189. Is it true that Israel created Hamas?

To affirm that Israel created Hamas would discredit the ideological basis of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is true that Israel closed its eyes before the growth of Islamic fundamentalism when the phenomenon was not very known. Moshe Arens, Minister of Defense of Israel (1982-1984) said: “For a period of time, without a doubt, we felt that it was a healthy phenomenon to stop the PLO. There was even an attempt to encourage the fundamentalists against the PLO, as I was informed when I took office. In fact, we didn’t do anything to stop them”. There was a problem with the conception: For Israel, every person who was not involved in terrorism or violent acts did not receive the attention of the security services. There was never a clear policy regarding fundamentalists. For the first 10 years (1967-1977) the Internal Intelligence Service (Shabak or Shin-Bet) did not personally persecute or control the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Israel thought that it was only a religious movement. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood that lived in the West Bank were considered allies to King Hussein, which is why they were seen as less dangerous. In 1979, the Israeli army named Yitzhak Segev military commander of Gaza. Segev, who served in Iran a few years before the fundamentalist coup, warned about the danger of what he was seeing in the streets of the Strip, affirming that it looked similar to what he had seen in Teheran. Segev tried to weaken the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ahmed Yassin, tempting him with his friendship. The “bear hug” from Segev did not work. Additionally, it was an isolated fact and not a strategic political decision. When Israel decided to do something to stop the Islamism, it was weak and especially... very late.