HAMAS. The Islamic Resistance Movement and Key Issues in International Terrorism PDF Download

Author: Stefan Pauly
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668032467
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, grade: 1,5, University of St Andrews (Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence), language: English, abstract: Hamas is an acronym that stands for “Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya”, or Islamic Resistance Movement, whereas the word Hamas in itself also means “zeal” or “enthusiasm” in Arabic and, according to some sources, additionally originates from another term with the meaning of “courage and bravery”. Hamas is by far the largest and perhaps also most influential militant Palestinian organization. It combines a religio-political ideology with nationalist-separatist elements. Hamas is mainly active in the Palestinian territories, and currently in control of the Gaza Strip. Its overall goal is the establishment of an Islamic state in Palestine. Written in early 2011, the paper provides a brief overview of the Islamic Resistance Movement and a retrospect of what was known about Hamas back then. A helpful quick-guide giving some of the most important names and dates in the movement's history.

Author: Beverley Milton-Edwards
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745654681
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Declared a terrorist menace yet elected to government in a free election, Hamas now stands as the most important Sunni Islamist group in the Middle East. How did Hamas grow to be so powerful? Who supports it? What is its future? This essential insight into Hamas answers these questions. Milton-Edwards and Farrell have between them spent decades researching and reporting from the heartlands of the Hamas movement and gained unrivalled access to the world of Islamic resistance and radical Islam in its potent Palestinian form. Drawing on their frontline experiences of recent events, their access to secret documents from the western intelligence community and interviews with leaders, militants, and commanders of Hamas' armed battalions, they reveal the full story of Hamas and the future of political Islam in the Middle East. Milton-Edwards and Farrell show Hamas to be a broad and thus more powerful regional phenomenon than previously thought, and by doing so contend that it is now time to rethink the war and the nature of Islam and its role in the Middle East. Beverley Milton-Edwards is Professor in the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy at Queens University, Belfast. She is the author of books such as Contemporary Politics in the Middle East (2006) and The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: a People's War (2009). Prize-winning journalist Stephen Farrell is Foreign Correspondent for the New York Times and was previously Middle East correspondent for The Times.

Author: Jim Zanotti
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781470052768
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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Book Description
This report and its appendixes provide background information on Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, and U.S. policy towards it. It also includes information and analysis on (1) the threats Hamas currently poses to U.S. interests, (2) how Hamas compares with other Middle East terrorist groups, (3) Hamas's ideology and policies (both generally and on discrete issues), (4) its leadership and organization, and (5) its sources of assistance. Finally, the report raises and discusses various legislative and oversight options related to foreign aid strategies, financial sanctions, and regional and international political approaches. In evaluating these options, Congress can assess how Hamas has emerged and adapted over time, and also scrutinize the track record of U.S., Israeli, and international policy to counter Hamas. Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist military and sociopolitical movement that grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood. The United States, Israel, the European Union, and Canada consider Hamas a terrorist organization because of (1) its violent resistance to what it deems Israeli occupation of historic Palestine (constituting present-day Israel, West Bank, and Gaza Strip), and (2) its rejection of the off-and-on peace process involving Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since the early 1990s. Since Hamas's inception in 1987, it has maintained its primary base of political support and its military command in the Gaza Strip-a territory it has controlled since June 2007-while also having a significant presence in the West Bank. The movement's political leadership is currently headquartered in exile in Damascus, Syria. Hamas receives assistance and training from Iran, Syria, and the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah. Hamas is often discussed alongside other groups in the region that engage in militant and terrorist activities to achieve their ends, yet Hamas has confined its militancy to Israel and the Palestinian territories-distinguishing it from the broader aspirations expressed by Al Qaeda and its affiliates. The overarching U.S. goal regarding Hamas is to deter, transform, marginalize, or neutralize it so that it no longer presents a threat to Israel's security, to a peaceful and lasting resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or to other U.S. interests-either in its own right or as a proxy of Iran or other actors. Various legislative and policy initiatives designed to accomplish this goal have at most achieved temporary or partial success. It is possible to conclude that U.S. and other international support for Israel and the Palestinian Authority/PLO dominated by Fatah (Hamas's main rival faction) has been counterproductive to some extent when comparing Hamas's domestic, regional, and international strength in the early 1990s-measured by factors such as popularity, military force, and leverage with other actors (including Israel and Fatah)-to its current strength. The Israeli-Egyptian closure regime in Gaza and various U.S. and international initiatives constrain and isolate Hamas to a point and may exacerbate its internal organizational tensions and tactical disagreements. Yet, the threats Hamas continues to pose to Israel, to prospects for a two-state solution and to the future of Palestinian democracy present considerable risks and difficult trade-offs for any U.S. policy decisions going forward.

Author: Sherifa Zuhur
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
The conflict between Palestinians and Israelis has heightened since 2001, even as any perceived threat to Israel from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, or even Syria, has declined. Israel, according to Chaim Herzog, Israel's sixth President, had been "born in battle" and would be "obliged to live by the sword." Yet, the Israeli government's conquest and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza brought about a very difficult challenge, although resistance on a mass basis was only taken upyears later in the First Intifadha. Israel could not tolerate Palestinian Arabs' resistance of their authority on the legal basis of denial of self-determination,2 and eventually preferred to grant some measures of self-determination while continuing to consolidate control of the Occupied Territories, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. However, a comprehensive peace, shimmering in the distance, has eluded all. Inter-Israeli and inter-Palestinian divisions deepenedas peace danced closer before retreating. Israel's stance towards the democratically elected Palestinian government headed by HAMAS in 2006, and towards Palestinian national coherence-legal, territorial, political, and economic-has been a major obstacle to substantive peacemaking. The reasons for recalcitrant Israeli and HAMAS stances illustrate both continuities and changes in the dynamics of conflict since the Oslo period (roughly 1994 to the al-Aqsa Intifadha of 2000). Now, more than ever, a long-term truce and negotiations are necessary. These could lead in stages to that mirage-like peace, and a new type of security regime. The rise in popularity and strength of the HAMAS (Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, or Movement of the Islamic Resistance) Organization and its interaction with Israel is important to an understanding of Israel's "Arab" policies and its approach to counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. The crisis brought about by the electoral success of HAMAS in 2006 also challenged Western powers' commitment to democratic change in the Middle East because Palestinians had supported the organization in the polls. Thus, the viability of a twostate solution rested on an Israeli acknowledgement of the Islamist movement, HAMAS, and on Fatah's ceding power to it. Shifts in Israel's stated national security objectives (and dissent over them) reveal HAMAS' placement at the nexus of Israel's domestic, Israeli-Palestinian, and regional objectives. Israel has treated certain enemies differently than others: Iran, Hizbullah, and Islamist Palestinians (whether HAMAS, supporters of Islamic Jihad, or the Islamic Movement inside Israel) all fall into a particular rubric in which Islamism-the most salient and enduring socio religious movement in the Middle East in the wake of Arab nationalism-is identified with terrorism and insurgency rather than with group politics and identity. The antipathy to religious fervor was somewhat ironic in light of Israel's own expanding "religious" (haredim) groups.

Author: Yonah Alexander
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004479813
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
This volume profiles Hamas (Harakat al-Mugawama al-Islamiya), main radical Islamic terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, smaller in size but equally committed to eliminating Israel through political violence. The aim of this book is not to glorify terrorist movements. Rather it is designed to provide an easily accessible reference for academics, policy makers, reporters, and other interested individuals on two of the most notorious Palestinian terrorist groups. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

Author: Dr. Mohsen M. Saleh
Publisher: مركز الزيتونة للدراسات والاستشارات
ISBN: 9953572631
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 706

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Book Description
Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations in Beirut has launched the English version of the book “The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas: Studies of Thought and Experience,” which was co-written by a group of professors specializing in the Palestinian issue and five senior Hamas leaders. The 704-page book is edited by Dr. Mohsen Saleh. The book examines Hamas’s vision and experience in all its aspects. The work sticks to two main commitments: First, adherence to academic research methods, and the accuracy, objectivity and extensive documentation necessary to them. The second is the attempt to present Hamas as it really is, whether by the contributions of specialized researches, who are well informed of Hamas and its experience; or by the contributions of Hamas leaders, who have addressed a number of issues and presented a more comprehensive picture of the Movement. Particularly so when the available literature is insufficient to clarify all the issues being researched, especially for Western audiences interested in understanding the Palestinian issue, of which Hamas has become a key component in the past decade. The book falls in two parts. The first is a collection of eleven studies on Hamas and its experience, in which chapter one presents an overview of the movement experience and history. It discusses the background and inception, and considers Hamas a continuation of the work of the Muslim Brothers (MB) movement that began in the form of popular advocacy through a network of branches and offices beginning in 1945. Interestingly, this chapter examines events that reflect the extent of the MB movement’s participation in armed resistance as well as preaching activities, in addition to their links to the establishment of the Fatah movement, which was co-founded by MB figures. This chapter digs deeper in to the stages that Hamas underwent, especially between 1987 and 2005. The second chapter gives the reader the chance to examine Hamas’s political vision, addressing the wellsprings of Hamas’s political ideology, its approach to religion and state, law, and constitution, and its views on nationalism, secularism, and democracy. Finally, it addresses the rights of minorities in Hamas’s political thought. The chapter contains a plethora of answers to questions usually raised by those interested to learn about Hamas’s ideas, bearing in mind that it is difficult to find material that expresses Hamas’s intellectual frameworks in such a comprehensive manner, except through some of the interviews, which still are no match for the topics covered by the book. In the third chapter, we delve into Hamas’ conceptualization of the other, meaning Hamas’s view of Israel, Judaism, Jews, Zionism and Zionists, which is the basis for understanding the background and future of the conflict. The book, in the fourth and fifth chapters, continues to analyze the relationship between Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its factions, and Hamas’s position on Islamic Palestinian movements including the Sufis and Salafis, Hizb ut-Tahrir, and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (PIJ), explaining the convergences and divergences with these factions. This is based on analyzing both Hamas’s theoretical framework and policies, drawing from primary sources. The sixth chapter highlights an important issue, namely, the peace process. Naturally, readers will wonder how Hamas’s actions and visions approach the peace process. In this chapter, the author examines the stages of evolution of Hamas’s political position on the peace process, whether through the movement’s theoretical and intellectual frameworks, or its practices on the ground. The seventh chapter tackles in detail Hamas’s vision for political and social reform in Palestine, based on the set of principles the group has committed itself to, including its insistence on political freedom for all and the rights of the Palestinian people. Hamas’s political reform project is not confined to internal Palestinian matters, but also cover foreign relations, especially with Arab and Muslim countries. In addition, Hamas’s social reform platform focuses on combatting poverty as the entry point for comprehensive development and reform. The eighth and ninth chapters overview at length Hamas’s Arab and Islamic relations, by analyzing the determinants, objectives, and dimensions of Hamas’s relations, an explaining its position towards the Arab Spring. They also examine Hamas’s relations with Turkey and Iran and their evolution. The tenth chapter deals with Hamas’s experience in government, following the 2006 legislative elections. This chapter explores the defects within the Palestinian political system in order to determine the environment and challenges that Hamas faced. Finally, it assesses Hamas performance in governance in the period 2006–2012. The eleventh chapter concludes the first part of the book by reviewing Western academic literature on Hamas, with a view to answer the following fundamental question: To what extent have these studies succeeded in understanding the true nature of Hamas? The second part of the book includes contributions by five senior Hamas leaders attempting to answer a miscellany of questions regarding different issues appertaining to the Movement. These include a study by Khalid Mish’al, head of Hamas Political Bureau, which is entitled “Hamas: Milestones in Thought and Experience.” A second study entitled “Hamas: A Reading in the Vision and Governance Experience” is contributed by Isma‘il Haniyyah, the new Hamas politburo chief and prime minister of Hamas’s caretaker government. It also includes a contribution by Musa Abu Marzuq, senior Hamas leader and former politburo chief titled Hamas Assessment of the Experience; and a contribution by Usamah Hamdan on Hamas International Relations. The section also includes a paper prepared by Sami Khater, Hamas politburo member, regarding Hamas’s Vision for Managing the Conflict with the “Zionist Enemy.” The book includes an appendix of major documents related to Hamas and its experience since the issuance of its charter in 1987 until the memorandum of enforcement of the Palestinian reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas (Al-Shati’ Agreement) in 2014 besides key political documents issued in the intervening period.

Author: Marc A. Walther
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3937885277
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
"Far from being solely a terrorist organization, Hamas is a heterogeneous movement that uses both violence and political participation to achieve its main objective, which is to stay in power and preserve its identity. Two opinions about Hamas are prevalent. According to the first opinion, Hamas is a radical, terrorist organization. The policy implication of this opinion is simple: Hamas cannot be reformed and will continue to use violence until it is neutralized. According to the second opinion, Hamas is a social movement that does not necessarily need to use violence. This school of thought sees Hamas as a movement that can learn to refrain from violence. The policy implication of this opinion is that Hamas' participation in politics will help it transition into a nonviolent organization. Both perspectives emphasize only a particular part of Hamas, either its use of violence or its political development. But Hamas must be analyzed and understood by the complexity of its organization and the interdependency of its actions to internal and external influences. Therefore, it is important to pose the following questions: (1) What are the domestic, international, and internal organizational factors that shape Hamas' behavior and lead to either pragmatic nonviolent action or the use of violence?; and (2) Is Hamas' ideological movement driven by absolute religious principles that cannot be compromised, or is it a pragmatic organization capable of justifying compromise even on a seemingly immutable doctrine? This thesis asserts a middle position: Hamas' decision to act depends on two factors, its internal situation and the political and situational circumstances on the ground in Palestine. The middle position implies that the situation on the ground can be influenced in a way that gives Hamas little or no incentive to use violence."--abstract of author's Master's thesis.

Author: Jim Zanotti
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437943829
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 67

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Book Description
Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist military and sociopolitical movement that grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood. The U.S., Israel, the EU, and Canada consider Hamas a terrorist org. This report provides background info. on Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, and U.S. policy towards it. It also includes info. and analysis on: (1) the threats Hamas currently poses to U.S. interests; (2) how Hamas compares with other Middle East terrorist groups; (3) Hamas¿s ideology and policies; (4) its leadership and org., and (5) its sources of assistance. Finally, the report discusses various legislative and oversight options related to foreign aid strategies, financial sanctions, and regional and international political approaches. A print on demand report.

Author: Shaul Mishal
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231140065
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Two Israeli experts show that, contrary to its image, Hamas is essentially a social and political movement, providing extensive community services and responding constantly to political realities through bargaining and power brokering.

Author: Matthew Levitt
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300129017
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
How does a group that operates terror cells and espouses violence become a ruling political party? How is the world to understand and respond to Hamas, the militant Islamist organization that Palestinian voters brought to power in the stunning election of January 2006? This important book provides the most fully researched assessment of Hamas ever written. Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism expert with extensive field experience in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, draws aside the veil of legitimacy behind which Hamas hides. He presents concrete, detailed evidence from an extensive array of international intelligence materials, including recently declassified CIA, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security reports. Levitt demolishes the notion that Hamas’ military, political, and social wings are distinct from one another and catalogues the alarming extent to which the organization’s political and social welfare leaders support terror. He exposes Hamas as a unitary organization committed to a militant Islamist ideology, urges the international community to take heed, and offers well-considered ideas for countering the significant threat Hamas poses.