Actually, Iran wants little to do with Hamas

by on January 15, 2009 11
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Here is a really smart piece by Trita Parsi on Huffpo saying that notwithstanding the neocons' (they won't go away) claims, Iran has limited connections to Hamas (as opposed to Hezbollah) and that it has all but washed its hands of the Palestinians being slaughtered in Gaza because Iran wants to stay on Obama's good side. I.e., if Obama is shackled to the radiator on Gaza, Iran doesn't mind shackling itself too. Realism 1o1.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Gaza, Iran

{ 11 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. hlmeankin says:
    January 15, 2009 at 2:56 am

    Come on Phil,
    You know this is just another anti-Iranian propaganda piece..
    although you do alot of good stuff..
    its really you who keeps the fantasy of Obama the angel of peace and justice,alive.
    And if Iran,is factoring in the Bush administration's fascist zionist readiness to go to war against them at the drop of a hat,isn't it a wise strategy to wait for what might be a better environment in which to maneuver??

  2. Richard Witty says:
    January 15, 2009 at 5:25 am

    "In contrast, Iran's relationship with Hamas is a marriage of convenience at best."

    Its a real relationship, just with more ambiguity and tension for Iran.

    Will someone in Iran write a book, "The Palestine Lobby – Confusing our National Interest"?

    Probably already written. If Iran leaves the support of Hamas, then the Gaza Palestinians stand alone.

    Trita Parsi then might be functionally advocating for the ethnic cleansing that you fear. Iran stimulating angers by encouraging militancy on the part of Hamas, but abandoning them after they've committed, with the thousand caught in the crossfire.

  3. samuel burke says:
    January 15, 2009 at 7:10 am

    is the pope catholic?
    do bears shit in the woods?

    Does Israeli Intelligence Lie?
    link to antiwar.com
    />
    by Ira Chernus
    All of the suffering in Gaza – indeed, all of the suffering endured by Palestinians under Israeli occupation for the last eight years – could have been avoided if Israel negotiated a peace agreement with Yasser Arafat when it had the chance, in 2001.

    What chance? The official Israeli position is that there was no chance, "no partner for peace." That's what Israeli leaders heard from their Military Intelligence (MI) service in 2000 after the failure of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David. Arafat scuttled those talks, MI told the leaders, because he was planning to set off a new round of violence, a second intifada.

    Now former top officials of MI say the whole story, painting Arafat as a terrorist out to destroy Israel, was an intentional fiction. That's the most explosive finding in an investigative report just published in Israel's top newspaper, Ha'aretz, by one of its finest journalists, Akiva Eldar.

    Tale of Two Tales

    Much like our own CIA, Eldar's sources say, Israeli military intelligence has two versions of every story. MI analysts give their findings to government policymakers in oral reports that simply tell the political leaders what they want to hear. Meanwhile, the analysts keep the truth secret, filed away in written documents, waiting to be pulled out to cover MI's posterior if the government's policies turned out to be failures.

    Much of the information in the Ha'aretz report comes from Ephraim Lavie, an honors graduate of Israel's National Security College who rose through the ranks in MI's research section and eventually became head of MI's Palestinian research unit during the era of the Camp David talks. "Defining Arafat and the PA as 'terrorist elements' was the directive of the political echelon," said Lavie. "The unit's written analyses were presenting completely different assessments, based on reliable intelligence material."

    The idea that "there is no one to talk to and nothing to talk about," simply because Arafat rejected the Israeli offer at Camp David, just wasn't true. But it was what the politicians wanted to hear.

  4. Lysander says:
    January 15, 2009 at 8:50 am

    To be honest, I find that insulting about Iran. I do think they are very sympathetic to Hamas and the Palestinians and rightfully so. Iran has spoken out loudly on their behalf during the carnage, both through senior government officials and through the press. They have chided Arab leaders for their betrayal. But there is not much more they could do. Are they going to send an invasion force to Gaza?

    Economic aid they would have gladly given if the borders weren't shut down. So I do think Iran is a friend of Hamas and the Palestinians and their is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

    Where the Neocons lie their asses off is when they talk of how Iran has armed Hamas. I'm sure they would if they could, after all Palestine has a right to defend itself, but Gaza is pretty easy to seal off so that is a great exaggeration.

  5. stevieb says:
    January 15, 2009 at 8:53 am

    Iran already know Obama isn't going to change U.S foreign policies regarding Iran – they've even said as much, I'm almost certain. The main thing they are looking for is American recognition of their LEGAL rights to nuclear power. As it is the Obama's administration continues exactly the same tract except with 'negotiations'. Which were occurring with the Bush admin too – all regarding Iran giving up it's legal right to nuclear power. Which they will never do.(Unless maybe Israel were give up it's nuclear arsenal).

    Silly piece.

  6. stevieb says:
    January 15, 2009 at 8:56 am

    Of course it also follows the pro-Israeli propaganda line that the real problem isn't th e occupation or Israel's sub-human policies against the Palestinians.

    No it's Hamas – who even Iran doesn't want anything to do with.

    Yeah right….

  7. Today'sNews says:
    January 15, 2009 at 9:19 am

    Islamic states back Iran’s 14-point proposal on Gaza
    Tehran Times Political Desk

    ISTANBUL – Majlis speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday put forward a 14-point proposal on the Gaza conflict which received strong support from the Islamic states attending the Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union (IIPU) in Istanbul, Turkey.

    Larijani arrived in Turkey on Tuesday to attend an IIPU emergency meeting on Gaza.

    “An immediate ceasefire and exit of the Zionist troops from Gaza”, “ending the blockade on Gaza and reopening all border crossings” and “forming a fact-finding committee to study the Zionist regime’s crimes against Gaza in order to bring the war criminals to justice” were Larijani’s proposals which were included in the final statement of the session.

    Iran proposed that the international community should condemn the Zionist regime for resorting to force against civilian people, using unconventional weapons in Gaza’s densely populated areas and also for its air, sea and ground attacks.

    Iran also proposed providing humanitarian aid such as food, fuel and medicine, dispatching an IIPU committee to the region to direct the relief operations, urging the United Nations and relief organizations such as the Red Cross to send humanitarian aid and transfer the wounded from Gaza, holding the Zionist regime responsible for the loss of human lives and the destruction in the Gaza Strip, and also imposing a legal obligation on the Zionist regime to pay reparations to the victims.

    Tehran suggested that the IIPU should call on the international community to pressure Israel to release the Palestinian prisoners including the Palestinian National Assembly speaker and other Palestinian lawmakers.

    Iran has also suggested that all IIPU members should break off parliamentary relations with Tel Aviv.

  8. Eva Smagacz says:
    January 15, 2009 at 9:56 am

    Iran is Persian and Shia and Hamas is Arab and Sunny. Real, as opposite to rhetorical, support exists only in Israel's propaganda machine's imagination.

    I read about the joke making rounds in Teheran in 2000: "why there are no stones lying around on the streets of Teheran to stone adulterers? Because Iran send them to Palestine to support intifada…."

  9. Richard Witty says:
    January 15, 2009 at 10:40 am

    Many people do want something to do with Hamas when they organize social service for their community.

    Even Israel wants to help that, and did.

    But Hamas is schizophrenic. It has hothead militants, and sober committed social service advocates.

    The social service people KNOW that their hard work is 2 steps forward, 2 steps back when the hotheads predominate.

  10. stevieb says:
    January 15, 2009 at 11:08 am

    Is that what they KNOW, Witty?

    YOU know nothing, Richard.

    Absolutely nothing….

  11. Kathy says:
    January 15, 2009 at 2:06 pm

    Many have speculated where hamas gets its money, and assume the easy answer is Iran.

    But this shows that the real goal of Israel in this barbaric slaughter in Gaza Ghetto is revealed by the timing. Why now?

    My guess is to pre-empt Obama.

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