Israel's Gaza onslaught boosts Islamists' popularity: analysts

Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip is boosting the popularity of Hamas and other Islamic groups in the Arab world where people are dismayed by the passiveness of their regimes, analysts said on Sunday. "Hamas appears to be scoring points. So far, Israel has not achieved all its military and political objectives and has lost the media battle," said Dhia Rashwan, an Egyptian specialist in Islamist movements Israel's military offensive on the Hamas-controlled territory has killed at least 875 Palestinians, including 275 children, and left 3,620 wounded, since it began on December 27. Media coverage shows an imbalance between a modern force, armed to the teeth with the most sophisticated weapons, and a militia equipped only for guerrilla warfare, analysts said. This appears to have contributed to inciting angry protests worldwide, mainly in Arab countries, they believe. "This is a repetition of the major crises seen in the region during the past few years," which strengthened Islamism in the Arab world, Rashwan told AFP. He highlighted Israel's war on Lebanon in July 2006 which failed to destroy the military might of the Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah, and the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, which brought Islamism to the forefront of the resistance. "Opposition in the Arab world has become led by Islamist movements... Public opinion is led by these movements," at the expense of Arab nationalists and liberal oppositions who are losing ground." Meanwhile, "the gap between Arab regimes and their people is being widened all the time," Rashwan added. Abdul Aziz al-Sager, head of the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre (GRC), agreed that Islamists are reaping a windfall of popularity from the Gaza war. "Injustice serves the Islamist movements, putting them in the vanguard through their support for jihad" or holy war, in the Arab world, he told AFP. "What Israel is doing in Gaza is strengthening Hamas" in terms of gaining the backing of the public opinion for the movement, although "part of this opinion still notices a lack of political maturity of this movement," Sager said. "In wanting to wipe out the resistance, you have created a resistance inside every household," Hamas's exiled political chief, Khaled Meshaal, told Israeli leaders in a speech on Saturday. "As Israel strikes Hamas to weaken it, this movement is becoming stronger among the Palestinians and Arabs, mainly as it has proven to be the only one to stand up to Israel, following the example of Hezbollah in Lebanon," Bahraini activist Ali Fakhrou told AFP. "Through this war, Israel does not seek (just) to hit Hamas, but the Islamist resistance which is feared by the United States and its allies among the Arab regimes, who believe that success for this resistance would lead to fundamental changes," in the region, he said. "Islamist movements, born out of the void created by the collapse of the Arab nationalist and leftist ideologies, are the only ones capable of protecting the region from the madness of US politics and Israel," said the former Arab nationalist. "Islamist movements are going to dominate the political scene for many years to come," Fakhrou predicted, citing the "interaction between these movements and the Arab street where recent pro-Gaza demonstrations were dominated by Islamist slogans and calls for jihad." Jordan's Princess Haya, a UN messenger of peace, also warned that growing Arab anger and frustration over Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, could spiral out of control. "I think the frustration on the Arab street, the humiliation, the hurt, the anger and the sadness are something that can't be kept under control very easily in the near coming future if this (war) continues," said Haya, daughter of late King Hussein and wife to Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.