President
Bush – while waging a “war on terror” − remains determined to create a
Palestinian state. Yet, Palestine would quickly become a primary
launching point for terrorism against the United States, as well as
Israel. Gaza is already the site of expanding new forms of tactical and
strategic cooperation between Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Judea and Samaria
(West Bank) and Lebanon are also witnessing an Al-Qaeda push to
infiltrate and establish core terror bases.
Al-Qaeda
has long asserted its commitment to waging jihad against Jews and the
State of Israel in commentary aimed at the Arab-Islamic world, but only
recently has this commitment come to Western attention. In his December
2007 Jihadi website posting, bin Laden said: “We will not recognize a state for the Jews, not even one inch of the land of Palestine.”
As
al-Qaeda loses ground in Iraq, and comes under increasing pressures in
the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas, it will seek new areas of
operation. The destruction of Israel has always been Hamas’ top
objective, but Al-Qaeda, which has proven adept at inserting itself
into local conflicts around the world, and then co-opting them to the
broader Wahhabi-Salafi war against the West, has now fixed its own
sights squarely on “Palestine.”
The
Palestinian territories are the newest front in the international jihad
movement. With Gaza now a forward base for global terrorism, Shi’a
Iran, long a closely linked partner of Hamas, as well as a longtime
Al-Qaeda ally, intensifies the threat to Israel, the region, and the
world. It is fully understood among informed intelligence circles that
operational collaboration between various Shia and Sunni groups need
not be impaired by religious differences. Iranian intelligence first
met with Osama bin Laden and the incipient Al-Qaeda at the Khartoum Jihadi conferences of 1992-1993.
Ongoing Palestinian internecine warfare reveals true and expanding concentric circles of jihadi alignment. In a February 2008 interview with the Al-Hayat
Arab language newspaper, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
repeated claims that Al-Qaeda’s growing presence in both Gaza and the
West Bank could imperil the entire region. Abbas also warned that Hamas
was actively facilitating Al-Qaeda’s power in Gaza.
The
January 2008 breach in the Gaza border with Egypt along the
Philadelphia Corridor represented another disturbing development. This
well-coordinated attack on the border wall permitted not only large
quantities of Iranian-made weapons to enter Gaza, but also admitted
scores of Al-Qaeda operatives.
Israel’s Military Intelligence Chief, Maj.-Gen.
Amos Yadlin, told a February 2008 meeting of the Foreign Affairs
and Defense Committee in the Knesset that the breach had “enabled Hamas
to bring back those who had left for training in Syria and Iran,
including snipers, explosives experts, rocket experts and engineers.”
He noted that Al-Qaeda members were among these returnees. Shin
Bet (internal security) Chief Yuval Diskin voiced deep concern to the
same Knesset Committee that Al-Qaeda was creeping ever closer to Israel
from its extant Sinai terror base.
Ely
Karmon, a Senior Research Scholar at The Institute for
Counter-Terrorism in Israel, has raised an alarm about Al-Qaeda members
linked to the Sharm El Sheikh attacks of July 2005. These terrorists
subsequently moved to the West Bank and Gaza from bases in the Sinai.
Backed by Iran, Al-Qaeda is moving in on Israel from the north, by
establishing its secure presence in Lebanon.
Hassan
Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Shia terror group Hizbullah, has
tacitly acknowledged Al-Qaeda’s growing involvement in Lebanon, but
disingenuously termed it a “dangerous and unacceptable” situation.
Despite their religious differences, Sunni Al-Qaeda and Shia Hizbullah
form a true partnership, led by Iran, whose common goal is the
destruction of Israel, the toppling of less radical Arab-Muslim regimes
(such as that of the Palestinian Authority’s Abu Mazen), and the
establishment of a core territory around which a new Islamist Caliphate
might be formed.
Radical
Islamist behavior is now widely evident in Gaza. Several
Al-Qaeda-linked groups have emerged, such as the Army of Islam and the
Swords of Islamic Righteousness, some of which are clan-based and
affiliated with Fatah or Hamas. They are reliably reported to be
operational arms or offshoots of Al-Qaeda. As of mid-2007, attacks
in Gaza were on the increase against targets considered “un-Islamic.”
The American International School in Beit Lahiya, Internet cafes,
Western-style boutiques, and music and cosmetics stores have all been
hit.
By
every pertinent measure, a Palestinian state would be contrary to the
overriding security interests of the United States, its friends and its
allies. Also perilous would be the inevitable competition for control
of such a fragile and anarchic state by the various Sunni Arab regimes,
now being armed by Washington − and by Shiite Iran, now being armed by
Russia. A Palestinian state literally carved out from Israel would most
plainly endanger the Jewish State, creating new opportunities for both
conventional and unconventional acts of aggression.
Major
wars could be launched by enemy states directly, or by proxies from
Gaza. The attackers might assume the posture of suicide bombers, thus
immobilizing the normal security bases of rationality and deterrence.
Under even the most optimistic assumptions, a Palestinian state – any Palestinian state − would spawn an unstable balance of power in the region.
An
Islamist Palestinian state remains contrary to our national strategic
interest. Such a state would embolden and strengthen Al-Qaeda and other
terrorist enemies of the United States. What had once been a basically
secular nationalist territorial dispute between Israel and its Arab
neighbors is now a genuinely primary battlefront in the international
jihad.
Supported
by Iran and by its terrorist proxies, Hamas and Hizbullah, Al-Qaeda
targets Israel with a planned pincer movement. Its growing presence in
the Palestinian territories (and also Lebanon) represents a major
threat, not only to Israel, but also to U.S. national security
interests in the Middle East and here at home. The Palestinian state
favored by President Bush would quickly become a staging area against
the forces of liberal democracy everywhere on earth. It surely does not
deserve our support.
Copyright © The Jewish Press, May 23, 2008. All rights reserved.