WarSclerotic

ISIL Could Become the Voice of Sunnis If We Don’t Find a Way to Stop It Soon
By Andrew Tabler Date August 11, 2014 via The New Republic

(Based upon Obama’s upbringing, I’d bet he is a Sunni at heart. This could explain a lot.-LS)

The Islamic State in Iraq and Levant’s deep-rooted sense of purpose and its political, financial, and military ability have helped it carve out a safe haven between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This week’s American airstrikes could help roll ISIL back—but if the American people really do not want to be sucked into another war in the Middle East, then Washington will need to cement these gains by working with Arab allies to bolster the moderate Sunnis who would fill the vacuum in Syria and Iraq following an ISIL defeat.

ISIL’s power comes from its effectiveness in rallying Sunni Muslims to fight against what they perceive to be Iranian-backed Shia regimes in Baghdad and Damascus. Bashar al Assad and Nuri Kamal al Maliki’s attempts to shoot and cajole their Sunni populations into submission have attracted jihadists from all over the world to Syria and Iraq. Unlike other terrorist groups, which rely on financial networks and wealthy benefactors, ISIL emphasizes self-sufficiency, using extortion, sale of oil products, and the charging of taxes and fees to generate revenue. These funds allow it to carry out operations that net even more resources, including millions of dollars from Mosul’s banks and American military equipment. It uses these ill-gotten gains to buy the allegiance and support of local groups and tribes.

In return, ISIL institutes order, doling out harsh punishments for violations of Islamic law, while protecting local populations from the Assad and Maliki regimes. It is restoring Sunni pride as well, carrying out successful raids against the Iraqi army and Syrian forces that have seized oil refineries and gas fields. All of this led ISIL leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi on June 30 not only to declare the “Islamic State”, but the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate, an institution formally dissolved 90 years ago.

The Iraqi army has thus far proven incapable of pushing ISIL back, due in no small part to ISIL’s military ability and newly captured equipment. But the Iraqi army’s losses are largely due to the Maliki government’s unwillingness to include Sunnis, which is the result of the support it receives from Iran. Kurdish forces, which Washington decided to arm this week, are in a position to push back on ISIL near its northern enclave but will be unable, and most likely unwilling, to deploy in Sunni areas of Iraq.

The same military and political limits hold true in Syria. Despite Assad’s recent battlefield gains in the west, his willingness and ability to operate in Eastern and central Syria, where his forces have sustained heavy losses, remains limited. Assad’s hardline position during the Geneva Peace talks and surrounding his “reelection” last June make it unlikely that the regime will peeling off moderate Sunnis to its side.

Some have advocated inviting Iran to take care of the ISIL problem for the United States as some part of a “grand bargain” over its nuclear program. But those talks are not going so well, and even if they lead to agreement, both Iranian and American officials say the issue of Iran’s nuclear and regional aspirations will remain “stove-piped” for technical and political reasons. Furthermore, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vigorously rejects working with the United States, and he has not given President Rouhani any authority over the Iraq or Syria files, unlike his reluctant assent to nuclear negotiations in pursuit of sanctions relief. Iranian-backed forces also bring little positive to the table: Militant groups backed or trained by the IRGC-Quds Force (the body that orchestrates training of Iranian-backed proxy groups), such as Hezbollah or the National Defense Companies, have had no or very limited ability operating far away from their strategic depth in Iran and Lebanon. Worse, Iran encourages sectarian excesses which drive Sunnis to reluctantly work with ISIL, seeing it as better than Iranian-sponsored death squads.

The much talked about “moderate Sunnis” come from the same demographic as ISIL and Al Qaeda. But Sunni Arab states lack a “Quds Force-like” organization to train moderate Sunnis. Meanwhile, Sunni Arab society has to some extent supported jihadists in terms of money and men, replicating the low cost tools of the Quds Force in backing extremist Shia factions sans the discipline. These state’s lack of unity of purpose have so far only exacerbated the divisions among the Syrian and Iraq Sunnis.

Syria’s neighbors are also not in a position to root out ISIL, preferring to contain—with varying degrees of success—the crisis inside Syria. The most successful thus far has been Jordan, which has policed its border with Syria from the beginning of the conflict while working with the U.S. to covertly support the Syrian rebels. Nevertheless, Jordan has around one million Syrians in the country living outside refugee camps. The threat of terrorist attacks, run by the Assad regime or Sunni extremists, has caused Jordan to thus far shy away from the Obama Administration’s proposed program to more openly train and equip the Syrian opposition.

Turkey, which has the longest and most open border with Syria, has only recently begun efforts to clamp down on jihadist groups operating from its territory into Syria—especially following ISIL’s taking of hostages in Turkey’s Mosul consulate. Like Jordan, Ankara does not want to intervene in Syria due to fears of terrorist attacks on its territory and now ironically sees Kurds, its historic adversary, as its best asset against containing ISIL.

Both Lebanon and Iraq, due to internal divisions and incapacity, are unable to intervene in Syria other than through sub-state actors such as Hezbollah, which has simultaneously coordinated with the working Lebanese government to contain spillover from Syria. Israel, other than covert assistance to some groups in the south and treatment of wounded, has also preferred to stay out of Syria in favor of containment.

ISIL’s recent successes, if sustained, risks not only a redrawing of the Sykes-Picot boundaries, but making ISIL and jihadists in general the authentic and authoritative voice for Sunnis in the Middle East. The continued victories of jihadist forces threaten the Arab Gulf Monarchies, particularly Saudi Arabia, which, as guardians of the holy places, have assumed the primary political role in Islam since the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924. A defeat of jihadist forces at the hands of the Assad and Maliki regimes also risks domestic blowback against Gulf monarchies—indeed some rulers have used the excuse of the power of Salafists and general sympathies for Syria’s Sunni opposition for not cracking down earlier on jihadist financial networks.

Given ISIL’s recent successes, it would be optimistic to think their aspirations are limited to a caliphate between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. ISIL has moved its forces toward the borders with Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and ISIL elements successfully attacked Lebanese Army positions along the frontier with Syria this week, taking prisoners. Meanwhile, analysts and European and American officials say hundreds, if not thousands, of ISIL and Al Qaeda operatives in Syria and the Islamic State are likely planning attacks either back home or elsewhere. These include Muhsin al-Fadhili, former head of Al Qaeda’s Iranian facilitation network; Sanafi al-Nasr, head of Al Qaeda’s Syria “Victory Committee”; Wafa al-Saudi, Al Qaeda’s former head of security for counter intelligence; as well as Al Qaeda founding member Firas al-Suri. Members of Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are also reportedly in Syria, indicating a growing opportunity for connectivity, coordination, planning, and synchronization with Jebhat al-Nusra and other jihadists. Taken together with national-based Jihadist units from China, the Caucasus, Libya, Egypt, Sweden, and beyond, the “Islamic State” is already the next Afghanistan or Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas in terms of a durable safe haven and training ground for global Islamic terrorism.1

Given the consolidation of the Islamic State’s gains, and the lack of interest and capacity of its neighbors to uproot the organization in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State is likely to endure absent a more assertive and concerted U.S. policy involving military and political operations. Working with Iran and its clients in the Maliki and Assad governments will not solve the problem, due to both states’ limited military capacities and encouragement of sectarian brutality against Sunnis in both countries. While Iran and its allies may be a natural front on ISIL expansion further afield, empowering Iran and its allies now would be like throwing gasoline on sectarian fire.

If Washington seeks to find the “formula that speaks to the aspirations” of Sunnis outlined in President Obama’s recent New York Times interview, or the “geopolitical equilibrium” between Iran and the Arabs he outlined last autumn, Washington will need to work with allies in Iraq and the Arab Gulf countries to calm tensions and lead Sunnis in Syria and Iraq in a more moderate direction. It will be an uphill struggle: The jihadist narrative that America is waging war on Sunnis post September 11 continues. Many see Obama employing a double-standard in his decision to arm the Kurds and act to prevent a Yezidi “genocide” while refusing for three years to arm Syria’s Sunni-dominated opposition—who he continues to dismiss as mere “doctors, farmers, (and) pharmacists”—and enforce his red line against the Assad regime for its use of chemical weapons against civilians.

These could involve pressure on the Maliki government to be more “inclusive,” supporting a change in that government, and special military operations. The success of that program would be heavily dependent on the degree of cooperation and coordination with Sunni regional allies. The Saudi government, which has been wary of American involvement in Iraq, will have to be convinced that Washington will commit to supporting non-jihadi Sunnis in Iraq and Syria militarily (via training) and politically (vis à vis Iraq and Syria’s Iran-backed governments). Iraqi and Syrian Sunnis, who are worried in a very existential way about working against ISIL, will have to be convinced that such a program carries enough potential to work thus risking their and their families’ lives. Fortunately Arab Gulf countries have long-term relations with tribes in the areas ISIL controls and very deep pockets. Instead of relying on them to create a Quds Force-equivalent to train and support Sunni moderates in Syria and Iraq, the U.S. should play that role, working in concert with Arab intelligence agencies to coordinate and streamline their efforts to foster a viable moderate Sunni alternative that will fill the vacuum following any ISIL defeat.

For Washington, such efforts could help stabilize two weak and effectively disintegrated states. For Arab allies, it would provide an opportunity to help moderate forces check both Sunni extremism and Iranian-dominated governments in Baghdad and Damascus. And for the American people, it would make it much less likely its servicemen would have to invade another Middle Eastern country in the wake of another massive terrorist attack.

Hamas: The Terror Elite, Front Page Magazine, Steven Plaut, August 12, 2014

(Although dated August 12, 2014, this article appears to have been written several years ago, probably in 2009. It refers to Secretary Kerry, “who now heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”  It refers to ” a recent column in The New York Times (January 13, 2009)” and the “new American Administration.” It observes that “Arabs are starting to enjoy some such freedoms in American-occupied Iraq.”

Some things change and some don’t. Hamas is among the latter and, in many ways, public perceptions of it are as well . — DM)

The Western fetish about “talking,” which has been analyzed at length by Joshua Muravchik,70 is based on the belief that all international conflicts and wars resemble marital spats. Thus the trick to settling them is to smooth ruffled egos and get the conflicted parties to sit down face to face, socialize over tea, emote, seek catharsis, and otherwise come to empathize with the “Other.” It is postmodernist gibberish and Habermasian “communicative action” gone berserk. It is based on the naïve belief that everyone in the world is reasonable, and so all conflict must be the result simply of misunderstanding. Proponents insist that there are no real conflicts of interests, just misinterpretations and hurt feelings. Grievances are mere psychological baggage, always ready to be jettisoned.

This fetish for talking cannot be made to conform to the basic character of Hamas. The idea that gestures of good will and frank discussions can wean this organization from its genocidal agenda is so absurd that it is hard to find words to mock it properly.

***************

“We will not rest until we destroy the Zionist entity” Hamas leader Fathi Hammad in Gaza, January 2, 2009.

“The annihilation of the Jews here in Palestine is one of the most splendid blessings for Palestine.”

— Hamas cleric Muhsen Abu ‘Ita in a televised interview, cited in TheWall Street Journal, Dec 30, 08

A new fever has seized the media and the governments of some Western democratic countries— a belief that the world must now hold “talks” with Hamas and seek to reach an “accommodation” with this terrorist group.

Hamas itself has been campaigning1 to be recognized as a legitimate governing body and removed from Western blacklists of terrorist movements. A number of European countries have already responded enthusiastically, thus becoming ventriloquist dummies for the far left, which long ago replaced PLO with the Hamas as the group it considers to be the “legitimate” representative of the Palestinian “people.”

Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Portuguese Jose Saramago (already on record as having compared Israel to Nazi Germany), recently led a petition of hundreds of European and other “intellectuals” demanding that Hamas be delisted as a terrorist organization. 2 Some Eurocrats, while acknowledging that Hamas is indeed involved in terrorism, have still insisted3 that it be “recognized” as a legitimate player and removed from terrorism lists so that it can be “engaged.” Edward McMillan-Scott, a Conservative Member of British Parliament, recently said: “The European Union is right to demand the renunciation by Hamas of violence, and to demand that Hamas recognize Israel. But Europe also has to note that Hamas has stuck to a ceasefire since February 2005.” Eight thousand rockets aimed at Jewish civilians do not count as violating any ceasefire in McMillan-Scott’s opinion. The conservative (and anti-Semitic) BBSNEWS service has editorialized that the continuing regard of the Hamas as a terrorist organization “is probably THE most serious obstacle to peace [emphasis in original].”

France has already conducted “talks” with Hamas,4 in which the terror group has been required to repudiate and concede nothing at all. American officials responded, “We don’t believe it is helpful to the process of bringing peace to the region.” Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi called for negotiating with Hamas5 to help the movement “develop politically.” Some British politicians chimed in with a solemn amen, including Tony Blair.6 A House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee report recommended that lawmakers “urgently consider ways of engaging politically with moderate elements within Hamas.” This of course makes exactly as much sense as seeking an accommodation with the moderate elements within al-Qaeda. Some have argued that EU dealings with Hamas themselves constitute a war crime.7 Ironically, members of the PLO have strongly denounced those Europeans calling for dialogue with its rival, which has now replaced Fatah in their affections.

Nor is the EU content with merely talking. As journalist Caroline Glick writes,8 “… During the period when they were deployed at the [Rafah] terminal, the EU monitors turned a blind eye to the very terror traffic they were supposed to be preventing. At the same time, they condemned Israel for taking any action to defend itself and downplayed the threat Hamas constitutes for Israel. In short, the EU monitors sided with Hamas against Israel at every turn. The situation is much the same with UNIFIL forces in Lebanon.”

The tenured left in the United States has followed its European allies into embracing Hamas. Ostensibly devoted to secularist socialism, the left cheers the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Hamas as the “genuine” and “authentic” representative of Palestinian opinion. Hamas banners now appear everywhere in “peace” demonstrations in Europe and North America. Leftists openly endorse the Hamas charter, whose central premise is that Israel must be annihilated.

Hamas has become the epitome of radical chic on U.S. campuses. Noam Chomsky has been insisting that Hamas is more seriously interested in peace than is Israel.9 Former president of the Middle East Studies Association, Stanford’s Joel Beinin, has criticized the Ford Foundation for not financing Hamas NGOs.10 Hamas, for its part, refuses to recognize or conduct any talks at all with Jews, even with the leftists in Israeli universities who ape the positions taken by Chomsky, Howard Zinn and other radical American academics.

The attitude of the new American administration appears ambiguous. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently ruled out any American negotiations with the Hamas, but then added an ominous afterthought: “unless it meets certain conditions.”11 Thus she took the first step towards joining the long list of Western diplomats who have backtracked and birdwalked over the past decade. These have methodically dumbed down the changes that Palestinian terrorists must make and the demands they must meet before being proclaimed “statesmen.” Nor is Clinton alone in her incipient revisionism about Hamas. John Kerry, who now heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently paid a high profile visit to the Gaza’s Hamastan, and reportedly carried back a note from the terror organization for President Obama’s eyes only.12

Other Americans have been far less cautious about courting Hamas. Ex-President Jimmy Carter has been one of the leading public figures promoting official recognition of the group. He traveled to Damascus to meet with terrorist chiefs, including Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader. The Bush administration repudiated his efforts,13 as did U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Hillary Clinton’s top Jewish advisor:

“A meeting with the former President of the United States lends credibility to terrorists and Holocaust deniers worldwide. In light of Hamas’ continuing violence and calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, I strongly urge President Carter to reconsider his decision.”

Carter’s pandering to Hamas is not reciprocal. In Hamas leaflets, the organization has expressed its opposition to every possible peace plan that has ever been proposed by anyone.14 In its leaflet #46 (September 1989) it rejected Egypt’s ten-point peace plan and warned Palestinians against any contact at all with the United States. In its leaflet #55 (March 1990) it threatened other Palestinian figures who had met with former U.S. President Carter, and warned threateningly that those trying to revive the Camp David accords do not represent the Palestinian people. A bit more recently, Hamas ruled out any sort of permanent truce with Israel, other than brief ceasefires that can give it time to re- arm.15 “The logic of those who demand that we stop our resistance is absurd,” the terror organization writes in one of its advisories that provide talking points for Western media and politicians. “They absolve the aggressor and occupier – armed with the deadliest weapons of death and destruction – of responsibility, while blaming the victim, prisoner and occupied.”16

What is Hamas?

The word Hamas is an acronym for the Arabic words for “Islamic Resistance Movement.” The organization is an Islamofascist terrorist group, responsible for most of the rocket terrorist attacks on civilians in Israel’s south in recent years. Those attacks triggered Israel’s Operation Cast Lead this past winter. It is estimated that 8000 rockets were fired before Israel at last retaliated.

Hamas is probably the most active Arab terrorist organization in recruiting and dispatching suicide-bombers against Jews. Hamas has converted murder-by-suicide into its highest religious value and goal. The first Hamas suicide bombing took place in Israel in April 1993. Thousands of Hamas terrorists train in Iran.

The Hamas “military” wing calls itself the Izz ad-Din al- Qassam brigades, named after an early Palestinian terrorist, killed by the British Mandatory government troops back when “Palestine” was governed by Britain. The Qassam rocket, the weapon of terror most favored by the Hamas, is also named after that terrorist. Al-Qassam was the sidekick of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, at the time Hitler’s chief agent in the Middle East.17

Hamas is officially funded by Islamic fascist groups, by Arab governments, by Iran and Syria, and by “Islamic charities” from around the world.18 (The Bush administration famously cracked down on some of these “charities,” including the so- called “Holy Land Foundation.) Hamas steals considerable portions of the aid provided to the Gaza Strip by the EU, the US, the UN, and by others.19 In some cases it then sells the material back to ordinary Gazans for a profit.

Hamas grew out of the Palestinian wing of the violent fundamentalist Islamist movement calling itself the Muslim Brotherhood.20 The latter operated throughout the Muslim world, but was especially strong in Egypt, where it was launched in the 1920s. The Brotherhood served as an anti- British pro-Nazi terror group in Egypt and elsewhere during World War II. It terrorized the Jewish population of Egypt and in other Arab countries. It assassinated Anwar Sadat in 1981 for daring to sign a peace accord with Israel. It had earlier tried to assassinate Gamal Nasser for not being sufficiently anti-West and anti-Israel for their tastes. The Muslim Brotherhood regularly attacks non-Muslim tourists visiting Egypt and justifies any murder of non-Muslims by Muslims anywhere in the name of jihad.

Groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, now outlawed in Egypt, have operated in the United States since 1960.21 Some of these have ties with al-Qaeda. One of the Brotherhood websites blames the 911 attacks in the US on the Jews. 22

Yassir Arafat joined the Brotherhood as a student at an Egyptian university. His Fatah organization, the main group within the PLO, also was built up initially as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and as an Islamist movement. (The word “Fat’h” means holy crusade for Islam.)

In 1973 a Muslim clergyman named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin established al-Mujamma’ al-Islami (the Islamic Center) as the main Muslim Brotherhood movement in Gaza. In December, 1987, the same Yassin, who was later executed by Israel, founded Hamas as the Muslim Brotherhood’s Gazan political arm. A different segment of the Muslim Brotherhood broke away to form the Islamic Jihad terrorist group, an ally of Hamas, in the mid-1980s.23

When Hamas began gathering strength, it was at first misjudged by Israel to be a religious NGO that might develop into a political counterweight to the Palestine Liberation Organization and to its affiliate terrorist groups. Writing inThe Wall Street Journal in January 2009, Andrew Higgins notes:

When Israel first encountered Islamists in Gaza in the 1970s and ‘80s, they seemed focused on studying the Quran, not on confrontation with Israel. The Israeli government officially recognized a precursor to Hamas called Mujama Al-Islamiya, registering the group as a charity. It allowed Mujama members to set up an Islamic university and build mosques, clubs and schools. Crucially, Israel often stood aside when the Islamists and their secular left-wing Palestinian rivals battled, sometimes violently, for influence in both Gaza and the West Bank.

It did not take long for Israel to realize that the Hamas was arguably an even worse belligerent than the PLO. When Yassir Arafat and, after his death, Abu Mazen went through the motions of conducting “talks” and negotiations with Israel (as the price for receiving American and European support and financing), Hamas denounced such behavior, even though it was for the most part a diplomatic mime. Unlike the PLO, Hamas always speaks clearly and unambiguously in declaring its aims. Hamas is not even willing to pretend rhetorically that its ambitions can be met without the total annihilation of Israel and of its Jewish population.

Hamas is openly endeavoring to carry out a new genocide of Jews. In one of its earliest proclamations, its Leaflet #65 (October 1990), it called upon Arabs to murder Jews and burn their property: “Every Jew or settler is a target and must be killed. Their blood and their property are forfeit.” Not even the most desperate apologist for the organization can twist such statements to mean anything else. Hamas insists that “the soil of Palestine is sacred,” and that every Muslim must take action to liberate every inch of Palestine from the Jews, by which it means all of Israel. Among the more notorious targets for its bombs have been buses of civilians and the cafeteria at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.24

The Hamas Charter is a meandering hate document, calling for Israel’s complete annihilation.25 It explicitly cites the czarist forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, about a purported global Jewish conspiracy to control the world, in language resembling that on neo-Nazi websites. Hamas is fond of other nutty conspiracy theories, especially the ones claiming that the freemasons are in cahoots with the Jews in a cabal to control the planet. Among the Charter’s main points are these:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

“The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [consecrated land held as an Islamic trust] consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. “

“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”

“After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.”26

These are the people to whom the armchair Western peace seekers demand that Israel capitulate.

Abuse of Palestinian Arabs by Hamas

One of the greatest ironies of the Middle East is that the treatment of Arabs by Arab regimes is so much worse than the treatment of Arabs by Israel. The only place in the Middle East where the basic human rights of Arabs are respected is, in fact, in Israel. Only there can Arabs vote, freely petition public officials and courts, exercise freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and only there is their property safe and legally protected. (Arabs are starting to enjoy some such freedoms in American-occupied Iraq.)

Moreover, in spite of the faddish mantras about Israeli “apartheid” heard on campuses these days, Israel is in fact the only country in the Middle East that isnot an apartheid regime.

When Syria launched a campaign to wipe out the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s, it killed more than 30,000 people, most of them civilians. Jordan may have killed Palestinians in even greater numbers than that in a massacre conducted by King Hussein’s regime in 1970, in what became known as “Black September.”27 (That term of mourning, ironically, was adopted as an identity by the new terrorist group that conducted the Munich massacre and many other atrocities.) Hamas is squarely in this tradition, routinely murdering large numbers of innocent Palestinians it regards as impediments to its plans. 28

No one knows just how many Palestinians the terror organization has killed. But Hamas is so dedicated to the liquidation of internal opposition that it took time out to murder the Fatah sympathizers in Gaza even while it was trying to fight off Israeli troops in Operation “Cast Lead” in 2008. Members of the PLO’s Fatah are routinely accused by the Hamas of collaborating with Israel and tortured. Fatah members may not hold demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, even against Israel, and if they try to do so they are attacked by Hamas thugs. Even Amnesty International, no friend of Israel’s, has spoken out against Hamas use of torture, although not against Hamas rockets fired at Jews.29 Even Arabs in Gaza hospitals have been tortured.30 The Hamas “parliament” has voted in favor of crucifixion of its opponents and rivals.31 Women deemed to be misbehaving in Gaza have been gang-raped by Hamas members.32

Hamas hates Christians, Bahais, and secular Muslims almost as ferociously as it hates Jews. It has brutalized Gaza Christians and ordered them to wear traditional Islamic dress.33 It has attacked churches in Gaza. In one incident its terrorists “attacked Gaza’s Latin Church and adjacent Rosary Sisters School, reportedly destroying crosses, bibles, pictures of Jesus and furniture and equipment. The attackers also stole a number of computers.” 34 Other church leaders have been ordered at gun point to promote Islam.35 Until recently, about 2000 Arab Christians lived in Gaza, but many have fled for their lives, including the son of a Hamas member of parliament who converted to Christianity.36

Hamas also operates numerous “vice squads” that specialize in murdering unmarried people meeting together and in torturing homosexuals.37 Some persecuted Palestinian homosexuals have sought refuge in Israel. These squads, who sometimes knee-cap their victims,38 haunt internet cafes and music stores where Gazans requiring “re-education” hang out. 39

Hamas Rule in Gaza

A bit like Adolf Hitler in Germany in the 1930s, Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip “legally” and only after winning an “election.” On January 29, 2006, the organization defeated its rivals in a vote to take over the “Palestinian Authority, which had been set up by Israel in the euphoria of the early “peace process” under Yitzhak Rabin and with the expectation that it would be controlled by the PLO. After vote tallies, Hamas gained 74 out of 132 seats. It was not exactly a free election; for example, no party willing to recognize the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state was running, and no freedom of speech or of the press was in effect. Nevertheless, the strong showing of the Hamas effectively removed the PLO, the heirs of Yassir Arafat, from control of the Palestinian Authority.

Whether the PLO and Hamas actually represent conflicting ideologies has long been a matter of dispute. They are both terrorist organizations devoted to Israel’s annihilation. Abu Mazen, the “President” of the Palestinian Authority, wrote his “doctoral thesis” in Russia supporting Holocaust denial. The PLO has conducted suicide bombings and rocket firings, especially via its military “Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.”40 Hamas has done the same through its Izz ad-Din al-Qassam military.41 Their ideological differences matter about as much as the differences between warring mafia families and have to do with power and money far more than philosophy.

After the 2006 election the initial expectation on the part of many observers was that Hamas would be content to allow Palestinian Authority President Abu Mazen to remain in power or at least to serve as a significant figurehead. But after biding their time a bit, Hamas militias launched a putsch to seize all centers of power in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007.42 The Fatah of the PLO put up a weak resistance and quickly fell apart. Many of its members requested that Israel “rescue them” and move them to safety in the West Bank. The Gaza Strip became popularly known as “Hamastan.”43 The PLO retreated to its control of Palestinian institutions in the West Bank from its offices in Ramallah. There Abu Mazen heads an “alternative” Palestinian Authority, without the participation of Hamas, although the organization’s loyalists control some of universities in the West Bank. It is not inconceivable that Hamas could displace the PLO in the West Bank just as it did in Gaza.

One of the first things Hamas did after taking over Gaza was to launch a campaign of unbridled kleptocracy, stealing funds and commodities shipped to the Gaza Strip as humanitarian aid (including that sent by other Arab countries) sent via the UN institutions operating there. A Qatari newspaper claims the theft amounts to billions of dollars.44 This is all a bit ironic, given that Hamas favors the traditional Muslim punishment for theft of chopping off of hands.45

Aid is the main form of income and consumption in the Gaza Strip, where the terrorists have never had much interest in building factories or creating real jobs, other than employment opportunities in terrorism. (Among the items stolen by Hamas was the actual Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Yassir Arafat). Shakedowns by Hamas gunmen have included an attempt to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie,46 the undergraduate American cheerleader of terrorism turned martyr for the left, who was crushed in Gaza in 2003 when she refused to get out of the way of an Israeli bulldozer demolishing terrorist hideouts. When the terrorists realized whom they had grabbed off the Gaza street, they released them, as the anti-Israel Corries represented more valuable propaganda assets for terrorism while free.

Imposing totalitarian power over the residents of Gaza by controlling the supply of food and other basic needs is part of Hamas’ strategy. Intentional economic ruination is, in fact, de facto Hamas domestic policy—the creation of a situation in which every Gazan will be dependent upon Hamas handouts and Hamas control of international aid. The response of most of the world to this has been to escalate calls for providing even more aid to Gaza, channeled through Hamas.

When Israel balked at providing supplies that would be commandeered by Hamas and used for its aims, especially while Hamas was firing thousands of rockets at Israeli children, the entire world wagged its fingers at the Israeli “oppressors denying food” meant for the poor children of the Gaza Strip. Israel was still denounced as an “occupier” of Gaza, even though it had removed all of its soldiers and civilians, because it was closely monitoring imports of supplies—and, often of arms—by Hamas. Meanwhile, Hamas also took control of the myriad smuggling tunnels that come into Gaza from Egypt, extorting “tolls” from other Gazans trying to use them to bring in supplies.

The result of all this has been the emergence of two de facto separate Palestinian mini-states in the making—Hamistan, a Hamas-controlled Islamofascist state in the Gaza Strip; and a PLO-controlled entity in the West Bank some call Fatahstan.47 At this point the starting position of the Palestinians and their apologists in any negotiations is their demand for in effect four different Palestinian Arab states–the two mini-states in the making, as noted; plus Jordan, whose citizens are by and large Palestinians; plus the demand that Israel itself be converted into yet another Palestinian Arab state by allowing unlimited Arab migration to it as fulfillment of the supposed Arab “right of return.”

As soon as Hamas had seized power in the Gaza Strip, the world heard shrill declarations that this was an organization with which Israel and the West can “do business”—pragmatic people interested in jobs and budgets. It was claimed that, despite the group’s lurid rhetoric and slogans and its menacing charter, once in office Hamas would devote all of its energies to praying, ecology, and fixing potholes. This assumption was delusional, as events soon demonstrated, but the love affair between the western left and Hamas persists.

Rehabitating Hamas as a “Social Organization” and “Charity”

The New York Times and other liberal media are always at pains to remind everyone that Hamas also conducts non- military activities and provides some “social services.”48 When the organization won the Gaza “elections” in 2006, many Western talking heads attributed the victory to its provision of such services to Gaza residents. (On BBC radio the morning of the Hamas victory, I heard a commentator attributing the victory to the fact that Hamas is better at fixing potholes and sewers than the PLO. He was serious.)

Hamas does indeed operate social services, but mainly as a tool in asserting its power and control, and in order to finance its terrorism.49 The American State Department has traditionally drawn no distinction between Hamas terrorism and its social services: “As long as Hamas continues to rely on terrorism to achieve its political ends, we should not draw a distinction between its military and humanitarian arms, since funds provided to one can be used to support the other.” Even the normally anti-Israel Human Rights Watch has concluded that Hamas social functions are part and parcel of its terrorist activity: “In the case of Hamas, there is abundant evidence that the military wing is accountable to a political steering committee that includes Shaikh Ahmad Yassin, the group’s acknowledged ‘spiritual leader,’ as well as spokesperson such as Ismail Abu Shanab, ‘Abd al-’Aziz al-Rantissi, and Mahmud Zahar. Yassin himself, as well as Salah Shehadah, the late founder and commander of the ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, have confirmed in public remarks that the military wing implements the policies that are set by the political wing.”50 The Simon Wiesenthal Center has issued a report with the same findings.51

Hamas and al-Qaeda

Hamas and al-Qaeda are basically two sides of the same jihad.52 They have squabbled rhetorically on occasion, such as over Hamas’ meeting Putin, which bin Laden regarded as “betraying” the Chechins, but that may have been all for show. Hamas “schools” and other institutions routinely distribute the harangues of bin-Laden and other al-Qaeda materials. Hamas rallies feature posters of bin Laden and of Chechen terror leaders.

Hamas terrorists returning from al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan have been apprehended by Israel. Al-Qaeda emissaries have infiltrated Gaza to coordinate action with Hamas. The San Francisco Chronicle reported, “According to a 2004 FBI affidavit, al-Qaeda recruited Hamas members to conduct surveillance against potential targets in the United States.” In 2006, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, himself claimed that al-Qaeda was operating in the Gaza Strip and also accused Hamas of providing aid to al-Qaeda.53. A group calling itself the “Al-Qaeda Organization Jihad in Palestine” has operated in Gaza since October 2005 with Hamas blessings.

Hamas has long been unabashedly anti-American.54 The FBI has been warning about possible imminent Hamas attacks on America since at least 2005. Saddam Hussein was one of the main funders of Hamas, making grants to the families of Hamas suicide bombers.55 Hamas strongly denounced the arrest and execution of Saddam by the US, calling it a “political assassination.” A Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, said, “Saddam Hussein was a prisoner of war. [The] hanging … is a political assassination that violates all international laws that are supposed to protect prisoners of war.”56 Several Hamas operatives have been arrested in the U.S.

Hamas is also one of the most openly anti-Semitic organizations on the planet. It repeats every medieval anti- Jewish libel, down to and including the use of the blood of gentile children to make Passover bread. It recently claimed that a Jewish world cabal had engineered the current collapse of financial markets.57 Hamas’ role in spreading anti-Semitism goes well beyond the Middle East. It has distributed anti-Semitic materials in Russia, including, oddly enough, the old czarist forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.58

Hamas, Iran, and Holocaust Denial

Hamas owes much of its growth to the support it receives from Iran. Israel’s ex-Prime Minister Olmert recently said, “Hamas in Gaza was built by Iran as a foundation for power, and is backed through funding, through training and through the provision of advanced weapons.”59

The moment Hamas won the Gaza “elections” in 2006, Iran rushed in to compensate for the dismay of the rest of the world. Hamas and Iran had already grown very close in the aftermath of the American-led allied invasion of Iraq in 2003.60 That closeness may seem odd, since Iran today leads the world’s Shi’ite Muslims, with their centuries of grievances against Sunni Muslims, while Hamas is clearly a Sunni entity. But the alliance makes sense when the third leg of this triangle of terror, the Shi’ite Hezbollah in Lebanon, which collaborates openly with Hamas, is factored into the equation.61

The Ahmedinijad regime’s partnership with Hamas has also been reflected in its adopting the Holocaust denial so fashionable in Iran. On Hamas television, numerous “experts,” ranging from Iranian leaders to German Neo- Nazis, insist that the very existence of the Holocaust has “yet to be proven historically.” In the official Hamas weekly Al- Risala, Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi, a senior Hamas leader, wrote on August 21, 2003:

“The Zionists … have succeeded in misleading the West and making it believe in the false Holocaust … The Zionists were behind the Nazis’ murder of many Jews, and agreed to it, with the aim of intimidating them [the Jews] and forcing them to immigrate to Palestine. Every time they failed to persuade a group of Jews to immigrate [to Palestine], they unhesitatingly sentenced [them] to death. Afterwards, they would organize great propaganda campaigns, to cash in on their blood. The Nazis received tremendous financial aid from the Zionist banks and monopolies, and this contributed to their rise to power … The crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against humanity, with all their atrocities, are no more than a tiny particle compared to the Zionists’ terror against the Palestinian people.” (Translation courtesy of MEMRI.)

When the Hamas leaders are not busy denying there ever was a Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, they are insisting that the Jews planned the Holocaust themselves.62 A Hamas film made public by the Palestinian Media Watch organization claims that Jewish leaders themselves orchestrated the European Holocaust of Jews, “so the Jews would seem persecuted and try to benefit from international sympathy.” Amin Dabur, head of the “Center for Strategic Research,” is cited in the film explaining that “the Israeli [sic] Holocaust, the whole thing was a joke and part of the perfect show that Ben Gurion put on…. They were sent [by the Jews to die] so there would be a Holocaust, so Israel could ‘play’ it for world sympathy.”

CAIR and Hamas

While Hamas cannot operate legally and openly in the United States, it has front groups that will do its work for it, chief among them being the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR.

CAIR is an anti-Semitic, anti-American lobby group with intimate ties to Hamas, and is sometimes considered to be an outright subsidiary of Hamas. Americans Against Hate, in fact, has called upon the US government to regard CAIR as an official front for Hamas.63

CAIR itself was established in June, 1994 by three leaders of the now-defunct American propaganda wing of Hamas, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP).64 That group was part of the American Palestine Committee, headed by the global leader of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook. In March, 1994 CAIR’s co-founder and current Executive Director, Nihad Awad, stated in broken English, “After I researched the situation inside and outside Palestine, I am in support of the Hamas movement…”65

CAIR disseminates Hamas propaganda, including its calls for genocide against Jews. CAIR members have bragged that they plan to become suicide bombers.66 The FBI recently cut off all contact with CAIR, in part because of its intimate ties with Hamas. CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the plot by Islamists in the US, led by Sami al-Arian (a founder of CAIR), to raise funds for Hamas.67 The CAIR Research Director, Mohammad Nimer has ties with terrorists.68 He also served as a board director for UASR, the strategic arm for Hamas in the U.S. According to his bio at American University, “Just as CAIR uses the facade of being a civil rights group to conduct terror activities, Nimer used the guise of “conflict resolution” expert to facilitate his movements within the al-Qaeda network.”69

The Futility of “Talks” with the Hamas

The Western fetish about “talking,” which has been analyzed at length by Joshua Muravchik,70 is based on the belief that all international conflicts and wars resemble marital spats. Thus the trick to settling them is to smooth ruffled egos and get the conflicted parties to sit down face to face, socialize over tea, emote, seek catharsis, and otherwise come to empathize with the “Other.” It is postmodernist gibberish and Habermasian “communicative action” gone berserk. It is based on the naïve belief that everyone in the world is reasonable, and so all conflict must be the result simply of misunderstanding. Proponents insist that there are no real conflicts of interests, just misinterpretations and hurt feelings. Grievances are mere psychological baggage, always ready to be jettisoned.

This fetish for talking cannot be made to conform to the basic character of Hamas. The idea that gestures of good will and frank discussions can wean this organization from its genocidal agenda is so absurd that it is hard to find words to mock it properly.

There is growing recognition by knowledgeable observers (those who do not secretly seek Israel’s destruction) that there is simply no way that Israel can reach any sort of peace accord or compromise solution with Hamas.71 In a recent column in The New York Times (January 13, 2009), Jeffrey Goldberg wrote;

“As the Gaza war moves to a cease-fire, a crucial question will inevitably arise, as it has before: Should Israel (and by extension, the United States) try to engage Hamas in a substantive and sustained manner? It is a fair question, one worth debating, but it is unmoored from certain political and theological realities…. Periodically, advocates of negotiation suggest that the hostility toward Jews expressed by Hamas is somehow mutable. But in years of listening, I haven’t heard much to suggest that its anti-Semitism is insincere. Like Hezbollah, Hamas believes that God is opposed to a Jewish state in Palestine. Both groups are rhetorically pitiless, though, again, Hamas sometimes appears to follow the lead of Hezbollah.”

The bottom line is that there is no possibility of reaching any “deals” or even real ceasefires with Hamas, which has violated every single ceasefire agreement it ever signed within minutes. It was the fact that Hamas launched thousands of rockets at Israel in the first place, while a ceasefire agreement was supposed to be in effect, that led to the recent Gaza war.

No deal is possible because there is nothing Hamas seeks other than war. Therefore there can be no possibility for any tradeoffs or compromises that might be proposed to Hamas as compensation for its giving up or forestalling its genocidal ambitions. Since war is its raison d’etre, there is absolutely nothing constructive that can be gained by offering Hamas dialogue and negotiations. The only real effect of such “talks” would be to strengthen Hamas, strengthening its legitimacy among credulous European and American liberals, and so give it added leeway to continue its quest for a second Holocaust of Jews.

 

Endnotes

1 See “Hamas Wants Off Terror List,” http://www.jihadwatch.org/ archives/010261.php

2 See “Appeal for the removal of Hamas from the EU terror list!.” http://www.antiimperialista.org/index.php?option=com_content&task= view&id=6060&Itemid=229

3 “EU Urged: Take Hamas Off Blacklist,” http://news.sky.com/skynews/ Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/200806413500083?f=rss

4 “EU Urged: Take Hamas Off Blacklist,” The New York Times, May 20, 2008.

5 “Hamas pleased with European ‘U-turn,’ Jerusalem Post, Aug 15, 2007

6 “At Tufts, Blair says Hamas must be drawn into talks,” Boston Globe, Feb. 3, 2009.

7 “Hamas’ March to Victory ,” by Caroline B. Glick, Jan. 2, 2009, http://townhall.com/columnists/CarolineBGlick/2009/01/02/hamas_ march_to_victory?page=2

8 ibid.

9 “American Linguist Noam Chomsky: Hamas Policies Are More Conducive to a Peaceful Settlement than Those of the U.S. or Israel,” http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/011614.php

10 xi. “Joel Beinin: Apologist for Terrorists,” by David Horowitz, May 19, 2006, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read. aspx?GUID=681F93A4-4EFA-4327-8153-A9961EAB2ACE

11 http://jta.org/news/article/2009/01/13/1002220/clinton-no- negotiations-with-hamas

12 CNN, Feb 20, 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/ meast/02/20/kerry.letter/index.html

13 “Bush, Obama: No to Carter-Hamas chat,” April 11, 2008, http:// http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?”option=com_content&task=view&id=14 461&Itemid=86

14 Cited in “Hamas–The Islamic Resistance Movement In The Territories,” by Boaz Ganor, http://www.jcpa.org/jl/saa27.htm
15 Cited at http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=3368
16 The Guardian, January 6, 2009
17 http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Haj_Amin_El_Husseini.htm

18 “Hamas’s Foreign Benefactors,” by Kenneth Katzman, Middle East Quarterly, June 1995; Israeli Ministry of foreign Affairs, The Financial Sources of the Hamas Terror Organization, July 2003, http://www.mfa. gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2003/7/The+Financial+Sources+ of+the+Hamas+Terror+Organiza;

19 “Report: Hamas stealing aid supplies to sell to residents,” http:// http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3651783,00.html ; “UN, Hamas meet to discuss stolen Gaza aid,” Haaretz, 08/02/2009; see also ;http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/32664_Hamas_Steals_Aid_UN_ Actually_Notices

20 Council on Foreign Relations, “Hamas,” January 7, 2009; “ ; Encyclopedia of the Middle East, Muslim Brotherhood,” http://www. mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/muslim_brotherhood.htm

21 Al Ahram, “Politics in God’s Name,” Nov. 16-22, 1995

22 “Were the 9-11 Hijackers Really Arabs? Maybe Not,” http://www. ummah.com/worldaffairs/viewcafeature1.php?cafid=29&caTopicID=6

23 “Hamas–The Islamic Resistance Movement In The Territories,” by Boaz Ganor, Survey of Arab Affairs, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 1992

24 “Hamas terrorist attacks,” and “Terrorist bombing at Hebrew University cafeteria,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

25 MidEast Web Historical Documents, “Hamas Charter: The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas),” August 18 1988, http:// http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

26 ibid

27 “The Middle East’s Apartheid Regime,” by Steven Plaut February 19, 2009 http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read. aspx?GUID=864E1EC2-1EC3-4343-A1C3-87D04DE7E4E7

28 “Hamas Murder Campaign In Gaza Exposed: Human Rights Group,” Huffington Post, February 13, 2009, http://www.huffingtonpost. com/2009/02/13/hamas-murder-campaign-exp_n_166868.html

29 “Amnesty charges Hamas with torture and murder,” http://www. thejc.com/articles/amnesty-charges-hamas-torture-and-murder

30 http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-209234

31 Beliefnet report: http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/12/ hamas-legalizes-crucifixion_comments.html

32 http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2009/01/18/alan-morrison-gang-rape- in-gaza-an-arousing-reverie/

33 “Hamas accused of intimidating Christians,” Nov. 6, 2007, http:// http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58531 ; “Sojourners for Hamas,” July 03, 2007 , http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ Read.aspx?GUID=35537182-EBCE-4CF7-A04D-3795F4857598 ; “Hamas’ Christian convert: I’ve left a society that sanctifies terror,” july

31, 2008, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1007097.html

34 ‘Christians must accept Islamic rule,’ http://www.ynet.co.il/english/ articles/0,7340,L-3414753,00.html

35 ‘Hamas accused of intimidating Christians,’ http://www.wnd.com/ news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58531
36 ibid and ‘Hamas turns on Gaza Christians,’ http://www.israeltoday. co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13149

37 http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.israel/2006- 06/msg00658.html

38 http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/ Security/?id=3.0.3001523783

39 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=833956

40 “Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,” by Holly Fletcher, April 2, 2008, Council on Foreign Relations, backgrounder, http://www.cfr.org/ publication/9127

41 “Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam,” Encyclopedia of the Middle East, http://www.mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/sheikh_izz_ad- din_al-qassam.htm

42 The Guardian, June 15, 2007.
43 “The Specter of ‘Hamastan’: More Must Be Done to Counter Islamist Gains in Gaza,” by Dennis Ross. Washington Post, June 4, 2007

44 http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/commentary/commentaryother.a sp?file=Februarycommentary322006.xml; A sample of other reports: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/160296 ; http:// http://www.taiwansnews.net/story/462616 ; http://www.jihadwatch.org/ archives/016962.php ; http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/952322. html; http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1137605920728&pag ename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

45 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,385502,00.html
46 ‘Rachel Corrie’s parents endure brush with Gaza kidnappers,’

Jerusalem Post, Jan 5, 2006.
47 “Hamastan vs Fatahstan,” By Christoph Schult, Salon, June 19,

2007,

48 “Hamas,” The New York Times, March 9, 2009 ; see also the review of Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, by Matthew Levitt, in New York Sun, May 23, 2006

49 ibid, and see also “ Hamas’s use of charitable societies to fund and support terror,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 22 Sep 2003

50 “Erased In A Moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks Against Israeli Civilians,” Human Rights Watch, October, 2002

51 “Unmasking Hamas’ Hydra of Terror,” http://www.wiesenthal.com/ atf/cf/%7bDFD2AAC1-2ADE-428A-9263-35234229D8D8%7d/ hydraofterror.pdf

52 “Ties between al Qaeda and Hamas in Mideast are long and frequent,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 5, 2006

53 “Abbas Accuses Hamas of Aid to Al Qaeda,” New York Times, July 11, 2007; “Abbas Links Hamas and Al Qaeda,” New York Times, Jul 10, 2007; “The Strip Club: Al Qaeda and Hamas in Gaza,” by James S. Robbins, National Review Online, March 6, 2006

54 Daniel Pipes, “Hamas vs. America,” New York Sun, May 3, 2005

55 “PalestiniansGetSaddamCharityChecks,”CBSNews,March13,2003

56 “Reactions to Saddam Hussein’s execution,” Middle East Online, http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=18985

57 “Hamas: ‘Jewish Lobby’ in U.S. to blame for global financial crisis,” Haaretz, Oct 7, 2008

58 “Hamas distributes Iranian anti-Semitic cartoons to Russia,” http:// http://www.iranholocaustdenial.com/news/hamas-distributes-iranian- anti-semitic-cartoons-to-russia-3.htm, “Protocols of the Elders of Zion—fuel for bigots,” http://www.iranholocaustdenial.com/education/ protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-fuel-for-bigots-2.htm; “Protocols of the Elders of Zion – Favorite Classic,” http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/ archives/00000236.html

59 “The Iran-Hamas Alliance: Threat and Folly,” by Hillel Frisch, BESA Center for Strategic Studies, May 1, 2007; Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2009; “Iran pledges to finance Hamas-led Palestinian government,” Haaretz, February 22, 2006

60 ‘Iran Is Building “Hamastan” in Gaza,’ by Shalom Harari , Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, March 11, 2007

61 “Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran,” by Martin Kramer, http://www. geocities.com/martinkramerorg/HezbollahHamas.pdf ; “Lebanon: The Israel-Hamas-Hezbolah Conflict,” Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, August 14, 2006; “Palestinians: Hamas, Hezbollah cooperated on Jerusalem terror attack,” Haaretz, March 9, 2008;

62 “ Hamas: Jews planned the Holocaust,” Jerusalem Post, Apr. 30, 2008; “Hamas: Jews planned the Holocaust,” UPI.com, May 1, 2008

63 “CAIR called ‘turnstile’ for terrorist suspects,’ http://www. worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59026 ; “CAIR: Youngest Member of Hamas Family Tree,” http://counterterrorismblog. org/2007/08/cair_youngest_member_of_hamas.php ; http://www. americansagainsthate.org/releases/PR-HamasCAIR.htm

64 “CAIRing for Hamas,” by Joe Kaufman, http://www.frontpagemag. com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=7C8D1A60-539A-42A9-AD22- C64E5473CC1

65 “CAIR and Hamas, http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/ misc/113.pdf ;”CAIR director attended Hamas meeting,” http:// http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57003 ; “American-Born Muslims And The Lessons Of The Lackawanna, NY Terrorist Cell,” by Alan Caruba, toogoodreports.com ^ , September 16, 2002 ,

66 “Death of a Hamas Supporter,” by Joe Kaufman http://www. frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=18F94773-705D- 40C5-ACD6-A05D5047B40F ; IPT News, http://www.investigative project.org/985/fbi-cuts-off-cair-over-hamas-questions ; “Hamas and Hizzoner,” by John Perazzo, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ Read.aspx?GUID=5E5F4FCA-2B20-4393-917C-506AC4C756F7

67 “Feds name CAIR in plot to fund Hamas,” http://www.worldnetdaily. com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56009

68 http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2003/06/cairs-legal-tribulations.html 69 http://www.american.edu/manimer/bio/bio.html

70 “Obama’s ‘Talking’ Cure,” September, 2008, http://www. commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/obama-s–talking–cure- 12504

71 For example, http://www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/wm971. cfm

Saudi Arabian Newspaper: There Is No Longer an Arab-Israeli Conflict
Aug 12, 2014, 05:35 PM | Rachel Avraham via Jerusalem Online

 

Saudi King Abdullah Photo Credit: Reuters/Channel 2

 

(A wolf in sheep’s clothing, perhaps? – LS)

A fascinating article was uncovered that improved the image of the Saudi royal family. It claims that the Arab-Israeli conflict has ended and now there is a conflict between Israel and Turkey and Iran, who support terrorist organizations fighting against Israel. The weakness of the Arab states and the isolation of Qatar make the present time better to achieve a comprehensive peace agreement with the Arab world.

An international Saudi newspaper, which is the mouthpiece of the royal family based in Riyadh, declared that there is no longer an Israeli-Arab conflict, but an Israeli-Turkish-Iranian conflict. The paper declares that if Israel wants to do a big deal with the Arabs, now is the time.

Under the headline “there is no more Israeli-Arab conflict,” the article indicates that the attacks on Israel come from Gaza, who carries out the mission of Iran with the assistance of the Muslim Brotherhood and their patrons, Turkey and Qatar.

“Even the nature of the conflict changed,” the author of the article explained. “Conventional warfare, where armies of countries face enemies in the combat zone, has been replaced by asymmetrical warfare, where the army fights against guerilla movements in the cities. The conflicts between Israel and the Arab states, led by the 1948, 1967 and 1973 wars, are no longer the reality. Israel is now fighting political movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah, not the Arab countries, and the patronage of these movements come from Iran and Turkey. Of course, they are not Arab countries.”

“The disconnection of the Arab states and the rhetoric against Hamas in the Arab world, especially in Egypt, indicates a profound change in the perception of the conflict across the Arab world,” the article stressed. “The rhetoric of the current round turned Israel against Hamas, Turkey, Iran and Qatar. The support in the Arab world for Hamas is voiced only on twitter and other social media forums.”

The article stressed that Qatar, the only Arab country that supports Hamas, is isolated from the rest of the Gulf countries, after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Doha: “So, what was once the Arab-Israeli conflict no longer exists.”

“The good news is that if Israel wants to achieve a great deal with the Arabs, now is the time to do it,” the Saudi newspaper declared. “Arab countries are now in the worst political situation they have been in for some time. Given the current political upheavals, they are now ready to sign a comprehensive deal with Israel.”

Of rocks and a hard place, Israel Hayom, Ruthie Blum, August 12,2014

Pressure from the international community and the Israeli Left will make it difficult for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reject Abbas, a perceived moderate, as a guarantor for and upholder of Hamas commitments. But woe is us if Netanyahu does not withstand it.

On Sunday, my friends and I were spared rockets and survived a rock. But there is a much larger bullet to dodge — having the Boston Strangler keep Jack the Ripper from obtaining the tools of his craft.

 

The sound of the boom was so startling that we yelped in unison. Luckily, our taxi driver swerved only slightly. Had he lost control of the wheel, we would have crashed into oncoming traffic or flipped over onto the embankment to our right.

Had he stopped to regain composure, we would have been at the mercy of our attackers. Not the ones Israelis had spent the last month guarding against, while our husbands, brothers and sons were busy eliminating as much of their technical capability as possible. Not those launching rockets and firing mortars into Israel from Gaza — those whose genocidal aggression was continuing to send us into safe rooms with each wail of an air raid siren.

No, these were not the terrorists across the southern border. This particular onslaught was coming from their brethren in Judea and Samaria, governed by the Palestinian Authority: a group of Arab teenagers positioned on a hill above the road, hurling large rocks at cars below.

As our driver sped ahead, we could see the determined young men pitching their deadly weapons at the vehicles behind us. If not for their hate-filled upbringing, their energy and focus would have been channeled into trying out for a baseball team. But their leader, PA President Mahmoud Abbas prefers that they hone their skills as assassins.

We called the police.

“Yes,” the dispatcher said. “We already know about it.” A lot of good that seemed to do.

The crack of the rock on the side of the vehicle (which, had it landed a few inches higher, would have smashed the window and hit the driver in the head) was not the kind of boom we had been expecting when my two friends and I set out on Sunday morning.

The purpose of our day trip from Tel Aviv to Sderot and other places had been to visit the “front lines” of the current war, Operation Protective Edge. A 72-hour cease-fire that went into effect last Tuesday was slated to end at 8 a.m. on Friday, yet the residents of the south were encouraged to resume their prewar routines. All of the terror tunnels with shafts into Israel had been destroyed — they were told — and negotiations for a lasting truce were taking place in Cairo. It’s all winding down, they were assured.

But, of course, it wasn’t winding down. Except for people in the center of the country, that is, who began flooding the beaches and restaurants which they had been avoiding up until that point.

In spite of Israel’s tiny size — or perhaps because of it — there is a great geographical divide between towns and cities separated by a two-hour drive. It is thus that when we mentioned we were going “to the south,” everyone responded with the raise of an eyebrow and an admonishment to “be careful.”

If anything, this constituted incentive, not deterrence. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah aim to rid the region of its Jews. It appeared both silly and short-sighted of Tel Avivians and others to forget that this war is still raging, just because it is only the children in the communities close to Gaza who are wetting their beds in bomb shelters.

“Be careful,” we were warned, as though we were embarking on a journey to a far-away foreign land. This sounded funny to the New Yorker with us, a first-timer in the Holy Land, who has had longer commutes to New Jersey during rush-hour.

Though interesting and enlightening, our “fact-finding” mission was uneventful where rockets were concerned. As providence would have it, red alerts went off in each location only after we left.

It was not until the last leg of our tour (after visiting the ancient ruins of the Jewish town of Susya‎ in the southeast of Mount Hebron and making our way to Jerusalem) that we were jolted back to the war. Not specifically the one in Gaza, mind you, but the more comprehensive battle against Israel that has been waged since before the state’s inception.

We were reminded, too, that Abbas’ response to U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the PA — during which only Israel made concessions (chief among them the release of bloodthirsty Palestinian terrorists) — was to form a unity government with Hamas in June.

As we returned late Sunday night from Jerusalem, a rocket salvo flew over Tel Aviv, just before a new 72-hour cease-fire went into effect, to enable “progress” in Cairo. On Monday morning, an Israeli delegation arrived in Egypt to negotiate indirectly with Hamas, via PA representative Saeb Erekat and Arab League officials.

Among Hamas’ many demands is the opening of its borders for the free flow of people and goods in and out of Gaza. Translated from Arabic into English, this means enabling Hamas to rebuild its tunnels and receive fresh supplies of missiles, rockets and mortars from its benefactors in Iran.

One ostensible way to ensure that only “humanitarian” materials for rebuilding civil society in Gaza are able to enter the terrorist enclave is through a third party appointed as a monitor. Hamas has “consented” to have Abbas handle this task.

The PA president is not merely weak, however, and shaking at the knees at the prospect of having to take on any actual responsibilities; he also happens to side with Hamas in relation to Israel.

Pressure from the international community and the Israeli Left will make it difficult for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reject Abbas, a perceived moderate, as a guarantor for and upholder of Hamas commitments. But woe is us if Netanyahu does not withstand it.

On Sunday, my friends and I were spared rockets and survived a rock. But there is a much larger bullet to dodge — having the Boston Strangler keep Jack the Ripper from obtaining the tools of his craft.

It is from obscenities like this, not visits to Sderot, that we all need to “be careful.”