Can stopping Hamas' revenue streams be a strategy to make it easier for Israel to be flexible about ending the war?
Unfortunately, cutting off Hamas' funds to the extent necessary to make it impotent is probably impossible.
Right now, Hamas makes money from a wide variety of sources.
- Iran provides hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Even after the 12-day war, and even with Iran having its own financial problems, it still regards Hamas as a key partner in its desire to destroy Israel. Iran would prefer to pay Hamas than help its own people.
- In any agreement, Israel would largely lose the ability to control humanitarian aid, from which Hamas skims off at least $100 million a year.
- Hamas controls an investment portfolio of some $500 million, from which it makes tens of millions of dollars a year.
- Hamas sets up sham charities, or dual-use "charities" that do some charitable work but also fund the terror group. During the war it also apparently set up fake GoFundMe and similar crowdfunded ventures, pretending to help individuals. It would be difficult to cut off all of these.
- As long as Hamas has political control in Gaza, it can tax residents and all imports as much as it wants. No one can stop that. This might also contribute hundreds of millions a year.
- Qatar has invested tens of millions into Gaza annually, ostensibly for charitable projects like building, but Hamas benefits a great deal - it frees up money for other purposes, and Hamas tpically would grab the best apartments for itself, for example.
- Hamas set up ways to protect some revenue streams from sanctions, like using cryptocurrency or funneling funds through Turkey (and perhaps even Yemen.)
US and EU sanctions certainly help staunch some Hamas funding. There is no doubt that Hamas has been financially crippled during the war, especially in recent months when Israel stopped most aid that Hamas could skim or resell. But if Hamas survives as the government of Gaza in any way after the war, it can quickly rebuild its revenue streams, via taxes, humanitarian aid and Iranian funding (often via crypto.)
The next October 7 may be delayed by many years, but as long as Hamas exists in power, make no mistake: it will try to do it again.
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