Al-Qaeda Supports the Palestinians

May 8, 2006

Just earlier, Israel’s OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh revealed that global jihad and Al-Qaeda cells based in Jordan had stepped up their attempts to infiltrate Israel and are in close contact with Palestinian terror cells based in the West Bank.

“We recently caught several local terror cells that were in touch with the international global jihad based in Jordan,” Naveh reported. He said “Al-Qaeda was working to tighten its grip on the ground” in Jordan and Israel. “Hamas is gathering strength, and a dangerous axis––starting in Iran [and] continuing through Iraq and Jordan––is in the process of conception,” he said.

For the first time In April, in a recorded statement broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Osama Bin Laden publicly allied himself with Hamas––a move that will make it increasingly difficult for the U.S. State Department to continue to view Palestinian terrorism as disconnected from the Al Qaeda-led global offensive.

Also in April, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal met with a representative of Al-Qaeda wanted by the U.S. in Yemen, Sheikh Abd al-Majid al-Zindani. The Sheikh made a personal donation of approximately US $1,000 to Hamas. Zindani heaped praise on Hamas suicide bombers at a fundraising event attended by Mashaal and instructed his followers to donate money. “The Hamas government is the Palestinian people’s government today,” he told the crowd. “It is the jihad-fighting, steadfast, resolute government of Palestine [sic].”

However, following the release of the recording, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri rushed to distance the terror group from Bin Laden’s remarks. In a message to English media, he said, “Hamas is totally different from the ideology of Sheikh bin Laden,” adding that his cash-starved group is interested in having good relations with Western nations.