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.And there was absolutely nodoubt that he was not pulling the strings.Hamas had always been something of a ghost.It had no central or branch offices, noplace where people could drop by to talk to movement representatives.A lot of Palestinianscame to my dad s office, shared their problems, and asked for help, especially the families ofprisoners and martyrs who lost their husbands and fathers during the intifadas.But evenSheikh Hassan Yousef was in the dark.Everybody thought he had all the answers, but hewas no different than the rest of us: all he had were questions.Once he told me he was thinking of closing his office. Why? Where will you meet with the media? I asked. I don t care.People are coming from everywhere, hoping I can help.But there is no way Ican provide for everyone who needs help; it s simply too much. Why doesn t Hamas help them? These are the families of the movement members.Hamas has lots of money. Yes, but the organization doesn t give it to me. So ask for some.Tell them about all the people in need. I don t know who they are or how to get hold of them. But you re the leader, I protested. I am not the leader. You founded Hamas, Father.If you re not the leader, who is? No one is the leader!I was shocked.The Shin Bet was recording every word, and they were shocked as well.One day, I received a call from Majeda Talahme, Saleh s wife.We hadn t spoken sinceher husband s funeral. Hi, how are you? How are Mosab and the other kids?She started to cry. I don t have money to feed the children.I thought, God forgive you, Saleh, for what you did to your family! Okay, my sister, calm down, and I will try to do something.I went to my dad. Saleh s wife just called.She doesn t have money to buy food for her children. Sadly, Mosab, she is not the only one. Yes, but Saleh was a very good friend of mine.We have to do something right away! Son, I told you.I don t have any money. Okay, but somebody s in charge.Somebody has plenty of money.This isn t fair! Thisman died for the sake of the movement!My father told me he would do what he could.He wrote a letter, sort of a  to whom it mayconcern, and sent it to a drop point.We couldn t track it, but we knew the recipient wassomewhere in the Ramallah area.A few months earlier, the Shin Bet had sent me to an Internet café downtown.We knewthat someone using one of the computers there was in communication with Hamas leaders inDamascus.We didn t know who all these leaders were, but there was no denying that Syriawas a hub of Hamas s power.It made sense for Hamas to maintain a whole organization anoffice, weapons, and military camps somewhere it could be out from under the Israeli ham-mer. We don t know who it is communicating with Damascus, Loai said,  but he sounds dan-gerous.As I walked into the café, I found twenty people sitting at computers.None had beards.Nobody looked suspicious.But one of them caught my attention, though I have no idea why.Ididn t recognize him, but my instinct told me to keep an eye on him.I knew it wasn t much togo on, but over the years, the Shin Bet had learned to trust my hunches.We were convinced that, whoever this man at the Internet café was, he was probably dan-gerous.Only highly trusted people were able to communicate with Hamas leaders in Damas-cus.And we hoped that he might also lead us to the elusive, shadowy elite who actually ruledHamas.We circulated his photograph, but no one recognized him.I began to question my in-stincts.A few weeks later, I held an open house for some property in Ramallah that I had put upfor sale.Several people came, but no one made an offer.Late that afternoon, after I hadclosed up, I got a call from a man who asked if he could still see the house.I was really verytired, but I told him to go on over and I would meet him there.I returned to the property, andhe showed up a few minutes later.It was the man from the Internet café.He told me his name was Aziz Kayed.He was cleanshaven and very professional looking.I could tell he was educated, and he said he ran the re-spectable Al-Buraq Center for Islamic Studies.He didn t seem to be the link we were lookingfor.But rather than confuse the Shin Bet even more, I kept the discovery to myself.Sometime after my encounter with Kayed, my father and I set out to visit cities, villages,and refugee camps throughout the West Bank.In one town, more than fifty thousand peoplegathered to see Sheikh Hassan Yousef.They all wanted to touch him and hear what he hadto say.He was still deeply loved.In Nablus, a Hamas stronghold, we met with top organization leaders, and I figured outwhich of them were members of the shurah council a small group of seven men who makedecisions on strategic issues and daily activities for the movement.Like my dad, they wereamong the eldest Hamas leaders, but they were not the  executives we were looking for.After all these years, I could not believe that control of Hamas had somehow, somewherealong the line, slipped into unknown hands.If I, who was born and raised in the heart of themovement, had no idea who pulled the strings, who knew?The answer came out of the blue.One of the shurah council members in Nablus men-tioned the name of Aziz Kayed.He suggested that my father visit Al-Buraq and meet this good man. My ears perked up immediately.Why would a local Hamas leader make such arecommendation? There were simply too many coincidences: first, Aziz caught my eye in theInternet café; then he showed up at my open house; and now, the council member was tellingmy dad he should meet this man.Was this a sign that my hunch was correct and Aziz Kayedwas someone important in the Hamas organization?Could we even be so fortunate as to have found the person in charge? As unlikely as itsounded, something inside me said to follow my instinct.I raced back to Ramallah, where Icalled Loai and asked him to order a computer search for Aziz Kayed.Several Aziz Kayeds popped up, but none who fit the description.We had an emergencymeeting, and I asked Loai to widen the name search to the entire West Bank.His peoplethought I was crazy, but they went along with me.This time, we found him.Aziz Kayed was born in Nablus and was a former member of the Islamic student move-ment.He had discontinued his activities ten years earlier.He was married with children andfree to travel out of the country.Most of his friends were secular.We found nothing suspi-cious.I explained to the Shin Bet everything that had happened, from the moment I stepped intothe Internet café to the visit to Nablus with my father.They said that although they definitelytrusted me, we simply didn t have enough to go on yet.While we were talking, I thought about something else. Kayed reminds me of three other guys, I said to Loai. Salah Hussein from Ramallah,Adib Zeyadeh from Jerusalem, and Najeh Madi from Salfeet.All three of these guys have ad-vanced university degrees and were at one time very active in Hamas.But for whatever reas-on, they simply dropped out of sight about ten years ago.Now, they all live very normal lives,completely removed from political involvement.I always wondered why someone who was sopassionate about the movement would just quit like that.Loai agreed that I might be onto something.We began to study the movements of eachman [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]