people forget Hamas was backed by Israel. Doesn’t mean Hamas is an Israel asset
It’s the age old “backing moderate rebels” strategy. Divide and conquer. Netanyahu armed Hamas to undermine The Palestinian Authority, then turned them into a Boogeyman the moment they had an electoral win.
Hamas was an “asset” in the sense that it gave Israelis an excuse to continue ethically cleansing Gaza.
Just like they did with the Taliban originally to fight the Soviets.
So easy for westerners to ignore how the fundamental local appeal of the Taliban was to break the hold of the opium cartels (which the CIA/MI6 loved).
As soon as the US toppled Mullah Omar’s government, their allies in the drug trade rushed back in to rebuild the old opium trade. When they were finally pushed out 20 years later, the opium traffickers were pushed out with them.
It’s the age old “backing moderate rebels” strategy. Divide and conquer. Netanyahu armed Hamas to undermine The Palestinian Authority, then turned them into a Boogeyman the moment they had an electoral win.
Hamas was an “asset” in the sense that it gave Israelis an excuse to continue ethically cleansing Gaza.
So easy for westerners to ignore how the fundamental local appeal of the Taliban was to break the hold of the opium cartels (which the CIA/MI6 loved).
As soon as the US toppled Mullah Omar’s government, their allies in the drug trade rushed back in to rebuild the old opium trade. When they were finally pushed out 20 years later, the opium traffickers were pushed out with them.