Hamas is an Arabic acronym for "The Movement of Islamic Resistance." Misr is the Arabic word for Egypt. The incompatibility between Hamas and Egypt is multi-sided: Hamas is a renegade movement; Egypt is a historic entity. Hamas, since June 2007, is a sworn enemy of the Palestinian Authority based on the West Bank; Egypt is a unitary State since its unification 5000 years ago. Hamas is, since December 9, 1987, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt; Egypt has followed the Al-Azhar principle that "Islam does not recognize a State based solely on religion."
Let us now start by excavating the ideology gap between Hamas and Egypt with regard to peace between Israel and the Arabs.
Hamas articulates Palestinian aspirations to statehood into strictly religious, not nationalist terms. In its charter of 1988, it declares: "In the struggle against the Jewish occupation of Palestine, the banner of Jihad must be raised." In its leaflet of October 5, 1988, Hamas declares: "We shall continue the uprising on the road to the liberation of our whole land from the contamination of the Jews, with the help of God."
By contrast, Egypt has concluded a peace treaty with Israel in March 1979. At no time of its history has Egypt ever reneged on an international treaty; the examples of 1951 and 1956 notwithstanding. In 1951, Nahas Posha, as Prime Minister and Chairman of the secular Wafd Party, declared in Parliament that the 1936 treaty with Great Britain was null and void. He declared that Egypt, through him, had signed that treaty "under duress" -referring to the pressures of the British occupation (from 1882 to 1954).
In 1956, Nasser declared the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company in order to fund the construction of the Aswan Dam, following the withholding of western funding. Mind you that, contrary to western writings, it was "the Company" which was nationalized, not the Canal itself. A State cannot nationalize what it possesses as sovereign territory. And all stakeholders in the Company were compensated despite the aggression against Egypt by France, the UK and Israel in 1956.
How about the diplomatic gap between Hamas and Egypt, at both the universal level and the regional level?
Through UN Security Council resolution 242 (1967), the whole world has rendered a consensus on the way out from the Palestinian Israeli impasse. But Hamas rejects UN decision-making altogether. Ironically, it accepts UN and other charitable contributions. In its communique No. 33, of December 23, 1988, Hamas thumbs its nose at the international community. It foolishly declares: "Do not head the UN Resolutions which try to accord the Zionist entity (meaning Israel) legitimacy over any part of the soil of Palestine ... for it is the property of the Islamic nation and not of the UN."
The Islamic nation? Under Islamic jurisprudence, whose primary sources are the Quran and the Sunna, Muslims are referred to as "Umma" -meaning "community of faith" not "a nation" connoting "a State."
This is while Egypt, where the League of Arab States maintains its headquarters, is a supporter of that UN Security resolution (which in part resulted from unacceptable adventurism by the Nasser regime. That regime had insisted on the withdrawal of the UN peace-keepers from Sinai).
We also have the Arab initiative of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to which all 22 Arab States (including the yet-to-be born State of Palestine) have agreed. The core of that historic initiative is striving for mutually-agreeable territorial withdraws with the full quid pro quo of recognition of Israel by all members of the League of Arab States. Hamas is in rebellion against that consensus. But ironically it claims to have "strategic depth" in the Arab world -a depth which only exists in its stunted imagination.
As we look now at yet another gap among others not herein cited, between Hamas and Egypt, we cannot escape the Islamic jurisprudential gap between Gaza and Cairo. Our focus here is on the concept of "Jihad."
Succinctly put, Hamas, though it calls itself "Islamic," does not practice what it preaches. In Sharia, jihad has dual domains: internal -fighting against one's own inner destructive urges; and external -fighting defensively and proportionately against aggression from the outside. Nowhere in the 27 Quranic verses on jihad do I find the Hamas interpretation of that overly-used and universally-abused term. Herein exists a major legal dilemma for Hamas on that front.
In his seminal book in Arabic, entitled "Al-Jihad," the late Islamic scholar, Gamal Al-Banna, a younger brother of Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas' mother) tackles that misconception. On page 7, he states:
"It is important to note the confusion between jihad and war-like combat. The danger of that confusion extends to the attempt to islamize the world... This should be regarded as a dangerous trend which opens the door to belittle the freedom of faith held by non-Muslim parties. It thrusts us Muslims into the dungeons of extremism and the raging hurricanes which attend it." (my translation)
Where is Egypt from that extremism? As far away as possible. And where would Egypt find its Coptic Church, established 200 years by its Alexandria citizen, St. Mark, hence the historic title of "the Pope of Alexandria." Under attack by Hamas-like marauders. In addition, where are the Christians of Palestine in the Islamic Emirate of Gaza, led by Hamas? And what is the position of Jerusalem which is revered by the Jews, Christians and Muslims? Hamas has no rational explanation. How can the Hamas extremist dogma of "the soil of Palestine... is the property of the Islamic nation," be reconciled with those undeniable historical facts on the ground? Totally irreconcilable.
Well, Egypt shares no part in that Hamas iron-clad ideology. It is interesting to note that Egypt as it tries to revive its tourism industry, announces in its brochures under the title of "Egypt Today:" "The Egyptian people have suffered under several waves of invasions, but have never been broken. Their talent is in flexibility and thinking up novel solutions to problems." (Booklet in English entitled "Luxor-Egypt," page 50).
For Hamas to try to bring Morsi of the Brotherhood back to power is like an ant trying to move the Giza pyramids. Its resort to terrorism, either directly or indirectly, especially in Sinai, shall not be soon forgotten or forgiven by the Egyptian Second Revolution of June 30. The free ride of Hamas via the Brotherhood bus is over. End of the line!! The Egyptian backlash has begun to gradually shrink the so-called "Islamists" not only inside MISR, but also beyond it from Jordan to Gaza to Tunisia.
The "Qassam Battalions," of Hamas, and its affiliate "The Supporters of Beit Al-Maqdis," have been implicated in the failed attempt to assassinate Egypt's Interior Minister in late August. Faced with the huge cohesive army of Egypt, these terrorist attacks shall only work for furthering the delegitimation of that renegade movement. Denials by Hamas of its involvement in Egypt's internal affairs are nothing but transparent obfuscation.
It was Abraham Lincoln who in 1858 coined the adage "Acts speak louder than words." Arab poetry and prose have for hundreds of years advocated the same. A Hamas leader by the name of Dr. Salah Al-Bardaweel unthinkingly declares on September 16 that "an eye witness has testified to Hamas that the Egyptian army has planted mines under its own checkpoints, and dug tunnels from the Egyptian Rafah side into Gaza." For good measure, he also hallucinated by adding: "The present Egyptian Government is trying to export Egyptian internal crisis to the besieged Gaza Strip." Really, Doctor?!! You are not a good liar, even by the standard of that Hamas specialty.
On September 13, Ismail Haniyah, "Prime Minister" of a Gaza "government" deposed by the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank, issued a message of assurances to Egypt. In it, he opines that "the resistance weapon is still raised in the direction of Israel. Haniyah has also recently declared that "Gaza is the first line of defense of Egypt," and that "the Palestinian question is the most important issue for Egypt."
Mr. Haniyah: You are far from reality on several counts: The first line of defense of Egypt is its reestablishment of its internal peace and economic viability; your side of the border has been, until recently, a conduit through hundreds of tunnels for smuggling into and from Egypt all kinds of contraband, including weapons; your jihadis have been infiltrated into Sinai to link up with other criminal elements with the objective of proclaiming "The Sinai Islamic Caliphate;" and the cause of legitimate Palestinian rights should be attained primarily through negotiations which you have condemned.
It is a pity that you still consider your visualization of the Palestinian future as unlinked to your reconciliation with Ramallah. So please, Mr. Haniyah, mind your own problems. But don't mess with MISR. Fighting terrorism in Egypt might take some time before it is at least contained.
The overwhelming majority of the Egyptian public shall not tire of its newly-minted refrain: "Our army: May God bless your hand!! You are the heroes of your land!!"
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