KHAN YUNIS

ISRAEL HAS ASKED Hamas to return all the money it gave the organization when it used to support it as a counter-weight to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah Movement in the Palestinian Territories during the 1980s.

The original idea was that Hamas, a religious movement, would take the edge off what was then the leading Palestinian threat to Israel, Arafat’s Fatah, the largest element of the more well-known Palestine Liberation Organization.

“Back then, we had chased Arafat to Beirut only to have him escape. His people were all-powerful among the Palestinians,” explains former Israeli intelligence officer Yoni Ben Stiller. “It was believed that an opposition, so to speak, religiously motivated, would draw strength from Arafat’s crowd. The idea was good, what became of it was not so good. Arafat and Fatah made peace with us and our boys turned rabid Islamist. And then they jumped into bed with Iran. Embarrassing or what?’

And now Israel wants Hamas to repay all the investment it received from the Jewish state. “They can keep the interest, we don’t want any,” says an Israeli official who wishes to remain anonymous. “Hey, we all make mistakes.”