Hamas vs. Hezbollah
There has never been unity among radical Islamist organizations. Nevertheless, until recently, the Palestinian Hamas confrontation (an abbreviation for Harakat al-Mukavam al-Islamia, translated as the Islamic Resistance Movement) and the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah (Party of Allah) has always been carefully hidden by the leaders of these organizations. On the contrary, representing essentially terrorist associations, they always and openly declared their main goal - the destruction of Israel.However, Hamas and Hezbollah divided irreconcilable religious contradictions, for the first belongs to the Sunni branch of Islam, and the second to the Shiite one. Relations between Shiites and Sunnis have always been marked by hostility, often leading their followers to bloody clashes. Note that most of the representatives of the Islamic world consider themselves to be Sunni.
“THE SECOND FRONT” DOESN'T PALETINES, NON-LEAVERS DON'T OPEN
In the structure of Hamas, seized power in the Gaza Strip, there are no special services. These functions are assigned to the “Executive Forces”, the units performing the police functions and the militarized brigades of the “Izzad-Din al-Kasam” (“IDAC”). In addition, to keep ears on the crown, and eyes open prescribed "Murabitun" (translated as "People on Guard"), sometimes referred to as "people's militia", and sometimes "people's army." So in the enclave of spies and scammers enough. First of all, these people are focused on identifying Israeli agents. But they are also instructed to seek out supporters of Ramallah, the administrative center of the Palestinian National Autonomy (PNA) controlled by Fatah (“Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini” - “Palestine National Liberation Movement”), which today is considered moderate.
Back in 2005, the Hamas police announced that they had arrested dozens of Fatah agents. Most of them died in the dungeons of the Gaza Strip, after Fatah, in turn, began to hunt for Hamas agents. At the same time, it is significant that both Hamas and Fatah were always suspicious of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah did not open a second front either in December 2008 of the year or in November of 2012 of the year when the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) conducted anti-terrorist operations, Cast Lead and Cloud Pillar, respectively, against Hamas militants entrenched in Gaza. On the other hand, neither the PNA police nor the Fatah military organization stood up for their Palestinian tribesmen.
When in the 1982 year, the IDF attacked the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) military bases, then led by Yasser Arafat, a Shi'i pro-Syrian group Amal (Arabic abbriviature from Cohort of Lebanese Resistance), during the First Lebanon War, also called Operation Peace of Galilee. , meaning “Hope”), was not particularly active in the opposition to the Jews. It was in the “depths” of “Amal” that the Hezbollah matured. Undoubtedly, the Hamas leadership, who illegally seized power in the Gaza Strip, has never forgotten the "neutrality" held by Hezbollah militants during the Israeli military operations against the Palestinian enclave.
In the confrontation between Hamas and Hezbollah, there has always been a religious component. Sunni religious figures in Gaza observed with anxiety and jealousy the facts that a considerable number of young residents of Gaza had entered Shiism. A similar phenomenon occurred when Arab propaganda, giving black for white, chimed about the alleged victory of Hezbollah in the Second Lebanon War. But, on the other hand, radical organizations operating in the same region, it is always difficult to get along with each other. Thus, the Hezbollah militants were noted in bloody clashes with the "closely related" them "Amal", which for them was, in fact, alma mater.
SHOCK WAILS
Points over i put the civil war in Syria. The fact is that the Shiite ayatollahs who proclaimed the Islamic Republic of Iran recognized the Alawites of Syria as a "Shiite sect." It is known that the last decades of Syria, ruled by the Alawite government of Assad. Thus, Tehran provided and continues to support the Assad clan in Damascus, not only because of its strategic and tactical interests, but also as representatives of the same trend in Islam. But for the Sunnis, Shiites are “worse than Christians and Jews.” The civil war once again divided the Arab world into “their own” and “alien”. The abscess broke. Approximately the same thing happened during the bloody Iran-Iraq war of 1980 – 1988. Then only Syria, the only Arab country, took the side of Tehran. At the same time, all Palestinian organizations, above all the PLO, supported Baghdad.
The intra Syrian conflict has put the Hamas leadership in a very delicate situation. For decades, its leaders have been hiding from Israeli retaliation in Damascus. But even at the beginning of the ongoing civil war in Syria, one of the Hamas leaders, Khaled Mashal, opposed the participation of his organization in this confrontation. Indeed, Sunni Hamas, on the one hand, was not at all up to the ranks of those who oppose the Sunnis. But, on the other hand, Hamas generously gave gifts weapons and with money, Shiite Iran and protected the Syrian Alawite clique, which patronize all the enemies of Israel.
But it turned out that Damascus in Mashal has its own views. Bashir Asad hoped that the Hamas leader, in gratitude for the "shelter and table," at least would take a neutral position and, thus, the militants subordinate to him would not find themselves in the ranks of the armed Syrian opposition. However, the agents of the Syrian special services, introduced into the environment of Mashal, reported that the “object” was not inclined to make any compromises in this matter and was going to bow out after driving to other shores.
Forcibly holding the leader of a terrorist organization that seized power in a certain territory and claiming to head the state in the future, Assad was far from the hand. The Syrians left the piquant position simply: Mashaal was released under a specious excuse - to visit his sick mother in Amman. But at the same time one of his wives, as well as a daughter, four sons and husband's daughter were arrested. Actually left as hostages. Just in case!
In Tehran, they also did not sit on their hands and tried to dislodge the current leadership of Hamas and put their proteges. But the Syrians and Iranians are late. Independent sources, including Arab sources, reported that IDAK’s Hamas brigades were training the rebel groups, the Free Syrian Army (SSA). At the same time, there was information that Hamasians are training militants of this "army" to dig underground tunnels, to get into the city centers, usually controlled by government troops. Palestinian terrorists should not occupy the experience of building such underground passages. From the Gaza Strip, not only weapons and ammunition, but also various goods, including automobiles, enter the Egyptian territory precisely for such fortification structures. On underground passages into Israeli territory, militants erupted to commit terrorist acts. It is also known that several hundreds of IDA fighters opposed the SSA forces in the battles for Aleppo and Damascus. Since February 2012, Khaled Mashal has been living in Qatar. There is no doubt that Hamas today is completely in the political and military orbit of Doha.
As for Hezbollah, its leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, did not immediately agree to come to the aid of the Syrian regime. First, he did not want to openly oppose his organization to the majority of the Arab world. Secondly, he understood that the CCA would not throw cherry stones at his militants. So, there will be losses, the restoration of which will require money and time. However, Tehran showed perseverance, and Nasrallah obeyed. According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Hezbollah sent 40% of its fighters to Syria, as a result of which the front of this organization’s confrontation with the Jews and with numerous enemies in Lebanon was largely exposed. And if there is a confrontation between Christians, Druze and Shiites in the near future, then the weakened army of Nasrallah will not be able to provide effective assistance to their co-religionists.
Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the Hezbolbah militants are conducting their operations near the border with Lebanon and are not particularly eager to reckon with the enemies of Assad deep in Syrian territory. According to the same La Stampa, Hezbollah controls only a narrow strip of land from the sea to Damascus.
True, the Hezbollah militants turned out to be a serious combat component in the battle for the city of Quseir, ten kilometers from the border with Lebanon.
A prominent Israeli military analyst David Sharp writes in the article “Syria: the exchange of blows” published in the Israeli Russian-language newspaper “News of the week ”(“ NN ”):“ The most important criterion of the army’s combat capability is its ability to conduct truly large-scale offensive operations, and it is precisely this skill that the Assad army does not have. ” Sharp called the Quseiry’s “forced” capture because the pro-Assad forces failed to “neither clear strategically important territories, nor destroy large enemy forces, nor cut off the rebels from the supply of food, weapons, ammunition and people”. In all likelihood, the jihadists who make up the majority in the SSA would not have been able to knock out from Quseira if the Hezbollah militants had not come to the rescue.
COURAGE ALWAYS CAUSES RESPECT
During the siege of the large Minnag (Meng) airbase, located near the Turkish border north of Aleppo, Hamas and Hezbollah militants met face to face. Hamas attacked in the usual vein. His suicide bombers used "martyr belts" and armored vehicles loaded with explosives. Hamas workers together with jihadists of the SSA launched anti-tank missile systems with which they burned Tanks government troops. The jihadist attack began with a breakthrough into the territory of the air base of two captured BMPs stuffed with explosives and suicide drivers. Nevertheless, the Assad army with the support of Hezbollah survived. “And here I have to say the following,” writes David Sharp in this connection, “the stamina of the fighters who have been defending the airport for such a long time under truly terrifying conditions cannot but inspire respect, which cannot be said about the Syrian command, which was in the earlier stages of the siege had the opportunity to save the garrison from death at the cost of leaving the doomed airfield. ”
The author of the article in “NN” believes that “the order to keep to the end, given contrary to common sense, led to the destruction of the garrison with all the equipment and the loss of the base itself. At the same time, Sharpe corrects himself by making the following reservation: “An additional incentive to continue the defense of the airbase was the fact that they (the Asad army and Hezbollah fighters. - Z.G.) were opposed by the Jihadist formations, which are unlikely to wait mercy. The Hamas and militants of the “Daulyatul islam Fil Iraq Iraq-Sham” (translated as “The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”) deserve the glory of the cruelty of jihadists. According to information from hard-to-verify sources, in the same area, near the Minnag air base, on the side of the anti-Assad forces in the group of “Jaysh al-Mukhadzhirin Val-Ansar” (translated as “Army of Muhajirs and Ansars”), several dozen Chechen and Dagestan immigrants fought. Everything falls into place if we bear in mind that “muhajir” in Arabic is “immigrant”, and “Ansar” is “helper”. According to the same sources, to the credit of the Caucasian “Muhajirs” and “Ansars”, they were quite loyal to the civilian population and were not noticed in any atrocities against the enemy.
"BARFOLOMEEV NIGHTS" IN SYRIAN
Civil wars often turn into slaughter. If in such a war supporters of one religion oppose supporters of another, then, unfortunately, a massacre cannot be avoided. So, it was in medieval Europe in the era of religious wars. On the night of August 22 1572, the French Catholics, luring the Huguenots, that is, the Protestants, to a wedding ceremony scheduled for the day of St. Bartholomew, massacred, called the "St. Bartholomew's Night." Then, within a few days, 30 killed thousands of people. The Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648) claimed millions of lives. Only the Germans died then more than five million. In Sweden, 30% of boys and men between the ages of 15 have remained on the battlefield or have returned home crippled. You can recall the religious wars in France and the Hussite wars in the Czech Republic. Then European Christians killed each other.
An Israeli scholar and writer Alexander Gordon (by the way, a native of Kiev) in the article “East - East” writes: “The religious wars between European Christians in the Middle Ages and the Crusades of Christians against Muslims in the Holy Land seem to be small skirmishes with a small number of casualties compared to bloody orgy of modern battles between Shiites and Sunnis. " If one agrees with such a comparison, then the following conclusion suggests itself: the Islamic world is now at a stage of development that Europe has overcome in the Middle Ages. More than 120 thousand people have already died in Syria.
“The war in Syria,” says Gordon, “is a reflection of all (Middle Eastern. - Z.G.) conflicts.” And this point of view can be accepted. Further, the article “East - East” states: “Syria is a testing ground on which there is a war between two branches of Islam, Sunnis and Shiites, between secular and religious worldviews, between Iranians and Arabs, between Turks and Persians, and between the great and regional powers oil and influence. ”
IF BROTHERS ARE NOT FRIENDS
The confrontation between Hamas and Hezbollah is only one of the many links in the Shiite-Sunni conflict, not only religious, but also geopolitical. Nowadays, this conflict is reflected in the fields of the civil war in Syria. Moreover, the Shiite and Sunni worlds do not represent a "homogeneous mass." After the “drift” of Hamas towards Qatar, the Islamic Jihad became a client of Iranian ayatollahs - a small Sunni group operating in the Gaza Strip, which is ready to “feed” from any hands. In the same place, in Gaza, the Fatah is linked to, but nonetheless, the Palestinian movement Ansar al Mujahiddin (“To the aid of the soldiers of Islam”) declared itself independent. The leaders of this movement, some Abu Bilal and Asad Abu-Shari, stated that they set themselves the goal of "uniting all Palestinian organizations in the fight against Israel and its minions." However, it is known that these leaders were directly connected with the “Shuhada al-Aqsa” faction (“Shuhada” - plural from “shahids” - “martyr for the faith”; “Al-Aqsa” - mosque in Jerusalem), the military wing FATH, later excluded from this structure "for lawlessness, vandalism and dependence on the personal interests of its leaders."
In Gaza, there are also openly Salafi (Wahhabi), ultra-Sunni, al-Qaeda-related movements of the A-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Unity of Jihad), Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), and Jaljal ”(named after one of the dead Islamist commanders). It is indicative that even the Salafi movements, declaring unity in the confrontation with Zionism and the enemies of Islam, in opposition to each other. What then can be said about the Sunni Hamas and the Shiite Hezbollah, killing each other and at the same time declaring their hatred for Jews and the Gentiles in general?
In this regard, a wonderful Chechen proverb comes to mind: “A brother is not a brother, if he is not your friend”.
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