IRIS Blog

Prior to the Gaza withdrawal, the Left opined that 'ending the occupation' would eliminate the essential grievance fueling Palestinian terror. I predicted it would make Gaza an important hub for world terror. The Left is as reliably wrong as George Costanza:

The Gaza Strip under Hamas rule has turned into a hothouse for Palestinian terror organizations and a base for an Al Qaeda offshoot that goes by the name of "the Army of Islam." Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, like other Hamas leaders, is trying to deceive the Western media by repeatedly denying Hamas is assisting Al Qaeda, either directly or indirectly. "There is no Al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip and talk of Gaza becoming a foothold for Al Qaeda invites international hostilities," Haniyeh told Reuters (July 15, 2007).

Haniyeh?s comments are diametrically opposed to the current reality in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas movement is well aware of the growing power of the Al Qaeda offshoot and is troubled by the fact that quite a few in the Hamas military arm and even in its leadership have begun to embrace the global outlook of Al Qaeda. Assumption of responsibility for attacks against Israel were published even prior to the unilateral disengagement by Israel from the Gaza Strip (August 2005) and furthermore the the Army of Islam even takes open pride in taking orders from the leadership of Al Qaeda abroad.

In an interview on the Ilaf website (July 17, 2007), Abu Ashour, the right-hand man of Army of Islam leader Mamtuz Doghmush, said the organization "embraces the principles in which Al Qaeda believes" and supports the establishment of an Islamic state in Gaza and the liberation of Palestine. He noted Al Qaeda sends money to finance the activity of the Army of Islam, as well as conveying directives for action. Ashour believes "the decision to kidnap Alan Johnston was made by Al Qaeda 'on the outside' and the decision to release him also arrived from 'outside' in order to avoid bloodshed."

Abu Ashour also revealed the Army of Islam was established in the Gaza Strip 30 years ago. "At first the Afghans arrived in order to spread religious awareness," he said, referring to Arab fighters who had fought in Afghanistan. "All the Afghans belonged to Al Qaeda and we called them by their noms de guerre. We established the popular resistance committees due to the corruption in Fatah...later on Mamtuz Doghmush established the Army of Islam due to disputes among the committee heads."

One of those very same ?Afghan? fighters is Kattab al-Maqdesi, whose real name is Ahmed al-Mazloum, a resident of the Al-Darej neighborhood in Gaza. He studied Islamic law in Pakistan, spent time in Afghanistan, attended 40 of Osama bin Laden's lectures and then returned to the Gaza Strip to continue jihad against Israel. He took part in the terrorist attack at the Karni Crossing in January 2005 (a joint attack by Hamas, the Resistance Committees and a faction of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades) and in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (a joint attack by Hamas, the Resistance Committees and the Army of Islam). Likewise he was part of the group that executed Moussa Arafat, the commander of the military intelligence apparatus in the Gaza Strip (over 2000). Today al-Maqdisi serves as a spokesperson of the Army of Islam and is one of the organization's senior leaders.

The ties between Hamas and the Army of Islam are apparent in the agreement between the two organizations, which led to the liberation of kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston. In recompense for the Army of Islam?s agreement to liberate Johnston, the Hamas movement transferred to the Army of Islam (this according to a source close to the Army of Islam as quoted in Al-Quds Al-Arabi on July 5, 2007) $5 million and more than a million Kalashnikov bullets, and the Army of Islam received recognition from Hamas as a legitimate jihad organization. Furthermore it was agreed that neither organization would disclose joint operations they had carried out in the past.

Read the whole thing...

Extenuating circumstances were discovered--the girl had visited her mother without her father's permission. Unfortunately, the news media essentially covers up the truth about the legal oppression of mothers and daughters even in moderate Muslim countries like Jordan. (In fact, some media outlets even glamorize it.) The many Western women who fall prey to an initially sweet-talking Muslim suitor have no idea what they face when they cross the border:

A Jordanian court has halved the jail term of a man who beat his daughter to death, because she visited her estranged mother without his permission, a judicial source said Sunday.

The criminal court initially jailed the man to 15 years' hard labor after the killing, but then reduced it to seven-and-a-half years "to give him a chance to improve himself," the source said.

The 41-year-old father clubbed his daughter to death January 23 last year, because she left home without his permission to visit her mother, who had left the family home after a dispute with her husband.

According to court papers, the victim "insulted her father" when he slapped her before he then beat her to death.

Here is a current story about a Hamas operative who found a bride on a Russian web site who was smuggled into Gaza:

Apparently Israel has been so successful at preventing Palestinian suicide bombers that Hamas operatives have had to try and lose their virginity elsewhere.

Palestinian journalist Ali Waked reports that one young would-be bomber has met the woman of his dreams via a Russian website. Following Hamas's takeover of Gaza in mid-June, she was smuggled into the Strip, where the two have wed, shortly after meeting for the first time.

His new wife has converted to Islam, and they were married in a traditional Muslim ceremony.

Here is the Israeli news media version of this 'love story,' in which there is no hint of the position into which this woman has just placed herself.

Israeli and Egyptian soldiers played a tug-of-war with a Black African refugee from the Sudanese jihad across the border. The Egyptian soldiers won, savagely beating him and another to death in the process, after murdering another two conventionally. The refugees were, of course, entirely innocent.

Egyptian soldiers killed four Sudanese refugees near the Egypt-Israel border overnight Wednesday in full view of IDF troops, a shaken-sounding IDF soldier said in an interview with Channel 10, Thursday evening.

According to the soldier, female IDF troops operating night vision devices identified several refugees approaching the border in an attempt to infiltrate Israel and alerted other soldiers who arrived after a few minutes in an army jeep.

However, Egyptian troops who also discovered the refugees, fired upon them, immediately killing two and wounding a third. A fourth refugee ran towards the fence and an IDF soldier stretched out his hands, trying to help him cross.

At that point, the soldier recalled, two Egyptian soldiers arrived and started pulling at the refugee's legs.

"It was literally like we were playing 'tug of war' with this man," the soldier said. The soldier eventually loosened his grip on the man, fearing the Egyptians would shoot him.

"They were aiming loaded weapons straight at us, I was afraid they were going to shoot us," he said.

The Egyptians then carried the man several meters away from the border fence, and proceeded to beat him and another wounded refugee to death with stones and clubs.

"What happened there yesterday was a lynch. These are not men, they're animals. They killed him without even using firearms," the soldier said. "We just heard screams of pain and the sounds of beatings. Then the screams stopped."

The entire event was caught on IDF tapes, but the soldier said that his commanders, who were not at the site, would not dare watch them.

The entire incident took place on the Egyptian side of the border, IDF sources told Israel Radio later Thursday evening.

A Channel 10 commentator said the channel preferred not to show the tape, so as not to cause a diplomatic row with Egypt.

That is, of course, not true. Israeli media outlets race to show shocking videos. This one, however, shows the true face of the 'peace partner' that Channel 10 has been championing.

We will be sure to report on the international human rights outcry as it develops.

The Bush Administration has just enabled the destruction of Israel by appeasing her Arab enemies. In endorsing the Arab peace plan, the US aims to restore the strategic high ground to the Arabs. This makes Israel 'indefensible' according to the definitive study by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, which may be why the Arabs tried to drive Israel into the sea when those ideal, peaceful borders existed in 1967:

On the first day of her Middle East tour, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday signed a joint statement with Egypt, Jordan and six Persian Gulf states, endorsing the 2002 Arab peace initiative as one of the foundations for Middle East peace. Visiting the region with Rice is Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

The initiative offers Israel normalized relations with all Arab countries in return for full withdrawal from the territory Israel captured in 1967.

On a brighter note, America is sure to build impressive anti-hate museums in memory of Israel if the Arabs do not stick to their promise not to attack Israel again.

In the next American election, both Democrat candidates essentially support the continuation of this policy, while the Republican contenders are all opposed. Unfortunately, none of them are running for office in Israel, which is out to lunch on its return to the "Aushwitz borders" (a term originally coined by a man of the Left).