The story goes that in the year 1092, three men waited in the craggy shadow of the Alamut Castle, an impregnable mountain fastness high in the Alborz range of Persia, to witness an ultimate test of loyalty. One of them, older, with deep-set eyes in a bearded, angular face nodded a signal, and the man next to him in a white tunic and a red sash, leapt off the cliff to his death into the void below. The man who gave the command was Hasan-e Sabbah, grand master of the religious Order of Assassins, or Hashashins as they were known. The jumper was his follower: one of the 70,000 killers, who would die for their master, and kill at his bidding. They had no fear, thanks to the hashish they were fed before going on missions to assassinate sultans, lords and crusaders.
Their reward was Paradise, brimming with rivers of milk and honey, and a thousand hours waiting to give them eternal pleasure—the same as promised to the terrorists and suicide bombers of today by their handlers. Kings feared for their lives from Hasan’s Order and the Seljuk envoy was there to plead for protection. Hasan, whose deceptively harmless sobriquet was the Old Man of the Mountain, murdered anyone opposed to his beliefs. Today’s Islamic terrorists are inspired by his erotic-reward-for-death formula, which glamourises the barren desert of twisted faith.
Hasan was the world’s first Islamic terrorist leader. Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, his group’s bomb-maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, and Islamic State caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi are all ghoulish Xerox copies, obsessed with imposing Sharia on the world. So are Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, who leads the terror organisation on the ground in Gaza, and Ismail Haniyeh, who ordered, planned and executed the October 7 carnage, rape and kidnapping of men, women and children from Israeli kibbutzim.
Their violent tactics have put Tel Aviv in a spot: the hostage release agreement brokered by the US and Qatar has deadly precedents. In 2011, Israel released Sinwar, along with 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners, from jail in exchange for a single IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit. Subsequently, Sinwar went on to build Hamas into a fearsome terrorist outfit, which not only specialised in killing Israelis, but also in ruling Gaza by the gun, and intimidating and torturing any Palestinian who resisted them.
The similarity between Sinwar and Mohammad Masood Azhar Alvi, founder and leader of Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, is striking: Azhar and two comrades were released in exchange for 155 passengers and crew of hijacked Indian Airlines flight 814, at Kandahar in 1999. Sinwar orchestrated the October 7 carnage, and Azhar was behind the 2001 Parliament attack and the Pathankot and Pulwama terror incidents. The Israel-Hamas hostage deal looks like terrorism has won psychological territory in the battle of perception.
The numbers, like in 2011, seem disproportionate, although the logic is concealed by diplomatic secrecy: 50 Israeli women and children were hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners, in the first batch. Israel’s war objective in Gaza is far from complete; only 10 out of 24 enemy battalions have suffered any significant damage. The top terror leadership is still at large. Hamas, which succeeded in turning the war into a global Jew-versus-Islam conflict, has scored a significant victory by gaining time to rebuild itself. History is repeating itself in the terrorverse: the Taliban came back to power in Kabul more than two decades after 9/11. The Islamic State and Al-Qaeda are regrouping and recruiting in Africa and South Asia. Just like Hasan-e Sabbah, militant Islam is implacable. While today’s democracies are horrified by civilian deaths, terrorists have no qualms about blowing themselves up to kill thousands in souks, malls, airports, pavements and offices. They believe that death in their holy war is martyrdom and hatred is their redemption.
THE BEGINNING OF TERROR
Unlike early Christianity, Islam was forged by war. After Prophet Mohammed’s death on June 8, 632, his companion Abu Bakr was elected by a majority of Muslims as the Caliph—the historical leader of all Muslims except Shiites—until the caliphate perished along with the Ottoman Empire in 1927. In 1928, distressed by the fall of the caliphate, Egyptian cleric Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the parent of Hamas. The Brotherhood’s aim was to cleanse the Muslim society of Western values, which Hassan saw as destructive of Islam.
As MB’s popularity grew in Egypt, Hassan was assassinated. State repression grew as did the MB. The Brotherhood spread its tentacles over Jordan, Syria and Palestine. Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser’s suppression of MB and the loss of Palestine to Israel gave it popularity and credibility in the Muslim world. After Hassan’s death, appeared the radical MB leader Sayyid Qutb, who plotted to replace un-Islamic governments and rulers with purist Islam. His influence would shape future Islamic terrorist movements. Qutb’s target was to create an Islamic state through a bloody revolution. He, too, was killed, but it was too late by then. The djinn of terror he released from the bottle of hate is wreaking bloody havoc across the world. The current radical Islamist revival in the Middle East owes much to Qutb, the father of political Islam.
Islamic terrorism has proved to be adaptable in both ideas and ideology. It manipulates the faith’s inherent dualities to its advantage. Norwegian academic and Middle East expert Bjørn Olav Utvik defines the phenomenon with binary clarity: Islamists embrace ‘modernity’ (advanced technology, industries etc.), but reject ‘modernism’ and its foundations of science and reason. Most Arab nations, which are attempting to modernise their societies are adopting mild modernism (allowing women to drive) to fit the New World Order better.
The rhetoric of Arab governments against Israel after its anti-Hamas campaign in Gaza is muted. With Saudi Arabia unwilling to back terrorists anymore, Qatar is the only prominent Middle East kingdom, which has given Hamas commanders refuge. The ceasefire it has brokered has burnished Doha’s image among the global Left while co-opting Biden. The reason Arab states led by Saudi Arabia’s modernist prince Mohammad bin Salman have softened towards Israel is Iran’s expansionist ambitions. Teheran is the common enemy of Israel and the Saudi-UAE bloc, which recognises Tel Aviv’s military power, including its nuclear arsenal, as a deterrent. They depend on Israeli technology for sophisticated surveillance systems like Pegasus, to monitor domestic dissidents. The Saudi-US ties had become rocky following 9/11; Salman has moved quickly to mitigate the past by intending to proceed with the US-backed normalisation negotiations with Israel while paying lip service to the Palestinian cause.
The Arab Axis sees Israel as a useful ally in America’s Middle East policy, to ensure it remains a dependable business and security partner. Omar Rahman, a former Brookings expert suggests that “by positioning themselves as a partner of Israel, the Gulf states are likely hoping to mitigate the opposition in Washington, while reaffirming the US security commitment by linking Israel’s security with their own”. The US knows well that Arab governments play to the “street”, while viewing Palestinians as
a nuisance. In 1952, former head of UNRWA Sir Alexander Galloway had said, “The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore… as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die.” The Arab countries want to keep Palestinians away from their soil: a recent example is Egypt’s refusal to allow them in from Gaza.
In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees are banned from 39 professions, including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and law. Many Arab governments deny Palestinians citizenship and basic rights. The problem is that historically, Arabs consider Palestinians a menace to their host countries. Jordan suppressed the Palestinian Black September revolt (1970-1971), which tried to depose the government; the Jordanian Army killed about 15,000 Palestinians and expelled the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Although Jordan’s Queen Rania is of Palestinian descent, her husband King Abdullah II declared, “No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt.” Palestinians aren’t trusted; the PLO supported Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Kuwait expelled 2,00,000 Palestinians. No Arab state, including Qatar, has opened its arms to Palestinians caught in the war in Gaza.
INDIA’S QUANDARY
Gaza and the Palestinian crusade have become propaganda metaphors for Pakistan, to raise the Kashmir issue. Last week, during a UN Security Council meeting, Pakistan did it again. India dismissed Islamabad’s rhetoric “with contempt” and called it “a remark of habitual nature”. The Narendra Modi government has put in place measures like the National Register of Citizens to curb illegal immigration through porous borders.
“The situation in India is totally different from that of Palestine and Israel. India is not segregating a particular community or seizing a community’s land, property, or assets... Where there is a commonality is extra-territorial loyalty. So long as Muslims in India think like Indians there is no problem. But that is not always the case. Some live here, and get all the facilities here, yet they do things that go against the integrity, safety, and security of the national interest. This is the core of the problem. So long as we agree that Palestinians have a right to live in an independent state is fine, but to get that state through terrorist means is not acceptable,” says Amar Bhushan, former special secretary, of the Research and Analysis Wing.
India has been deporting Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar. As New Delhi is recognised as an important ally by the West, which regards Israel as its regional partner in West Asia, Modi’s muscular nationalism is reaping political benefits for his party. The long-festering Kashmir issue found a political solution—however contentious—through the abolishment of Article 370. Even anti-Modi Kashmiri activist Shehla Rashid praised the Centre and Manoj Sinha, the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, for improving the human rights situation in the Valley. Gunfights with terrorists do continue with the Indian Army incurring casualties, but these have substantially reduced; government data marked 417 terror incidents in Kashmir in 2018 which was down to 200 by November 2021. Says Shiv Sahai, former Additional Secretary NSCS who served in Kashmir at the height of terrorism: “Political solutions do work. In J&K’s case, after the perceived rigged elections that triggered the militancy again, the 2002 elections were free and fair, and did much to dilute support to the militancy.”
Anti-India insurgency in Kashmir has an external patron in Pakistan, much like Hamas and Hezbollah are funded and trained by Iran. One of India’s successes in fighting insurgency is in the Northeast, which was plagued by secessionism. Indian forces ruthlessly put down the Naga, Mizo and Assamese separatist movements. Says Col. Hunny Bakshi, who served in the region at the height of militancy: “The secessionist elements enjoy the support of local populations. They act like self-styled governments by issuing political appointments, unlike Hamas which was elected. But given the chance, the NE outfits would force a vote under the power of the gun.” The power of the gun and its fear is the true force behind organisations like Hamas, which is just another head of the terror snake. Israel has vowed to eliminate Sinwar and his comrades in terror. But as long as Hasan-e Sabbah’s ghost prowls the dark back alleys of a deadly ideology, the world will never be safe from terror.
Lebanese Hezbollah: Brotherhood of Blood
Hamas is down, but not out. In spite of the hostage deal, Israel is still at war, with an even bigger enemy, the Lebanese Hezbollah. The powerful Iran-backed terrorist group based in Lebanon has been firing more than 1,000 munitions at Israel. Hassan Nasrallah its leader and Secretary-General since 1992, whom Bilal Y Saab Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme calls “the most powerful non-state actor in the world” recently denied that he doesn’t want to escalate the war in Gaza by joining Hamas. In spite of Iranian funding, Nasrallah is not a puppet. It has no desire to impose an Iran-like theocratic state and wants a political role in Lebanon.
This will give it both access to the resources of the Lebanese state and to have a de facto veto over government policy. With Lebanon’s currency losing a staggering 95 per cent of its value, Hezbollah is under pressure and its electoral position has slipped. The rocket assault against Israel could be to shore up its fortunes at home by acting tough. In the May 2022 Lebanese parliament elections, Hezbollah lost support among Christian and Sunni Muslim allies. Hezbollah, however, retains its ability to block Lebanon’s next president, if the candidate is not to its liking. It has not hesitated to intimidate and even assassinate political opponents and critics in Lebanon. Its Goldilocks approach to political participation in Lebanon, claiming to be above the political fray while benefiting from the system, is wearing thin
Israel’s Thorn
Hezbollah had a dedicated unit to train Iraqi radicals against US-led coalition forces. After 2014, Hezbollah helped Iraqi groups to fight IS and defend shrines in Iraq. Iran also uses Hezbollah to train Houthi recruits in Yemen. Tens of thousands of Hezbollah fighters fought in Syria. Its primary target, however, has always been Israel. Like Hamas, Hezbollah has a vast tunnel network where it stores weapons and fighters. Though Hezbollah’s relationship with Hamas is uneven, it teaches fighters suicide-bombing techniques and rocket-making. In July 2022, the Lebanese Hezbollah sent unmanned drones to threaten Israel. However, the threat did not stop Israel and Lebanon from negotiating a deal to begin production at Karish gas field. A week ago, the US deployed an aircraft carrier, warships, a nuclear-powered vessel, attack helicopters, fighter jets, and 5,000 sailors to the region to deter Hezbollah attacks in Northern Israel.
Iran Conundrum
Hezbollah’s armed forces, independent of the Lebanese Armed Forces, have ultra-sophisticated weapons including anti-ship, anti-aircraft, and anti-armour systems, all supplied by Iran. Hezbollah is Iran’s weapon to become the leading power in the Muslim world. Hence, it is a low-cost way for Iran to project power and build allies in other countries
The US Angle
The US can exert financial pressure on Hezbollah and attempt to weaken it, but the group’s supremacy depends on Lebanese and regional dynamics. Hezbollah has been cautious regarding strikes on US soil. The US has tried to strengthen the Lebanese army and police, while its ally, Saudi Arabia, is bolstering Hezbollah’s rivals in Lebanon, but these efforts have floundered. In Europe, Hezbollah has worked with Iran and killed or tried to kill dissidents in France, Austria, Denmark and other countries. Hezbollah has also conducted surveillance of US and Israeli targets in Latin America
(Sourced from Daniel L Byman’s November 2022 research paper published in Brookings.edu)
Tycoons of Terror
While the citizens of Gaza die in the thousands from air strikes and failed missiles, the top Hamas leadership lounge in luxury
The Hamas leadership that controls Gaza, one of the poorest regions in West Asia, is composed of millionaires and billionaires. The 18-year-old Israeli-Egyptian blockade, which restricts the movement of goods to and from the Gaza Strip, is mostly responsible for its poverty. The vast underground tunnel network, which Hamas has built made many terror leaders immensely rich; Hamas imposes a 20 per cent tax on all smuggled goods. In 2012, 600 smuggler-millionaires reportedly lived in Gaza before the war; Professor Ahmed Karima of Al-Azhar University in Egypt counts 1,200 Hamas millionaires. The Times of Israel reported that high-profile Hamas officials left Gaza by end-2022 to stay in luxury hotels in Beirut, Doha and Istanbul. “It is tragic that Hamas’s leaders cynically use their own people as pawns in their deadly game of terror,” says the Israeli Embassy spokesman in India, Guy Nir.
Ismail Haniyeh, the 61-year-old current chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, who leads an opulent life in Doha, is on Tel Aviv’s hit list. In a video released after the kibbutzim massacre, Haniyeh and Hamas officials were seen cheering and prostrating on the carpeted floor in a lushly appointed room. Gazans sarcastically refer to one of his sons, Maaz, as Abu al-Akerat, or “father of real estate”. In 2010, Haniyeh reportedly bought a 2,500 sqm plot of land in Rimal, Gaza’s posh beachfront neighbourhood, for $4 million: it is close to the Al-Shati refugee camp where he grew up. Egyptian magazine Rose al-Yusuf reported that the terrorist registered the land in his son-in-law’s name. Since then, Haniyeh has been on a property-buying spree in Gaza, purchasing more houses, which he registered in the names of some of his 13 children. Abu al-Akerat, who holds a Turkish passport, has bought properties in Egypt and Turkey, apart from Qatar. Haniyeh operates a private electricity enterprise; his children own generators and sell power to consumers in Gaza at high prices. The subsidised fuel Cairo sent for Gazans was appropriated by Hamas who sold it to needy citizens for eight times the price.
Another ace terrorist in Israel’s gun-fights is 58-year-old Deif aka Mohammed al-Masri, whom the Palestinians call ‘The Brain’ and the Israelis ‘The Cat with Nine Lives’—he escaped seven Mossad assassination attempts. The Israelis are aware that he and Haniyeh engineered the October attack. Media sources reported on June 1, 2023, that Deif’s estimated net worth was approximately $5 million; peanuts compared to the net worth of 72-year-old Mousa Abu Marzouk, head of Hamas’s “international relations office”, which is $3 billion. Marzouk got rich with money solicited from rich Muslims in America; in no time he was running a consortium of 10 financial operations “that give loans and conduct investments”. In 1995, Marzouk was imprisoned for two years on terrorism charges, and deported without trial. But the money remained in his pocket. The paper reported that US authorities discovered his ties with Al-Qaeda, including money transfers made to the 9/11 terrorists, but he was let off.
Dr Moshe Elad, a Middle East expert from the Western Galilee Academic College told the Jewish newspaper The Algemeiner that most Hamas founders were born of intermarriages between Egyptians and Gazans, with no money at all “fed off the Israeli military establishment, which funded Islamic associations in Gaza in an effort to counterbalance Fatah”. On the day Hamas cut ties with Israel and sought funding elsewhere, their phenomenal wealth started growing.
The paper cited Elad telling Israeli financial newspaper Globes that the money comes from “donations by the families of people who die, charity money, called ‘zakala’ in Arabic and the donations of various countries. It started with Syria, Saudi Arabia, then Iran, one of the main sponsors, and ended with Qatar, which has today taken Iran’s place.”
Khaled Mashal, 67, is another top Hamas official living in Doha. He is part of the core leadership and is known for his financial savviness. His investments in Egyptian banks and real estate projects in the Gulf countries have brought him immense wealth: his personal worth, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is currently estimated at about $5 billion. He owns a luxury yacht and expansive properties. The Algemeiner quoted Arab sources saying senior-official-turned-terror-tycoon Khaled Mashaal, who heads Hamas’s political wing is worth between $ 2 - 5 billion, which is “invested in Egyptian banks and Gulf countries, some in real estate projects”. Israeli news website Ynetnews reported that a construction project by Fadil, a Qatari real estate firm, is linked to Mashal, his son and daughter-in-law. Fadil is building four glitzy towers of more than 27,000 sqm, which have offices, commercial spaces and a mall spread over 10,000 sqm in Doha. The source of its funding is opaque, leading investigators to believe these are funds stolen from Islamic charities.
According to Ynetnews, the business partners of Hamas chiefs are mostly Muslim Brotherhood officials, with whom the deals are made in cash. Their broker, until his death in 2014, was Ayman Taha, a Hamas founder and former spokesman. In 2011, Taha bought a luxury three-floor villa in central Gaza for $7,00,000. Reuters cited American counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt saying that most of Hamas’s budget, which comes to over $300 million, is from taxes levied on businesses in Gaza, Islamic charities and funds from Iran and Qatar. After being sanctioned as a terrorist organisation by the US and UK, Hamas has unsuccessfully taken the crypto way to elude international monitoring.
Hamas itself is filthy rich; its annual budget in Gaza is $2-2.5 billion, according to Yitzhak Gal, an expert on Middle East economic issues. In 2007, Hamas was elected to power in the Gaza Strip by deposing the Palestinian Authority (PA) and became popular with the people. It established a bank, hired staff and became a Palestinian government by definition, a rival to the PA, which jointly governs, with Israel, Judea and Samaria. Hamas diverted public funds to finance its military systems. It has thousands of senior managers to oversee its economic matters. Hamas's money channels to the Gaza Strip are five:
1. the PA budget
2. foreign aid, which now is largely limited to Qatar
3. Turkey-based Hamas Charity Coalition
4. local tax collection
5. Iranian funding.
Israel has been seizing and destroying property of Hamas leaders, and confiscating terror funds, including crypto. In Kashmir, Indian agencies have seized properties worth crores belonging to the Kashmiri separatist leadership, including the late Syed Shah Geelani and Shabbir Shah. Shiv Sahai refutes the comparison. “Apart from using terror tactics and having been born out of a political question, there is hardly any similarity between them. Hamas controlled territory while no organisation in Kashmir does.”
THE HAMAS CHRONICLES
Thirty-five years of unrelenting extremism
1987 Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, emerges from jail after serving two years of a 13-year term and founds Hamas
1987-1993 First intifada. Violent riots erupted in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel for an independent Palestinian state.
1988 Hamas Covenant was issued to explain its stand and goals
1989 Israel outlaws Hamas and jails Sheikh Ahmed Yassin
1992 Hamas created the military branch Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
1993 First Hamas suicide bombing
1996 Palestinian elections were announced, which Hamas boycotted. Fatah wins big.
1996 Yahya Ayyash, Hamas bomb-maker, was identified and killed
February-March, 1996 47 Israelis were killed in three different bombings
In October 1997 Sheikh Yassin was freed by Benjamin Netanyahu in a US-Jordan deal brokered by the US. Sheikh Yassin is back in Gaza.
March 1998 Death of Mohiyedine Sharif, senior Hamas bomb-maker
September 2000 The Al-Aqsa Intifada begins
January 6, 2004, Senior Hamas leadership offers a 10-year truce to Israel conditional for its complete withdrawal to 1967 borders
March 22, 2004, Sheikh Yassin was killed in an Israeli missile strike. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi takes over.
April 17, 2004, Rantissi was killed in an Israeli air strike, in revenge for a suicide bombing by Hamas
April 18, 2004, Hamas secretly selects new leader in Gaza
September 26, 2004, Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil was killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria November 11, 2004, Yasser Arafat dies
In January 2005 Palestinian presidential election was declared, which Hamas boycotted. PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas was elected to replace Arafat.
January-May, 2005 Palestinian municipal elections; Hamas takes control of a part of northern Gaza, the West Bank, and Rafah
March 2005 Hamas proclaims tahdiyah, a period of calm
January 25, 2006, Hamas won the legislative election decisively
March 2007 Palestinian Legislative Council establishes a national unity government
June 2007 Hamas takes over Gaza, violently subduing Fatah
2008-2014 Israel embroiled in a series of battles with Hamas. Terrorists retaliate with rockets and kidnappings. Egypt brokers a ceasefire.
2021 Violence breaks out in East Jerusalem and Gaza after Israel threatens to evict Palestinian families. Restrictions imposed around the al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan. A ceasefire was brokered by Egypt and Qatar.
2023 Hamas terrorists enter Israel and wreak havoc, provoking Israel to invade Gaza