May 20 2006
The Arab Civil War Is In Palestine
The media won’t say it, but a true civil war is erupting in Palestine (not Iraq).
A bomb blast seriously wounded the Palestinian intelligence chief at his headquarters Saturday, in what security officials called an assassination attempt against a key ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
A bodyguard was killed and nine other people were wounded in the explosion in an elevator shaft of the heavily guarded compound. There was no claim of responsibility.
The attack came at a time of growing friction between Abbas and the Hamas-led government over control of Palestinian security forces. Recent clashes between rival groups of gunmen have deepened tensions.
I love the euphimism here. ‘Friction’ sounds so warm and harmless. Like too much rubbing up against each other. The fact is the two sides are lined up and ready to go at each other full force.
This doesn’t bode well for those who want to treat the Palestinians as a people who deserve respect and a voice on the world stage. Their leaders have bombed women and children, using children as the suicide bombers, for years. Their ‘culture’ seems to be built on corruption and brutality.
But one thing is for sure, they seem to be ready to send a signal to the Arab-Muslim world. And that signal is a future of internal jihad, Muslim against Muslim, until the jack-boot radicals of Al Qaeda topple governments. The easiest government for Al Qaeda to grasp is the Palestinian government – and Al Qaeda desperately needs a win. Some indication this is the case is found in the original story quoted above:
Last week, Abbas sent Abu Rajab to Jordan to look into Jordanian suspicions that Hamas was trying to smuggle explosives into the kingdom and carry out attacks there. The 2,000-member intelligence service and most members of the security forces are loyal to Abbas.
Hamas and their allies are playing a dangerous game here. They have never been the darlings of the Arab world the media pretends. No nation has come to the aid of Palestinians, they just used their cause against Israel to shore up their internal political support. But exporting Jihad will probably be the last straw of support for Palestine. Europe and America are pulling support from the Hamas thugs. It will be interesting to see if Hamas wants to stop this train wreck or bring it to a head.
The election of Hamas by the Palestinans in a pox on your house rejectionist change of power, is one of those “be careful what your wish for” poster child situations.
Now if only the right of center people can observe and learn from their example.
This touches on an idea that’s been kicking about in my head for some time, namely, what is terrorism’s greatest weakness? The concept has a lot of strengths – small, decentralized units that evade detection, an ability to hide from effective retaliation among the civilian population (to a certain extent), a freedom from civilised restraints that makes spectacular attacks effective in today’s instant media world (re: 9/11) The technique has allowed small, weak, and otherwise ineffective groups (Al Qaeda, the Palestinians) to make huge marks on the geopolitical scene; the tactic is a great force multiplier, allowing the Palestinians, for example, to cause great grief to the Isreali’s even though the latter’s armed forces are much more powerful by any conventional measures.
So, what’s the weakness in the concept that sets these advantages? I think the events in Gaza show it clearly – once these forces of violence are unleashed and allowed to operate with no central control, they inevitably are turned against the society that unleashed them. One of the accomplishments of Western Civ is that it has achieved a strict control over h0w violence is used to maintain society, through law, the police, and ultimately through a highly disciplined military under a strict central command. The process may seem cumbersome at times, but maintaining that control is vital to maintaining any semblance of a civilised society. The lure of violence is too powerful, and once that genie is out of the bottle, there is no way of putting it back short of massive civil war – and only then because most of those who are in love with violence are dead by the end of it.
The palestinians and Al Qaeda have been successful at creating a decentralized, difficult to detect war making capability. They never have realized, however, that inevitably that capability would be directed against their own societies and would rip them to shreds in the process. That’s what I believe is happening now, and due to their own actions and their own beliefs, there is nothing anyone in the west can do to stop them. Nor should we.
Good thoughts.
Al Qaeda is unwelcome in Iraq and also
in Afghanistan. The locals, who may not like
Americans especially, even though some do,
have seen what the results are when Al Qaeda
has control and they don’t want it. Now, the civilians can
be terrorized into submission as was done in
Afghanistan under the Taliban and various western
cities of Iraq, Faluja etc. but if the American military
is resisting Al Qaeda, as they are, all over the world,
the civilians have a choice and often they will stand
up and resist the Salafists themselves or drop the dime
on the terrorists. This is not a perfect answer to terrorism,
but it is surprizingly good. Our military has accomplished
an impressive thing throwing the violence of Al Quaeda back
on itself and rubbing their nose in democrasy.
The astounding thing is that the liberal left in the United
States and around the world wants to cripple the sucessful
resistance to these terrorists.
Europe is struggling to find a way to get money to Hamas,
as way to prop up these killers. How, strange.