Experts: Hamas hopes to take over Palestinian cause

• From small offshoot, it is now pushing anti-Israel cause
• Rival Fatah in West Bank seen as too cooperative with Israel
• Arab states rally around Hamas, may be trying to distract from internal problems

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The desire of the Palestinian faction Hamas to become the pre-eminent defender of the Palestinian cause above its hated rivals Fatah is why it forced Israel into a battle despite the massive damage it will cause the Gazan people, experts say.

Hamas has risen relatively quickly from a small offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Palestinian territories to the ruling regime in Gaza and among the most prominent propagators of radicalism among the Palestinian people.

"The Palestinian militant groups raised the bar this time not only by killing three Israelis but as well targeting Tel Aviv with a Fajer 5 missile," said Mostafa Al Sawaf, a political analyst in Gaza, referring to new long-range rockets.

"Because Hamas is for the very first time targeting the Israeli capital, it means the movement is insisting on moving forward against the Israelis to the bitter end."

Hamas' confrontations with Israel, which included a similar rocket barrage in 2008, have attracted the attention of other Arab regimes, some hostile toward Israel and others dealing with restive anti-Israel populations.

The emir of oil-rich Qatar visited recently, the first time such a high-level Arab head of state had done so since Hamas took over Gaza. Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani pledged $400 million in aid for roads, a hospital and housing.

Radical imams and anti-Semitic media sites in the Middle East have praised Hamas while scorning Fatah, whose leader, Mahmoud Abbas, controls the Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

While Hamas has attacked Israel with violence, Abbas has been lobbying the United Nations to allow the Palestinians non-state membership in the General Assembly.

Hamas has strengthened regional alliances in the wake of the Arab Spring, in which its fellow Muslim Brotherhood members have gained power. Egypt is now helmed by a president from the Muslim Brotherhood, and members are pressing for more influence in states like Jordan, now overseen by a monarchy.

Israel did not respond for days to the recent Hamas barrage, but the attacks would not cease, forcing it to retaliate. Some experts say that is exactly what Hamas was hoping for.

"In many ways they (want) to see Israel react quite harshly, because that will bring the Palestinian issue back to the forefront," said Yossi Mekelberg, program director in international relations at Regents University, London in the United Kingdom. "Because if there is no violence, everything is forgotten."

Gaza was taken over by Israel in the 1967 war against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israel occupied the territory until 2005, when it forcibly removed Israeli enclaves and turned it over to the Palestinians in a "land for peace" deal that Western nations had been pushing it to do for years.

Hamas edged out Fatah in parliamentary elections, then launched a bloody civil war in 2007 against the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, and forced it out of Gaza. Since then it has become an ally of Iran, which has supported it with aid and weaponry, and has done little to address the many day-to-day problems of the Gazan Palestinians, such as high unemployment, little economic activity and substandard medical care.

At its core, experts say, much of Hamas is a radical group uninterested in good government.

"Some of its own members have become frustrated and radicalized by the groups' essential pragmatism since the end of Operation Cast Lead in 2009, the last confrontation between Israel and Hamas," said David Hartwell, Middle East analyst at IHS Jane, defense and security analysts, in London.

He says Hamas has been trying to balance a dual identity.

"This matters little to those Israelis forced to live under the threat of daily rocket attack and who have seen Hamas as unable or unwilling to halt the increasing number of rockets landing in southern Israeli," he said. "It does, however, offer an insight to the pressures Hamas is currently under in terms of trying to balance demands for greater 'resistance activity' with other demands for continued pragmatism in the wake of the Arab Spring."

Meanwhile, the reaction of neighboring Arab states toward Hamas and its militancy has boosted Hamas' confidence to provoke Israel.

Since the Arab Spring, Hamas has seen a strengthening of its political support and financial backing from across the Sunni Arab world. Hamas is increasingly ambivalent about reaching any kind of compromise with Fatah, which is willing to recognize Israel in return for recognition for a new Palestinian state to include the West Bank and Gaza.

"Hamas isn't in a hurry for any reconciliation moves under these circumstances, since the movement managed to run the country for more than five years without Fatah's help," said political analyst Talal Okel in Gaza. "And they can keep on doing that as long as the changes in the region (work in their favor)."

Increasing support for Hamas has also come from the newly installed government of Tunisia, once run by a dictatorship until it became the first country to rise up in the Arab Spring movement that has replaced longtime monarchies and strongmen.

Egypt has been offering unreserved support for Hamas. It recalled its ambassador to Israel this week and its president, Mohamed Morsi, said in a televised speech that Israel's aggression threatened to destabilize the region. He sent Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil to Gaza on Friday, and said Egypt stands with Gaza.

Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, said that "one thing motivating Hamas and others in Gaza in escalating this is to put Morsi on the spot and see what will the Egyptian government do."

The Brotherhood, which propelled Morsi to power, led Egyptians in countrywide protests Friday to declare "their wrath and condemnation of the Israeli attacks."

"If Egypt sends its prime minister to Gaza in an official capacity, that is a big contribution to Hamas' efforts to break through its international isolation," Ibish said.

Each official visit to Gaza by an Arab head of state or head of government helps bring Hamas more on a par with the Palestine Liberation Organization, undermines Ramallah in the West Bank, and greatly enhances Hamas' legitimacy and strategy, Ibish said.

Protests against the Israeli attacks also took place in Turkey, Tunisia and elsewhere in the Arab world. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who is meeting with Morsi on Saturday, called the air strikes an Israeli pre-election stunt.

However, Said Sadek, an affiliate professor at the American University in Cairo, said that the events in Gaza on Saturday were overshadowed by domestic concerns.

Almost 50 children were killed when a train crashed into a bus in the Upper Egyptian city of Assuit. Internal dispute is escalating over the drafting of a new constitution, labor strikes have disrupted the country in recent weeks, and there is ongoing unease surrounding the nation's economy.

When it comes to Gaza, "Egypt is very much divided on this issue," Sadek said.

Even so, Islamists are prioritizing the situation because "the Palestinian issue is a cornerstone of their ideology," he said, adding that pan-Arabists are also concerned.

Some view the shift toward attention on Gaza as a way to distract attention from Egypt's many internal issues, Sadek said. Many monarchs in the region are dealing with citizenry that threaten unrest if their leaders do not take on Israel, which is the target of widespread anti-Semitic broadcasts, sermons and school instruction throughout the Arab world.

Regardless, analysts say the widespread support means that Hamas not only has no reason to stop provoking Israel but motivation to push it further.

Contributing: Ruby Russell in Berlin. Lynch reported from Cairo.