During the 1970s and 1980s, a dramatic political shift permanently altered the geopolitical topography of the Middle East and the broader Muslim world.
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shift → alter → East
Islamism gained momentum as secular nationalism declined.
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nationalism → gain → momentum
It was a collapse accelerated by the defeat of Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
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It → accelerate → War
At the time, Western powers viewed Islamism, a right-wing ideology opposed to socialism and secular nationalism, as a useful counterweight to Soviet-backed nationalist regimes in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and, later, Libya.
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powers → view → Egypt
One of the most consequential applications of this strategy unfolded in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
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One → unfold → Bank
Anti-Israel Palestinian resistance was largely dominated by secular and left-leaning groups operating primarily within the Israeli-occupied territories of Palestine and neighbouring nationalist Arab states.
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resistance → dominate → Palestine
The French scholar Jean-Pierre Filiu wrote that, in order to neutralise Palestinian resistance groups, Israel quietly nurtured the growth of local Islamist movements, specifically the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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Israel → write → Brotherhood
This was a deliberate strategy, designed to fragment and undermine the primary face of Palestinian nationalism: Yasser Arafat’s left-leaning and secular Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
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This → design → nationalism
For Israeli strategists, the PLO’s anti-colonial rhetoric posed a serious political threat.
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rhetoric → pose → threat
To curb the PLO’s influence, Israeli military intelligence began to cultivate a counterweight in the shape of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
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intelligence → curb → Yassin
A charismatic Palestinian cleric, Yassin had begun building a social and religious network under the Muslim Brotherhood umbrella in Gaza, culminating in the founding of al-Mujama al-Islami in 1973.
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Yassin → begin → 1973
The PLO viewed Yassin’s followers as “quietist fundamentalists” preoccupied with social welfare and moral purification.
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PLO → view → welfare
The PLO did not exhibit concern even when Israeli authorities permitted al-Mujama to operate unhindered.
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authorities → exhibit → Mujama
In 1979, the Israeli military administration formally recognised the al-Mujama charity, granting it permission to establish mosques, schools and medical clinics across Gaza.
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administration → recognise → Gaza
Israel’s relentless efforts, across decades, to weaken secular Palestinian resistance to its occupation of Palestine by backing a ‘counterweight’ ultimately backfired.
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efforts → weaken → counterweight
The current Hamas is the blowback
According to Filiu, while PLO sympathisers faced relentless crackdowns, Yassin was allowed to build a vast social network.
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Yassin → accord → network
Gulf funds, primarily from Saudi Arabia, flowed into al-Mujama’s coffers with minimal Israeli interference.
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funds → flow → interference
In 1978, Israeli authorities even permitted the establishment of an Islamic university in Gaza, which eventually became a stronghold for Islamist recruitment.
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which → permit → recruitment
Years later, Brig Gen Yitzhak Segev, the Israeli military governor of Gaza in the late 1970s and early 1980s, admitted that he was provided a state budget to assist in funding Yassin’s project to offset the PLO.
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he → admit → PLO
In the book Israel’s Wars, political scientist Ahron Bregman wrote that defence minister Yitzhak Rabin maintained a policy throughout the 1980s of tolerating Yassin and his organisation’s activities, provided their hostility remained directed at the PLO rather than Israeli soldiers.
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hostility → write → soldiers
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw violent clashes erupt across Gaza and the West Bank between the PLO and Yassin’s followers.
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clashes → see → PLO
Members and supporters of al-Mujama torched PLO offices, attacked cinemas and targeted secular intellectuals.
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Members → torch → intellectuals
However, the assumption that Yassin’s movement would remain a benign social organisation focused solely on rivalling the PLO proved to be a miscalculation.
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movement → remain → PLO
Writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2009, journalist Andrew Higgins documented how Israeli forces raided Yassin’s home in 1984 following a tip-off, discovering a concealed weapons cache.
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forces → write → cache
Yassin was arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
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Yassin → arrest → prison
Yet, Higgins added, in a move underscoring Israel’s persistent conviction that Islamists remained a secondary threat compared to secular nationalists, Israel released Yassin just 11 months later, in 1985.
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Israel → add → 1985
The turning point occurred in December 1987 with the outbreak of the first Intifada, a spontaneous grassroots uprising against Israeli occupation.
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point → occur → occupation
Fearing that the PLO would bounce back to take command of the uprising, Yassin and his inner circle transformed al-Mujama al-Islami into a militant resistance organisation.
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Yassin → fear → organisation
In early 1988, the group published its founding covenant under a new name: Hamas.
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group → publish → name
Hamas was thus the direct byproduct of a charitable and proselytising network shaped in the 1970s by the Gaza chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood and facilitated by Israeli policy.
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Hamas → shape → policy
Its original objective of drawing Palestinians toward religious piety and discrediting secular groups, evolved during the Intifada into an armed struggle.
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objective → draw → struggle
Hamas’ 1988 charter combined militant anti-Zionism with unyielding Islamism, calling for an Islamic state in Palestine and rejecting the PLO’s gradual move toward a diplomatic, two-state compromise.
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charter → combine → compromise
Even during the initial months of the Intifada, Israeli authorities hesitated to suppress Hamas with the severity applied to the PLO, hoping the group would fracture the uprising.
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group → hesitate → uprising
However, as Higgins observed, when Hamas initiated armed attacks, kidnappings and suicide operations against Israeli personnel, Tel Aviv recognised the scale of its strategic error.
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Aviv → observe → error
By the time Israel outlawed Hamas and rearrested Yassin in 1989, the network that Israel helped nurture was deeply entrenched.
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Israel → outlaw → that
This manoeuvre yielded a fierce adversary.
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manoeuvre → yield → adversary
Much like the American backing of the Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s, Israel’s policy towards the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood became a classic instance of strategic blowback.
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policy → become → blowback
A quietist religious charity group transformed into an entrenched militant movement.
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group → transform → movement
Even after the PLO’s influence waned from the 1990s onwards, evidence indicates that Israel’s strategic interest in leveraging Hamas persisted.
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interest → wan → Hamas
As reported by The New York Times and The Times of Israel in 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition governments facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars in Qatari cash transfers into Gaza between 2009 and 2023.
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governments → report → 2009
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
