Word: jihadism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...news from Iraq this week wasn't bad enough for the Bush Administration, by Friday the President's Middle East peace "roadmap" appeared to be on the verge of collapse. Hamas and Islamic Jihad stated the obvious the previous day in announcing that their truce with Israel is dead, and with it may go the government of Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian prime minister has been reduced to an impotent spectator by the resumption of hostilities - a terror attack on a bus in Jerusalem that killed 20 Israelis, followed by the assassination of a senior Hamas leader, with both sides vowing...
...security muscle to pursue that option. Instead, he hoped that the truce would bring an easing of Palestinian life in the territories, which would create popular pressure on the militants to maintain it, and he could slowly begin to dismantle terror cells while drawing Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the political structures of the Palestinan Authority...
...Tuesday's outrage in Jerusalem, however, made that position untenable - Washington began pressing anew for Abbas to confront Hamas and Islamic Jihad. That simply underscored the prime minister's political weakness. His function in the current process has essentially been that of an emissary between the Israelis and Americans on the one hand, and those Palestinians with whom they refuse to talk directly - Hamas, JI, the various Fatah militias and terrorist groups and Palestinian president Yasser Arafat. Abbas has been more than simply a messenger, of course. He believes passionately that the armed intifada has brought catastrophe on the Palestinian...
...response to pressure following Tuesday's Jerusalem bombing, Abbas threatened to resign unless Yasser Arafat agreed to order Palestinian security forces (of which he controls the most important units) to crack down on Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Regardless of the outcome of their discussions, Thursday's assassination of a Hamas leader who had played a key role in negotiating the "hudna" made a Palestinian crackdown on Hamas and Islamic Jihad a non-starter. Abbas's security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, said his proposed set of actions against Hamas would have to be reassessed - PA security forces can't be seen...
...with that offered by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan three decades ago. Then, as now, the presence of "infidel" troops in a Muslim land aroused the ire of young Muslim militants around the world, and many of those that volunteered to go to Afghanistan to join the anti-Soviet jihad later became the organizational and political core of al-Qaeda. Now, the movement is hoping to repeat the experience, albeit under more trying circumstances - this time, the volunteers won't have the support of the CIA and the Saudis, or staging areas in Pakistan. Al-Arabiya TV on Monday broadcast...