(Ha'aretz) Ze'ev Schiff - Israel has always been on the top of al-Qaeda's hit list. The lesson in Thursday's bombings in London is that one should always be prepared for it to make a surprise move. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hizballah are terror threats for Israel, but al-Qaeda, too, is a constant threat that cannot be ignored. Israel is a major al-Qaeda target as a Jewish state in conflict with Muslim states and organizations and because of the war with the Palestinians. Striking Israel is important to al-Qaeda for ideological religious reasons. Al-Qaeda has hit Jewish targets in Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey. Strela missiles fired at a passenger-laden Israeli plane in Kenya missed, but attackers also hit a hotel in which many Israelis resided, killing three of them.
2005-07-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive