There's another dimension to the Hamas/Fatah civil war. Al Qaeda may be poised to pick up the pieces. As Soumaya Ghannoushi writes in The Guardian, Washington and London may have done it again:
"Since declaring jihad in 1998, al-Qaida has aspired to acquire the legitimacy of representing the Palestinian cause, well aware of its rich symbolism within the Arab and Islamic collective conscience
"When Osama bin Laden and his lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri issued their "Jihad against Jews and Crusaders" statement on February 28 1998, responses to their declaration varied from apathy to amusement. They were an obscure group lost in the faraway emirate of the Taliban, a pathetic remnant of the fight against the USSR during the cold war. Their role looked historically defunct and their discourse archaic.
"Things could not be more different now. Al-Qaida has become an intensely complex global network, with a decentralised, flexible structure that enables it to spread in all directions, across the Arab world, Africa, Asia and Europe. Whether pursuing active cells or searching for sleeping ones, the security world is haunted by al-Qaida's ghost.
"The organisation's penetration of Palestinian politics is the climax of a long, still unfolding process. Rapidly expanding from one location to another, al-Qaida currently boasts branches throughout the Arab region. ...Nationalist demands and aspirations of liberation of Palestine, independence from foreign dominance, and sovereignty over resources, began to be spoken with an Islamic voice, in a region where the national and the Islamic have always been intimately intertwined.
"With the severe restrictions imposed on them by their western-backed governments and the evaporation of American promises of reform and democratisation, this "democratic Islam" currently finds itself in the grip of a crisis. The greatest beneficiary is al-Qaida. In the Middle East, its battles are fought on two fronts: against "traitor" regimes and their western backers on the one hand, and against popular Islamist oppositions deemed "deviant from the true path of jihad" on the other. In a speech recently broadcast on the al-Jazeera satellite channel, al-Zawahiri scolded Hamas for straying from the path of resistance by participating in the political process.
"Events on the ground give further credibility to al-Zawahiri's words. Arabs have watched with horror as Palestinians have been severely punished for their electoral choices, isolated, starved, and propelled towards the bottomless pit of internecine feuding. The message from Washington and London seemed to be: don't bother with the ballot box - only through bombings and violence is change possible. Between occupation and obstruction of peaceful change, the US is creating the ideal environment for al-Qaida to flourish, the product of a sick geopolitics and a deformed view of the region and its needs."
5 comments:
Well, this is after all the age of recycling. I know it's maddening but heck even though my wife drives me nuts with her own crusade and lectures on the value of recycling the fact of the matter is, I'm into it! 'Progammed' as it were. So why not Hamas? IF Al Queada can benefit, good for them. And do you notice the subtle benefit falling from the 'Palestinians ain't real people' thing? It appears George isn't a TOTAL ass after all; he's catching onto the GREEN thing by recyling Hamas for Al Queada.
I meant to also mention an interesting side note to Gaza/Fatah -
the USA started a flow of acknowledgement that Palestinians are once "real people" and things are swell once more.
Noticeable for it's Absence was Canada. OK, not all of Canada. Just Steve.
Steve, it seems doesn't like to go back on his word. Once he declared that Palestinians were no longer "real People", he doesn't want to change his mind.
Hmmmm? I wonder if he could be bought off??????? Nah. Steve doesn't sell his sole to the devil, does he???????????
The links between Hamas and al-Qaeda are stretched somewhat.
Do Hamas want to implement the sharia law and Wahabi fundamentalism into the Gaza Strip? Nope.
What you should say is this. By declaring Iran as the axis of evil and starting the Iraq war, the Islamic Republic has become emboldened. The result is the spreading of the Iranian Revolution into Palestine.
Sounds better, I hope.
Hi Shroom: I wasn't trying to link Hamas and al-Qaeda, merely noting one opinion that al-Qaeda is poised to exploit the disarray in the Palestinian Authority to establish themselves in this area.
"al-Qaeda is poised to exploit the disarray in the Palestinian Authority to establish themselves in this area."
This was an initial concern but given the discipline of the Hamas fighters in overrunning Fatah, it is highly unlikely. Hamas, like the Iranian revolutionaries, are also quite brutal in using retribution as reinforcing their revolutionary institutions. al-Qaeda sympathizers in Gaza would have been knee-capped if they are known to challenge Hamas.
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