Word: gaza
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Talk about the heart of darkness: The Israeli army shelling the Palestinians in Gaza, the Lebanese army bombarding the Palestinians in a refugee camp outside of Tripoli. It may take a while for the smoke to clear, but one thing is for certain: neither Lebanon nor Israel fully understands its enemy and the nature of the relationship between the Palestinians and al-Qaeda, which is strengthening. The hope is that overwhelming military firepower will defeat unbendable faith, and, for our part, let's hope they have better success than we've had in Iraq...
...Gaza is a mirror image of what is happening in Lebanon. Last year, Israelis have told me, Qaeda was growing like a fungus there, with both mainline Fatah and Hamas losing followers to it. In Gaza you could see the place was seething. But frankly the notion of bin Laden taking over sounded like propaganda to me. Now, though, watching the growing chaos, and with the kidnapping of a BBC journalist, I think the Israelis were right...
...just in Lebanon and Gaza where Qaeda is poking its head up. In a startling interview with the Financial Times, John Negroponte, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State, said Qaeda is on the move in North Africa, as well as in the Sahel region, in such countries as Chad, Mali and Niger. Negroponte also said we should brace ourselves for a merger between Qaeda and the Algerian fundamentalists. I heard the same thing from a Libyan official, who said that one day in the near future Qaeda-associated groups could pose a threat to Libya's stability. Ethiopia's invasion...
...Still, the Palestinian rockets kept coming. An Israeli woman in Sderot, a community within easy rocket range of Gaza, was killed in one attack on Monday. The Israeli Prime Minister visited Sderot on Tuesday, but received an angry reception from the residents - and a few Gaza missiles slammed down nearby, though Olmert and his entourage were never in danger. So far, Olmert is resisting calls by the army to launch a major offensive into the Gaza hornets' nest...
...Israel's strategy of targeting only Hamas may actually help the Islamists in their feud with Fatah. After the latest round of selective air strikes, even moderate Palestinians in Gaza are coming around to the Hamas view that their rival Fatah will do anything to regain power, even collude with the enemy Israel. But in the meantime, Hamas commanders are staying off their cellphones...