Israel Matzav

Bin Laden recommends Walt and Mearsheimer

Walid Phares has more details of Osama Bin Laden's latest diatribe, which is unusually weighted with invective against Israel. Bin Laden has a couple of book recommendations, and one of them is Walt and Mearsheimer's infamous The Israel Lobby.

Note that in this speech he doesn't mention the battlefields of Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and Chechnya, he only targets US-Israeli relations.

He begins by insisting that Americans needs to know the real causes for this war "which costing you dearly in blood and wealth. The (past Bush) White House convinced you that this war (on Terror) is necessary for your security." The sentence used by Bin Laden can also mean the Obama Administration as the President has used the term "war of necessity," in the past few weeks. Bin Laden asked Americans to hear "both sides" (a concept taken from American political discourse and rarely referred to in Jihadist literature).

Over-stressing the Israel factor unusually, Bin Laden reminded his audience that for two decades he had claimed that the main cause for his attacks is "America's support to its allies the Israelis". He added that there were also other injustices caused by the US, as well, but strangely refrained from citing them. Such an over-assertion is new in al Qaeda narrative, for in most previous speeches, including his declarations of war of 1996 and 1998, Israel was only one and not the main root cause for the Terror he unleashed since. His speeches during the fall of 2001 (all available online and in print) focused on the "evil nature" of American policies rather than only the specific support to Israel. Hence, one can see a shift in al Qaeda's strategic communications. We'll come back to this point.

Osama then said "our two Umma (meaning America and the Muslim world) are both victims" of one aggressor, that is in his words, those "who control the White House, particularly the Israeli Lobby and the multinational corporations." He endorsed two books for Americans to understand how these lobbies control the White House. "A book by a former CIA agent who apologized for his crimes as a hit man," which most likely could be John Perkins's Confessions of an Economic Hit Man; "and another book titled the Israel Lobby by professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt." He claimed that these two books "will give you the truth." Mearsheimer and Walt are thus becoming al Qaeda's main suggested authors.

...

There is without any doubt a shift in the strategic communications of al Qaeda. The latter's advisors, some of whom we can detect are operating from within the American political culture, have convinced Bin Laden (assuming it is voice on the tape) that it would be strategically preferable to single out one issue, the US-Israel relations, and try to break it by putting Americans in general and perhaps some in the Administration, under pressure: the offer is that the entire War on Terror could end from al Qaeda's side if Washington would let go of its alliance with Israel. This is why I found that this tape, unlike any previous one, shows a non traditional al Qaeda approach. It could even signifies that a possible re-alignment has been taking place between various forces of Jihadism in the Greater Middle East.

Hmmm.

Unfortunately, a lot of Americans may find that offer attractive. One of them sits in the White House. What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:03 PM