The Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict
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Arafat ignored repeated warnings from the Bush administration to take steps to prevent attacks against Israelis. By mid-2002, the president was convinced Arafat was deeply involved in directing terror and concluded that the only hope for achieving progress in the peace process was for the Palestinians to find a new leader.
Not only the Americans had soured on Arafat. Palestinian youths became increasingly disillusioned by what they perceived as the dictatorial and corrupt nature of the PLO and Arafat’s failure to deliver on his promise to liberate Palestine. Many of these Palestinians turned to Muslim fundamentalist organizations, which never accepted the Oslo accords and remained committed to the use of terror to drive the Israelis out of all of “Palestine.” The two principal organizations are Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
Palestinian Fundamentalists
Islamic Jihad was formed in 1979 by Islamic fundamentalist Fathi Shaqaqi and other radical Palestinian students in Egypt who had split from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, which they deemed too moderate. The 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran influenced the group’s founder, who believed the liberation of Palestine would unite the Arab and Muslim world into a single great Islamic state. Today the group is committed to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel through a jihad (“holy war”).
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Tut Tut!
The Egyptian government expelled Islamic Jihad to the Gaza Strip after learning of its close relations with Anwar Sadat’s assassins. Still the group remained active in Egypt, attacking a tour bus in Egypt in February 1990 that killed 11 people, including 9 Israelis.
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Islamic Jihad began its terrorist campaign against Israel in the 1980s. In 1987, prior to the intifada, it carried out several terrorist attacks in the Gaza Strip. In August 1988, the faction’s leaders, Shaqaqi and ‘Abd al-’Aziz ‘dah, were expelled to Lebanon, where Shaqaqi reorganized the faction, maintaining close contacts with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards unit stationed in Lebanon and with Hizbollah. After the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians, Shaqaqi expanded the political connections of the organization to become a member of the Syrian-influenced Rejectionist Front.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas were regarded as rivals in the Gaza Strip until after the foundation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1994, when Hamas adopted the strategy of suicide terrorist bombings. Since then, there has been some operational cooperation between the two organizations in carrying out attacks such as the one in Beit-Lid, in February 1995, where two suicide bombers killed 8 Israelis and wounded 50.
Shaqaqi was killed in October 1995 in Malta, allegedly by Israeli agents. Islamic Jihad’s position among Palestinian terrorist organizations slipped because his successor, Dr. Ramadan Abdallah Shalah, lacked Shaqaqi’s charisma and intellectual and organizational skills. That did not stop the terror campaign, however, which included the March 1996 suicide bombing of the Dizengoff Center in downtown Tel Aviv that killed 20 civilians and wounded more than 75, including 2 Americans.
The group is currently based in Damascus, and its financial backing is believed to come from Syria and Iran. The group has some influence in the Gaza Strip, mainly in the Islamic University, but not in a way that can endanger the dominant position of Hamas as the leading Islamic Palestinian organization.
Aside from Israel, Islamic Jihad also considers the United States an enemy because of its support for Israel. The group also opposes moderate Arab governments that it believes have been tainted by Western secularism and has carried out attacks in Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt.
Since September 2000, Islamic Jihad has been responsible for scores of terrorist attacks and has vowed never to recognize Israel.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is opposed to Israel’s existence in any form. The group warns that any Muslim who leaves “the circle of struggle with Zionism” is guilty of “high treason.” Hamas’s platform calls for the creation of an Islamic republic in Palestine that would replace Israel. Muslims should “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine,” it says.
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Sage Sayings
There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad.
—Hamas platform
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Hamas’s violent activities are run by two central departments, which were established before the intifada. One is Hamas’s military arm, created in 1982 in Gaza by its leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin. In the early 1980s, the group began amassing arms for use against Israel. After it was uncovered in 1984, Yasin was imprisoned. He was freed as part of a 1985 prisoner exchange between Israel and PFLP-GC leader Ahmed Jibril.
A second Hamas arm called the Majd was created by Yasin in 1986 to monitor Arabs deemed to be “collaborating” with Israel or failing to follow Islamic doctrine. In 1988, a similar Hamas operation began in the West Bank.
In 2001, the Bush administration froze the assets of an American Islamic foundation and two overseas groups accused of financing Hamas, and the group is now on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. The group has grown increasingly violent in the past decade and is currently the principal organization behind the suicide bombings in Israel.
Terror Strikes America
After decades of seeing and hearing about terrorists committing atrocities around the globe, the threat hit Americans where they lived on February 26, 1993, when a bomb rocked the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 injured. The damage to both World Trade Center towers cost more than $500 million to repair.
Painstaking investigative work by law enforcement officials established that the attack was carried out by Mohammed Salameh, Mahmoud Abouhalima, Ahmad Mohammad Ajaj, Eyad Ismoil, and Nidal Ayyad—extremists angered by U.S. support for Israel and what they viewed as the corrosive influence of Western culture on the Islamic world. The men constructed a large truck bomb in New Jersey and transported it to New York. The truck was parked in a parking garage beneath the World Trade Center when the bomb detonated.
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Sage Sayings
Yes, I am a terrorist and am proud of it.
—Ramzi Ahmed Yousef
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The mastermind of the World Trade Center operation was Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, a member of the Jihad organization whose spiritual leader was a militant cleric named Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. After fleeing from New York following the bombing, Yousef was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan, in February 1995, and returned to the United States. Yousef was convicted of the Trade Center bombing and other crimes and sentenced in January 1998 to life in prison without parole. The other conspirators, including Sheik Rahman, each received 240-year prison terms.
A New and More Dangerous Terrorist
Just as Yousef was settling into his life behind bars, another series of attacks were mounted against American targets. In August 1998, the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were bombed, killing at least 301 individuals and injuring more than 5,000 others. These attacks were followed by the October 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, killing 17 U.S. sailors and injuring another 39.
These attacks were all carried out by an organization that had previously attracted little attention. Known as al-Qaida, it was formed by Osama bin Laden, a member of a billionaire Saudi family that owns a construction empire. Bin Laden is said to have inherited tens of millions of dollars that he uses to help finance the group, which was originally created to assist Sunni Islamic extremists fighting with the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union.
Today al-Qaida aims to establish a pan-Islamic caliphate throughout the world. It uses terrorism in an effort to overthrow Arab regimes it deems “non-Islamic” and force Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries. Bin Laden is virulently anti-Israel and has called for attacks against Jews, but this is ancillary to his broader objective.
9/11
Bin Laden struck with a vengeance on Tue
sday morning, September 11, 2001, when al-Qaida terrorists hijacked airliners that flew into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane, now believed to have been headed for the White House, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers apparently attacked the terrorists to prevent them from carrying out their mission. The death toll in the attacks numbered more than 3,000.
Among the dead were 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were from Saudi Arabia. An alleged twentieth hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, was arrested in Minnesota after raising suspicions among his instructors at a flight school where he said he wanted to know how to fly, but not how to land or take off. Moussaoui is the lone defendant charged in the aftermath of the attacks.
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Tut Tut!
After 9/11, bin Laden issued statements suggesting that the attack on the United States was related to U.S. support for Israel, but this was widely viewed as an effort to win favor in the Arab world for his terrorist acts. Bin Laden had shown no interest in the Palestinian cause. He made it clear his goals were based on a desire to depose the Saudi monarchy, which he views as unfaithful to his interpretation of Islam, and to re-create the Islamic empire, not establish a Palestinian state.
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The United States Fights Back
The September 11 attack on the United States galvanized American and international resolve as never before to fight terror. President Bush declared that the United States would hunt down terrorists in a long, unrelenting war. He warned that governments would have to choose to be either with the United States in the war on terror or against it, and cautioned that there would be consequences for those who made the wrong choice.
The president immediately warned the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan, where al-Qaida was based, to hand over bin Laden or risk a massive assault. The Taliban refused to comply, and the United States waged a war in Afghanistan that brought an end to Taliban rule and destroyed the infrastructure of al-Qaida. Bin Laden, however, escaped with some of his top aides, and the United States continues to hunt for them. Though bin Laden has remained elusive, a number of senior operatives have been captured.
In addition to the direct attack on al-Qaida, the Bush administration mobilized international support for a global war on terror that included the freezing of assets of individuals and organizations that either were involved in or support terrorism. This effort has become the focal point of U.S. foreign policy.
Israel Takes Terrorists Out
Although most of the terrorists who are targets of the U.S. war are far away, Israel has lived with them on its doorstep from its birth. Israelis feel that Americans now have a greater understanding of their plight, but still can’t fully comprehend what it is like to live with the constant threat that a public bus will explode, a suicide bomber will walk into a café or disco, or a sniper will shoot at them as they drive to their home.
As terror escalated in March and April 2002, Israeli forces moved into the West Bank in Operation Defensive Shield (see Chapter 28). Israel was forced by U.S. pressure to end that operation prematurely and though the number of terror attacks declined significantly, the suicide bombings continued. After two horrific suicide attacks in June, Prime Minister Sharon announced a new policy of invading and holding Palestinian controlled areas in response to each new terrorist attack. By early summer, Israeli forces had retaken control of all but one of the major cities in the West Bank.
Israel gave the Palestinians a list of wanted men, and would have been satisfied if Arafat had arrested them. However, he was never willing to take any measures against the terrorists, and Israel believed it had little choice but to take matters into its own hands to protect its citizens. Using special forces and other military units, Israel began to go into the territories to arrest the wanted men itself. It also began to assassinate those considered “ticking bombs” who were planning attacks or were responsible for prior crimes. The policy has been controversial, though it is legal and widely supported in Israel. And as you saw earlier, it is not a new approach to fighting terror: Mossad agents were sent to kill the terrorists who perpetrated the Munich massacre. Other notable “hits” were the assassination of Arafat deputy Abu Jihad by commandos who raided his home in Tunis and shot him in his bed in 1988, as well as the killing of Hamas bomb maker Yehiya Ayyash by a bomb planted in his cell phone in 1996.
Israelis believe that targeting the terrorists imposes a cost on terror by demonstrating that Israelis can’t be attacked with impunity and sends a message to the terrorists that they will become targets. Assassination is also a means of preempting attacks by those who would otherwise murder Israelis. Although it is true that there are others to take their place, they can do so only with the knowledge that they, too, will become targets. Also, leaders are not so easily replaced. The terrorists are also thrown off balance by forcing them to stay on the run, to constantly look over their shoulders, and to work much harder to carry out their goals.
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Tut Tut!
U.S. law prohibits assassinations of foreign leaders. However, after September 11, it was revealed that President Clinton had issued an order to assassinate bin Laden in 1998 in retaliation for his role in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. One attempt on his life failed. Former Clinton officials now say that a loophole exists in the law prohibiting assassination that allows it in “self-defense.” The Bush administration subsequently expressed a similar view.
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The policy has its costs. Besides international condemnation, Israel risks revealing informers who often provide the information needed to find the terrorists. Soldiers also must engage in sometimes high-risk operations that occasionally cause tragic collateral damage to property and persons.
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Sage Sayings
I think when you are attacked by a terrorist and you know who the terrorist is and you can fingerprint back to the cause of the terror, you should respond.
—Former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell
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The most common criticism of what Israelis call “targeted killings” is that they do no good because they perpetuate a cycle of violence whereby the terrorists seek revenge. Inevitably, Palestinians claim that their most recent terrorist attack was a response to an Israeli hit. This assumes that if Israel stopped assassinating terrorists, the terror would stop. But there is no evidence that this is true, and the people who blow themselves up to become martyrs can always find a justification for their actions. Many are determined to bomb the Jews out of the Middle East and will not stop until their goal is achieved. Moreover, Israel only acts after it has first been attacked.
Israel’s determination to fight the scourge slowly made progress. Violence was not reduced to zero, but attacks significantly declined as a result of the tough measures taken against the terrorists and later by the construction of a security fence (see Chapter 28).
The Least You Need to Know
It is not true that terrorists and freedom fighters are indistinguishable; the former intentionally target civilians for political purposes, whereas the latter do not.
The Arab League created the PLO originally as a tool to fight Israel. It later developed an independent agenda aimed at liberating Palestine and establishing a Palestinian state.
After years of high-profile terrorist attacks, such as the hijacking of airliners and the massacre of Israeli athletes, the PLO began to pursue a two-pronged strategy of diplomacy and terror.
Radical Muslim Palestinians are committed to the destruction of Israel and are intent on using terror to scuttle any effort to negotiate peace.
Chapter 28
So Close, Yet So Far
In This Chapter
Clinton’s last stand
Sharon returns to power
Israel goes on the offensive
Bush pressures the Palestinians
Chapter 23 outlined the Wye accord, in which Israel agreed to a further r
edeployment of its forces that would result in the Palestinians controlling 40 percent of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel withdrew from 9 of the additional 13 percent of the territories it promised, and Prime Minister Ehud Barak pledged to complete the withdrawal if the Palestinians complied with their obligations.
A number of controversies quickly emerged. According to the Oslo agreements, it was up to Israel to decide how much territory to withdraw from. The Palestinians, naturally, wanted more land more quickly. The Israelis, however, said that the Palestinians had to take a number of steps they’d repeatedly agreed to but had yet to carry out, notably to complete the process of amending the Palestinian National Covenant, prevent hostile incitement, and carry out a variety of security measures, including the registration of weapons, the confiscation of illegal weapons, the arrest of suspected terrorists, and the reduction of the size of the Palestinian police force.
Another President, Another Summit
Barak then decided that rather than further draw out the negotiating process with more small steps he would go directly to the end game and try to achieve a peace agreement with the Palestinians. President Clinton concurred and called for a summit meeting with Arafat and Barak at Camp David, Maryland, in July 2000, with the goal of negotiating an end to the conflict.
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