Pakistanis, Saudis Are Not US Allies, Israel is a True Friend

Pakistanis, Saudis Are Not US Allies, Israel is a True Friend

May 6….(YNET) The discovery of Osama Bin Laden in a compound 700 meters from the Pakistani military academy raises the question, who are America’s allies in the war against global jihad? Which countries are really just business associates and not true allies? Which relationships are based on coinciding interests and which on shared values? Four cases may be examined. Pakistan has been caught red-handed. Pakistani denials notwithstanding, it is inconceivable that bin Laden could have resided in Abbottabad without official knowledge and contrivance. Rumors have circulated consistently since 9/11 that Pakistani authorities, in particular the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, tipped off bin Laden when US forces were getting close and ultimately gave him shelter. Bin Laden was the biggest al-Qaeda figure located inside Pakistan but hardly the only one. The WikiLeaks documents also make it clear that American officials have not fully trusted Pakistan for years. Pakistan’s double game is now beyond question; taking billions in American military and economic aid, aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan, making desultory efforts against lower and middle level terror figures, but not challenging the hold of Islamists in the tribal territories or the vast urban slums. But will another American president and Congress succumb to continuing open blackmail, continue aid to Pakistan or have its allegiances, and nuclear arsenal, switch sides to the Taliban and global jihad? Saudi Arabia’s role as the largest funder of al-Qaeda has been known since before 9/11. It has also exported its intolerant and violent form of Islam, Wahhabism, spending billions to establish mosques and other institutions like the Organization of the Islamic Conferences that have crowded out and transformed the practice of Islam around the world. Internally, Saudi Arabia is also horrifically repressive of women, Shi’ites, and other minorities.

    But the world’s most important oil producing state has consistently purchased lavish quantities of American weaponry, and is on the frontline against Iranian expansionism in the Gulf and the Middle East. Like Pakistan, it has played a double game that is well-understood, supporting only those US and Western efforts, such as the war in Iraq, that are in its immediate interest, and opposing the rest. Now that Saudi Arabia’s prodigal son, Osama bin Laden, is dead and with even more documentation of that country’s support for al-Qaeda, will Saudi energy production and arms purchases continue to blackmail US policymakers? Few countries share a closer heritage and set of values than the US and the UK, and closer security cooperation. But a recent report showed that many jihadists imprisoned at the Guantanamo facility were radicalized in the United Kingdom. Countless Islamist groups have operated freely in that country for years, part of a strategy to maintain British relations with countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and to deflect radical Islam away from Britain. The 7/7 terror attacks showed that the latter strategy was a dramatic failure, and more broadly, closer relations with Pakistan in particular have helped radicalize British Muslims. British officials are confronted with a huge cultural groundswell of angry, unassimilated and increasingly violent Muslims, indigenous and immigrant, as well as with hundreds if not thousands of active terror threats. Britain has been on the frontline with the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its Special Forces and secret services have been active around the world against global jihad threats. However, British policy has produced security threats to the West, largely through indulgence of Islamic radicalism in the name of official multiculturalism. Although that policy is gone, the reality it produced, a polyglot Britain filled with angry Muslims, cannot be undone. In part thanks to American pressure, these problems are now fully out in the open.

    Israel is frequently alleged to be the root cause of Muslim anger and global jihad. Westerners frequently point to specific Israeli actions and policies, not least of all the “occupation” of the West Bank, as irritants, which, if removed, would alleviate global Muslim anger and terror. Many Israeli actions and policies are of questionable wisdom and utility, but as Hamas happily admits, the real problem is the existence of a Jewish sovereign state in the Middle East. In this it is echoed by its parent, the Muslim Brotherhood, by Hezbollah and its Iranian parent, and by countless individuals, from theologians to the man in the street. Indeed, the creation and existence of Israel are regarded as literally unholy by a large majority of Muslims around the world. Without committing national suicide, Israel will always be a global Islamic cause, until the unlikely day when Islam itself changes. As Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren recently pointed out, Israel’s alliance with the US is uniquely close and includes security, technological and political cooperation. The US has successfully persuaded as well as pressured Israel to halt military campaigns and launch negotiations with adversaries, sometimes against Israel’s immediate interests. Allies sometimes defer to one another in order to maintain alliances and create shared a strategic vision. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are not allies of the US, but rather, business associates. These states are effectively run by and like violent organized crime syndicates and share only one value with the US and the West, self-preservation. Unfortunately, the US has often trapped itself into either supporting such putative allies or abandoning them in the name of “democratic revolution.” The fate of Egypt is instructive. The brutal, if partially reliable, Mubarak, kept in power thanks to billions in US aid, was swiftly overthrown, abandoned by the US, and will soon be replaced by an Islamist or anti-American regime. The lesson is that allies cannot be bought or even rented, and that business relationships do not constitute an alliance.

Britain, France Threaten to Recognize Palestinian State

May 6….(Israel Today) Britain and France on Wednesday played right into the hands of Israel's enemies by threatening to recognize a Palestinian Arab state on ancient Jewish lands if Israel fails to advance the peace process with the Palestinian Authority in the coming months. That's right, both Britain and France are now saying that the stagnation of the Middle East peace process is the fault of Israel, not the Palestinian Authority that for well over a year has refused to hold direct negotiations. When US President Barack Obama tried to get Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiating table in September of last year, Israel agreed and the Palestinians refused. At the time, Obama and his counterparts in London and Paris slammed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas as the obstacle to peace. But it is a tried and tested Palestinian strategy to just keep hanging on, making demands Israel cannot possibly meet, until the international community shifts course and starts blaming Israel. And that's precisely what happened when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday. The Guardian reported that Cameron directly threatened to back a Palestinian bid to unilaterally secure sovereignty over Judea and Samaria this coming September at the UN General Assembly. That is, unless "Israel engages seriously in a meaningful peace process." France's Nicolas Sarkozy agreed in an interview with L'Express just one day before his own meeting with Netanyahu: If the peace process remains stalled in September, France will take responsibility on the central question of recognizing a Palestinian state." Were Britain and France to join the estimated 130 other nations that plan to vote in favor of Palestinian independence at the General Assembly, it could tip the scales just enough to get the motion passed in the UN Security Council.

US to Move Against Al-Qaeda's Central Command

May 5….(Global Security Services) The United States will seek to capitalize on the recent killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by eliminating the terrorist network's core command, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said on Tuesday.  White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan on Tuesday said the United States would target al-Qaeda's central command following the Sunday killing of organization leader Osama bin Laden. Following the September 11 assaults that killed close to 3,000 people in the United States, al-Qaeda offshoots have proliferated in Africa and the Middle East, Reuters reported. Residents of Europe and the United States have also become radicalized and carried out strikes in their home nations. The Sunday shooting death of bin Laden by elite US Navy SEALS is the most recent of several US "severe body blows" to al-Qaeda's main organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan within the last year, Brennan said in an interview with NBC's Today show. "We're going to try to take advantage of this opportunity we have now with the death of al-Qaeda's leader, bin Laden, to ensure that we're able to destroy that organization," said. "We're determined to do so and we believe we can." "We believe that we have damaged the organization, degraded its capability and made it much more difficult for it to operate inside of Pakistan as well as beyond," Brennan said. On Monday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry told MSNBC that US drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal region had eliminated up to 17 high-ranking al-Qaeda commanders prior to bin Laden's demise. Security officials and foreign leaders have called for heightened security and monitoring following the terrorist leader's death as al-Qaeda adherents might seek to mount revenge attacks. Brennan, however, said US officials had received no intelligence regarding any particular plot since Sunday. "But what we're doing is, we're taking all those prudent measures that we need to whenever there's an incident of significance like this," Brennan told ABC's "Good Morning America." "Right now, I think we feel pretty confident that we are at the right posture" On Tuesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder said the US people and police forces could not let down their guards. "We cannot become complacent, the fight is far from over," Holder said at a Capitol Hill hearing. "Just yesterday I ordered the Justice Department's prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to be mindful that bin Laden's death could result in retaliatory acts in the United States or against our interests overseas," Holder said. Cities across the United States have bolstered their defenses in response to worries about terrorist revenge attacks, the Christian Science Monitor reported on Tuesday. The Homeland Security Department, however, has not heightened the terrorist threat alert, saying it would only do so if there is detailed or clearly valid intelligence about an attack plan. Some terrorism analysts said it was highly likely that Muslim extremists would seek to mount a retaliatory strike.

    Al-Qaeda today has ties to between 30 and 40 extremist organizations, University of Maryland terrorism expert Gary LaFree said. "It's more like a franchise. And they are not going away." The terrorist network has had a role in 16 of the 25 terrorist strikes that caused 25 deaths or more since 1998, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. Bin Laden years before his death had prioritized acquiring weapons of mass destruction for use in a terrorist attack, which makes the decision to recall the Marine chem/bio response team a wise one, said LaFree, who leads the consortium.

   The United States does not believe that al-Qaeda has succeeded in obtaining a workable nuclear device or in weaponizing lethal pathogens or chemical agents. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Pamela Quanrud on Tuesday said Europe need not be worried about a reported threat made before bin Laden's death that al-Qaeda would respond to precisely that situation with a retaliatory nuclear attack in Europe. Securing all nuclear materials has become even more necessary with the death of bin Laden, US nonproliferation analyst William Tobey told the Korea Times. Al-Qaeda has long sought to conduct acts of nuclear terrorism, but so far, has proven unsuccessful. The key, of course, is to preventing them from gaining access to fissile material.

    Meanwhile, Washington on Tuesday pledged to find out if Pakistan had aided bin Laden's effort in evading the United States' massive and years-long search for the al-Qaeda chief, Reuters reported. An extended US intelligence operation in Pakistan determined that bin Laden was probably hiding in a secured compound in the town of Abbottabad, not far from the capital of Islamabad. The Sunday commando raid confirmed the US suspicions and raised doubts over the utility of the strategic alliance with Pakistan. The Obama administration did not alert Islamabad before the raid out of concern that Pakistani officials would "alert the targets" and enable bin Laden to once again escape, CIA chief Leon Panetta said in an interview with Time magazine. "It would be premature to rule out the possibility that there were some individuals inside of Pakistan, including within the official Pakistani establishment, who might have been aware of bin Laden's true whereabouts," Brennan said. Some Capitol Hill lawmakers have called for reassessment of continued aid to Islamabad, which since September 2001 has received $20 billion in US military and economic assistance. There are widespread suspicions that Islamabad has been playing both sides, the United States which is a source of financial support and militants who provide a tool for Pakistan's interests in neighboring Afghanistan and against rival India.

Terror Expert Scheuer: ‘Al-Qaida Will Counterpunch’ Against US

May 5….(Newsmax) Al-Qaida is much stronger than it was on 9/11 despite the death of Osama bin Laden and it's a virtual certainty that the growing terrorist group will launch a major revenge attack, according to author and former CIA bin Laden expert Michael Scheuer. In an exclusive Newsmax TV interview, Scheuer predicted that bin Laden will have “an enduring resonance among Muslims for hundreds of years,” because he hurt the United States and survived for a decade afterward. “It’s a bigger organization geographically, it’s a bigger organization in numbers, and on a whole there are more mujahedeen in the field against us today than there were on 9/11,” Scheuer told Newsmax. “So this is a problem that America hasn’t come to grips with yet.” A revenge attack from al-Qaida against American or Western targets is “certain.” He adds: “They will counterpunch. I’m not sure it’s going to be in the near term though. If they have something they can do that’s on the shelf, they’ll do it. Otherwise, they’ll plan and execute an operation that is of significant size.” Don't be fooled by the rosily optimistic scenarios of democratic revolution spreading across the Arab landscape, Scheuer advises. Already, Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups are moving to exploit the turmoil in Egypt. Al-Qaida, too, will seek to move in and fill the power vacuum in places like Libya and Syria. “Islam is on the rise across the Middle East at the moment, despite BBC and CNN singing the praises of so-called democrats in Egypt,” Scheuer said. From 1996 to 1999, Scheuer led the CIA unit hunting bin Laden, and he also helped the CIA search for the al-Qaida chief following the 9/11 attacks. His book “Osama bin Laden” was published in February. According to Scheuer, bin Laden always envisioned that the Islamic struggle with the West would take decades. “He had long argued that this was a generational war, that he wouldn’t be around to see the end of it,” Scheuer said. “And certainly over the past four or five years he has dispersed his organization in order to survive just what happened on Sunday, the killing of the head of the snake.” He said there is little doubt al-Qaida has gained strength. On 9/11, al-Qaida was primarily based in Afghanistan, with just a few other peripheral locations. “Now it is still in parts of Afghanistan, it’s well established in Pakistan, it’s in Yemen, it’s in Iraq, it’s in the Levant in Gaza, it’s in Somalia, and it’s in northern Africa,” he said. Although Scheuer predicts bin Laden’s stature in the Muslim world will endure, he added, “It’s much preferable to have a dead martyr than to have a live, smart guy. And he was a very smart, very modern manager in many ways. So the United States certainly is better off with him dead.” Bin Laden’s death clearly is a blow to al-Qaida, he said. “But to think that his influence is now going to recede in the near term, or even in the distant term, is a mistake,” he added. Scheuer predicts that Obama’s lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, will rise to become the temporary head of al-Qaida. But he warns regional al-Qaida commanders in Yemen and Afghanistan actually may pose the greater threat to the United States.

Al-Qaida's New Battle Hardened

In the wake of Osama bin Laden's demise, his likely successor is his longtime deputy and collaborator, Egyptian jihadist Ayman al-Zawahiri. The U.S. government has offered a reward of up to $25 million for Zawahiri, who officials have said was responsible for the planning of 9/11, the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen  .It remains to be seen whether Zawahiri will be able to recruit and inspire a new generation of jihadists the way bin Laden did. Veteran observers of al-Qaida say bin Laden was a media-savvy, charismatic figure and a good listener. Zawahiri, by contrast, has a record "of alienating his colleagues, fighting over dogma, even within the Islamist movement," said journalist Steve Coll. "And as a communicator, he is less effective. His books are turgid and dogmatic." During a recent online chat with fellow jihadists, Zawahiri sounded "defensive and argumentative. He sounded unappealing as a leader."

Shortly after 9/11, Zawahiri and bin Laden appeared together on video discussing the suicide attacks. "This was not just a human achievement. It was a holy act," Zawahiri said. "These 19 brave men who gave their lives for the cause of G0d will be well taken care of. G0d granted them the strength to do what they did. There's no comparison between the power of these 19 men and the power of America, and there's no comparison between the destruction these 19 men caused and the destruction America caused." In 1998, Zawahiri wrote in the jihadist journal Al-Mujahidoun that "America is now controlled by the Jews, completely." He added that the United States "uses Israel to attack its neighbors and to slaughter those who are living peacefully there." According to Zawahiri, "If we are a nation of martyrs, as we claim, all that we need is courage of heart and the will of killers and the belief in what we claim to be love of death for G0d's sake."

    Born in Egypt on June 19, 1951, joined the Muslim Brotherhood as an adolescent. He was arrested by the Egyptian government in 1966 for forming an underground Muslim Brotherhood cell. Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University in 1974 and went into the Egyptian Army, serving as a surgeon for three years. After leaving the Army, he joined a coalition of Islamist cells calling itself Egyptian Islamic Jihad. He was among scores of militants arrested and tried in connection with Sadat's October 1981 assassination. During the opening day of the trial, Zawahiri said the accused were "the real Islamic front and the real Islamic opposition against Zionism, Communism and imperialism." He said authorities were conducting the prosecution as part of a "conspiracy of evacuating the area in preparation for the Zionist infiltration." Zawahiri was convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment for illegal weapons possession. He left Egypt in 1985 and went to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he treated mujahedeen fighting the Soviets. That was where he met Osama bin Laden, and the two became close, linked together as "Afghan Arabs." In 1989, with the Soviets defeated and Afghanistan descending into chaos, Zawahiri and bin Laden moved to Sudan. The Egyptian government launched a ferocious crackdown after Zawahiri's group tried to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak during a 1995 visit to Ethiopia. Tens of thousands of actual or suspected Islamists were jailed. In retaliation, Zawahiri dispatched suicide bombers to blow up the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. The attack by two suicide bombers killed 16 people and wounded 60.

    By 1996, pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia forced Sudan to kick out al-Qaida. By 1996, bin Laden, Zawahiri and al-Qaida relocated to Afghanistan, where the Taliban gave them sanctuary. In 1997, the State Department named Zawahiri as a leader of a group called Vanguards of Conquest, an Islamic Jihad faction believed to have been behind the massacre of 58 foreign tourists at Luxor, Egypt that year. Zawahiri has also been indicted in the United States for masterminding the August 7, 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which 224 people were killed. In 1998, he joined bin Laden in announcing the World Islamic Front's Statement Urging Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders. The men issued a fatwa declaring: "We, with G0d's help, call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with G0d's order to kill Americans and plunder their money wherever they find it." In 1999, Zawahiri was tried in absentia in Egypt and sentenced to death.

    Tawfiq Hamid, who worked with Zawahiri when the two were part of Jamaa Islamiya, an Egyptian jihadist group, warned against underestimating Zawahiri in his new role as bin Laden's successor. Zawahiri's superior organizational skills and dedication to violence could make him more dangerous than bin Laden. "He's much more powerful as a leader, much more organized," Hamid said. "When you listen to him, you can tell clearly that he has the ambition and is dedicated 100 percent to achieve this mission."

Netanyahu: Fatah-Hamas Unity a Victory for Terrorism

May 5….(Jerusalem Post) The signing of the Hamas Fatah unity deal in Cairo is a setback for peace and an advancement for terror, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told reporters in London on Wednesday. “What happened today in Cairo is a tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism,” Netanyahu said. Three days ago terrorism was dealt a resounding defeat with the elimination of Osama Bin Laden. Today in Cairo it had a victory,” said Netanyahu. He charged that in signing this deal, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had “embraced” an organization that had condemned American action against Bin Laden, who it considered to be a great martyr. “When he embraces this organization which is committed to Israel’s destruction and fires rockets on our cities, this is a tremendous set back for peace and a great advancement for terror,” Netanyahu said. “What we hope will happen is that we find peace and the only way we can make peace is with our neighbors who want peace." “Those who want to eliminate us, those who practice terror are not partners for peace,” Netanyahu said. He spoke in advance of a scheduled meeting late Wednesday night with the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister David Cameron. Israeli officials said that Netanyahu hopes to gain Cameron’s commitment that the United Kingdom will not support the deal unless Hamas accepts three principles set out by the Quartet a number of years ago. Those principles include a demand that Hamas recognize Israel, renounced terror and abide by past agreements with Israel. Hamas refused to do so. Netanyahu’s largest coalition partner, Israel Beiteinu, announced that in light of the official agreement between Fatah and Hamas, it would demand that the government cease all contact between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The right-wing party called to stop various inter-ministerial initiatives with the Palestinian Authority as well as the transfer of money to the Palestinian government. “It is impossible to expect the State of Israel to transfer money to Hamas and in doing so to fund terror activities against Israel’s citizens,” the party complained. “Those who declared bin Laden to be a Muslim freedom fighter, as Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh did, and those who refuse to allow the Red Cross to visit Gilad Schalit cannot be partners in negotiations, either directly or indirectly.”  Palestinian leaders have defended the unity agreement, saying reconciliation with Hamas reflects a deep-seated public desire to end internal differences.  International leaders have had a cautious approach to the unity agreement. They wanted Hamas and Fatah to come together, but at the same time envisioned that it would come hand in hand with an acceptance of the Quartet's principles.

The Hamas-al Qaeda Alliance

(Ismail Haniyeh of Gaza Hamas)

May 4….(The Weekly Standard) While most of the world celebrates the US military operation that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the sentiment is not unanimous. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has condemned the United States, accusing Washington of assassinating a “Muslim and Arabic warrior” and the “continuation of the American oppression and shedding of blood of Muslims and Arabs.”

         Haniyeh’s reaction underscores the ideological roots Hamas and al Qaeda share: Hamas was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a prominent Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood figure; al Qaeda was cofounded, along with bin Laden, by Abdullah Azzam, another prominent Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood figure. But this only partially explains why Haniyeh and his ilk are now mourning the death of the most notorious terrorist in modern history. While Hamas insists that it has no operational ties to al Qaeda, in the early and mid-1990s Hamas members received paramilitary training and attended Islamist conferences in Sudan, alongside bin Laden and his supporters. The operational ties were confirmed a decade later, when bin Laden reportedly sent emissaries to Hamas on two separate occasions (September 2000 and January 2001). While most analysts believe Hamas rejected al Qaeda’s offer to coordinate violence against Israel, it appears Hamas never closed the door. In 2002, the Washington Post quoted official US government sources as confirming a loose alliance “between al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hizbullah.”

Iran, Egypt Forming Closer Ties

(Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi speaks with Egyptian counterpart, praises Egypt for role in Hamas-Fatah reconciliation. 'Palestinian unity is key to resistance against Zionity enemy,' he says)

May 4….(YNET) Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi spoke with his Egyptian counterpart Nabil al-Araby on Monday evening for the first time since the uprising in Egypt. Salehi said at press conference on Tuesday that cooperation with Egypt, especially in the political arena, "will help establish stability, security and peace in the region." He also praised Egypt for its role in the reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas. "Palestinian unity is the key factor in empowering the resistance against the Zionist enemy," he said. During their telephone chat, Salehi and Araby discussed developments in the Middle East, including the Fatah- Hamas unity agreement. The two ministers are expected to meet at the end of the month at the Nonaligned Movement meeting in Bally, Indonesia.

    In Tuesday's press conference, which took place in Doha, Qatar, Salehi said that there isn't a reason that Iran's ties with Egypt should be weaker its ties with its other neighbors. "Currently we have good ties with all our neighbors, we have ambassadors and significant financial relationships," Salehi explained. The two nations, which have maintained low-level diplomatic ties over the past three decades, have been growing closer since the transition of power in Egypt. It was reported recently that the Iranian government has already appointed an ambassador, although it is yet to become clear when the envoy will travel to Cairo. The Iranian foreign minister also addressed the riots in Syria for the first time during the press conference, saying that "as long as the popular movement persists," Tehran will continue to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government's response to the "popular demands." "According to the information that we have," he added, "There is a small group in Syria which receives outside support and is interested in creating unrest in the nation." The United States accused Iran recently of aiding the Syrian authorities in suppressing the protests.

Gaza has Six Fortified Compounds Exactly Like Bin Laden's Abbottabad Compound

(An al Qaeda residence - in Gaza)

May 4….(DEBKAfile Exclusive Report) Israel has a history with al Qaeda, although this is not generally acknowledged by its leaders or media (who prefer the term "Global Jihad"). Like Iran and its surrogates, the late Osama bin Laden's organization declared war on the Jews and has established networks around its borders in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Egyptian Sinai. In reporting on his death Monday, May 2, Israeli TV networks claimed incorrectly that Al Qaeda had never attacked Israel when, only in the past year, Al Qaeda cells based in the Gaza Strip carried out many of the armed attacks launched on the Gaza-Israeli border and Jewish civilian locations. One cell abducted and put to death the Italian pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni on April 14, an "operation" commanded by an al Qaeda operative from Jordan called Abdul Rahman al-Briziti. This atrocity should have pointed attention to the stream of al Qaeda fugitives swelling Palestinian terrorist ranks in Gaza. But it didn't, although some are coming in from battle arenas in Yemen and Somalia via Sudan; others from Iraq via Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula or as infiltrators from Syria and Lebanon. Only six months ago, American, Israeli and Egyptian (then ruled by Hosni Mubarak) counter-terror agencies working together carried out a targeted operation against the Army of Islam's Sinai chief, Jemal Mohammed Namnam and his two confederates, Islam Yassin and Mohammed Yassin. Their deaths on Nov. 11 and 17, 2010 averted the large-scale terrorist attacks they were preparing to launch in the Egyptian peninsula and would have entailed strikes against the Americans staffing the international MFO at its headquarters in f El Arish and Sharm El-Sheikh and the abduction of Americans and Israelis for secret confinement in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as hostages. Our counter-terror sources reveal that Al Qaeda's units are ensconced in the southern, central and northeastern sectors of the Gaza Strip: The southern cluster is based in the northern and southern districts of Khan Younis, a town of 220,000 inhabitants 4 kilometers east of the Mediterranean coast and 1.5 kilometers from the Israeli border. A second group more or less controls the town of Deir al Balakh, a town of 150,000 in the central region. A third is embedded in the Zaitun and Nuseyrat districts of Gaza City. Debkafile's counter-terror sources disclose that these Al Qaeda operatives have built themselves at least six fortified villas in those three locations. Like the Abbottabad villa-fortress where Osama bin Laden was killed Sunday night by a team of US Seals, the Gaza villas have top security and dominate the surrounding skylines.  

   The success of the American, Israeli and Egyptian agencies in foiling a major terrorist attack in Sinai was played down by Washington and Jerusalem, conduct that deserves an explanation in the new anti-al Qaeda climate. The fact is that the international community has assigned the Palestinian extremist Hamas a key role in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and is therefore concerned with cleaning up its reputation. Every effort is therefore being made to avoid the embarrassment of fingering Hamas, not only for harboring but also activating al Qaeda's Gaza's cells for terrorism against Israel. Hamas is not punished for opening the smuggling tunnels it runs jointly with Iran and al Qaeda to admit them, even though those tunnels are branches of the wide-ranging Hamas-Iran-al Qaeda smuggling web that links Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and the Arabian Peninsula, including Yemen.

     How would Hamas look if it were exposed to the same hard light of day as al Qaeda? Would its sponsors be able to sanitize these Islamists enough to sit them down opposite Israel as legitimate co-rulers of the future Palestine, including the West Bank? Therefore, in the past year, agents of the US, British, French, Italian, Swiss and Norwegian governments have been working hard to refurbish Hamas and make it look respectable in Western eyes. They therefore choose to believe Gaza's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh when he laughed off the suggestion that his organization maintains operational ties with al Qaeda or that any of its jihadis are present in the Strip. But all their hard work was undone Monday, May 2, when the al Qaeda leader's sudden death caught the Hamas prime minister off-guard. Blurting out what he really felt, Haniyeh condemned the killing of bin Laden as "the continuation of American oppression and shedding of blood of Muslims and Arabs."  Although Hamas had its differences with Al Qaeda, his group, he said, condemns the assassination of "a Muslim and holy Arabic warrior" and prays that bin Laden's "soul rests in peace."

    The Hamas official was the only Muslim leader in the world to bluntly condemn the US for killing the master-terrorist, a telltale betrayal of Hamas's true nature behind its Western-contrived diplomatic façade. While some Israeli officials tried pretending Haniyeh had been carried away, debkafile's Palestinian sources report that he was genuinely appalled by Osama bin Laden's death and spoke from the heart. In private conversations, Hamas leaders confess that they really do regard the United States as the worst and most blood-stained oppressor of Middle East Arabs, aside from Israel. Despite their ideological differences, they genuinely regard Al Qaeda and its fighters as heroic mujahedin and prized allies.

    In this, they secretly line up with Tehran which too, behind its show of denouncing al Qaeda, using its services covertly, mainly in Iraq, for killing Americans. The absence of any American or Israeli rebuke for Haniyeh is accounted for by the date: Wednesday, May 4, Khaled Meshaal flies into Cairo from Hamas headquarters, Damascus, to embrace Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, and solemnize a unity pact burying the four-year old hatchet dividing their organizations and separating the Gaza Strip from the West Bank. The deal was mediated by Egypt for the main objective shared by all three of bestowing respectability and legitimacy on the Hamas terrorist organization, and by definition its operational partnership with al Qaeda. The Obama administration and Europe seem to find no difficulty in reconciling the killing of al Qaeda's leader after a 10-year hunt and the consolidation of his organization and terrorist cells in the Gaza Strip and Sinai with the blessing of Cairo, Ramallah and their Western backers.

Palestinians Riot in Jerusalem to Protest Killing of Bin Laden

May 3….(In The Days) While most of the free world praised the United States for having rid it of arch-terrorist Bin Laden, the Hamas organization, which has recently all but merged with Fatah, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the act. Similarly, Arabs in the village of Silwan, adjacent to the City of David neighborhood in Jerusalem, rioted Monday night in protest over the elimination of Osama Bin Laden. The rioters threw stones at police and attempted to block roads. The Gaza-based website Al Qassam reports that Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the local Hamas chapter that runs Gaza, told reporters on Monday that Bin Laden was an “Arab holy warrior.” Meeting with journalists in his office in Gaza City, Haniyeh said, “If this news of Bin Laden's killing is true, then this means that it is part of the American policy based on the oppression and bloodshed in the Muslim and Arab world.” Haniyeh expressed his strong condemnation for the killing or assassination of Bin Laden, whom he referred to as “Mujahed,” someone in engaged in jihad, holy war against infidels. He said he was praying for mercy for Bin Laden. Hamas reached a “reconciliation” agreement with Fatah last week, calling for the formation of a joint interim government in the coming days, and preparations for elections a year from now throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The agreement was hailed by most left-wing and anti-Israel organizations, but even President Shimon Peres, a strong supporter of a two-state solution and the Oslo process, said, “Israel would like to see the Palestinian people become united for peace, but this is not an agreement, this is a split. Hamas is a recognized terrorist organization. According to this agreement Hamas doesn’t have to change their charter that calls for the destruction of Israel, they can continue to shoot at us as they did when firing [last month] on a yellow school bus [and murdering a teenager]. Hamas is a branch of Iran, Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah want a union for war.”

Hamas Mourns Bin Laden's Death

A 40-man Navy Seals squadron killed Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, with a bullet to the head.

May 2….(YNET) Hamas on Monday condemned the killing by US forces of Osama bin Laden and mourned him as an "Arab holy warrior" while Iran condemned "Zionist terror" and a US national security official told Reuters the mission of the special forces team that hunted down the terrorist had been to kill him. "This was a kill operation," the official said, making clear there was no desire to try to capture bin Laden alive in Pakistan. Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters that the group regards bin Laden's death "as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood." Though he noted doctrinal differences between bin Laden's al Qaeda and Hamas, Haniyeh said: "We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs." Iran responded to the killing by saying that the US and its allies had now "lost the excuse to continue their presence in the region with the aim of fighting terror". In a statement Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, "This incident proves that there is no need for a huge war in order to deal with one person." He said Iran, which sees itself as a victim of terror, "condemns all acts of terrorism in the world, including the organized terror of the Zionist regime". 'Saudi Arabia refused to bury bin Laden'

    US officials said Monday that bin Laden's country of birth, Saudi Arabia, had refused to accept the body of the arch-terrorist for burial so the country was forced to bury him at sea, CBS reported. Earlier sources in Washington reported that bin Laden's body had been transferred to Afghanistan and then buried at sea for fear that Islamist extremists would turn any gravesite into a holy place. The Saudi Press Agency carried an official statement Monday expressing hope that bin Laden's death with be a "step that supports the international efforts against terrorism." It added that the Saudi people in particular were targeted by "this terrorist organization," referring to bin Laden's al-Qaeda, which once had an active branch in the desert kingdom. Saudi Arabia revoked his citizenship in 1994.

    Issam al-Aryan of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood responded to bin Laden's death by calling on the US to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq. "With bin Laden's death one of the main reasons for violence in the world is gone," he said. "It's time for Obama to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq and terminate the occupation of the US and Western forces throughout the world, which harms Muslim states deeply." Al-Aryan added that "the uprisings in the Middle East are proof that democracy has its place in the region and it does not require foreign occupation". He also predicted that various terror groups would retaliate for the killing. "It's time the world understood that there is no connection between violence and Islam," al-Aryan said. "Any connection between them is false and based on the media."

Palestinians: Jerusalem is Already Ours

May 1….(Israel Today) While Israelis from the right and left of the political spectrum argue over the future of Jerusalem, Palestinian leaders say the eastern half of the holy city is already in their hands. In his weekly radio address last week, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced that his government would soon resume administrative duties in eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods. Fayyad noted that the PA had already allocated half-a-million dollars to altering the curriculum in Arab schools in Jerusalem, and that it would also bolster health and judicial services. The move is a direct violation of the Palestinians' signed agreements with Israel, which prohibit Palestinian administrative activity in Jerusalem. It is seen as part of the new Palestinian Authority strategy of unilaterally seizing control of the lands it claims and winning international backing for sovereignty over them. Of special concern are the changes to the curriculum in Arab schools. The new textbooks that Fayyad's government is bringing in deny the Jews' right to live in Israel and even contain excerpts of the infamous Czarist blood libel The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Fayyad claimed that with eastern Jerusalem in Palestinians hands, the city would become a symbol of peace and coexistence, but the schoolbook changes in particular show that the Palestinians are only interested in sowing the seeds of hate and continued conflict.

Israel increasingly concerned about Egypt

May 1….(Israel Today) Israelis are growing increasingly concerned that Egypt is reverting to an openly hostile enemy state in the wake of its much-publicized "democratic" revolution. The peace forged between Israel and Egypt in 1979 was a very cold peace for most of the past three decades. But, there was bilateral trade, there were no open threats, and Cairo was just as interested as Israel in curbing Islamic extremists. All of that appears to be changing. Egyptian Minister of Finance Samir Radwan told Kuwaiti newspaper Al Anba at the weekend that the Camp David Accord does not require Egypt to sell natural gas to Israel. Since 1979, Israel has relied on the reasonably-priced supply of gas from its neighbor. It is expected that if Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood make a strong showing in upcoming Egyptian elections, Egypt will either significantly raise the price of gas to Israel, or shut off the supply all together. And there is every reason to believe the Brotherhood will do well when Egyptians go to the polls, most likely in September.

    The Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday announced that it will contest roughly half of the seats in the Egyptian parliament. Analysts have noted that the group is currently the most organized political force in Egypt, and has a very real chance of winning most, if not all of those seats. If the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power, it will exacerbate another growing problem in Israel-Egypt relations, that of Cairo's shifting policies toward Gaza and its Hamas rulers. The interim government in Egypt has already decided to open its border crossing with Gaza, allowing Gaza-based terrorists to far more easily import weapons. It has also openly embraced Hamas and the group's sponsors in the Iranian regime. Hamas actually has its origins in the Muslim Brotherhood, and if the latter comes to power in Egypt, the Palestinian group can be expected to profit considerably. Israeli experts warn these developments could eventually undermine the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.

All of Israel within Rocket Range under Hamas-Fatah State

(FOJ) A new illustrated map presented by the pro-Israel Americans for a Safe Israel (ASFI) shows that a Hamas-Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority state, with or without all the borders the PA demands, would leave all of what would remain of Israel within Katyusha missile range. A Hamas-Fatah PA state would allow the Hamas terrorist organization, whose stated aim is the destruction of Israel, to deploy Iranian and Syrian-supplied Katyusha missiles near all Israel urban centers. been Haifa and the Galilee from Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon. Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s supposed ’peace’ partner, has now joined forces with Hamas, the acknowledged Hamas terrorist group.

May 1….(Arutz) Seventy percent of the population of Israel, and 80 percent of the country’s industrial base is located in the coastal region that includes Netanya and metropolitan Tel Aviv. One large PA city is Tulkarm, located only a few miles east of Netanya and overlooking the high-speed north-south Highway 6 (Kvish 6). Jerusalem would be within easy range of Jericho, where the PA army is trained on a United States-funded base by American military officers. Be'er Sheva already has been attacked by Grad Katyusha missiles from Gaza, as have been Haifa and the Galilee.
"This is actually a declaration of war against the State of Israel since Hamas has never disguised its intentions of destroying Israel. “The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has used the diplomatic track, hoping to delude Israelis and the world with its words of peace, while pursuing its terrorist ideology. The truth is now out.” It added that the creation of a new Arab state controlled by Hamas and Fatah would be “suicidal” for Israel. Israel has been almost totally unified in its horror of the idea of Hamas being part of the Palestinian Authority.  Even before the "unity" of the two organizations, there was the fear of a Hamas takeover in the PA's Judea and Samaria areas, as happened in Gaza.
    The Obama administration has only stated that it is “studying” the new agreement between Fatah and Hamas while former US President Jimmy Carter stated he thinks it is a great idea. The Carter Center, founded in 1982 by Carter and his wife Rosalynn, commended members of Hamas and Fatah for "having the vision to begin the process of reunifying the Palestinian people.” Carter added, “Based on my years of contacts with Fatah and Hamas, I am confident that, if handled creatively and flexibly by the international community, Hamas’ return to unified Palestinian governance can increase the likelihood of a two-state solution and a peaceful outcome.”