Israel Matzav

The Rise of Islamism in Israel and the Administered Territories

I'd like to make a connection between two articles that appeared in two different newspapers yesterday and today. One got very prominent play in this morning's Jerusalem Post. The other was played a lot less prominently in yesterday's Washington Post.

The Washington Post article dealt with the reaction of Israeli Arabs to Hamas' winning the 'Palestinian elections.'

With national elections less than a month away, parties that represent Israel's Arab population are struggling to maintain their small foothold in the Israeli parliament. As the parties grapple with new legal barriers, fresh competition and a frustrated constituency, at least one coalition is drawing a lesson from Hamas's recent victory in the Palestinian territories: The solution is Islam.

The United Arab List has adopted an explicitly Islamic message in the hopes of inspiring thousands of Arab voters who have boycotted past elections. Using Koranic verse and showcasing religious candidates, Sarsur's party, called the Islamic Movement, and its secular-nationalist partner are seeking to unite Israel's religious Islamic parties, who like their more radical Palestinian counterparts have long disagreed over whether to take part in elections that, in effect, presume the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

By winning a parliamentary majority in its first national elections, Hamas has validated for many members of Israel's religious Islamic parties the virtue of participating in mainstream politics. But the Islamic turn here has alarmed a coalition of Zionist parties, which narrowly failed last week to have the United Arab List disqualified from the March 28 elections for advocating the creation of an Islamic state in Israel.

"Hamas gave the Islamists here an example to follow," said Jafar Farah, director of the Musawa Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. "The Arab parties will never win a majority here, so their position is much different. But Hamas's participation has affected positively the discussion within Israel's Islamic movement."

...

Now the victory of Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has revived fears over the intentions of Israel's Arab citizens. Last month, the head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, warned that "a Hamas government along the borders of Israel could have an impact on the Israeli Arabs and the Islamic organizations in Israel. This could be a problem."

"When we hear people at the top political levels saying we are a threat, it can only make us very anxious," said Sarsur, who heads the Islamic Movement's southern branch. "The Judaization of the state threatens us. But we want to be Israelis in the civil sense of the word."

The Arab parties are a collection of religious Islamic parties and communist and secular-nationalist movements, and together they hold eight of the Israeli parliament's 120 seats. They exert influence on the margins, but sometimes in important ways. Arab support for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last year helped ensure its passage in parliament.

Since the 2003 election, however, the threshold to qualify for a Knesset seat has been raised from 1.5 percent to 2 percent of the popular vote, raising doubts that the three Arab groups in parliament will keep their spots. Arab leaders say the Kadima party, the centrist group formed late last year by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is likely to peel off some Arab voters now that Sharon is unable to run because of a debilitating stroke. And the Labor Party will enter elections behind Amir Peretz, whose long tenure running Israel's labor federation, a bastion of Arab workers, has made him a popular candidate to many of them.

What's important to understand here is that if the Arab parties are successful, the result could be not only an Arab fifth column in the next Knesset, but an Islamic one at that. If the left were to win the election, we would likely see attempts to install Arab MK's in sensitive Knesset Committees such as the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, an issue that comes up each time a new Knesset is installed. One would hope that the left would have the common sense not to allow Islamists to serve on security sensitive committees. But that hope is likely a vain one.

For the record, I don't understand what the Washington Post characterizes as a romance between Amir Peretz and the 'Arab workers.' Peretz likes to portray himself as a champion of the blue collar worker. But the truth is that Peretz is the champion of the wealthiest unions (and only of the wealthiest unions) such as the electric workers and the ports workers. They are among the highest paid employees in the country, and they are mostly Jews (whose jobs are passed down from generation to generation). If the simple Arab sanitation worker views Amir Peretz as his champion, then he is a fool and deserves what he gets.

The Jerusalem Post article, which was on the front page of this morning's print editions, deals with the radicalization of the population in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority security forces are investigating whether Iran, Hizbullah or al-Qaida are behind a new Shi'ite group that has been operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past few days.

Called the Higher Shi'ite Council, the group is headed by Muhammad Ghawanmeh, a former Islamic Jihad official from the West Bank. Ghawanmeh was close to Islamic Jihad secretary-general Fathi Shikaki, who was reportedly assassinated in Malta in 1996 by Mossad agents.

Hamas officials, upon learning of the new Shi'ite group, expressed deep concern and called for an investigation to establish who is behind the initiative.

PA and Hamas officials told The Jerusalem Post that Iran or Hizbullah were most likely behind the group. "The timing of the establishment of the new group is very suspicious," said a top Hamas official here. "It appears that some parties are trying to replace Hamas or compete with it." [Actually, the 'officials' don't realize - or maybe they do and aren't saying it - that these groups are trying to give Hamas what Hamas used to give the PA: "plausible deniability" every time there is a terror attack R"L. Islamic Jihad is trying to do the same thing. CiJ]

A PA security official said he did not understand how a Shi'ite group could operate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip "where we don't have even one Shi'ite." All the Muslims living in the PA-controlled areas are Sunnis. [They can operate very easily. There are plenty of residents of the PA-controlled areas who are happy to be mercenaries who attack Israelis. Besides, given that a former Islamic Jihad official is involved in this new group, why the surprise at how they could operate there? CiJ]

Many Palestinians expressed fear on Sunday that the presence of a Shi'ite group in the West Bank and Gaza Strip could lead to a similar situation as in Iraq, where Shi'ites and Sunnis appear to be on the verge of civil war. [More likely that the two will compete to see who can carry out more 'successful' terror attacks against Israel. CiJ]

The security official said both Iran and Hizbullah were now trying to establish new contacts in the Palestinian territories because of Hamas's preoccupation with running the affairs of the Palestinians after its victory in the January 25 parliamentary election. Their fear, he added, is that Hamas would be forced, under international pressure, to halt its terrorist attacks after taking control over the Palestinian Authority. [Like I said - just another source for terror attacks against Israel. CiJ]

Leaflets distributed by Hamas and Fatah militias on Sunday threatened to thwart the attempt by a Shi'ite group to establish power bases in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In summary, we have Islamist parties trying to gain a foothold in the Israeli Knesset and Shi'ite radicals attempting to pick up where Hamas left off to ensure the continuation of Palestinian terror from PA-controlled territory. The situation here in Israel is becoming more and more like the situation in Iraq. Anyone who believes that the Islamist terror that Israel faces is any different than that faced by the United States or by Europe is fooling themselves. Israel is the front line. What happens here will determine how seriously the rest of the western world is threatened.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:16 PM