shi’a, the Alawites who now control Syria, while the Sunnis of Hamas have supported their fellow Sunnis who have been trying to overthrow the Alawite despot Bashar Assad.

The years 2011-2017 were, because of Hamas and Iran taking opposite sides in the Syrian civil war, the lowest point of their relations. But there’s been an improvement since 2017, when new attempts were made to bridge the gap between the two sides, and Iran renewed its financial aid to Hamas. “Since 2017, the money [from Iran to Hamas] has been flowing in without stop, and the sum is estimated to be many tens of millions of dollars per year,” Hacham added.

The reconciliation was enabled partly because Hamas’ current head of the political bureau, Ismael Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, and the head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar — whose roots lie in Hamas’ military wing — have a positive view of Iran.

“The military wing is more aware of the military and economic significance of Iran’s assistance to Hamas,” he said. The political wing, meanwhile, has taken a more cautious view of Iran, and is more concerned about how the alliance could affect Hamas’ Sunni Arab credentials.

It appears as if the military wing has won the argument.

The military wing of Hamas largely ignores its theological differences with Iran; it views everything through the prism of its war against the Jewish state, and sees Iran not so much as a “Shi’a” state as it is the single greatest military threat to Israel.

“The recent years have seen many Hamas delegations visiting Iran,” Hacham said. Haniyeh was a prominent guest at the funeral of the late Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. There, he dubbed Soleimani “the martyr of Jerusalem,” and said he “provided [sic] to Palestine.”

Qassem Soleimani, the IRGC Commander, did not hesitate to provide military assistance to the Sunni fighters of Hamas. Once the decision had been made in Teheran to ignore the sectarian differences, there were a steady stream of Hamas delegations that arrived to tighten the alliance, to ask for more military assistance, and to declare their undying support for the Islamic Republic.

Within Gaza, meanwhile, Hamas is using Iranian technical know-how to enhance its rocket arsenal’s range. Hamas routinely fires rockets into the Mediterranean Sea to test their ranges and performance.

“Iran has taught Hamas how to build its own domestic rocket manufacturing industry,” Hacham said. “In the past, Iranian weapons were smuggled from the Sinai Peninsula into Gaza; though the Egyptian campaign to destroy smuggling tunnels appears to have largely stopped this activity, it is fair to assume that a small number of tunnels remain.”

Hamas can no longer smuggle Iranian and other weapons into Gaza through the tunnels it built from the Strip into the Sinai; Egypt has destroyed the network. But Iran has been able to share its knowhow in rocketry with Hamas operatives, allowing them to build their own rockets in Gaza itself. It continually provides Hamas with information for upgrading not only rockets, but other weapons in the Hamas armory. By now Hamas is believed to have about 15,000 rockets, the majority of them built in Gaza itself, with technical assistance and training provided by Iran both on-line, and given to Hamas operatives in Iran itself.

Despite the disruption in smuggling, Iran continues to play an invaluable role in Hamas’ military-terrorist build-up. Iran provides training for Hamas operatives, shares offensive and defensive operational plans and battle doctrines, and passes along scientific and engineering information needed for producing ever-improving rockets, explosives, and other weapons in Gaza.

“This is all continuing at full speed,” said Hacham.

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