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Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Hamas said on Tuesday morning that one of its members has been killed in an explosion in the Gaza Strip. The rulers of the Gaza Strip said the man was killed on a "Jihad mission." They identified him as Khalil Ibrahim Jundiyeh. Two other members of Hamas were hurt in the blast Tuesday at the victim's home near Gaza City. One of the wounded was in critical condition, according to medical sources in Gaza Strip. Hamas said it had launched a probe to investigate the deadly incident.

When Hamas Sued Harry -- Islamofascism Tries To Shut Up Harry's Place Cross posted in support of HARRY's PLACELast Friday, in the wake of a closely argued debate about whether Mohammed Sawalha, the President of the British Muslim Initiative, had used the phrase “Evil Jew� or “Jewish Lobby� in a speech, Harry’s Place received a letter. The letter is from Dean and Dean, a firm of solicitors who are acting for Mr Sawalha. Mr Sawalha has demanded that we take down certain articles from Harry’s Place, and publish an apology “in the attached wording�. The solicitors have failed to attach...

Obama's Balancing Act Abroad In The Middle East, Obama Juggles Troop And Territory Issues That Are Delicate And Potentially Explosive AMMAN, Jordan, July 21, 2008 (CBS) This week is more than a series of photo ops. Barack Obama hopes to convince voters back home that he's comfortable on the world stage and can juggle a number of delicate and potentially explosive foreign-policy issues, CBS News anchor Katie Couric reports. During the primaries, Obama built his candidacy on the premise that he believed the Iraq War was a mistake he opposed all along. As he said: "a war that never should have...

(IsraelNN.com) A new Islamist jihad group that may become as much of a threat to Hamas as it is to Israel is gaining strength in Gaza. The Gaza-based group of Salafi Muslims, known as the Army of Islam (Jaish al-Islam), first made headlines a year ago when it kidnapped British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter Alan Johnston near his Gaza City bureau office. "It was nothing personal," commented their leader, Abu Mustafa, in an interview published over the weekend by the German Der Spiegel. "It was a message to the West that they should release imprisoned Muslims." He added that at...

It's not easy to find a place to meet the man who goes by the name of Abu Mustafa. A number of places were agreed on and jettisoned. Finally, after hours of cruising around Gaza City with Abu Mustafa's driver, the call came. The meeting would take place on the beach. There are enough people on the beach that one doesn't attract so much attention, the caller explained. How absurd this notion was would soon become clear. Most people don't stick out on the beaches of Gaza to the degree that Abu Mustafa does. He picks his way across the...

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF announced Saturday night that a terrorist who was killed following an attack on an Israeli civilian on July 7 was the head of a Hamas foundation. The terrorist's identity was released after a delay of nearly two weeks. According to a statement issued by the IDF, 48-year-old Mahmoud O'ttaman Mahmoud A'azi was the head of the Islamic Charity Foundation in his village, Qarawaat Bani Hassan. The organization was a local source of funding for Hamas terrorist activities. A'azi had in the past also been among the heads of Hamas in the Samaria region. He was shot and...

It has become fashionable to look to the lessons of the peace process in Northern Ireland as holding insights for other areas of conflict in the world. However, this has been done in an uncritical way, often more focused on contemporary agendas than on the core realities unique to the region, which do not necessarily translate elsewhere. In some instances, the willingness of a state to negotiate might encourage the terrorists to believe that their opponents are ready to concede – even when this is not the case. In June-July 1972, for example, top IRA operatives were flown to...

That’s one of the more disturbing headlines I’ve written, but it’s completely accurate to describe this utterly depraved Hamas TV show, in which Assud the giant Jew-eating rabbit is tempted by Satan to steal and then is sentenced by ghoulish child host Saraa to have his hand chopped off. The wonders of sharia. (Courtesy of MEMRI TV.) Following are excerpts from a Hamas children’s show, titled “The Pioneers of Tomorrow,” which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 11, 2008. Assud the bunny: In the name of Allah, I hope my dad doesn’t see me. God, make him go on sleeping,...

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday said that Israel’s willingness to release a blood-soaked killer like Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar in exchange for the corpses of two Israeli soldiers would significantly raise the price Jerusalem must pay for the freedom of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Tony Blair has been forced to abandon a visit to Gaza today because of specific threats to his life. The tour, which was cancelled after a warning by the Israeli government, dashed the hopes of Gaza's Hamas governors of scoring a propaganda coup as Mr Blair was due to be the first senior Western politician to visit the isolated strip since the Islamist group took control. Mr Blair's convoy first delayed a planned 9am arrival, then, as it approached Israel's Erez crossing into the often-turbulent strip, turned back to Jerusalem after being told of the threat. "We received a specific...

Following a week of near-daily Palestinian violations of the Israeli-Hamas cease-fire, senior defense officials said Thursday that the truce could be in its final stages and that as a result the IDF was preparing for possible future incursions into the Gaza Strip. "It is not clear how much longer the cease-fire will last and we need to be prepared for an operation in Gaza," a senior defense official told The Jerusalem Post shortly after two Kassam rockets struck the western Negev Thursday afternoon. Both rockets both hit in open areas, causing no casualties or damage. A faction of Fatah's Al-Aksa...

Two Palestinian fighters were killed and two others were hurt on Tuesday in a blast that ripped through a Hamas training camp in the central Gaza Strip, Hamas and medical officials said. According to Reuters, a Palestinian security source said the explosion appeared to have been an accident involving explosives rather than an Israeli attack. Hamas also stopped short of blaming Israel. An Israeli military spokesman said the army was not aware of any Israeli involvement in the blast. Meanwhile, Israel lifted on Tuesday a curfew it imposed last week on the Palestinian town of Nilin, where protests had erupted...

The 218th Presbyterian General Assembly, held from June 21-28 in San Jose, offered both good and bad news for opponents of the anti-Israel campaigns that have roiled mainline churches and disrupted Jewish-Christian relations. First, the good news. The Assembly soundly defeated a divestment resolution (called Overtures), reinforcing its 2006 decision to move away from the anti-Israel positions that had characterized the divestment measure it passed at its 2004 Assembly. The Presbyterians had been the first mainline American church to get on the divestment bandwagon, and its second step away from extremism is hopefully a bellwether for the path other denominations...

On Thursday, after a Qassam rocket was fired at Israel from Gaza, Israel announced it was closing the crossings into Gaza. The Qassam was the sixth (along with four mortars) fired since the “ceasefire” began on June 19. Israel’s announcement of a closing of the crossings was its seventh since that time. On Friday, Hamas claimed the closing was a breach of the ceasefire agreement by Israel and announced that in reprisal it was suspending the talks on a deal for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas two years ago. On Sunday, Israel announced it was reopening the...

Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday. The "Iron Dome" system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas. Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning. In January Prime Minister Ehud Olmert viewed a prototype of the 200-million-dollar (140-million-euro) system,...

When Israel announced it was in negotiations with Syria, Abbas countered with his intended talks with Abbas. Neither the US or Israel objected. A week ago, Israel agreed to a "lull" with Hamas for stated reasons which were incomprehensible. Perhaps the real reason was to enable the reconciliation between them. Two days ago I reported that Shlomo Brom who is very connected to leftist government circles argued that because of the split, Israel must negotiate with Hamas. Even more telling, Peres recently said at an official dinner ""There is no chance of reaching an agreement between Israel and the PA,"...

Strange as it may seem, some people on the left want Israel to reconquer Gaza while many on the right like myself are not in favour of it. For my part I see the existence of Hamas as ensuring that such a deal won't be concluded and that makes me happy.. That is not to say that I think there should be a "lull". Far from it. I strongly support increased pressure on Gaza and the assassination of its leaders until the rockets stop. As for the "lull" itself it now appears it was just an excuse not to invade....

"The Arab-Israeli conflict remains a central issue for most Arabs," concludes Shibley Telhami. But do we really need a poll to understand that? The Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Saban Center at Brookings, Telhami was presenting the findings of new polls on Tuesday. Whether one likes it or not, whether this is justified or not, "the Arab-Israeli issue remains the prism through which most Arabs view the world." In fact, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was never higher on the agenda as it is today, at least since...

(IsraelNN.com) Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declared Thursday that Israel should respond with military force every time terrorists attack Israel with rockets and mortar shells. She told visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, "It doesn't interest me who fired it, we need to respond militarily and immediately to every infraction." Islamic Jihad terrorist leaders have accused Israel of violating the temporary Gaza ceasefire 15 times since it went into effect eight days ago. The alleged violations include IDF surveillance drones over Gaza skies and the shooting of Arab fishermen and farmers by soldiers. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has limited his...

Israeli hackers broke into the Hamas Web site. The right-wing group of hackers posted Israel's national anthem on the site of Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Kassem armed wing, as well on the sites of the Balad Arab-Israeli political party and left-wing organizations. The hacked home pages also featured photos of Palestinian children dressed as suicide bombers and an explanation of why the site was hacked, according to Ynet. Most of the sites had returned to their regular content within a few hours. A leader of the hackers told Ynet that the group is comprised of 16- to 18-year-olds and this wasn't...

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip lashed out at rival militants after two Qassam rockets were fired at southern Israel yesterday, causing no injuries but further straining the shaky truce between Israel and Hamas that went into effect last Thursday morning. In view of the continued rocket fire, Israel will keep the crossings into the Gaza Strip closed today, for the third straight day. The Fatah-affiliated group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for yesterday's rocket fire and demanded that the cease-fire be extended into the West Bank. In a statement carried by the official Palestinian news agency Maan, Hamas...

American School Books Redefine 'Jihad' to Exclude Violence -- Where is Media? By Warner Todd Huston | June 8, 2008 - 21:49 ET In yet another example of why the west could be too weak to fight the sort of global terrorism that takes the form of Islamofascism, a textbook monitoring group is charging that American textbooks have been cleansed of mentioning the violence inherent in the Islamic "Jihad." Now, our children will not be taught what "Jihad" truly means, nor that it has been used as an excuse to kill their fellow citizens because our schools have sanitized Islam...

GAZA CITY — U.S. volunteers with military backgrounds have been recruited to help train the new Hamas army in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources said one of the Americans was former U.S. Army captain Fares Al Ashi. "This information is important for the youth," Al Ashi said during a briefing to visiting journalists in Gaza City. The sources said Al Ashi, a specialist in explosives and weapons, had been trained in South Carolina during his years with the U.S. military. "We give them general information about the explosives, those manufactured locally and the Israeli ones, because those people always reach...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A former senior US diplomat on Tuesday described senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniya as a "thoughtful politician," saying the US administration should drop its refusal to engage with the Palestinian movement. Richard Viets, who was US ambassador to Jordan in the early 1980s, recounted his meeting with Haniya in Gaza earlier this month as part of a private US group's fact-finding mission to the region. "Haniya is a very smart, articulate, sophisticated, thoughtful politician. You have to be impressed sitting in the room with him," Viets told a news conference. "On the whole his comments regarding Israel...

Tied to HAMAS, PLO, Al-Qaeda -- Well, no wonder actress Gwyneth Paltrow left Hollywood. It wasn't just that she hates America and Americans--as she told Spanish media. It's that she preferred Pali-wood, the pro-Palestinian cesspool known as England. And Thursday, she put her money where her mouth is--er, her mouth where the terrorist money is--by appearing and singing karaoke at a fundraiser for the Palestinian charity, the Hoping Foundation, a front-group for HAMAS and other Islamic terrorist groups founded by Hugh Grant's Muslim girlfriend Jemimah Khan and some anti-Israel left-wing Jews. Paltrow's karaoke song choice, "Killing Me Softly," is ironic,...

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh denied on Friday that his organization had agreed to stop weapons smuggling efforts on Gaza's border with Egypt as part of the cease-fire deal with Israel, and claimed it was incapable of such action. According to a Reuters report, Haniyeh - speaking to worshipers ahead of Friday prayers in Gaza City - said: "We cannot talk about stopping smuggling because it is something beyond our ability as a government and we did not give a commitment in this regard." Haniyeh added that Hamas would not force other organizations in Gaza to abide by the truce,...

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh denied on Friday that Hamas had agreed to stop weapons-smuggling efforts on Gaza's border with Egypt as part of the cease-fire deal with Israel, and claimed that it was incapable of such action. According to a Reuters report, Haniyeh - speaking to worshipers ahead of Friday prayers in Gaza City - said: "We cannot talk about stopping smuggling because it is something beyond our ability as a government and we did not give a commitment in this regard." Haniyeh added that Hamas would not force other organizations in Gaza to abide by the truce, but...

The Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government's liquidation sale of Israel's strategic assets opened officially this week. Iran's proxies have pounced on the merchandise. The first asset sold was the security of southern Israel. The Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government's "cease-fire" with Hamas transferred all power to determine the fate of the residents of southern Israel to Iran's Palestinian proxy. Under the "agreement," Hamas will refrain from attacking Sderot, Ashkelon, Netivot and surrounding kibbutzim for as long as it serves its interests. Since temporarily halting its attacks on southern Israel is the only thing that Hamas has agreed to do, it will use the lull in fighting...

Israel's Truce With Hamas Is a Victory for Iran June 19, 2008 The Wall Street Journal Michael B. Oren Proponents of an Israeli-Palestinian accord are praising the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect this morning. Yet even if the agreement suspends violence temporarily -- though dozens of Hamas rockets struck Israel yesterday -- it represents a historic accomplishment for the jihadist forces most opposed to peace, and defeat for the Palestinians who might still have been Israel's partners. The roots of this tragedy go back to the summer of 2005 and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The...

• Hamas regards the temporary cease-fire as a tahdiya and not a hudna. A tahdiya – “a period of calm” – is used by Hamas to describe a simple cease-fire. A hudna implies recognition of the other party’s actual existence, without acknowledging its legitimacy.

Israeli Opposition leader, Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu sounded spitting mad Thursday at the Olmert government’s agreeing to a ceasefire with the Gaza-controlling Hamas terrorist organization. The terrorists got a period of quiet in which to regroup and rearm in readiness for the next round of terrorist attacks, he said. In exchange, Israel “got nothing.”

Of all the cures commonly proposed for the many ailments afflicting the Middle East, there is one tonic nearly everyone seems to agree on: boosting moderate Islam. It sounds eminently reasonable. If Islamic extremism is the problem, moderate Islam must be the solution. It follows that Western governments should therefore find ways to make the moderates more powerful and encourage the extremists to become more moderate. Allow Islamists to compete and accumulate power, the argument goes, and they will have little incentive to radicalize. Furthermore, assuming the mundane tasks of day-to-day governance will compel even the most extreme groups to...

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/993705.html The main points of a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas grant the Islamic organization a political and diplomatic achievement that will also give it a lever in its reconciliation talks with Fatah, which are slated to begin at the end of this week. According to the Egyptian-mediated proposal, Israel will no longer be able to monitor the Rafah crossing, on the Gaza-Egypt border, once it reopens, and a deal to free kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit will be discussed separately from the truce, as Hamas wanted. Israel will receive quiet in the south, along with an Egyptian pledge to monitor...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Gaza's Hamas rulers on Tuesday said they have reached a long-awaited cease-fire with Israel meant to end months of Palestinian assaults on Israeli border towns and bruising Israeli retaliation. The announcement came shortly after Egypt, which has been trying to broker the truce for months, said the cease-fire would go into effect on Thursday. Israel refused to confirm a deal, but said a "new reality" would take hold if Palestinian attacks end. In a last-minute jolt, Israeli aircraft attacked three targets in the southern Gaza Strip. One of the airstrikes destroyed a car, killing...

A Hamas spokesman said Tuesday that his was committed to an Egyptian-mediated truce deal with Israel set to go into effect Thursday. Sami Abu Zuhri said Hamas would commit to the "zero hour" declared by Egypt. An official Egyptian statement released earlier Tuesday said the cease-fire would go into effect on Thursday at 6 a.m. The MENA agency report cited an unnamed high-level Egyptian official as saying that both sides "have agreed on the first phase" of an Egyptian package to end the violence in the Strip. It said the first phase was a "mutual and simultaneous calm" in the...

Lopez: How bad would a President Obama be for Israel? Why should that question matter to Americans? Glick: Senator Barack Obama would be bad for Israel most of all because he refuses to acknowledge that there is a jihad being waged against the free world. Indeed, he refuses to acknowledge that there is such a thing as an “enemy” in international affairs. And as a consequence, he is unable to understand what an ally is. As the U.S.’s most stalwart ally in the Middle East, and as the frontline state in the global jihad, Israel will likely suffer greatly if...

Obama's church supports Hamas and puts down Israel, and Hamas is now supporting Obama's campaign. How nice! From Obama's book the Aud... (see video at link)

Although Hamas's violent seizure of the entire Gaza Strip in June 2007 has had catastrophic repercussions for the 1.5 million Palestinians living there, there is no reason to believe that the Islamist movement's rule is on its way to vanishing. On the contrary; Hamas appears to be as strong and popular as ever with residents of the Gaza Strip. Various public opinion polls published in recent weeks have even shown that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is more popular than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Of course there have also been polls that showed the exact opposite. But notwithstanding the...

GAZA — Cursing God in public here — a fairly common event in this benighted and besieged strip of Palestinian land — can now lead to prison. So can kissing in public. A judge ruled last week that a bank could not collect its contracted interest on a 10-year-old loan because Islam forbids charging interest. One year ago, gunmen from Hamas, an Islamist anti-Israel group, took over Gaza, shooting some of their more secular Fatah rivals in the knees and tossing one off a building. Israel and the West imposed a blockade, hoping to squeeze the new rulers from power....

Barack Obama's 'don't smear me' campaign may have to go into overdrive. Even fellow Democrat Party members have their doubts about his candidacy. A Tennessee Democrat is suspicious that Obama may have connections to the terrorists. Not good news for Barry.

Cannot be posted due to copyright issues: http://www.dnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880613030

Proving just how important Barack Obama’s new rumor-busting Web site could be, a Tennessee Democratic Party member told a local newspaper that the presumptive nominee of his party “may be terrorist connected.”

The BBC reports that Hamas has admitted that a massive explosion in the Gaza Strip on Thursday was caused by Jihadists preparing a terror operation against Israelis. Seven Palestinians, including a four-month-old baby were killed in the blast. "Members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were trying to prepare for a Jihadoperation," Hamas said in a statement. The statement said six of those killed were Hamas jihadis, and the four-month-old baby of one of the jihadi's child. I guess it was take your baby to work day. Now this is the type of "martyrdom" operation we need more of. It is...

Dubai-based, Saudi private capital-funded pan-Arab news channel Al-Arabiya TV at 0825 gmt on 12 June carries the following "breaking news" as a screen caption: "Jordan's State Security Court sentences three Hamas members after they were convicted of arms trafficking." Source: Al-Arabiya TV, Dubai, in Arabic 0825 gmt 12 Jun 08

British MP George Galloway to Hamas TV: I Pray for Obama's Safety; Come November, Arab "Puppet Presidents and Corrupt Kings May Discover That the Ground Has Moved Under Their Feet, Allah Willing" "I Pray For the Safety of Barack Obama, And I Pray That He Can Shift the U.S.'s Attitude" George Galloway: "I hope that the new presidency in the United States... I pray for the safety of Barack Obama, and I pray that he can shift the United States' attitude to this question. But as you know, Palestine cannot free itself. It is a small country against a huge...

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip - An explosion flattened a house in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing seven people. After blaming Israel and unleashing a barrage of rockets and mortars, Hamas suggested the blast was accidental, not an Israeli attack. By then Israel had carried out an airstrike aimed at a Gaza rocket squad, killing a Palestinian. The violence threatened to scuttle Egyptian cease-fire efforts as they approached the finish line. A key Israeli envoy, Amos Gilad, was in Egypt trying to wrap up a deal, but there was no announcement of results. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the military...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli leaders decided Wednesday against mounting a major attack on militants in the Gaza Strip, saying they would give Egypt more time to broker a truce with the territory's Hamas rulers. But with bloodshed on both sides, including the death of a 6-year-old Gaza girl, the government said it would push ahead with preparations for a possible invasion and keep attacking Palestinian militants to try to stop daily rocket and mortar barrages on southern Israel. Israeli aircraft fired a missile at militants in northern Gaza, but it hit a house instead, killing 6-year-old Hadeel al-Smari in the...

An Israeli air strike killed at least three members of a Palestinian mortar crew on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas movement said. The attack in the Hamas-controlled territory followed the firing of more than a dozen mortar bombs at southern Israel. According to Reuters, an official in Hamas' armed wing said three members of a mortar crew were killed and two others wounded. Meanwhile, a Palestinian man was killed late Monday night when an underground tunnel collapsed on him in the city of Rafah. Medical sources identified the victim as 20-year old Fadi Khalifa. Earlier on Monday, 27-year-old...

GAZA STRIP: UNKNOWN ASSAILANTS ATTACK CHRISTIAN SCHOOL Amid lawlessness and threats, tiny religious minority’s fears grow. ISTANBUL, June 4 (Compass Direct News) – An attack on a Christian school in Gaza last weekend has created fear among the strip’s tiny religious minority, a Palestinian Christian said. Armed assailants broke into the El-Manara school in Gaza City’s Zaitoon Quarter at 2 a.m. on Saturday (May 31), according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). The attackers tied down two school guards and beat them before stealing a bus belonging to the Palestinian Bible Society, the PCHR reported. The PCHR said...