Hamas’ Changing Role in Egypt
Hamas has seen improved ties with Cairo following the January 25 revolution and the election of Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohammed Morsi, writes Adnan Abu Amer.
It is no secret that after the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas was among those most pleased with Mohammed Morsi's 2012 victory in the Egyptian presidential elections. Morsi's selection followed fast on the heels of the movement's initial joy at parliamentary election results, which in turn were grounded in what it considers to be Muslim ethics. Hence, Hamas' greatest regional source of strength came to reside in Cairo. Hamas experienced something of a honeymoon following the ouster of the regime of Hosni Mubarak, which had been persistently hostile toward it.
In Egypt, Hamas believed that it had found suitable compensation (and more) for its loss of Syrian patronage when its leaders adopted a supportive position toward the popular revolution directed against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Indeed, its base in Damascus for the previous ten years had been predicated on a mutual interest -- joint hostility toward Israel -- and flew in the face of fundamental disagreement on religious ideology. Hamas' gradual shift toward other Arab capitals, including Cairo, contained elements of narrow self-interest as well as ideological and religious compatibility. This was particularly the case with Egypt, given that the Hamas government in Gaza considers itself the “legitimate offspring” of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Perhaps the greatest testament to the change that has taken place in Egypt, and how advantageous it has been to Hamas, came when Morsi inaugurated his term in office by welcoming Hamas leaders to the presidential palace. This is the same leadership that had at one time been banned from so much as entering Egypt and had been dealt with through the harsh prism of the security forces, which sometimes humiliated them.
It is here that wide swaths of Hamas came to understand, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Egypt had become Gaza's backyard, not the other way around. The Rafah crossing has witnessed hundreds of Hamas members traveling back and forth, making the rounds of the Egyptian provinces, as Gaza welcomed dozens of Muslim Brotherhood delegations. This allowed the movement an opportunity to believe, if only for a relatively short period of time, that the “Golden Age” that it had experienced in Damascus had been replaced, thanks to the Arab Spring, by a “Diamond Age” in Cairo.
