On Monday I reported that the deputy head of the "political bureau" of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzouk, was accusing Egypt of wanting to exercise sovereignty over the Gaza Strip as it had before 1967. His evidence was the increase in helicopter flights from the Egyptian army over Gaza.
That theory was nutty enough, but now Hamas spokesman Dr. Salah Bardawil has run with it and really turned on the crazy.
According to Bardawil, the Egyptian helicopters are not coming from Egypt, as initial reports indicated, but from Israel. This means, he thinks, that the helicopters are being inspected in Israel first and Egypt is cooperating with Israel in this enterprise of Egyptian surveillance. Why Israel, with its drones and blimps and airplanes, needs Egyptian help is not quite explained.
But Bardawil, like all good Arab despots and their officials, spins a conspiracy theory that goes beyond Israel and Egypt.
You see, John Kerry announced the resumption of negotiations between Israel and the PLO in...Jordan! This means that the US and Israel are pushing both Egypt and Jordan to re-occupy Gaza and the West Bank, respectively! The PLO, Hamas' enemy, is of course part of this scheme as well. Bardawil characterizes Abbas' agreement to (pretend to) negotiate is "national suicide."
Hamas' paranoia comes, of course, from Egypt's decision to treat it virtually as an enemy - one that both kills Egyptian Army soldiers and one that steals scarce fuel from Egypt. Without Muslim Brotherhood patronage, Hamas is lost, and its seeming ascendancy on the back of the Arab Spring has evaporated.
Yesterday, both Israeli and Egyptian helicopters were reported to be seen in Gaza skies. Chances are that there is a low level of security coordination between Israel and Egypt as far as activities in the Sinai and in destroying smuggling tunnels is concerned, as the Camp David agreements require Israeli permission for any increase in Egyptian army presence in the Sinai - permission that Israel has been liberal in granting, to allow the Egyptian army to fight the Islamists and jihadists in the Sinai and to protect its border with Gaza.
Bardawil's paranoid fantasies clearly reflect Hamas' mindset and its fear of losing its grip on power. It sees things like the Palestinian "Tamarod" Facebook page, with nearly 20,000 members. Today, it even accused Fatah of being behind that movement, when it is obvious that Tamarod Palestine hates Fatah and Hamas equally.
As with the revolution beforehand, the new Egyptian coup affects the entire region. However, it is way too early to count the Islamists out. There is no strong, well-organized and popular alternative; slogans against the Islamists is not enough to hold any nation together. So while Hamas and the MB are down, they are hardly out.
