Poisoned by fanaticism -

The Telegraph - UK ^ | October 16, 2003

[UnklGene]

Poisoned by fanaticism -

(Filed: 16/10/2003)

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have good reason to deny responsibility for yesterday's terrorist attack on American intelligence personnel in the Gaza Strip. The explosion takes the Palestinians' insurgency on to a qualitatively new plane, placing them in serious conflict with the world's only superpower for the first time since the current intifada began in September 2000. Its most immediate effect will be to reinforce the widespread belief in America that Palestinian violence should be treated as an integral part of the war on terrorism. Such a move would also pose a challenge for Tony Blair, who has sought to treat Palestinian "armed struggle" as a case apart - as a rational, albeit often excessively violent, response to the conditions of Israeli occupation.

Whichever Palestinian faction perpetrated these murders - and it may well be that Hamas or Islamic Jihad employed the flag of convenience of "Popular Resistance Committee" in much the same fashion as the IRA allowed some particularly inopportune atrocities to be claimed by the "Catholic Reaction Force" - there is no doubting the common ideological well-spring from which all these groups drink. Young people in the occupied territories are indoctrinated from an early age into the Wahabbist version of Islam that so inspired Osama bin Laden. Considering the burgeoning anti-Western and anti-Semitic delirium that now afflicts many of these Palestinians, perhaps the only surprise is that such an attack did not happen sooner. This poisoning of young Arab minds does far more to explain the attack than, say, Palestinian anger over this week's American veto of a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Israeli construction of a security fence.

The heat will now be on the new Palestinian prime minister, Abu Ala, to deliver some tough measures. Maybe he will, maybe he won't: he could, like his predecessors, simply bundle some suspects through the front door of the interrogation centre and then quietly release them once the immediate crisis is over. The West's ability to control him is clearly minimal. But what America, in particular, can control is its own behaviour. The attack in Gaza should prompt a reappraisal of CIA training of Palestinian security personnel, which constitutes a critical plank of the Oslo process. The Palestinian Authority's complex apparatus is so riddled with Islamist infiltrators - some of whom may have tipped off the terrorists on the whereabouts of the American convoy - as to raise serious questions about whether it is a genuine partner for peace. Like the Saudi intelligence services, which are heavily penetrated by bin Laden, the Palestinian security machine is at best a liability in the war on terrorism.

[Dialup Llama]

> The attack in Gaza should prompt a reappraisal of CIA training of Palestinian security personnel, which constitutes a critical plank of the Oslo process

The US is training terrorists to be more effective terrorists under the guide of 'roadmap to peace.'

[Cicero]

If the victims came from the State Department and the CIA, maybe it might give some of the Arab lovers in those organizations second thoughts. But I doubt it. Muslim terrorists blew up whole embassies while clinton was president, and the State Department basically said tut-tut and shrugged it off.

[jocon307]

"Muslim terrorists blew up whole embassies while clinton was president, and the State Department basically said tut-tut and shrugged it off."

Good point, unfortunately, also accurate.

[DaBearOne]

It is pass time for the US to start to counter the arab threat by responding in such a way that they will feel the full brunt of what bombings are really all about. Such as a large flight of B-52's dropping our reply. Maybe they will be begin to take the hint and stop listenings to their Mullahs.