Intelligence report by Wayne Madsen

February 10, 2006 -- Israel and Hamas holding meetings. According to informed Israeli and Palestinian sources, there have been a series of direct meetings and indirect liaison between the Israeli government and officials of Hamas, (Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Resistance Movement).

Contacts between Israel's Mossad and Hamas date back to the 1970s when the Israeli intelligence agency provided funds to social charities created by Hamas spiritual founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the blind and wheelchair-bound cleric who was later assassinated in an Israeli missile attack. After Yassin was arrested and jailed by Israel in 1984, the cleric established Hamas in 1987. The Mossad continued to assist Hamas, hoping that the Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization would provide an alternative and resistance to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Fatah.

Old Mossad-Hamas links serve as basis for current Israeli-Hamas talks. Another example of Israelis being more pragmatic than the Bush administration neo-cons.

The Israeli-Hamas negotiations are centered on a number of Hamas figures in the West Bank and Gaza considered to be more "moderate" than those who are in exile. These include Jamal al Khudeiri, a Gaza businessman who ran for the Palestinian parliament as an independent with the backing of Hamas, who is reportedly Hamas's pick to be Prime Minister. In fact, Palestinian sources report that the Hamas government may even include some Fatah members who were lukewarm on the Fatah government. Palestinian sources point out that a number of Hamas figures are well known Palestinian businessmen who have engaged in trade and commerce with Israeli companies and businessmen over the years and that these contacts have served as a basis for establishing contacts between the Israeli government and Hamas.