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Al-Qaeda looking to out-jihad Hamas

March 3, 2010

Hamas Islamists ruling Gaza are being challenged: In recent weeks, al-Qaeda-inspired Palestinian groups have stepped up their ongoing anti-Hamas campaign, launching bombing attacks on Hamas security men and offices.

According to Reuters and AP reports, sources close to Salafi groups said uber-fundamentalists set off three bombs in the Beach refugee camp last week near the heavily guarded home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. The bombs were intended to convince Haniyeh to stop trying to arrest members of the anti-Hamas groups. Interestingly, the wire services reported that the bombs were placed by sympathizers among Haniyeh’s own guards. And, earlier this week, someone placed a bomb under the car of a top Hamas police officer in Gaza.

The attacks have been going on for months: In January, a bomb destroyed a senior security official’s jeep in Gaza. Last month, a senior Hamas commander in Rafah escaped injury in a bomb blast. The Salafis told wire services that the two officers were involved in “killing and torturing” Islamist fighters, which probably means that they were involved in Hamas’ clamp-down on the groups.

While “Salafi” may not be a familiar term to most Americans, it’s the branch of Islam that is commonly referred to as “Wahhabi” — frequently identified with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Interestingly, the tensions between the two groups seems to stem from the Salafi criticism that Hamas is too moderate. Apparently, re-introducing crucifixion as a legal penalty and raining thousands of missiles onto Israeli civilians don’t count for much.

Like we’ve said before, it pays to remember that Israel lives in one nasty neighborhood.

British colonel sees “dark forces” arrayed against Israel, thanks Jewish state for life-saving work

February 24, 2010

Col. Richard Kemp

As the UN and other zealous critics of  the Jewish state continue to condemn her for defending herself against the terrorists who seek her annihilation, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan is  praising Israel for her contributions to the war on global terror and harshly criticizing the “dark forces” motivating those who unfairly target Israel.

Col. Richard Kemp told a London audience that the media often is exploited by “dark forces” who want to harm Israel. He also praised Israel for pioneering military technology and tactics that he said had been “invaluable” in combatting Afghan suicide bombers. In fact, he said, the Israeli tactics form the basis of official British army guidelines used by soldiers on the ground there.

Remarking on the unusual amount of criticism lobbed at Israel, Kemp said that–even though there are tremendous similarities between the IDF and British forces, UK soldiers did not have to deal with the same amount of criticism from the international community:

“When we go into battle we do not get the same knee-jerk, almost Pavlovian response from many, many elements of the international media and international groups, humanitarian groups and other international groups such as the United Nations which should know better… of utter automatic condemnation. We don’t have to put up with that.”

As usual, a small group of British Jews who oppose Israeli actions in Gaza protested outside the hotel where Kemp spoke.

Israeli war victims go after Iran for $1 billion

February 18, 2010

What will this flag of Hezbollah turn into if Israeli war victims are able to cut off the the source of Hezbollah's funding and military assistance: Iran.

Eighty five Israelis who were wounded in Second Lebanon War are going after Iran in American courts since, they say, without Iran’s support, Hezbollah would never have been able to spark the war that injured them, UPI reports.

The claimants have filed legal suit in the US against Iran’s central bank and Iranian commercial banks for a total of $1 billion.

The group’s lead attorney told reporters:

“The central bank of Iran and the Saderat Bank are the chief monetary pipelines from Iran to Hezbollah … Without these funds, Hezbollah would not have been able to build and maintain its infrastructure, to train the terrorists in its ranks, or carry out massive rocket fire at Israel.

“These banks act freely and knowingly aid terrorism. They are responsible for the damages incurred on the civilians in these attacks.”

The suit is based in part on a 2007 U.S. Treasury finding the Saderat Bank knowingly transferred funds for terrorist activities to Hezbollah from 2001 to 2006 in London.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah went on Lebanese television to declare that the terrorist group plans on hitting Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion Airport.

Authorities say bomb that killed 9 in India probably intended for Jewish center nearby

February 15, 2010

Indian intelligence has said that it is a probability that a bomb that killed 9 and wounded 53 people at a cafe in Pune, India, on Saturday was meant to be detonated at the local Chabad House, located several dozen meters from the site of the blast. Police say a bomb that ripped through a crowded restaurant in western India on Saturday was meant to explode at the local Chabad house, Ha’aretz reports.

The bomb at the German Bakery cafe was India’s first terror attack since the 2008 Mumbai massacre, in which at least 173 people were murdered in coordinated attacks on hotels and other public venues. The attack also targeted the Mumbai Chabad house, a Jewish house of worship and visitor’s center, where six Jews were murdered, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah, who was six months pregnant.

Chabad, a Chassidic group dedicated to outreach among Jews, maintains hospitality centers in communities around the world. There are a number of centers in India, although there are few indigenous Jews, to provide kosher food, community, and assistance to the many Israelis who travel there.

The bomb went off after a waiter apparently opened a package containing the explosive device. According to officials, the bomb may have been left for someone to pick up and take to the adjacent Chabad center before it was inadvertently detonated.

Following the attacks, life has not returned to “normal” for Jews in Mumbai, Ha’aretz reported earlier this month:

Yael Jirhad, who opened the Indian chapter of the Women’s International Zionist Organization exactly one year prior to the November 2008 terror attack, said the community has been forced to cope with increased security measures at Jewish institutions around the large city.

UPDATE: 

According to the Associated Press, however, Israeli officials are questioning the Indian security forces’ determination:

Nitzan Nuriel, head of counterterrorism at Israel’s National Security Agency, said the Pune attack wasn’t directed at Chabad.

“The attack in India was not directed at Chabad house, even though Chabad houses appear on the potential lists of targets maintained by some of the groups that operate in the area,” Nuriel said.

Israeli air strike thwarts planned suicide bombing

February 12, 2010

A air strike on Thursday by the IAF (Israeli Air Force) apparently thwarted an attempted suicide bombing by Al Qaeda terrorists near the Karni Crossing in Gaza, Arutz Sheva reports.

The planes fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at a squad of terrorists who were preparing to carry out a terror attack near the Karni Crossing, killing one. The joint IDF-ISA (Israel Security Agency, also known as “Shin Bet”) operation eliminated the lead terrorist, a member of Global Jihad, and wounded a second one as well. Military sources said al-Qaeda had masterminded the terrorist operation.

IDF officials warned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last month that the international terrorist group would attempt to infiltrate Israel disguised as Sudanese refugees and that al-Qaeda operatives are attempting to sneak through the holes in the Egyptian border to set up a terror cell in Israel.

Now we know: Suicide bombers are really just… green

February 1, 2010

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has jumped on the global warming band wagon, AP reports. The deep-in-hiding terrorist leader, who has taken to bashing Israel more lately in order to shore up Israel-hating support for the terrorists who follow him, released a new audiotape (apparently, video cameras don’t work in whatever cave he’s hiding in) called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar — because the Great Satan’s latest sin (along with other industrialized countries) is global warming.

National Review’s gem-like Jonah Goldberg hits the mark:

Of course, any minute now we’re going to hear from someone — any predictions who? — that the real reason “they” hate “us” is climate change. It ain’t freedom, it ain’t American empire, or licentiousness, or Israel. All of these jihadi nutters are blowing themselves up to save the polar bear.

Of course, we lovers of Israel know that, sooner or later, someone’s going to blame the plight of the polar bear on–The Jews.

Lady Al Qaeda trial starts, veiled plaintiff insists on a Jew-free jury and says Israel’s behind 9/11

January 18, 2010

Aafia Siddiqui is another open rebuke to the notion that terrorists are motivated by their histories of oppression and bleak prospects for the future — and she’s, if nothing else, charmingly forthright.

Siddiqui, 37, is an American-trained neuroscientist currently on trial in New York City for attempted murder. New York papers have taken to calling her “Lady Al Qaeda.”

In July, 2008, prosecutors say, Afghan police caught her with two pounds of sodium cyanide, a list of targets in New York, and a set of instructions on how to build chemical and biological weapons. When American investigators tried to question her, she grabbed a soldier’s M-4 rifle and opened fire. Thank God, she missed.

Before she was wrestled to the ground, she allegedly screamed “Allahu Akbar” and said she was going to kill Americans.

On the first day of   jury selection, she demanded that Jews be excluded from the panel, the New York Daily News reported:

“If they have a Zionist or Israeli background…they are all mad at me,” said Aafia Siddiqui, a U.S.-trained neuroscientist charged with attempted murder.

“I have a feeling everyone here is them – subject to genetic testing….They should be excluded if you want to be fair,” she told Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman

Prospective jurors weren’t present for that outburst, but they were in the courtroom to hear her say, “I’m boycotting the trial…there are too many injustices.”

At another point, Siddiqui repeatedly refused to talk to her own lawyers, saying she didn’t trust them.

“I don’t trust you either,” she told Berman.

On the second day, she was tossed out of the courtroom after bursting out with: “Israel was behind 9/11. That’s not anti-Semitic!”

Berman–the judge–ruled that the jury can hear about the list of New York City targets, but said that the chemicals and the “how-to” terror manuals were not admissable as evidence. Prosecutors also are forbidden tot bring up Siddiqui’s alleged ties to Al Qaeda because the might create a bias.

Right. Like a bias toward the truth.

Totten: Go ahead and profile me

January 7, 2010

Michael Totten has spent extensive amounts of time in the Middle East, including sojourns in Lebanon and elsewhere, He says that Israelis get what airport security means:

  • I don’t want to be profiled at the airport, but our airport security system is so half-baked and dysfunctional it may as well not even exist. So rather than doubling down on grandma and micromanaging everyone on the plane, we might want to pay as much attention to people as to their luggage, especially military-aged males who make unusual and suspicious-looking travel arrangements. That’s what the Israelis do. At Ben-Gurion Airport you don’t have to take off your shoes in the security line and you don’t have to stand in front of invasive and expensive body-scanning machines.
  • Israeli security agents interview everyone, and they subject travelers who fit certain profiles to additional scrutiny. They take me aside every time, partly because of my gender and age but mostly because a huge percentage of my passport stamps are from countries with serious terrorist problems. They’ve asked if I’ve ever met with anyone in Hizbullah. I am not going to lie, especially not when the answer can be easily found using Google. They know I’ve met with Hizbullah. That’s why my luggage gets hand-searched one sock at a time while elderly tourists from Florida skate through. I don’t take it personally, and it makes a lot more sense than letting me skate through while grandma’s luggage is hand-searched instead.
  • When I get on a plane in the U.S., I often breeze past women decades older than me while they’re being frisked. Almost every single person in line knows it’s ridiculous. We don’t say anything because it feels vaguely “fair.” Maybe it is, but it’s no way to catch terrorists.

Besides his underwear, bomber blew up worldview

January 6, 2010

Panty-bomber Abdulmutallab

National Review’s Rich Lowry makes some salient points in an excellent article about the real impact of Christmas day’s would-be panty-bomber. Lowry argues that, more than anything, the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his underwear should make clear what it is that the West–and Israel–are fighting:

His failed attempt put paid to the notion that terrorism is the byproduct of a few, specific U.S. policies and of our image abroad. This view dominates the Left and animates the Obama administration. It informs its drive to shutter Guantanamo Bay, to get out of Iraq, and to cater to “international opinion.” If we are only nice and likable enough, goes the theory, the Abdul Mutallabs of the world will never be tempted to violent mayhem.

Abdulmutallab didn’t care that the terrorist detention center in Guantanemo Bay is being closed, nor whether senior terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed faces a military tribunal or a civilian trial in New York, nor was he moved by the President’s understanding in his “new beginning” speech in Cairo last summer. Says Lowry, he didn’t care about a “year’s worth of international goodwill gestures. He just wanted to destroy an airliner”:

It shouldn’t be hard to fathom why. Abdul Mutallab was in the grip of a violent ideology with an existential hatred of the United States at its core, an ideology promoted by a global terrorist conspiracy under the loose rubric of al-Qaeda.

 This, Lowry says, is the essential fact that a significant portion of our country tends to minimize or deny. And it’s the same thing Israel faces a few thousand miles to our east.

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