Doc's Talk: Profile of The Army of Islam, a Salafist organization affiliated with the global jihad operating in the Gaza Strip.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Profile of The Army of Islam, a Salafist organization affiliated with the global jihad operating in the Gaza Strip.

http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/index.aspx

1. The Army of Islam is one of the Salafist jihadi terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip. It is considered a dominant organization, having the highest operational capabilities of all the global jihad networks in the Gaza Strip. The Army of Islam splintered off from the Popular Resistance Committees at the beginning of 2006, and is headed by Mumtaz Dughmush, who comes from a powerful clan centered in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. The Army of Islam has close ties to Hamas, which allows it to operate in both the Gazan and Egyptian arenas, despite its Salafist jihadi identity.

2. The Army of Islam collaborated with Hamas in the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the Kerem Shalom area in June 2006. In October 2010 it planned to abduct Israelis and/or foreign nationals in the Sinai Peninsula in collaboration with the Gazan Hamas, but the plans were prevented from being carried out. The Army of Islam has also carried out attacks against Western figures in the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian authorities have accused it of carrying out attacks in Egypt (including the mass-casualty suicide bombing attack at the Coptic church in Alexandria in January 2011).

Possible Army of Islam Involvement in the Recent Attack near Kerem Shalom

3. On August 5, 2012, an attack on Israeli soil attempted by a Salafist jihadi organization apparently originating in the Sinai Peninsula, was prevented. The attack, which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers, caused a storm of public outrage throughout Egypt and led to an ongoing, broad military campaign against global jihad strongholds in the Sinai Peninsula.

4. According to the Egyptian media, the terrorists who carried out the attack were aided by Salafist jihadi groups based in the Gaza Strip, and the Army of Islam was mentioned.

1) "Palestinian sources" reported that among the bodies of the terrorists killed in the attempted attack, one apparently belonged to an Army of Islam operative (Sama News Agency, August 8, 2012).

2) "A high-ranking Egyptian source" said that some operatives belonging to the network in the Sinai Peninsula which carried out the terrorist attack had spent time in the Gaza Strip. They entered the Gaza Strip through the tunnels controlled by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military-terrorist wing. The source added that Hamas was not being accused of responsibility for the attack, but that some of its operatives, especially those in its military-terrorist wing, knew the attackers, who had been trained in the Gaza Strip and received weapons from Hamas. The "Egyptian source" also mentioned theArmy of Islam (Al-Hayat, August 8, 2012).

3) "Palestinian sources" reported that Egypt had asked the de-facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip to turn over three senior Army of Islam operatives for interrogation, among them Mumtaz Dughmush, Army of Islam commander (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, August 9, 2012).

5. The Egyptian interest in the Army of Islam and its mention in the Egyptian media are, in our assessment, the result of several factors. They include the Army of Islam's high operative capabilities, its affiliation with Al-Qaeda, its ties to jihadist groups in the Sinai Peninsula and, in our assessment, within Egyptian itself, and its record of carrying out terrorist attacks in Egyptian territory. In our assessment, the Army of Islam did not itself carry out the attack near Kerem Shalom, but in all probability maintained contact with those who did.

Hamas' Predicament and Its Response

6.The attack which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers placed Hamas in a predicament:

1) On the one hand, the terrorist attack during Ramadan threatened to disrupt the improving relations between the Muslim Brotherhood administration in the Egypt and the de-facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, and caused a storm of public outrage among both Egyptians and Palestinians. In addition, the Egyptian administration pointed the finger of guilt at the Gaza Strip, where Salafist jihadi networks, the prominent of which is the Army of Islam, operate under the Hamas administration. The attack also showed Hamas the dangers inherent in an increase in global jihad activity in the Gaza Strip, and the danger it poses to Hamas' governmental capabilities and the threat to relations with Egypt.

2) On the other hand, Hamas has good relations with the Army of Islam and turning its operatives over to Egypt will make it lose face. Thus as long as Egypt does not exert pressure on Hamas endangering its vital interests, it is doubtful whether Hamas will risk a direct confrontation with the Army and the other Salafist jihadi networks in the Gaza Strip.

7. As a way out, Hamas has so far chosen to initiate a political propaganda campaign, accompanied by security measures, to minimize the negative consequences of the attack in the Sinai Peninsula:

1) Senior Hamas figures have made reiterated their solidarity with Egypt, stressed commitment to security collaboration and promised that Hamas' own security forces would conduct an "intensive investigation" examining the links between jihadist networks in the Gaza Strip and global jihad operatives in the Sinai Peninsula (Al-Watan, August 8, 2012).

2) Senior Hamas figures denied any connection between the organizations in the Gaza Strip to the attack, and claimed that the Egyptian administration had not accused "anyone specific" in Gaza. They also denied that Egypt had asked for the extradition of three [Army of Islam] operatives (Al-Aqsa TV, August 12; Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, August 9; Safa News Agency, August 11, 2012). Hamas also tried to accuse Israel of responsibility for the attack.

3) In the meantime, Hamas has initiated security measures on the ground, including closing smuggling tunnels along the Sinai Peninsula-Gaza Strip border, while Egypt closed the Rafah crossing. Ismail Haniya, head of the de-facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, publicly stated that if the Rafah crossing were permanently open and if a free trade zone were established on Gazan border, there would be no need for the tunnels and they would all be closed (Al-Aqsa TV, August 15, 2012). It was also reported that a joint Hamas-Egyptian security committee had been appointed to investigate the attack (Al-Hayat, August 15, 2012), that Hamas was conducting an independent investigation into the involvement of jihadist organizations in the Gaza Strip in the attack, and that dozens of Salafist jihadi operatives had been detained (PalPress, August 15, 2012).

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk