(U.S. News) Mortimer B. Zuckerman - Just a few days before the Palestinian election, Iran's Ahmadinejad met Hamas' Mashal in Damascus, along with the leaders of nine other Syria-based terrorist groups. The Palestinian conflict, they concluded, will become a "focal point of the final war" between Islam and the West. Hizballah has already moved its operational headquarters from Beirut to Gaza; al-Qaeda elements are already there. Hamas' election victory, on top of advances by Islamists in Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt, has energized and unified the radicals. This is no longer a political conflict about borders and identity. Militant Islam has declared a religious war in which the destruction of Israel is seen as but the first step in establishing a Muslim caliphate. This wider jihad against the West will either gather momentum and succeed or be confronted and defeated.
2006-03-13 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive