Israel Matzav

Palestinian Jihad Part Of Iraq Insurgency

Captain's Quarters reports on a handwritten memo from the Iraqi Foreign Ministry's Arabic Department recounting a meeting between PFLP officials and representatives of the Iraqi government. It also makes a reference to Syria (where Israel has long claimed that Iraq hid its weapons of mass destruction before the war started) as having given permission for the PFLP to make arrangements to stage suicide operations within Iraq in the opening days of the American invasion.

The Captain comments:

The mention of Syria seems significant. Syria has run Hamas for years, and Islamic Jihad at least in part. The PFLP gets support from Damascus, and they speak about using all three groups in Iraq to fight off the American invasion. It implies strongly that Syria partnered with Saddam Hussein at some level, which again begs the question about Saddam's missing weapons. Did Damascus partner with Saddam on those as well as on martyrdom operations and insurgent fighting?

In any case, it shows that the previous thinking on the entry of foreign insurgents was not entirely correct. Saddam didn't keep terrorists out of Iraq; in this case, he has a good enough relationship with the PFLP and through them Hamas and Islamic Jihad to call on them for action on his behalf. Supposedly these groups only have Palestinian interests in mind, but here they seem anxious to help rescue a secular Iraqi dictator. Saddam had plenty of connections to terrorists in the region, and it hardly surprises that he would rely on them in his hour of need.

In 'free and fair' elections last January, the 'Palestinian people' elected Hamas to head their 'government.' This places the 'Palestinian people' squarely in the court of Saddam Hussein and against the United States. And Condi Rice wants to give them a state reichlet?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:40 PM