Quote Originally Posted by sinkov View Post
I haven't looked this up mon ami, so I stand to be corrected, but I'm sure Hamas was an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which to be fair has been in existence a lot longer than Israel. My dad was in Egypt during WW2 and I can remember him telling me the Brotherhood was a pain in the arse back then, and more to the Egyptian Army and Police than to our lads.
I think this about sums up the IDF/Hamas "collaboration" - The acronym "Hamas" first appeared in 1987 in a leaflet that accused the Israeli intelligence services of undermining the moral fibre of Palestinian youth as part of Mossad's recruitment of what Hamas termed "collaborators." Nonetheless, Israeli military and intelligence was still focused on Fatah, and continued to maintain contacts with Gaza Islamic activists. Numerous Islamist leaders, including senior Hamas founder Mahmoud Zahar, met with Yitzhak Rabin as part of "regular consultations" between Israeli officials and Palestinians not linked to the PLO. Then along came Netanyahu with all of his Machiavellian intent.