Posted: September 3, 2003

In late June 2003, Hamas, along with Islamic Jihad and Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction, agreed to a three-month cease-fire in its violent struggle against Israel. In the past, Hamas' ideology and strategic goals have always precluded any negotiations or peaceful settlement with Israel. Since its founding, Hamas has been committed to destroying the Jewish state and replacing it with an Islamic state in all of Palestine.

While recent terrorist attacks by these groups - particularly the attack on a Jerusalem city bus on August 19 - belie any serious commitment they may have professed to the cease-fire, many questioned their vows all along. It has been widely believed that Hamas would exploit the three-month period to regroup and rearm its badly battered military structure. Israeli officials and others have publicly expressed worry that short of a complete Palestinian Authority dismantlement of the Hamas military wing, Islamic extremist terrorism is bound to continue.

From the start of the cease-fire, Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi issued a list of demands that accompanied the suspension of attacks including a halt to all Israeli military strikes, including targeted killings of wanted ter-rorists, and a release of all Palestinian prison-ers. According to Rantisi, "We consider our-selves free from this initiative if the Israeli enemy does not implement all the conditions."

Background on Hamas

Hamas -- an Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement meaning "zeal" -- was created in Gaza by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin shortly before the December 1987 intifada as a more militant, Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious, political and social movement founded in Egypt and dedicated to the gradual victory of Islam. Since the mid 1970s, the Brotherhood had been expanding its influence in the territories through its vast array of social services. The creation of Hamas rendered the Brotherhood's policy of gradual Islamicization ineffectual and advocated an immediate holy war to liberate Palestine.

Hamas preaches and engages in violence and terror in order to destroy the state of Israel and replace it with an Islamic state. Its virulent hatred of Jews and Judaism is deeply rooted in the anti-Semitic writings of Muslim Brotherhood theologians. In August 1988, Hamas issued its covenant laying down its ideological principles and goals. Replete with anti-Semitism, it echoes the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion and charges Jews with an international conspiracy to gain control of the world. In Hamas' world-view, Islamic precepts forbid a Jewish state in the area known as Palestine, the Jewish people have no legitimate connection to the land of Israel and Yasir Arafat is a traitor to the Islamic Palestinian cause. As its covenant proclaims, "The land of Palestine is an Islamic trust... It is forbidden to anyone to yield or concede any part of it... Israel will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it..."

Hamas is both a terrorist organization and a mass social, political and religious movement. The military branch is reportedly divided into three wings: an intelligence arm which gathers information about Palestinians suspected of collaboration, an arm which pursues those who have violated Islamic law and the Izzedine al-Qassam squads who are responsible for most of the terror attacks. The al-Qassam squads are comprised of a few dozen activists loosely organized into small, shadowy terror cells, at times operating independently of each other. Hamas' military and political leaders are based throughout the West Bank and Gaza and the organization maintains offices and representa-tives in Teheran, Damascus and Amman. The connections and levels of coordination between the military and political branches are concealed.

The division of Hamas into military and political/ social wings has led many observers to erroneously assume that the social wing of Hamas is completely separate from its military wing. However, funds raised for the social programs of Hamas free up other funds for the military wing. Furthermore, there is no open accounting sys-tem whereby the international community can ascertain whether or not the social wing finances the military wing.

For instance, these so-called humanitarian donations reward the families of Hamas suicide bombers. Finally, Hamas' military wing utilizes the organization's social wing for indoctrination and recruitment. The social, cultural, religious and educational institutions of Hamas are well-known venues for anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred and serve as recruitment centers for Hamas suicide bombers. Most recently, for example, a Hamas-sponsored soccer team in Hebron was exposed as a source of several Hamas suicide bombers. Thus, no clear distinction can be made between the two branches.

Hamas launched its campaign of violence in 1989, first against Israeli soldiers and suspect-ed Palestinian collaborators and then against Israeli civilians. In the wake of the Oslo agree-ment, Hamas leaders intensified their rhetoric and vowed to derail the peace process through violent attacks. Drive-by shootings, firebomb-ings and stabbings increased and suicide mis-sions began in April 1994, when a Hamas sui-cide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a bus in Afula killing eight and wounding 50 others. Through systematic religious and politi-cal indoctrination and social pressure, Hamas leaders recruit young men for suicide missions and other attacks. According to Israeli sources, in scores of suicide bombings and other attacks, Hamas has killed 227 Israelis since September 2000 alone.

Hamas enjoys strong financial backing from Iran (an estimated $20 - $30 million), private benefac-tors and Muslim charities in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, Palestinian expatriates across the globe and American donors. Its budget has been estimated at $70 million and 85 percent of it reportedly comes from abroad; the remaining 15 percent is raised among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

It is estimated that Saudi Arabia continues to channel between $12 - $14 million to Hamas annually. At a June 2003 press conference, Adel al-Jubeir, a senior adviser to the Saudi Crown Prince, did acknowledge that many Palestinian institutions funded by the Saudis may be run or managed by the political wing of Hamas.

Hamas has recruited beyond the West Bank and Gaza. According to Israeli sources, Hamas has recruited and operated 18 Israeli Arab terror cells. Most recently, in June 2003, Israel indict-ed five senior officials of the Israeli Arab Islamic Movement, including movement leader Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, on various terrorism-related charges including membership in Hamas and raising funds abroad for Hamas agencies in the West Bank and Gaza.

In a radically new development, according to Israeli sources, two British Muslim suicide bombers who blew up a pub in Tel Aviv in April 2003 were Hamas recruits dispatched by the Hamas military command in Gaza.

Hamas Activities in the U. S

Hamas raises funds in the U. S. through mosques, Muslim organizations and charities. The amount of money raised in the U. S. and the nature and scope of Hamas activities on our shores are difficult to document. Other reported Hamas activities in the United States include recruiting members, planning meetings, para-military and firearms training, and production and dissemination of hate-filled videos and print materials vilifying Israel, America and moderate Muslims. Centers of Hamas-related activity have been identified in Illinois, Virginia, Michigan, Texas and California.

The two most recent notorious cases of Hamas activities in the U. S. concern InfoCom and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF).

On September 5, 2001, FBI and Customs Service agents raided the Dallas offices and froze the assets of InfoCom, an Internet servic-es company suspected of links to the terrorist group Hamas and its political leader Musa Abu Marzuk, deported from the U. S. in August 1997.

In December 2002, Federal authorities arrested four brothers in Dallas who all worked for InfoCom -- Bayan Elashi, 47, Ghassan Elashi, 49, Basman Elashi, 46, and Hazim Elashi, 41 -- on 33 counts of money laundering, illegal ship-ments of computer equipment to designated state sponsors of terror Syria and Libya, and financial dealings with Hamas terrorist Marzuk. Marzuk and his wife, both believed to be in Syria, were also named in the indictment. An FBI affidavit unsealed in February 2003 says that Marzuk and his associates supplied more than $1 million between 1989 and 1993 to InfoCom and two nonprofit Muslim organiza-tions in which one or more of the Elashi broth-ers played key roles, including HLF, of which Ghassan Elashi was co-founder and chairman.

The indictments are the first to be brought against suspected financial supporters of Hamas in the U. S. and the trial is scheduled for October 2003.

In December 2001, the U. S. accused the Richardson Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development of being the chief fundraising group for Hamas in the U. S. The organization bills itself as the largest Islamic charity in the U. S. The organization's offices in Richardson and three other cities were shut down and its assets were frozen. Following a challenge to the government's decision, in June 2003, the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the government's decision to freeze HLF's assets.

U. S. Efforts to Combat Hamas

American efforts to curb Hamas terrorism date back to January 1995 when President Clinton signed an executive order blocking the U. S. assets of "terrorist organizations that threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process" and pro-hibiting financial transactions with them. Hamas was included in the original list of 12 organiza-tions and 18 individuals.

Following the attacks of September 11th, the U. S. listed Hamas on its newly-created roster of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), giving the Treasury Department the added ability to impose sanctions on foreign banks that provide services to Hamas. In November 2001, the State Department officially designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organi-zation (FTO), making it a felony to knowingly provide material support to Hamas. And, in December 2001, the State Department designated 39 groups, including Hamas, as Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL) organizations, giving U. S. authorities the power to deport members or deny them visas.

Efforts to combat Hamas terrorism have also led American victims of Hamas terrorism to sue Hamas in court under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991 that allows U. S. victims of overseas terror-ism to seek financial damages in U. S. courts. In July 2003, a U. S. judge ruled that Hamas was liable for more than $116 million in damages for the 1996 deaths in Israel of American citizen Yaron Ungar and his Israeli wife, Efrat. Recognizing the connection between Iran and Hamas, a U. S. District Judge ruled also in July that the government of Iran must pay $313 mil-lion to the children of an American woman, Leah Stern, who was killed in a 1997 Hamas suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market.

International Action Against Hamas The international community is sorely trailing behind the U. S. in efforts to combat Hamas ter-rorism. Egregiously, the European Union contin-ues to insist that one can separate the military and political wings of Hamas. Thus, while the EU has listed Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam, as a terrorist organization, it continues to refuse to designate the political wing of Hamas as such. At a July 2003 meeting of European ministers in Brussels, a unanimous decision was made to delay a verdict on the political wing of Hamas.

Reportedly, France played a major role in swaying fellow EU members against a total ban on Hamas. According to the French Foreign Ministry, "There has been a very clear distinction between the two wings, and the minister himself has called for that distinction to be made between the armed wings and the social organizations in the Palestinian territories." Tellingly, the argument that one can make dis-tinctions between the military and non-military wings of a terrorist organization did not appear to be an issue when at the request of Spain, the EU in June 2003 decided to list as a terror-ist organization Batasuna, the political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

Hamas Compliance with Cease-Fire

Hamas claimed responsibility for an August 19, 2003 suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem that killed 20 people and an August 12, 2003 suicide bombing at the entrance of Ariel in the West Bank that killed one Israeli. These were the first Hamas-sponsored sui-cide bombings since the onset of the cease-fire. In mid-July, Israeli security forces captured three Hamas terrorists in Hebron allegedly preparing to carry out a suicide bombing attack on an Israeli target. Israeli sources also contend that Hamas has been using the cease-fire to send "sleeper" suicide bombers into Arab villages in Israel. According to Israeli military intelligence officials, Hamas has continued to manufacture Qassam rockets and has been test-firing a new Qassam-class short-range missile in the Gaza Strip. The missile firings take place nearly nightly north of Gaza City toward the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas has sought to develop a missile with a range long enough to strike a major Israeli city.

An artist's sketch of the Elashi brothers, from left Ghassan, Hazim, Bayan, and Basman, during a detention hearing in federal court in Dallas on Dec. 20, 2002. The brothers are accused on 33 counts of money laundering, illegal shipments of computer equipment to designated state sponsors of terror Syria and Libya and financial dealings with Hamas terrorist Marzuk