The Hamas terrorist organization is homeless following its split with Syria and new obstacles to a unity agreement with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas began turning against Syrian President Bashar Assad several weeks ago as his bloody suppression of the year-long rebellion virtually isolates him from the Arab world. Iran is his only major Muslim ally outside of Lebanon, which is under the domination of Hizbullah and pro-Syrian parties.
Despite several denials that Hamas leaders have left Damascus, the terrorist organization for all practical purposes is “no longer in Syria because we couldn’t practice our duties there,” Hamas’ number two leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told the Associated Press in Cairo.
Hamas is also finding itself out of favor with Iran for having turned against Assad and is paying for it by suffering less financial aid from the Islamic Republic.
Egypt has been hosting the Fatah faction, headed by Abbas, and the rival Hamas terrorist organization in another of countless efforts to reach a unity agreement four years after Hamas staged a bloody coup to oust Fatah from Gaza nearly five years ago.
As in the past, obstacles again may prove to be insurmountable. The terrorist organization’s supreme leader Khaled Mashaal will not be comfortable with headquarters in Gaza, where there might be a race between Israel and rival terrorist groups over who could be the first to annihilate him.
His other choice would be the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas sprang, but the newly elected dominant political party in Egypt is not likely to host it and risk diplomatic anger and possible financial punishment by the American government, which defines Hamas as an illegal terrorist organization.
Hamas and Fatah previously have agreed to an interim unity government to be headed by Abbas and followed by elections. However, this week’s meetings in Doha did not narrow the gaps between the rival groups concerning Hamas’s avowed strategy of terror against Israel.
Another problem is the current stalemated Palestinian Authority legislature, where Hamas won a majority in the first and only parliamentary elections. Abbas has refused to be bound by the same legislature.
