The Conversation

A crucial meeting between one of Iran’s ruling religious committee, Hossein, and a Hamas leader, Ismail, in September, 2023.

In the past few weeks it has come to light that a crucial meeting likely took place in Beirut between an Iranian leader and one of the heads of Hamas prior to October 7^th, 2023, with Hamas seeking a final green light on their plans. Here is the likely path such a conversation would have taken. Once again a satirical style, but with a far more serious overtone given the nature of their discussion.

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Ismail: Thank you for agreeing to meet me at such short notice. I would not have made the request if the matter wasn’t now pressing.

Hossein: (Nods sagely) And you mentioned the need for secrecy too, which is why I thought this Beirut hotel room was ideal for our purposes today. Anyone monitoring my movements would assume I’d come here to visit Hezbollah leaders – which I have in fact already done. (Holds a palm out) So, tell me – why the urgency?

Ismail: I hear news that the Americans are very close to getting Saudi into the Abraham Accords fold. And if they do that, it will be announced as a grand prize. Problem being that with Saudi joining, many other remaining Muslim nations will likely join that fold too…

Hossein: Excluding our own blessed Iran, of course… nor our friends in Syria.

Ismail: But sadly, Syria might be close to falling, and then there would be little to stop them joining the fold too. And once a majority of our Muslim brother nations have acquiesced and recognized Israel, I fear our noble Palestinian cause will be pushed aside and forgotten.

Hossein: (Nods again) We share that worry, of course. Because our own end aim to destroy Israel will then also be overshadowed, made more difficult. Plus if we lose our ally, Bashar, in Syria, we will also lose one of our main supply routes to Hezbollah and yourselves. So, we have many concerns that align with yours.

Ismail: As I surmised, and why I requested this urgent meeting now. (Takes a fresh breath) I feel something is needed now to put the issue of Palestine back centre-stage. A ‘spectacular’ of sorts… which in fact we’ve already been making some preparations for.

Hossein: What? A fresh chain of suicide bombings, perhaps?

Ismail: No, I fear that wouldn’t create enough of a stir, would be too quickly forgotten. We need something far more dramatic.

Hossein: (Gestures) Such as?

As Ismail goes on to describe a mass assault with armed men para-gliding over the Gaza border fence and cutting it to let through cars, jeeps and bikes for a fuller assault force to kill and kidnap large numbers in Southern Israel, Hossein’s face clouds.

Hossein: When you first mentioned a ‘spectacular’, I had no idea you had something of this scale in mind. The reprisals from Israel will be heavy.

Ismail: Yes, but even that we will play to our advantage. As the bombings inevitably come, we will play up the numbers of women and children killed to gain public sympathy. The numbers we killed and kidnapped at the outset will be quickly forgotten. And that sympathy for us will be even stronger in the Arab world… all thoughts of the Abraham Accords will be quickly forgotten. Saudi and others wouldn’t dare join while there was such a wave of outrage against Israel and sympathy for us.

Hossein: (Thoughtful for a second) It’s a high-risk strategy, but also has many merits. It certainly would put the issue of Palestine back in the spotlight. But as those bombings come, won’t the people of Gaza partly blame you for this fresh tragedy befalling them?

Ismail: Some, but not many. And any that are too vocal against us, we’ll shoot as ‘collaborators’ with Israel, as we’ve done in the past.

Hossein: But as the death toll in Gaza rises, as it likely will, won’t this issue of you hiding behind civilians and using them as human shields surface again?

Ismail: It will no doubt come up, but as quickly will be forgotten or become overshadowed by the numerous atrocities we will claim are being perpetrated by the Israelis and regularly feed to the media. Some with a basis of truth but wildly exaggerated, some completely invented. The overall ‘picture painted’ is the main thing.

Hossein: You seem very confident of how things will progress.

Ismail: Yes, and Allah willing, with good reason. For example, a few months back on a Russian news channel, a journalist asked one of our leaders why in all the years we hadn’t built any bomb shelters in Gaza. He answered that it was UNRWA’s responsibility to build them, not Hamas’s. But the thing is, it was a minor news station and no other majors like CNN or the BBC picked up on it… and nobody subsequently pressed UNRWA as to why no bomb shelters had been built or what plans they now had to do so? It was all quickly forgotten.

Hossein: And if UNWRA were asked now about why they hadn’t built any bomb shelters or their plans to do so?

Ismail: They’d shuffle it back to us or say that their main focus was with food aid and, besides, the Israelis had strict blockades on materials such as concrete and steel.

Hossein: (Smiles gently) Yet you seem to have had no trouble siphoning off enough steel and concrete to build hundreds of miles of underground tunnels to store your weapons and protect your own fighters (Shakes head). And the question never gets raised of why you don’t allow civilians to be protected there?

Ismail: (Returns smile) No, we’ve got the media too well-trained to ask awkward questions like that. Besides, they know that anything untoward reported about us, and they aren’t allowed back into Gaza for future reporting.

Hossein: And you seem quite certain that UNRWA would follow your line if questioned directly about all of this.

Ismail: Positive. (Gestures) In fact, it goes even further with UNRWA. Some of them have expressed a willingness to join in our ‘spectacular’ assault, and some of them will also harbour Israeli hostages. After all, last place the Israelis would think of looking for them is a UN-sponsored home.

Hossein: You appear to have thought of many factors, many contingencies. And you’re sure the people of Gaza won’t blame you for the onslaught that will surely follow from the Israelis? After all, their reprisal will be unlike anything that has previously befallen Gaza.

Ismail: Yes, as sure as can be. The mother you see wailing and shedding tears for the international news cameras over her young son killed in an air raid. That same boy a year earlier she’d have led into one of our assault training camps and declared how she’d happily see him martyred in our glorious fight against the Jews.

Hossein: (Nods slowly) That level of faith and steadfast dedication is indeed admirable. (Strokes his chin) And it would certainly, as you say, put Palestine back in the spotlight, and also help our aims too. But if I approve this, it’s vital that this matter stays secret between us – in fact, when we both leave this room, this meeting and discussion between us has never taken place.

Ismail: You don’t need to discuss this with the main committee back in Iran?

Hossein: No, too risky. I’ll discuss it only with the Supreme Leader and let you know his decision two days from now. But ostensibly, I approve it and will recommend he does too. But the rest of the Committee will be kept in the dark about it, so that anyone monitoring their surprise at the attack – such as the Americans – that will seem real. As if we had no prior knowledge of it.

Ismail: I see. That secrecy and appearance that you had no prior knowledge of the attack is important to you?

Hossein: Vital. We will be in talks with the Americans shortly about stopping our nuclear ambitions and getting embargoes lifted, and we don’t want anything that will jeopardize those talks and weaken our position. (Looks at Ismail keenly) And you’re sure the anger and rage from this attack and the undoubted reprisal will be aimed more at Israel than at you and your fellow Hamas comrades?

Ismail: (Shrugs) As I’ve said, there’ll be some initial outrage and sympathy for Israel, but that will quickly evaporate. Especially by the time we’ve massaged the figures of women and children killed. Within a few months, I predict Israel will be hated more than ever before – not only in the Arab world, but with the international community too.

Hossein: (Nods thoughtfully) That would certainly be a worthwhile achievement. Would more than justify the risk and loss of life.

Ismail: Plus we have the factor that in exchange for the Israeli hostages, we can likely get most if not all of our prisoners currently in Israeli jails released.

Hossein: Yes, a decided added benefit. (Again, he fixes his gaze keenly on Ismail) And your own personal thoughts about the likely loss of life in Gaza from the ensuing war?

Ismail: When have I or anyone within Hamas put the lives and welfare of people in Gaza before our own personal aims and ambitions? (Gestures) Little point in getting sentimental about them now.

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John Matthews is an experienced writer and journalist. The author of 24 books, including two centred around WW2 and the holocaust in the name of J.C. Maetis (his father’s original Jewish name) his first experience of writing about the Middle East came as a war correspondent covering the last years of the Lebanese Civil War, which led to his second book, ‘The Crescents of the Moon’. He has since written on the subject for a number of journals, including The Times, Sunday Times, Newsweek, The Independent and The Spectator. He was also in the run-up to the millennium editor of European Brief, the main magazine for the European Parliament, editing the likes of Tony Blair, Al Gore and Henry Kissinger on subjects ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall and European unity, climate change and nuclear fusion to, once again, the Middle East. He lives in London with his wife and family.

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