Facing censure and loss of funding from the international community, Hamas has begun to entertain increased financing from Iran and other Muslim states. This move will place the Palestinian Authority outside of America’s and Europe’s influence.

Before the terrorist group Hamas rose to power on a wave of popularity in the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Authority received the bulk of its $1.9 billion annual budget from Western democracies, namely Israel, America and Europe. The money flow gave these countries a measure of influence in Palestinian affairs. For years, strings attached to the funding were manifold—the biggest being that the Palestinian Authority (pa) had to look like a viable peace partner for Israel and appear to be yielding to Western demands.

So when Hamas took control of the Palestinian territories via a democratic election, Israel almost immediately pledged to stop funding. This past weekend, Israel’s cabinet voted to stop payment to the Palestinian Authority of $50 million in monthly tax revenues, beginning next month. That funding—which accounts for about half of the pa’s total revenues—keeps the Palestinian government machine afloat, and its loss could create economic turmoil in the Palestinian territories. America and Europe have also threatened to pull their substantial funding unless Hamas renounces its official commitment to Israel’s destruction.

Hamas knows that a loss of funding would be devastating. Palestinians are on the whole quite poor and dependent upon government help to make daily life work. With Israel having already cut off its funding, a loss of U.S. and European revenue could create a widespread backlash against the new government. But rather than cave under the pressure, Hamas has with its allies conceived of a path around America and Europe. The consequences for America and Israel could be disastrous.

Hamas and Iran—and the radical Islamic movement in general—view this as an opportune moment to kick America and Europe out of the Palestinian territories for good. How? By opening the door for Muslim countries to finance far more of the Palestinian budget. “We have other Arab and Islamic countries and members of the international community who are ready to stand next to the Palestinian people,” the new Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said last night.

Iran and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood have shown their willingness to step into the gap, with both yesterday calling for Muslims to give money to the Hamas-led government. “Annual financial assistance to Palestine is one way that Muslim nations can share the responsibility of Palestine,” Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in talks with Hamas’s political chief Khaled Mashaal yesterday (Associated Press, February 20). The Muslim Brotherhood announced the launch of a fund-raising campaign. “Supporting Hamas is the responsibility of all the peoples of the free world and Arab world,” Brotherhood spokesman Issam al-Aryan told Agence France Presse yesterday (February 20).

Arab League foreign ministers also met Monday in an effort to revive a funding plan in order to offset a loss of Western financing for the pa. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-member grouping of Muslim nations, “plans to provide institutional and financial aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority,” according to Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Associated Press, op. cit.).

This means that outside of Israel, America and Europe may have just lost complete control of the Middle East. At the same time, it could mean that, thanks to Hamas, Iran is about to expand its influence in the region, effectively conquering more territory.

Haaretz reported on expectations that post-election ties between Iran and Hamas are about to become much more intimate, saying that “[t]ies with Iran will center on financing, operational know-how and political support“ (February 5, emphasis ours throughout). This article noted that in meetings between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamas leaders just days before Hamas’s victory, “Ahmadinejad promised Hamas financial and political support and closer military ties. With Hamas winning the Palestinian Authority parliamentary elections, this means that aid for Hamas’s military wing will indirectly aid the Palestinian security organizations” (ibid.).

Further on, the article grew stronger: “In Damascus and Tehran, Hamas is considered a ‘winning card’ worth backing. A mutual embrace is therefore expected. Iran intends to make sure Hamas does not give in to political pressure from the West and several Arab countries to reach a political compromise including recognition of Israel and a stop to the violence in return for Western financial aid to the pa. Iran and Syria are demanding that Hamas stand firm on its ideology. Tehran is promising financial aid in place of the West, and says it has vast resources from oil sales to help Hamas.” If Iran can successfully wield enough influence over an already subservient Hamas, the Palestinian Authority will be in the hip pocket of the most brash and pushy country in the world today.

Global intelligence think tank Stratfor reported its sources as saying that if America or Israel try to block Muslim donations, Hamas plans to launch a third intifada (February 14). Reports by the Middle East Newsline indicate that the armaments for another intifada, or worse, a strike for East Jerusalem, are pouring into the Palestinian territories. It reported that Hamas has been accumulating a huge arsenal of weapons, and that “Hamas, flushed with funds from Iran, has been pressing families and armed factions to join the military” (February 17). Will Israel soon be a victim of this armament build-up?

To be sure, the radical Islamic camp, led by Iran, aided by Hamas, is closing the geographic pincer on Israel, potentially replacing American and European financing of the Palestinian Authority with radical Islamic cash.

To learn more about where this explosive situation is heading, please read our free booklet The King of the South.