Anat Saragosti
Yedioth Ahronoth
Israel is to blame for the hate-mongering entity that is Hamas, said Anat Saragosti. In the late 1980s, faced with an implacable foe in the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israeli intelligence agents decided it was time to “split the Palestinian nation.” They turned a blind eye to the growth of a new movement, Hamas, an arm of Egypt’s radical Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed, some say they “secretly supported” the rise of Hamas, hoping it would weaken the PLO. Yet “the PLO was not eliminated; rather, it became stronger. The intifada did not die off; rather, it grew stronger.” And Hamas became the agenda-setter for the Palestinian cause. Hamas last week held a massive rally in Gaza to celebrate its 21st birthday. Thousands of fanatical supporters waved weapons and called for the destruction of Israel. The disgusting spectacle included hundreds of young children singing “songs of hate against the ‘Zionist enemy.’” At this point, there are no more moderates among the Palestinians. “The hatred is so great, the anger is so deep, the suffering is so vast, and the despair is so dark that there is nobody to talk to.” And “all of this is our responsibility.”
