5 - The 2009 Gaza War

Summary

Chapter 5 examines Saudi and Syrian threat perceptions during the 2009 Gaza War. Whereas the Saudi Kingdom perceived Hamas as a threat and the Syrian regime perceived it as a strategic ally. Hamas in the context of the Gaza War presents a least-likely case study that provides stronger evidence for the book’s overarching argument. As opposed to Hezbollah, Hamas is a political Islam movement that finds its ideological origins in the Muslim Brotherhood – belongs to a Sunni school of thought. Considering the nature of Hamas identity narrative, it was expected of Saudi Arabia to find in Hamas an ally based on identity convergence and history of cooperation, and Syria was expected to find it as a potential of threat considering that al-Assad regime has been oppressing an offshoot of the same group at the domestic level. Despite the identity convergence between Hamas and Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom perceived Hamas as a threat. Also, the Ba’ath regime, often depicted as Alawite in nature oppressing the Brotherhood at the domestic level, regarded Hamas as an ally. The comparison in this chapter has wider implications for the role of identity in the international relations of the Middle East.