Jordan: former foreign minister says Hamas ideology ‘cannot be eliminated’

A former foreign minister of Jordan has said that the Hamas movement has become “an ideology which is larger than an organisation, and it cannot be eliminated.” Marwan Al-Muasher made his comment during a symposium organised by the Jordanian Journalists’ Syndicate on Monday evening. “If Israel was able to end it,” he added, “multiple Hamas movements would emerge.”

Al-Muasher, who is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that he holds “the entire world” partly responsible for what is happening in Gaza now. “The world has acted as if the Israeli occupation is normal, and as if the presence of the Palestinians in a large prison does not pose a problem.”

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The former minister pointed out that the Israeli occupation is the longest in modern history, putting the Palestinians in a large prison that no one can bear. “The Israeli media says that the army withdrew from Gaza in 2005… Yes, you withdrew, but you surrounded it with a fence and walls. It is forbidden [for Gaza] to have a port and an airport… In reality, the Israeli occupation has not withdrawn, but rather turned Gaza into a large prison.”

Ruling out the possibility that the Lebanese Hezbollah movement will get involved, Al-Muasher noted that the party that defeated Israel in 2006 is much stronger than it was then. “However, [Hezbollah] does not want to use this force, except according to its calculated circumstances and data, and not based on a reaction. What is happening on the border with Israel, he pointed out, are “merely tactical skirmishes that do not lead to war.”

In any case, he concluded, the Lebanese people do not want war. “Their circumstances are difficult, and Hezbollah is aware of that.”

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