By Taghreed Saadeh
Since the Palestinian division in 2007, an event the Israeli occupation actively facilitated by empowering and arming Hamas to tighten its grip on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian cause has wandered through the web of regional and international projects sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood and supported by its ally, the United States. This movement, which expanded across the Arab world under the banners of religion and resistance, managed to entrench itself with indirect backing from colonial powers, becoming whether intentionally or not, an instrument that ultimately serves Israel’s agenda, despite its rhetoric of liberation and resistance.
When the Muslim Brotherhood rose to power in Egypt, Hamas’s political transformation became increasingly evident. The movement played a key role in the war against the Syrian regime, aligning itself with armed factions and foreign-backed groups, even though Palestinian organizations had historically maintained a presence in Syria under the banner of resisting the occupation. Hamas, however, turned against Damascus because its project has always shifted flexibly between “revolutionary” and “ruling,” depending on political convenience and circumstance.
Since 2008, Hamas has repeatedly attempted to capture Israeli soldiers in order to secure political deals that would guarantee its continued rule over Gaza. In its most recent war, Hamas once again used the Palestinian people as fuel for its political project, an operation aimed less at liberation and more at consolidating its authority in the Strip. The details of a rumored secret agreement allegedly brokered by the Trump administration remain unclear, but its outlines appear evident, Hamas was seemingly given the green light to redeploy its forces in Gaza, restoring its control under the pretext of a “long-term truce.” The coming days will likely reveal more about this arrangement.
This project was initially meant to culminate before the fall of Mohamed Morsi, who had implicitly agreed to a plan establishing a “Palestinian state” in Gaza extending into parts of Sinai, an arrangement that ultimately served Israel’s strategic interests. For Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood’s project is preferable to the nationalist Palestinian project, which poses a genuine challenge to its regional dominance.
A similar pattern unfolded in Syria, where factions such as Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, and their offshoots born from the ideological roots of the Brotherhood, eventually rebranded themselves as advocates of “moderate Islam,” the model long sought by Washington to manage the region under a controlled religious framework aligned with Western interests.
Turkey and Qatar stand as the clearest embodiments of this vision, maintaining balanced relations with Israel, engaging in a calculated Back and forth that secures mutual interests, all while preserving the foundations of diplomatic and strategic understanding. Ultimately, the Brotherhood’s project converges with Israel’s under the notion of a “Jewish state versus a Khalefa state” a sectarian restructuring of the region designed to sustain Israel’s stability.
I clearly recall how Hamas’s rhetoric shifted during Morsi’s rule, all references to “resistance” and “struggle” disappeared, while the military wing submitted to the directives of the political bureau, which took full control. The Qassam Brigades fell silent, and their presence both on the ground and in the media virtually vanished, as the movement’s priority became governance rather than resistance. It would not be surprising if similar rhetoric were to vanish again today under the rumored agreement with Trump.
This is the Muslim Brotherhood and its true project a covert enterprise that cloaks itself in religious and national slogans to legitimize its political ambitions, while branding any competing national movement as treacherous, even those more sincere in their confrontation with the occupation.
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