How many rockets did the billions in sanctions relief for Iran buy?
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
When the Biden administration colluded with the South Korean government to free up billions in Iranian assets early last year, the move may have had serious consequences in Israel.
Later in 2021, Hamas launched 4,300 rockets at targets across Israel, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, hitting a synagogue, and killing 13 people, including 2 children.
Now the Islamic terror group is at it again.
Hamas boss Ismail Haniyeh recently revealed to Al Jazeera that its terror campaign would not have been possible without the $70 million provided by Iran to fund its war machine.
The Hamas leader described the rocket attacks that took place in the spring of last year as a “rehearsal for the liberation of the Palestinian territories from the occupation”.
That’s code for the destruction of Israel.
As Hamas once again renews its rocket attacks, including two that landed near Tel Aviv, it’s impossible to understand the actions of the terrorist group without looking toward Tehran.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s weapons capabilities are almost entirely dependent on Iran.
Iran either supplies or funds most of the arsenal deployed by Hamas. Two years ago, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted that, “Most of the weapons, missiles and facilities that Palestinian resistance groups have in Gaza are supplied by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.” What isn’t smuggled into Gaza, is manufactured locally with Iranian cash.
While the size of Iran’s payments to Hamas have been the subject of various estimates over the years, the local Al Quds paper claimed that Iran had reinstated funding after a split partly caused by Hamas’ refusal to back Assad over its Muslim Brotherhood cousins in Syria, but also likely due to economic problems caused by U.S. sanctions on the Shiite Islamic terror state.
Al Quds claimed that Iran would now be providing $15 million annually to Hamas. That was significantly down from the estimated $50 to $100 million at the peak of the alliance. (An anonymous Israeli source has claimed that the payments are actually much higher.)
If the $70 million number is correct, then Iran significantly ramped up its funding to Hamas, and sanctions relief would have provided Tehran with a ready source of funding to redirect to terror.
With Hamas rockets costing between several hundred and several thousand dollars, depending on their range and capabilities, millions of dollars can go a long way to fund a massive arsenal. Most of the rockets may be dumb unguided weapons, but much like shooting off a gun in a crowded room, firing off thousands of rockets in a tiny country ensures they will hit something.
While Iranian funding would not have immediately produced an instant arsenal, the infusion of cash would have allowed Hamas to feel confident about blowing a third of its rockets on a new war against Israel. Money is fungible and the combination of new cash and assurances of steady future funding, especially under a loose sanctions climate maintained by a friendly Biden administration, incentivized Hamas to launch its latest war of terror against the Jewish State.
Hamas used its spring 2021 campaign to demonstrate that it could more than double its fire rate and continue its barrage even in the face of Israeli air strikes. Its latest attacks are likewise a demonstration, meant not so much for Jerusalem as for its state sponsors in Doha and Tehran.
The boasts to Al Jazeera can and should be seen as a pitch to terror investors by Hamas, promising a final campaign to destroy Israel if the money shows up. Islamic terror groups operate much like NGOs, showing off their impact in order to solicit donations. Every suicide bombing and shooting is also a fundraising gimmick. A miniature war is the equivalent of a telethon and Iran, flush with billions in sanctions relief, was happy to sign a very big check.
What Iran seeks is the destruction of Israel. Haniyeh is promising that Hamas can deliver.
The billions in sanctions relief that Iran received through South Korea would be negligible compared to the $120 billion in sanctions relief currently on the table. While $70 million to Hamas is an impressive sum, it’s estimated that Iran spends $1 billion on international terrorism.
A renewal of the hoax nuclear deal with the Islamic terror state would mean a lot more discretionary income to spend on terrorism, not just against Israel, but also against America.
British journalist Jake Wallis Simons noted that, “US negotiators amazed international partners by tabling a proposal that was so generous that the Iranians had to rub their eyes to believe it.” That’s saying quite a bit considering that the original deal had been an Obama product. But Biden’s history with the Iran lobbymakes his Iran policies even worse than those of Obama.
And it’s not just the money.
A key element in Iran’s terror network is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Trump administration sanctioned the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. That has made it much harder for the IRGC to function as a regional command and control center for Islamic terrorism.
In 2007, Joe Biden became one of only 22 senators to vote against designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. Biden was so proud of his IRGC vote that he used it to attack Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for being insufficiently pro-Iran.
The IRGC’s false flag election disinformation campaign during the 2020 election appeared to be meant to help Biden. Considering Biden’s history of opposition to sanctioning the IRGC, any deal with Iran would almost certainly remove its terrorist designation. Indeed one of the first regional actions of the Biden administration was removing the terrorist designation from the Houthis, Iran’s sponsored terror group in Yemen, whose motto includes, “Death to America”.
“The next American administration will surrender to the Iranian nation,” Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani boasted after the election. That prediction appears to be coming true.
During the election, Iran made its bet on Biden, and Hamas appears to have done the same.
Hamas leaders have calculated that the division created by the Syrian Civil War with the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda fighting Assad and Hezbollah is now ancient history. And that the Biden administration will provide sanctions relief and reduce pressure on IRGC operations.
The latest Hamas rocket attacks remind us that sanctions relief doesn’t bring peace, only war.
gravenimage says
Did Biden Help Finance Hamas Rocket Attacks on Israel?
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Probably. Those boatloads of cash to Iran buy a lot of rockets…
Westman says
Iran can continue funding proxy mercenaries for the next 50 years from oil sales. Iran’s Mullahs don’t care about the people tightening their belt or suffering – it’s all for the glory of being the nation that destroyed Israel and can then claim to be the rightful choice as the manager of Mecca. The Mullahs and the IRGC are insane.
The tit-for-tat with Hamas is exactly what Iran’s evil theocratic government wants; the continual use of civilian areas to launch and then the bad press when Israel rightfully responds.
There is no solution to this problem except the removal of the Iranian Regime and decimation of the IRGC. If enough damage is done to The Iranian Regime it will be unable to continue funding terrorism. The civilized Arabs are fed-up with Iran’s leadership and would be content to see it gone.
I’d hate to see such a war happen yet I cannot see how Israel can afford to wait until 2025 to have a reliable ally.
Why Biden’s name is mentioned in connection with the new US policy of hanging Israel out to dry seems absurd. Any cogent person knows he is not really the puppet master.
Walter Sieruk says
If Joe Biden actually has a part in financing Hamas to make it further launch murderous jihad terror attacks into the State of Israel killing innocent Israeli citizens then he is guilty of murder. So Biden has the blood of many Israeli’s on his evil hands
Biden is so terrible that he is ,in essence, already guilty of the deaths of a vast number of Americans,So Biden has the blood of many Americans on his bloody and wicked hands.
To start with the thirteen American soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan because of his awful judgement. Moreover all those Americans he abandoned in Afghanistan into the grips of the malicious and deadly Taliban.
Furthermore Biden’s disastrous no secure US .Mexican border policy which allowed many dangerous vicious gangsters to enter America, As for example, those street criminal hooligans of MS -13 with their drug trafficking rapes and murderer they commit.
To add to all those horrors , because of Biden with his opening the US/Mexican borders he also let into America many immigrants unchecked for having or not having the dangerous and deadly coronavirus. thereby furthering and hasten the spread of COVID -19 across the United States. Therefore more dead Americans because of “president” pretender Biden.
As has Biden helped Hamas murder the Israeli citizens so Biden in the future because of his porous border policy and allowing in to America so many unvetted Muslims he has thus helped set the stage for ISIS and al Qaeda and other like-minded jihadists to easily enter the US to inflect murdering and destructive Islamic terror attacks in American on the American people.
Bogus “President” Biden the death bringer to people in America and overseas as well.
Proud Islamophobe says
I just don’t understand why it’s so hard to charge someone treasonous with treason.
James Lincoln says
Proud Islamophobe,
There is no way that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland will pursue any treasonous charges against Biden and company.
Garland is part of the problem…