Posted on 03/22/2006 12:43:43 PM PST by MikeA
Signs are mounting that al-Qaida terrorists are setting their sights on Israel and the Palestinian territories as their next jihad battleground.
Israel has indicted two West Bank militants for al-Qaida membership, Egypt arrested operatives trying to cross into Israel and a Palestinian security official has acknowledged al-Qaida is "organizing cells and gathering supporters."
Al-Qaida's inroads are still preliminary, but officials fear a doomsday scenario if it takes root.
Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon have established contacts with al-Qaida followers linked to Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, according to two Israeli officials.
Al-Zarqawi has established footholds in the countries neighboring Israel _ Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan _ and is interested in bringing his fight to Israel, too, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because Israel does not want to identify those involved in the issue.
Tuesday's indictment of two militants on charges of belonging to al- Qaida and receiving funds from the group for a planned double-bombing in Jerusalem was Israel's most concrete allegation to date linking al- Qaida to West Bank Palestinians.
The indictment described in detail how the two, Azzam Abu Aladas and Balal Hafnai, met with al-Qaida operatives in Jordan, arranged for secret e-mail exchanges and received thousands of dollars from al- Qaida to carry out the attack. The indictment came just three weeks after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the London-based Al Hayat newspaper that al-Qaida had infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza.
Still, Mideast watchers warned against overstating the al-Qaida presence because the issue is easily manipulated for political ends.
Israel has a lot to gain by portraying its local conflict with the Palestinians as part of the global war on terror, and Abbas, badly damaged by the recent political rise of Hamas militants, wants "to show that he is needed by the West," said Israeli security analyst Dan Schueftan.
Both Israeli and Palestinian security officials described al-Qaida's activities here as incipient, involving a handful of local militants who reached out to al-Qaida _ often via the Internet _ rather than the other way around. A senior Israeli military intelligence official said he believed there were no more than 20 al-Qaida-linked activists in the Palestinian territories.
Most of them are unhappy with a year-old decision by mainstream Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, to enforce a cease- fire with Israel, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Hamas, struggling to avert an international aid boycott in the wake of its Jan. 25 victory in parliamentary elections, is particularly sensitive about being associated with al-Qaida, despite sharing core beliefs such as the rejection of a Jewish state in the Middle East.
When Ayman-al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, appeared in a video earlier this month urging Hamas not to renounce its violent struggle, a Hamas official in Gaza shrugged him off.
The Hamas official said the group had no links to any outside group. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying the movement did not want to respond formally to al-Zawahri.
By all accounts, Hamas, set to form the next Palestinian government, is not likely to further harm its international standing by joining forces with al-Qaida.
But al-Qaida itself is making an effort "to operate both in the Palestinian territories and inside Israel proper," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. A Palestinian security official in Gaza agreed that al-Qaida "is in the process of organizing cells and gathering supporters."
If the group succeeds in establishing a full-blown presence, predicted the Israeli military intelligence official, Israel can expect far larger terror attacks than it has seen in the past.
Another Israeli official said a major concern is al-Qaida's activities in Israel's neighbors, especially Jordan, where al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the November 2005 bombings of three hotels that killed 60 people.
Al-Zarqawi also claimed responsibility for a Dec. 27 barrage of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel, provoking Israeli airstrikes on a Palestinian base in central Lebanon.
The Israeli official praised Egyptian security forces for their performance following two bombing sprees in Egypt's Sinai peninsula _ one in October 2004 and another in July 2005 _ that some have blamed on al-Qaida.
He said Egyptian forces arrested two sets of suspected al-Qaida operatives _ one a month ago and another three months ago _ who were trying to enter Israel through Sinai "most probably carrying explosives."
An Egyptian police official at the Egypt-Gaza border would not confirm or deny the Israeli's account, saying, "It's our job to halt any security violations, that's what we've been always doing, nothing less or more."
Some Israeli officials have expressed concern that al-Qaida operatives from Egypt may have entered Gaza after Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last summer.
But Assem Rashed, a former teacher at a Gaza university, said he doubts al-Qaida could find many backers in Gaza.
"People here are against the attacks in Iraq, Jordan and Egypt. I don't think they will survive, or find much support from the public," he said.
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Hatred might just drive the fanatics into a fatal error...Israel seems like a bottle neck to me. Where are they going to hide? In tiny little Gaza?
Curious. Wait and see.
bttt
bttt
Message to Al-Quaeda: They won't try to win your hearts and minds.
Iran isn't necessarily after Israel per se; Iran is worried about not being able to dominate the Middle East. Taking out Saddam was a necessity, but his dictatorship version of Iraq was like a cork in a bottle. Iran has a population that is the same as Turkey's, which has the only army in the Middle East (other than the US') which can stand up to Iran's.
Saudi Arabia has 1/3 the population (and five million or so are guest workers, because the Saudis don't like to work for a living) and more armament than can actually be simultaneously used (analogous to the US situation with television sets), but probably can't defend itself.
Egypt is the same size as Iran, but its army can't fight its way out of a wet paper bag.
Iran plans to replace all the gov'ts in the region with theocracies, with itself at the top of the hegemonic pyramid. It will do it through covert means, by proxy, wherever possible (Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Gaza, and Syria, and possibly Egypt, are all currently in play); Turkey is under pressure from the Kurds, and my, isn't it awfully strange that some Kurdish terrorist faction suddenly has the ways and means to blow up stuff in Turkey?
When push gets to shove, I don't think the US will have to worry about Turkish help in the liberation of Iran.
Some of my speculative thoughts:
From the UN's perspective, if the US 'fails' in the WOT, the UN may stand to gain in stature in the world as the greatest political power (though it's connected to no country).
I would speculate that the UN, or at least Kofi Annan, has decided that al-Qaeda (and by extension militant Islam) will be the most likely victor and has been aligning itself so as to be in their good graces when they do.
Wild speculation has the UN becoming a strategic foundation and tool for the imposition, implementation and enforcement of Sharia Law upon member and nonmember states. Given the al-Qaeda's stated goal is world domination, it would only make sense, from al-Qaeda's perspective, to use the existing structure that is the UN for their own purpose.
If, strategically, this is what al-Qaeda et al have in mind - and it would make sense for them to, imo - Kofi Annan doesn't necessarily have to be aware of it or in on it, as there are many 'invisible' underlings in any bureaucracy that do the real work of making the machinery run. How many worker bees in the UN are Muslims, how many connected to al-Qaeda - overtly and covertly?
Just making subtle changes in, and interpretations of, law - like what we see here in the States, can be enough: a little there, little here and the next thing you know, the water has come to a boil.
The very fact that the UN is not itself a country and is not connected to or beholden to any country (and hence to any people) may be it's greatest asset from al-Qaeda's point of view.
Shia or Sunni, or any one of the 78 sects that hate each other?
I found this article fascinating:
http://www.sikhspectrum.com/052004/shia_sunni_18.htm
When push gets to shove, I don't think the US will have to worry about Turkish help in the liberation of Iran.
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Comforting thought.The Turks are hardly going to assist the mullah's ambitions to rule the world...
bookmarked
Let's hope they man up and get Bibi in there ASAP.
IIRC, that letter has been posted before and it is indeed very informative. The only problem is that the words "India" and "Hindu" are missing. Much of what is attributed to Assyrians stems from the ancient Vedic civilization of India. Invading Muslims called the inhabitants of the Sindh River area "Hindus" since the "S" was pronounced "H".
Anyway, many of the arts and sciences mentioned originated in the Vedas or upavedas (sub Vedas) and spread throughout east Asia and Asia minor and were adapted by many indigenous peoples.
Most of what is considered to be Islamic or Arabic was learned (stolen?) from others, this is true. Geometry, arithmetic, medicine, astronomy, poetry, architecture and so on were all described in Vedic texts long before Mohammed was born.
Wild speculation has the UN becoming a strategic foundation and tool for the imposition, implementation and enforcement of Sharia Law upon member and nonmember states. Given the al-Qaeda's stated goal is world domination, it would only make sense, from al-Qaeda's perspective, to use the existing structure that is the UN for their own purpose.I don't think that speculation is all that wild. ;')
Some Turks will, because they support the return of the Caliphate. But for the most part, Turks won't submit to Arab rule. Unification of the Moslem world has never actuallly taken place for very long a time; most recently the Ottoman Empire ruled a good bit of the Moslem world, probably most of its population, but the non-Turk majority was always restive.
But it reminds me how little history our corporate leaders know. Furthermore, as a former high school world history teacher, I can tell you that this is what is/was taught about the "Arab" world. Islamic civilization is parasidic on the peoples it has conquered, but one learns nothing about the many peoples that are included in its empire. The Muslims complain about colonialism, but what, really, was their policy, but colonialism? It was true of the Arabs; it was true of the Turks.
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