Comprendere Hamas

The conflict raging in Gaza is different this time.

While Hamas' rocket attacks and Israel's military actions may look familiar, they're taking place against a whole new backdrop.

"This is unprecedented in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict," says CNN's Ali Younes, an analyst who has covered the region for decades. "Most Arab states are actively supporting Israel against the Palestinians -- and not even shy about it or doing it discreetly."

It's a "joint Arab-Israeli war consisting of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia against other Arabs -- the Palestinians as represented by Hamas."

As the New York Times put it, "Arab leaders, viewing Hamas as worse than Israel, stay silent."

(CNN) --
If the Gaza truce holds and Israel's Operation Protective Edge comes to its conclusion, some things are certain.

Both Israel and Hamas will declare military victory 

-- Israel pointing to the destruction of militants' tunnels and depletion of Hamas' rocket supply; 

-- Hamas pointing to dozens of dead Israeli troops and the survival of Hamas leadership in Gaza.

But unlike in previous conflicts, when Hamas had the support of many Arab nations, things have changed. This time, as CNN has reported, the fighting between Israel and Hamas has been a proxy war for the Mideast.

Key regional players Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have their own reasons to want to fend off the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is part, experts say. And Europe, like the United States, lists Hamas as a terrorist organization for its numerous attacks on civilians.

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But the group does have the support of some countries.

"It's no longer the Muslims against the Jews," said Danielle Pletka, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. "Now it's the extremists -- the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, and their backers Iran, Qatar and Turkey -- against Israel and the more moderate Muslims including Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia."

A look at some key Hamas supporters:

Turkey

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly supports Hamas.

"Erdogan has tried to use the cause of the Brotherhood to bolster his own Islamist credentials at home," says Eric Trager, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Turkey also has "more of an ideological sympathy with the Brotherhood," Trager says.

Qatar

Qatar supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt -- which was toppled from power in a coup last year. Qatar funds many Muslim Brotherhood figures in exile, including Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, who is believed to have orchestrated numerous terrorist attacks.

"Qatar has a long history of providing shelter to Islamist groups, amongst them the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban," Shashank Joshi of the Royal United Services Institute tells Time.

Advocating for Hamas is beneficial to Turkey and Qatar in their political objectives because the cause draws popular support at home, says world affairs writer Frida Ghitis in a CNN.com column.

It's no longer the Muslims against the Jews. 

Now it's the extremists -- the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, and their backers Iran, Qatar and Turkey -- against Israel and the more moderate Muslims including Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute

But some question whether Qatar's support still is for Hamas is still strong. The country's financial support to the group "largely dried up" as Qatar sought "to mend ties with its neighbors, with whom it had fallen out in part for backing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt," the Council on Foreign Relations said.

While Qatar and Turkey are powerful allies, "Hamas might wish for more support given the breadth of the Arab world," Time reported.

Iran and Syria

In the past, Iran and Syria supported Hamas. Iran supplied the group with weapons; Syria was home to Meshaal.

But Meshaal did not support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country's civil war. 

In 2012, Meshaal left for Qatar, causing a breakdown in his relationship with both Syria and its ally Iran, says Firas Abi Ali, head of Middle East and North Africa Country Risk and Forecasting at the global information company IHS.

And while Iran still professes to support Hamas, such claims "are more ostentatious, showy, exaggerated and theatrical rather than genuine and practical," writes Majid Rafizadeh, an Iranian-American scholar at Harvard University, in a column for al Arabiya.

Iran, which is a Muslim but not an Arab nation, "uses Hamas (as well as Tehran's support for the Palestinian cause) as a tool to project its power and influence in the Arab world," he argues.

The Council on Foreign Relations says Iran, while cutting its funding to Hamas in recent years, "sought to bolster its ties to other resistance groups in the region, such as Islamic Jihad."

Hezbollah

The Lebanese militant group based in Lebanon is aligned with al-Assad's regime in Syria. During the conflict, Hezbollah reached out to Hamas, praising its "steadfastness."

This does not mean the relationship is repaired to where it stood before Syria's civil war, but "a new realignment might happen," Farwaz Gerges of the London School of Economics told Time.

Popular support

Hamas' greatest support in the wake of the conflict with Israel may be from the public in Gaza and other parts of the Arab world.

"Hamas is not a monolith, nor is it only a terrorist group," Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations writes on CNN.com. "It is a social movement, with a mass membership, a popular message of resistance that resonates across the Muslim world, and a political party with which we must negotiate."

Some analysts believe Hamas will emerge stronger from the fight with Israel. The conflict "will only further radicalize the Palestinian population -- and alienate frustrated friends in the United States," Mark Perry of Foreign Policy argues.

Before Operation Protective Edge, a poll by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy found that most Palestinians in Gaza oppose a two-state solution and want to work toward abolishing Israel -- a goal that is in line with Hamas' charter.

But the poll also found most Palestinians support nonviolent methods of achieving their goals.

Support could affect arms supply

While Hamas' recruitment might soar now, militarily the group "is on the ropes," with tunnels destroyed and much of its rocket supply depleted, writes Rick Francona, retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and CNN military analyst.

"After similar conflicts in the past, Hamas has been rearmed and resupplied by its supporters, primarily Iran and to some extent Syria. The most efficient method for the rearming and resupply effort has been via the large number of smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

"That is not likely to be the case this time -- another blow to Hamas, which it must factor in to its assessment of this conflict as well as its future planning."

IDENTITA' DELL'OSSIDIANA IN 10 SECONDI

I ricercatori dell'Università di Sheffield hanno sviluppato un metodo per  determinare l'origine dell'ossidiana che richiede solo 10 secondi -- Dozzine di volte più veloce del metodo attualmente in uso -- per mezzo di uno strumento portatile a mano, che può essere usato negli scavi archeologici.

Dr Ellery Frahm using pXRF [Credit: University of Sheffield]

L'ossidiana, cioé il 'vetro vulcanico' che si ritrova in natura, è liscio, duro e molto più affilato di un bisturi quando sia fratturato: il che lo rese un materiale molto ricercato per ottenerne stumenti di pietra, per tutta la storia dell'umanità. I più antichi strumenti di ossidiana furono trovati circa  due milioni d'anni fa nell'Africa orientale e alcuni bisturi sono tutt'oggi in ossidiana (per esempio, in oculistica, ndt.).  

La composizione chimica dell'ossidiana varia da vulcano a vulcano e le 'impronte digitali' chimiche permettono ai ricercatori di  confrontare un artefatto d'ossidiana sfruttando proprio l'origine vulcanica del materiale.  I test chimici spesso coinvolgono laboratori d'analisi dedicati specificamente all'uopo, persino con reattori nucleari, che richiedono mesi o anni d'attesa dopo lo scavo.

Il nuovo procedimento adotta una tecnica d'analisi  detta "fluorescenza portatile a raggi X" (portable X-ray fluorescence = pXRF) che richiede uno strumento portatile non più grande e non dissimile da un telefono portatile cordless. Questa metodica è comodissima, dando la possibilità all'archeologo d'identificare l'origine dell'oggetto di pietra  sul campo, invece di doverlo spedire lontano, risparmiando così tempo e denaro. Sarà usata prima per studiare gli strumenti d'ossidiana fatti dai primi esseri umani, includendo Neanderthal ed Erectus, decine di migliaia d'anni fa.
Il Dr Ellery Frahm dell'Università di Sheffield, Dipartimento di Archeologia, è molto soddisfatto di potere esaminare i reperti sul campo, senza più le lunghe attese che erano richieste in passato e soprattutto del fatto che il riconoscimento sia fatto contestualmente al momento dello scavo, sul sito di scavo, con risultati entro 10 secondi per ciò che riguarda la provenienza dell'ossidiana.

La ricerca è stata condotta in Armenia, "perché si tratta di uno dei territori naturalmente più ricchi di ossidiana in assoluto ed insieme uno dei paesaggi culturali più ricchi nel mondo, con assemblaggi litici di numerosi siti del Paleolitico che sono composti prevalentemente, se non unicamente, di ossidiana". 
Il presente lavoro è il più recente: prima la ricerca era condotta in siria, un'area nella quale gli attuali eventi bellici stanno mettendo a rischio tutto l'insieme dell'eredità culturale del paese. 

Questa ricerca globalmente ha avuto origine  dal fatto che il dipartimento sia entrato  nel circuito - a finanziamento Unione europea - Marie Curie "New Archaeological Research Network for Integrating Approaches to Ancient Material Studies," conosciuto meglio sotto l'acronimo di NARNIA. Il dr Frahm sostiene che la ricerca di Sheffield a mezzo NARNIA  unisce  lavoro laboratoristico archeologico al lavoro archeologico sul campo: tenedo in mente due scopi fondamentali. "Lavorare dove prima non potevamo lavorare e rispondere a domande a cui prima non potevamo rispondere."

Il Dr Frahm si dichiara estremamente soddisfatto del fatto che l'analisi chimica sia stata portata via ai "camici bianchi" per essere consegnata agli "scarponi infangati". Più specialisti presenti sul campo significa sempre migliori risultati pratici. 

Source: University of Sheffield [September 09, 2013]

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed a method of sourcing obsidian artefacts that takes only 10 seconds -- dozens of times faster than the current methods -- with a handheld instrument that can be used at archaeological excavations.

Dr Ellery Frahm using pXRF [Credit: University of Sheffield]

Obsidian, naturally occurring volcanic glass, is smooth, hard, and far sharper than a surgical scalpel when fractured, making it a highly desirable raw material for crafting stone tools for almost all of human history. The earliest obsidian tools, found in East Africa, are nearly two million years old, and obsidian scalpels are still used today in specialised medical procedures.

The chemistry of obsidian varies from volcano to volcano, and the chemical "fingerprints" allow researchers to match an obsidian artefact to the volcanic origin of its raw material. The chemical tests often involve dedicated analytical laboratories, even nuclear reactors, and take place months or years after an archaeological site has been excavated.

The new process uses an analytical technique called portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), which involves a handheld instrument about the size, shape, and weight of a cordless drill. This portability enables archaeologists to identify the origins of stone tools in the field rather than having to send off artefacts to a distant lab. The newly developed method, which saves time and money, will first be used to study obsidian tools made by early humans, including Neanderthals and Homo erectus, tens of thousands of years ago.

Dr Ellery Frahm from the University of Sheffield's Department of Archaeology explained: "Obsidian sourcing has, for the last 50 years, involved chemical analysis in a distant laboratory, often taking five minutes per artefact, completely separate from the process of archaeological excavation. We sought to bring new tools for chemical analysis with us into the field, so we can do obsidian sourcing as we excavate or survey an archaeological site, not wait until months or years later to learn the results. We can now analyse an obsidian artefact in the field, and just 10 seconds later, we have an answer for its origin.

"We carried out the research in Armenia because it has one of the most obsidian-rich natural and cultural landscapes in the world, and the lithic assemblages of numerous Palaeolithic sites are predominantly, if not entirely, composed of obsidian."

The work is the latest of Dr Frahm's achievements in the field of obsidian sourcing, an area that he previously researched in Syria, prior to the current conflict situation which now threatens the country's heritage.

This research arose from the department's involvement in the EU-funded Marie Curie network "New Archaeological Research Network for Integrating Approaches to Ancient Material Studies," known by its acronym as NARNIA. Dr Frahm explained that Sheffield's research with NARNIA includes uniting archaeological labwork and fieldwork in the field: "We have a broad remit on the project, but we are driven by two goals: work where we couldn't work before, and answer what we couldn't answer before."

Dr Frahm continued: "Here at Sheffield we're shifting chemical analysis from the realm of 'white lab coats' to 'muddy boots.' The more that archaeologists and specialists in various fields can work together on-site the better.

Source: University of Sheffield [September 09, 2013]

POPOLI DEL MARE

PROFUGHI 

Ci furono - alcuni anni fa - i "Boat People" nell'estremo Sud Est Asiatico. Ci sono stati e ci sono tuttora i "Wetbacks" Messicani, che attraversano il confine con gli Stati Uniti e - per farlo - devono bagnarsi nelle acque del Rio Grande.
Ci sono, ormai da anni, dei poveri disgraziati, sfruttati e destinati a morire o ad essere sottopagati col lavoro nero, che fuggono dalle loro terre da incubo e che figurano stabilmente nelle pagine di cronaca dei nostri giornali. Sono trasportati dalle "Carrette del Mare", oppure trasportati da miserabili negrieri profittatori spietati che chiamiamo "Scafisti", invece di usare il termine appropriato...
Prima provenivano per mare solo dal Magreb, o dall'Est Europeo, adesso ne arrivano anche dalla Siria, per via della guerra.
La Storia si ripete, con poca fantasia: è beffardo e curioso che i nomi di questi Profughi Disperati siano in qualche modo sempre legati all'acqua. In tutte le latitudini, in tutte le epoche, la definizione trovata per loro li lega immancabilmente in qualche modo a quell'acqua che - dolce o salata che fosse - doveva per essi avere un sapore ed un significato terribilmente amaro...
In fondo, anche i "Padri Fondatori" che fuggivano perché perseguitati in Patria per motivi religiosi, fuggirono attraverso l'Oceano Atlantico, per raggiungere l'America.

Ebbene Pasuco: io sostengo con forza e decisione che anche i cosiddetti Popoli del Mare fecero esattamente la medesima cosa che costoro hanno fatto in tempi più recenti e che stanno ancora facendo oggi. Fuggirono, disperatamente, con ogni mezzo, da terre distrutte ed ormai inospitali che non potevano più mantenerli in vita. Fuggirono affrontando rischi altissimi: talvolta l'alternativa più probabile alla morte era la schiavitù a vita... 

Perché lo fecero, Pasuco?
Perché avevano negli occhi l'immagine sfolgorante della Terra Promessa, dove i loro figli avrebbero, almeno, avuto un futuro.

Non farti incantare dai contastorie: la realtà non è mai la coloratissima Epopea di "guerrieri invincibili che nessuno può fermare": la Realtà è fatta di colori neri e plumbei, nei quali la breve sospensione della Tragedia è quasi di per sé un momento di felicità, in cui egualmente si strappa quotidianamente alla Morte la nostra Vita con le unghie.