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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 29, 2024

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Wait, Hamas are mortal enemies of Assad?

Hamas moved it's political headquarters from Syria to Qatar in late 2011, at the end of the opening year of the Syrian Civil War, rather than join in on Assad's side at a time Assad was trying to pressure anyone approaching a militant group to pick a side or else. Afterwards, it generally supported Qatar's pro-Sunni-jihadist position, rhetorically and possibly with manpower/supplies it had, even as Hezbollah responded to Iranian requests to support Hezbollah.

The dispute between them wouldn't be called a feud, though there were allegations by Hezbollah that Hamas support to anti-Assad parties led to Hezbollah casualties. The Hamas-Hezbollah split was part of the basis of narrative accusations that the Syrian Civil War was an outsider ruse to split the anti-Israeli resistance, with Hamas and Hezbollah being the resistance in question.

The issue largely subsided around '13 a manner I've heard framed as 'agree to disagree,' particularly as Iran increased it's influence with Hamas via supplying it's military wing in Gaza (part of the military-political wing split in Hamas itself). By being patron to both, Hamas-in-Gaza, which is dominated by the military wing, largely stopped agitating for/ publicly supporting the anti-Assad side of the civil war.

However, to the point of being opposite sides: yes, Hamas's default response when Iran needed to invoke allies was to support Iran's enemies, not Iran. This is, and will always be, why the Hamas-Iran relationship is more transactional/utility-driven than the Hezbollah-Iran relationship.