By Leanna Pankratz (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 7, 2012
Hamas (meaning “enthusiasm”) is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic political party that governs the Gaza Strip. According to The New York Times this week, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told Islamic worshipers at the al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, “I salute the Syrian people who strive toward freedom, democracy and reform.”
In short, praising the revolutions of the Arab Spring, and “salut[ing] the great sacrifices of the Syrian people,” Haniyeh made public his sympathetic and supportive views towards the Syrian rebels looking to overthrow their leader Bashar al-Assad—a longtime supporter of Hamas—to the cries of “Syria, Syria!” from the adoring public, according to The New York Times.
The uprising in Syria was led by Sunni Islamic people, making Hamas’ support of the opposition logical, since the Assad regime is a decidedly dedicated ally of Iran’s Shiite theocracy.
Palestinian analysts feel that Haniyeh’s public outcry of Syrian support is pure evidence to his prediction of the outcome in Syria.
“Hamas knows that Assad has lost the battle already,” said Dr. Samir Awwad, a Palestinian expert, to The Telegraph. In making his Cairo announcement, Haniyeh has chosen to sever past alliances, endanger its Damascus base, and suffer inevitable financial backlash from a displeased Tehran. Instead, Haniyeh is tying Hamas to the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and the rising, increasingly united power of the Middle East.
I feel that, with this, Hamas has most likely incited and encouraged anti-regime philosophies among current and future Syrian rebels; the political firestorm that is the Middle East has now officially taken hold in Syria.
Although furious, the Syrian Baath Party will most likely stop short of expelling Hamas, as one can tell that the presence of a political power will prove to be of some help in the upcoming, inevitable political turmoil.
Such a decision has turned the Middle East on its head. Hamas, considered since 1993 as a terrorist regime by the United States and members of the European Union (buffered by Haniyeh’s references to Osama bin Laden as a “holy martyr,” quoted by CNN.), has shifted their support to a new focus – Syria. What this implicates is a power shift, and a turning of the axis that is the Middle East. Damascus is stripped of its already reduced political credibility, and we now see additional power and governmental backing given to forces that have been consistently defiant towards Israel.
I feel that Hamas’ actions have gone to further escalate tensions between the Assad regime and the Syrian population. New support from Hamas may inspire rebels to take further action, and we may be seeing another drawn-out revolution, much like the overthrowing of Gadhafi in Lybia through a similar, political uprising. With the actions of Hamas, we are now looking at a new era and a shift in powers throughout the Middle East.
