https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years ... our-faces/
For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces
The premier’s policy of treating the terror group as a partner, at the expense of Abbas and Palestinian statehood, has resulted in wounds that will take Israel years to heal from
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/worl ... hamas.html
‘Buying Quiet’: Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gambled that a strong Hamas (but not too strong) would keep the peace and reduce pressure for a Palestinian state.
For years, the Qatari government had been sending millions of dollars a month into the Gaza Strip — money that helped prop up the Hamas government there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not only tolerated those payments, he had encouraged them.
( --> Qatar was just a cover. In reality, it was Israeli money.)
For years, Israeli intelligence officers even escorted a Qatari official into Gaza, where he doled out money from suitcases filled with millions of dollars.
( --> In reality, Shin Bet officers were bringing new recruits for Hamas from their prisons.)
The division gives Mr. Netanyahu an excuse to disengage from peace talks, Mr. Brom said, adding that he can say, “I have no partner.”
( --> The real goal of the Reichsführer was to avoid joining the negotation table.)
Israel was blessing these Qatari payments, even as Mossad intelligence assessments concluded that Qatar was using other channels to secretly finance Hamas’s military arm.
( --> It was not Qatari money but Israeli funds. They just used Qatar as a cover.)
https://www.politico.eu/article/israel- ... p-borrell/
EU’s top diplomat accuses Israel of funding Hamas
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell on Friday openly accused Israel of having financed the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“Hamas was financed by the Israeli government in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority,” Borrell was quoted as saying by Spanish newspaper El País.
Netanyahu has strongly denied allowing Qatar to fund Hamas in order to divide Palestinians into rival political camps. But the Israeli leader said in 2019 at a Likud party conference: “Anyone who wants to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state needs to support strengthening Hamas.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/world ... red-hamas/
Why Netanyahu Bolstered Hamas
In 2015, Bezalel Smotrich, currently the finance minister in Netanyahu’s government, summed up the strategy by stating, “The Palestinian Authority is a burden. Hamas is an asset.”
Mr. Netanyahu told him that having two strong rivals, including Hamas, would lessen pressure on him to negotiate toward a Palestinian state.”
In his 2006 study The Iron Cage, historian Rashid Khalidi described Hamas as “the protégés of the Israeli occupation”.
According to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years.”
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/202 ... ff1be90000
A Brief History of the Netanyahu-Hamas Alliance
Much ink has been spilled describing the longtime relationship – rather, alliance – between Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas.