(San Francisco Chronicle) Dore Gold - Will the new Hamas government create a new center for global terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza? Hamas has maintained critical links with al-Qaeda, and last week, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said he was concerned that al-Qaeda had infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza. Bin Laden sent emissaries to Hamas in September 2000 and January 2001; Israel arrested three Hamas militants in 2003 after they had returned from an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaydah entered the world of terrorism through Hamas. And according to a 2004 FBI affidavit, al-Qaeda recruited Hamas members to conduct surveillance against potential targets in the U.S. Hamas is not the PLO of 1993 that lost its collapsing Soviet patron, and hence had to moderate its behavior in order to obtain Western diplomatic and financial support. The patrons of Hamas today are pushing it in a completely opposite direction. Rather than accommodate Hamas, the West should seek ways to contain its spread. Palestinian society will eventually seek another path, but in the interim, it would be a cardinal error to assume that Hamas is about to change.
2006-03-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive