Israel licensed Hamas’s predecessor because Islamists opposed the secular left

Evidence

These parties were responsible for raising the level of hateful rhetoric against non-Jews. One rabbi stated that the “Arabs are a cancer, cancer, cancer in the midst of us… . There is only one solution, no other, no partial solution: the Arabs out! Out! … Let me become defense minister for two months and you will not have a single cockroach around here.” As Fred Halliday notes, it was in this context that anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric came together to a much greater extent, especially among the settler community as well as the nationalist and religious parties. However, these sentiments did not prevent the Likud party from using the precursor organization to Hamas, the Mujamma, for its own purposes. When the Israeli state recognized and formally licensed the Mujamma in 1978, the logic was simple—the Islamists’ hostility to the secular left made them useful. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 399

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the widespread allegation that Israel cultivated Hamas; connects to the reader’s guiding question on the imperial project and Zionism. — connects to: American Cold War strategy cultivated Islamists against secular nationalism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 219; Cold War logic led the US to fund Islamists even after Iran’s revolution — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 247; Palestinian Islamists were accused by nationalists and leftists of serving Israeli occupation — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 319 (+6 more)
• SEED: Angle: the strategic uses of Islamists by the same state that rails against Islamic terrorism.