Radicals On The Rise

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If it's hard to round up the largely anonymous military commanders, it's not much easier to rope in well-known political leaders. Abdul Aziz Rantisi, a tough, uncompromising medical doctor, is the main political figure in Gaza. Last week he slipped underground to evade the Palestinian Authority sweep. Khaled Meshal, the man the Mossad poisoned in Amman in 1997 and whose life was then saved by Jordan's King Hussein, stays permanently out of reach. He is the organization's overall boss, but he gives his orders from safe havens in Syria and Qatar. Mousa Abu Marzook, who was forced out of the U.S. and then Jordan, is a political leader from his base in Syria.

Money forms another basic root of Hamas' power. Having been sweet-talked into helping with finances, Iran now provides some $20 million to $30 million a year, according to a Western diplomat in Tehran. Cash also flows in from Islamic charities and wealthy private backers in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Officials around the Arab world acknowledge that their citizens contribute to Hamas, but they tend to justify the group's operations as legitimate resistance to the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Says Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal: "Someone who is fighting for the liberation of his country is not a terrorist."

Another chunk of Hamas' money comes from Muslim charities in the West, including the U.S. and Britain. The Holy Land Foundation, the largest Muslim charity in America, has been a notable donor, according to U.S. officials who seized the organization's assets last week (see box). Hamas' popular appeal, especially strong among women, owes much to the payouts and services it brings to suffering Palestinians. The charitable side of Hamas is its greatest strength and its best cover. About 60% of the budget goes to dawah, the legitimate network of schools, mosques, orphanages, clinics, youth clubs, athletic teams and libraries that Hamas has spread into virtually every corner of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In Nablus before the new intifadeh, 3,700 families received financial help from Hamas; now 7,000 do. Among the services offered are lifetime annuities to sustain the families of suicide bombers recruited from Hamas classrooms and soccer fields. "These guys kill Israelis, but they also secure their families from poverty," says a Hamas activist in the West Bank.

Hamas has also figured out how to make political inroads in a society that has few of the usual manifestations of democracy. Its supporters dominate most university student councils, which are important gauges of youthful allegiance. On Nov. 12, when students at An-Najah National University in Nablus voted for their council, Hamas increased to 48 seats from 42, while Arafat's party, Fatah, slid from 34 to 28. Hamas helped secure those votes earlier in the year, when it opened four apartment buildings where students pay just $40 a month for room, board and utilities.

Ever since Arafat went home in 1994 to run the self-governing body set up by the Oslo peace accords, Hamas has posed a threat to him as well as to Israel. Arafat lets Hamas recruit, build bombs, send out suicide missions, when it suits him. Hamas in turn has tolerated the Palestinian Authority in the name of unity, but has always "reserved the right to resist the occupation." Whenever Hamas' unyielding violence has challenged Arafat too hard, he has cracked down. He arrested hundreds of militants and removed firebrand Hamas preachers from their mosques in 1996, after a torrent of suicide bombings nearly undid the Oslo accords. When Hamas militants car-bombed a bus filled with settler schoolchildren in 1998, setting off another crisis with Israel, Arafat put Yassin under house arrest. Both times, though, Hamas' popular support was at a low ebb among Palestinians who believed peace negotiations would prove fruitful.

Few believe that now. So on the street, last week, Hamas showed off its power. In more than one case, supporters faced down Arafat's police when they came to make arrests. Neighbors in Bethlehem's Deheisha refugee camp spat at Palestinian Authority troops who tried to pick up Issa Marzook, a Hamas activist and correspondent for Hizballah TV, as a throng ganged around them shouting "Spies! Collaborators! Dogs!" The police retreated without Marzook. Says an Arafat aide: "Hamas is a political power and not a security threat only." Hamas officials voice their defiance. "Arafat is the chairman, but we shall not follow his orders," Abu Marzook told TIME at his office in the outskirts of Damascus last week. "He wants to implement the U.S. and Israeli orders. We shall not accept that."