Israel: Al-Qaeda Advances

According to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, Al-Qaeda has now infiltrated Palestinian territory. An article from the Timesonline covers the situation:

"The charges are the most serious yet in the war of words between Mr Abbas, who controls the West Bank, and Hamas, whose Islamist guerrillas expelled his Fatah-dominated security force from the Gaza Strip last summer. “Al-Qaeda is present in Gaza and I’m convinced that they [Hamas] are their allies,” said Mr Abbas in an interview with al-Hayat, a London-based Arabic newspaper. “I can say without doubt that al-Qaeda is present in the Palestinian territories and that this presence, especially in Gaza, is facilitated by Hamas.” Israel has long accused al-Qaeda of infiltrating the Palestinian territories. The Israeli army’s intelligence chief said this week that more al-Qaeda members had entered the Gaza Strip after Hamas blew up the wall on the Egyptian border in January."

If this whole situation is valid then the Israeli government may have found itself in a new predicament. Hamas already has proven itself as a formidable foe against Israeli forces which are unable to quell the organization. If Al-Qaeda is now working with Hamas we are talking about the potential integration of ideas, tactics, strategy, personnel, and more. Hamas is well known for continuously launching rockets into Israeli territory and are seemingly unable to be destroyed. These new rocket attacks were recently covered by a BBC article:

"The Palestinian rocket fire is creeping slowly northwards in Israel, from Sderot just a mile from Gaza's border to Ashkelon 10km (six miles) away, as militants deploy better-manufactured and longer-range weapons."

So now we are seeing Hamas forces increasing tactical ranges of their rockets. Does this have any correlation with the intelligence reports of Al-Qaeda insurgents? Is this a demonstration of some traded information?

While it is unlikely Al-Qaeda has significantly improved the technological capabilities of Hamas, since the organization has been using the strategy of launching rockets for quite some time, they may be providing the funds or personnel to maintain these operations. With the recent bombing of the wall in the Gaza Strip allowing the border to Egypt to be crossed, many insurgents may have entered into Israel. I think Israel is facing a serious internal security situation. Now we are seeing the integration of two terrorist organizations allowing their networks to function together. Al-Qaeda has become a formidable foe on this "War on Terror," the organization continues to spread its ideologies and forces into new territories and spread worldwide. Any progress of Israel's internal security structure has now been significantly degraded. Countries surrounding Israel simply do not progressively attempt to counter insurgents. Israel has become the lone wolf in a region that is becoming increasing negative to such nations. With the public fallout from the short term conflict Israel encountered in Lebanon, the country will face difficult hurdles to work with. Israel needs to work with its neighbors to counter this insurgency movement and try to regain a respectable image with the international community. Al-Qaeda is surprisingly outdoing the most technologically advanced forces in the world with simple strategic and tactical strategies, Israel is just next on the list with on going internal conflicts with a terrorist group that is seemingly invincible to destroy.

Here is a link to this graphic, which also highlights an overview of terrorist organizations worldwide.