Is Assange for Real?

It is uncanny that Assange says what is very obvious, known, and undeniable, yet omits that which is not out in the open. Thus establishing 'credibility', he puts out there a message that we are to believe because it is from him.

In this 2015 interview, Assange refers to "oil" Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine (leaving out more important factors" and of course, asserting that 'cables show Israel created Hamas". Hogwash. Hamas makes some crazy moves, but the origin is not created by Israel but BECAUSE of Israel.

With the end of the Intifada and the initiation of the Oslo peace process, the resistance component of the Palestinian struggle-so critical to Hamas's political thinking and action-was undermined.  For Hamas, social and political action is inextricably linked.

However, the retreat from the political sphere was pragmatic and accompanied by a need to rediscover Islam and its relevance to society. This enabled Hamas to spread itself among the Palestinian people and organize itself.  In the two- to three-year period before the second Intifida in 2000, Hamas was no longer prominently or consistently calling for political or military action against the occupation, but was instead shifting its attention to
social works and the propagation of Islamic values and religious practice.

            The start of the second Palestinian Intifada on September 28, 2000, coupled
with the impact of September 11, dramatically changed the environment in the West Bank and Gaza.  Preexisting political arrangements had been severely disrupted, economic conditions have deteriorated, and key social structures and mediatory institutions had weakened. Within this context of desperation and hopelessness, the Islamist opposition, notably Hamas, had reasserted itself. 

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continued the Israeli land expansions through land expropriations and economic dispossession.  It is unlikely that his agenda included a Palestinian state.  The United States uneven handling of the conflict encouraged Sharon’s plans.   With a weak Palestinian leadership in place, and the increasing significance of Hamas influence, the U.S. opens dialogue with a senior Hamas leader in early September of 2002.  Judging by the Israeli reaction, it seems that Israel does not want to have any Palestinian engaged in dialogue with the U.S. for fear that there may be a political solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

United States-Hamas contacts, of which Israel was fully aware, ended when
the Israeli army arrested a politically moderate Hamas official in Ramallah on September 9, which Hamas interpreted as a deliberate attempt by the Sharon government to undermine its exchange with the Americans. A few days later, Israel launched an attack in Rafah that killed nine Palestinians, including civilians. Predictably, a suicide bomber staged an attack on a bus in Tel Aviv on September 19, killing six people.

Other Hamas-Palestinian Authority (PA) cease-fires have been undermined by Israeli attacks. Alex Fishman, the security commentator for the right-of-center Yediot Achronot, Israel's largest mass-circulation newspaper, detailed in the November 25, 2001 issue of the newspaper how the assassination that November of Mahmud Abu Hanud, a key Hamas figure, shattered a Hamas promise not to carry out suicide bombings inside Israel: "Whoever gave the green light to this act of liquidation knew full well that he was thereby shattering in one blow the gentleman's agreement between Hamas and the PA; under that agreement, Hamas was to avoid in the near future suicide bombings inside the Green Line [Israel's pre-1967 borders] of the kind perpetrated at the Dolphinarium [a discotheque in Tel Aviv.

In effect, Israel’s actions led Hamas to play into their hands.  Having already marginalized the PLO and Yasir Arafat, by instigating Hamas suicide bombings Sharon would ensure that negotiations for a Palestinian state would not take place, no matter what the cost.   Although seemingly agreeing to the “road map” initiated by the U.S., Sharon’s underlying intentions were otherwise.   The Israeli prime minister actions led to a period of suicide bombings by Hamas, followed by negotiations while Israel expanded in to the West Bank, having found the perfect excuse to deal heavy handedly with Hamas and PLO and to build a barrier which it claimed was to stop the suicide bombings. 

On Aug 8, 2003 more than 40 protestors were arrested by the Israeli government
for attempting to interfere with construction of the security barrier separating Israel and the West Bank. In a raid by Israeli troops, one Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldier and
two suspected Hamas bomb-makers were shot and killed. The raid took place in the “Askar” refugee camp next to the West Bank city of Nabilus.   On  August 12^th Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade and Hamas claimed responsibility for separate suicide bombings near Rosh Haayin in Israel. Although the attacks were uncoordinated, they occurred a few miles and less than an hour, apart .

With the escalation of suicide bombings, the European Union imposed a sanction on Hamas and their assets were frozen.  Sharon started targeting top Hamas personnel, and in 2004 Israel’s extra judicial assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin was supported by the United States.  This gave Sharon the green light and he gave the orders to kill the man who replaced Yassin – Abdel Aziz Rantisi.  Again, without being reprimanded from Washington, and finding  that Hamas is being crushed, having found that the Middle East Peace Plan is moving in accordance to Sharon’s wishes, that is unilaterally and unacceptable not only to Palestinians, but to the whole Arab world, Sharon has now declared that he will target Arafat.  This will buy him the excuse to eliminate anyone to negotiate with for an independent Palestinian state.

The suicide bombing tactics served to advance Sharon’s goals and that of Israel.  They came across as the aggressors that created fear and mistrust who had to be dealt with brutally.  With the world super power backing every action of your opponent, it is hard to devise a plan to counter their aggression. It would have been fruitless for Hamas to have protested at the onset of the Israeli master plan.  It would have no doubt fallen on deaf ears.  It is clear that their unity with PLO and Arafat would have served Palestine.  As it stands, suicide bombings gave Sharon a carte blanche, did not further the cause of the Palestinian people, and depleted Hamas of funds, to say the least.