Word: jihadism
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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...
...restrictions that have strangled Palestinian economic life in the West Bank and Gaza. In the event, few of their demands were satisfied - as many in the Islamist camp had expected, having gone along with the process primarily to stay on-side with Palestinian public opinion. The killing Hamas and Jihad operatives in the past two weeks provided the excuse needed to relaunch the terror war. Or even, if some suggest, the Jerusalem bombing was ordered by a Hebron faction rather than the Hamas leadership in Gaza, the net effect will be the same...