TIME Magazine: HAMAS Goes Global

[Axis Kast]

According to this week’s TIME magazine, Jordanian security officials have tracked HAMAS operatives whom they say went to Afghanistan for the purpose of recruiting remnants of al-Qaeda. It’s an act sparked interestingly enough by Hizbollah, the Syrian organization based in Lebanon that has over the past two years begun to decry HAMAS as ineffective on the homefront. This flies in the face of earlier reports that Palestinian liberation groups tried to distance themselves from official al-Qaeda cells, wary of global connotations for what had been a largely insular goal. That, TIME says, went out the window; in response to competition, HAMAS is now “going global” and reaching out across the Arab world. This adds fuel to an already-discouraging fire. Al-Qaeda members were thought to have been recruited from HAMAS and Hizbollah even before America’s move on Iraq. Young men – in the hundreds – often flocked to al-Qaeda’s banner after receiving training in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Never before however were ties made official.

So … What does this spell for the peace process? Did Palestinian liberation just shoot itself in the foot?

[Sea Skimmer]

So … What does this spell for the peace process? Did Palestinian liberation just shoot itself in the foot?

The problem is too many though not all of them are more interested in killing all the Jews then actually getting a real state. And the peace that would come with that would mean losing all there power.

[Axis Kast]

Of course - though what does this new link-up with al-Qaeda remnants imply?

[Sea Skimmer]

Of course - though what does this new link-up with al-Qaeda remnants imply?

That they’ve been hurt badly.

[Stormbringer]

Of course - though what does this new link-up with al-Qaeda remnants imply?

Desperation the part of HAMAS and/or Al-Qaeda. Most likely it simply means that they want to keep up a level of violence that they can't from their own ranks. Most likely because we and the Israelis are having an effect on them.

[Axis Kast]

And the peace process? Will this cloud our view of the PA as a whole?

[Andrew J.]

It probably means we'll invade Palestine.

[Stormbringer]

And the peace process? Will this cloud our view of the PA as a whole?

No more than it already has. The current PA administration started and remains under a pall of terrorism. Clearly nothing short of a photo of Arafat and bin Laden making friends as they plot to murder innocents will do much more to tarnish the PA.

[Axis Kast]

I suppose.

But do you think the NSA or CIA will begin to actively cooperate with Mossad and the IDF in going after HAMAS or Hizbollah?

[Sea Skimmer]

I suppose.

But do you think the NSA or CIA will begin to actively cooperate with Mossad and the IDF in going after HAMAS or Hizbollah?

Its unlikely that they don't already do that. US-Isreali military relations have been growing much closer then they have been for some time.