Posted originally on May 8, 2025 by Martin Armstrong 

Ukraine, Palestine, Pakistan, Syria, Haiti – war is indeed a contagion. Yet, certain wars are orchestrated years, if not decades, in advance, as those who read “The Plot to Seize Russia” will understand. Few realize that the war on Gaza was also carefully orchestrated years ago.

“Hamas was encouraged and really started by Israel and the United States to counteract Yasser Arafat.” – Ron Paul

Yasser Arafat was the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, and President of the State of Palestine from 1989 to 2004. Arafat founded the Fatah political movement after the Suez Canal Crisis, which operated as a nationalist group and did not embrace the collaborative ideologies of Arab nations at that time. He rebuked donations from other Arab governments, although he did seek to form alliances.

Hamas originated in December 1987 at the start of the first Palestinian intifada. Unlike the PLO, Hamas was rooted in Sunni religious ideology and viewed the battle against Israel as a religious jihad. The PLO and Arafat recognized Israel’s right to exist in 1988; Hamas did not. Hamas declared Arafat was “a creature of Israel” and vehemently opposed his two-state stance.

When Egypt lost Gaza to Israel after the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, the Muslim Brotherhood moved to Gaza. Sayyid Qutb, a leader of the Brotherhood, was executed, and wheelchair-bound Sheik Ahmed Yassin became one of the top leaders in the organization.  The Wall Street Journal interviewed a senior Gaza official in 2009 who explained how Israel saw this as an opportunity:

“Israel’s military-led administration in Gaza looked favorably on the paraplegic cleric, who set up a wide network of schools, clinics, a library and kindergartens. Sheikh Yassin formed the Islamist group Mujama al-Islamiya, which was officially recognized by Israel as a charity and then, in 1979, as an association. Israel also endorsed the establishment of the Islamic University of Gaza, which it now regards as a hotbed of militancy. The university was one of the first targets hit by Israeli warplanes in the [2008-9 Operation Cast Lead].”

Yassin’s coalition eventually became Hamas, which the Washington Post called “Israel’s Taliban: an Islamist group whose antecedents had been laid down by the West in a battle against a leftist enemy.” Israel imprisoned Yassir for 12 years, but the funding to his organization continued.

Israeli authorities, under the guidance of the United States government, supported the origination of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s and 1980s, which later spawned Hamas. The Brotherhood established a large network of NGOs, mosques, charities, and other social organizations to influence Palestine and funnel money into their organization.

Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s, told the New York Times that he assisted in financing the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” against the PLO, which had gained popularity and international recognition. “The Israeli government gave me a budget,” the retired brigadier general confessed, “and the military government gives to the mosques.”

Bill Clinton attempted to facilitate peace through the 1993 Oslo Accords which acknowledged the two-state solution. The PLO was seen as cooperative at this stage and not in defiance of Israel’s right to exist. It is difficult to overtake a nation on a national scale when they are playing by the rules.

We arrive at 2000 when former President Bill Clinton attempted to draw the “Clinton Parameters,” a proposed peace deal that would permit Israel to annex highly populated settlement blocs containing 80% of Palestinian settlers. The Old City and holy sites would become Israeli territory, and the nation would maintain control over the Temple Mount. Palestine, in turn, would be awarded 1% to 3% land swaps with Israel, and a $30 billion international fund would be created to compensate Palestinian refugees.

Both nations initially agreed to the idea, but Clinton insisted that they reach an agreement before he left office. The deal fell through in an embarrassing defeat for the Clinton Administration. George W. Bush was then elected and proposed a road map for peace, entailing a two-state solution. Bush had his sights set on other areas of the Middle East, as we know, and the US encouraged Palestine to hold an election.

The January 25, 2006, election resulted in Hamas securing the majority of votes. The United States and Europe had already deemed Hamas a terrorist organization by this point, and the election marked a significant turning point in relations with Palestine.

“I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake. And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win,” Hillary Clinton said in 2006, after the election. Who’s to say that the US and Israel did not interfere? Hillary Clinton said that she would have met with Netanyahu during her first month in office if elected president. Bernie Sanders repeatedly called out Clinton’s desire for war with Palestine during the 2016 U.S. presidential debates. Time Magazine has published Hillary’s speech to AIPAC, which has successfully lobbied 95% of US politicians.

What is clear is that both Israel and the US continued to fund Hamas. The US, Israel, UN, and Qatar agreed after the 2014 Gaza war to send $30 million to the Gaza Strip each month. Around $10 million was intended to purchase oil from Israel, another $10 million to pay government employees, and the remaining $30 million to be distributed in $100 stipends to 100,000 Gazan families in poverty. The belief then, according to the press, was that Hamas was fueled by greed and would back away from warfare if paid off. Yet, Hamas is rooted is jihadist religious ideology—it was never about money.

“The PA [Palestinian Authority] said it would no longer agree to fund Hamas, and rather than let the terror group collapse, Israel decided on an alternative route for its funding,” says Dr. Udi Levi, who was the Mossad official charged with fighting the funding of terror until 2016. “That was part of Israel’s policy to buy quiet. Hamas demanded that the $30 million per month would be delivered directly to the ruling faction. It was naïve to believe Hamas would provide the money to the population in Gaza.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu penned a letter to Qatar in 2018 in which he asked the Qatari leadership to continue funding Hamas. Funding to Hamas continued long after the 2006 election by both the United States and Israel.

USAID had a budget that surpassed the budgets of the CIA and State Department, the recent DOGE investigation revealed. USAID spent millions on the Islamic Relief Agency, another NGO affiliated with Gaza whose members include Ghazi Hamad, an outspoken Hamas terrorist who promised to repeat the events of October 7 “time and again until Israel is annihilated.” Islamic Relief, better known at the Muslim Brotherhood, had known ties to Osama Bin Laden who attempted to take responsibility for the worst terrorist attack on US soil. USAID gave the Unlimited Friends Associated an untold sum despite one of their goals being to “cleanse” the land of “impure Jews.” The Qassam Brigades received between $7 and $30 million from USAID through the Mercy-USA NGO.

The American Near East Refugee Agency (ANERA), founded in 1968 after the Six-Day War, was one of USAID’s main recipients. The organization received a $12.5 million grant from USAID in 2024 alone. ANERA has only partnered with the Bayader Association and Hamas. They funded the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), which was created by Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin.

The US government was well aware of ANERA’s involvement in terrorism. The Israel Law Center published a report in 2017 that found ANERA used USAID funds to support Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) kindergartens that actively indoctrinate children in hatred and killing of Israeli civilians, as well as other PIJ and Hamas organizations, thus enabling them to finance terrorist activity, which is forbidden by U.S. law.” Ten years earlier, the Washington Times reported that  “USAID continues to fund multimillion-dollar programs through American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), which is building a high-tech facility” for the IUG.

Western Islamism, a publication of the Middle East Forum (MEF), published a study entitled “Terror Finance at the State Department and USAID.” US taxpayers spent $164 MILLION on grants through USAID to Islamist groups, including $122 million designated to known terrorist organizations. The data in ‘Terror Finance’ paint a clear picture: USAID is complicit in financing jihad,” said Sam Westrop, director of Islamist Watch, who is calling for “a public vetting process of U.S. government grants to exclude any organization with even the most indirect link to an extremist movement.”

It is no secret that US intelligence agencies have funded terrorism to destabilize the Middle East. The Deep State knew 9/11 was going to occur, no different from how they knew Hamas would manage to penetrate the Iron Dome and attack Israel.

Hamas was intended to counteract Yasser Arafat and portray Palestine as a terrorist-led state. There is a reason that billions have been funneled into supporting Hamas. Palestine is fully controlled by a terrorist organization, which gives Israel and the US leverage to invade. The two-state proposal was a temporary solution to grander goals.