New fundamentalist movements on the rise in Gaza

By JONATHAN SPYER

One of the most notable political processes currently taking place in Hamas-ruled Gaza is the growing prominence of "Salafi jihad" organizations.

These are groupings committed to the rigorous, apocalyptic version of Sunni Islamism associated with the al-Qaida network.

The attempt in August by the Hamas authorities to suppress the Jund Ansar Allah group in southern Gaza momentarily cast the spotlight on the growth of the Salafis. They have not gone away.

Following Hamas's mini-crackdown, the Salafi groupings have continued to grow. No clear line exists between them and the more "moderate" Islamists of Hamas. Rather, Salafi sentiments and loyalties proliferate among rank and file Hamas militants, in particularly in the movement's armed wing - the Kassam Brigades.

A complex myriad of Salafi groups exists in Gaza. A key question is whether they will succeed in unifying, in order to pose a more serious challenge to the Hamas authorities.

Among the most significant are the Jund Ansar Allah, the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), and the Jaish al-Umma (Army of the Nation.) The Jaish al-Islam is built around the powerful Doghmush clan of Gaza.

The Jaish al-Umma, meanwhile, is headed by Sheikh Abu Hafez al-Maqdisi, a well known Salafi cleric from southern Gaza. But it is the Jund Ansar Allah which is considered by many analysts to have the best chance of acting as a unifying force for the plethora of small sects which make up the Salafi subculture in Gaza.

Hamas's crackdown on Jund Ansar Allah came after the group attempted in August to proclaim an Islamic emirate in the Gaza Strip. The Salafi movement's leader, Abdul Latif Abu Moussa (Abu al-Nur al-Maqdesi) was killed in the August fighting. His movement, however, has survived and is now attempting to bring other, smaller groups under its banner.

Among the most noteworthy of these groupings is the Suyuf al Haq al-Islamiyyah.Also of note is the Fatah al-Islam group, consisting of 120 survivors of the Lebanese group of the same name, which was bloodily suppressed by the Lebanese Armed Forces in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp.

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Source: JPost

Gaza: Big Jihad v. Little Jihad

Dr. Walid Phares | August 20

Hamas' attack against a Jihadist group inside Gaza is about to provide the Palestinian Islamist organization a pass to become a “mainstream” movement, acceptable internationally as a partner in negotiations. Or at least that is what Hamas strategists think may happen as a result of crushing the minuscule militant entity known as Jund Ansar Allah (The Soldiers or the Partisans of Allah) last week.

This is another murky development in the world of Jihadism, where the biggest brothers in holy war devoured the little ones, in a race between who can achieve final victory against the Kuffar (infidels). But in Gaza, these intra Jihadist slaughter fests are peculiar in as much as the “Palestine cause” is so central to the Islamist political narrative worldwide.

In November of 2008, a new group in Rafah declared itself as the ultimate Salafi Jihadist force of Palestine. After many previous attempts by al Qaeda inspired factions at least since 2001, Jund Ansar Allah (JAA) led by Abel Latif Mussa, aka Abu al Nour al Maqdissi, seized control of a local Mosque and segments of a neighborhood and launched a couple attacks against Israel as of early 2009. The JAA issued many declarations calling for “real Jihad,” ending negotiations with Fatah, the international community and opposing any type of elections and constitutional structure in Gaza other than pure Sharia.

From his pulpit, Sheikh Mussa criticized Hamas’ leadership for failing the Jihad they promised to deliver and for betraying their own constitution calling for an Islamic Emirate all over Palestine, not just in Gaza and the West Bank. Hundreds of already indoctrinated youth joined the JAA and formed the nucleus of a Jihadi milita. Their ranks were growing at an alarming rate for Hamas, which felt time came to squash them, before they became a competitive organization. The JAA was on its way to devouring Hamas from the inside. It was using the same doctrines upon which Hamas was founded, grew and used to overthrow Fatah from Gaza. Read more here ...

Source: New Media Journal

Pressure and Purges Panic Jordan

By David Singer

Jordan's King Abdullah is fast beginning to realise the serious ramifications threatening the continued rule of the Hashemite family dynasty in Jordan resulting from the failure of negotiations over the last 16 years to create a new Arab state between Jordan and Israel - “the two state solution“.

Jordan’s intensive diplomatic support for the “the two state solution” has come apart at the seams as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - emboldened by comments made by President Obama - now refuses to contemplate re-opening negotiations with Israel until Israel ceases all construction and building activity in the West Bank including the provision of residential housing to accommodate natural growth.

Apparently Abbas regards adding a bedroom, a family room or a parent’s retreat to an existing house as an obstacle to resuming negotiations. Completing partly constructed houses to lock up stage is apparently anathema to the Palestinian Authority. Israel has made it clear that it will not be accommodating Abbas’s farcical demand for a total freeze on all construction in the West Bank.

Some very neat diplomatic footwork will now have to be negotiated by President Obama - if Abbas - and Obama - are to save face and if Abbas is to be persuaded to resume the stalled negotiations.

This process has already begun with President Obama stating on 18 August:

“The Israeli government has taken discussions with us very seriously,” adding that he “was encouraged by what I am seeing on the ground.” Link

Abbas however now also finds himself embroiled in a serious conflict of interest - negotiating for the “two state solution” as the head of the Palestinian Authority whilst simultaneously chairing Fatah which calls for a “one state solution” - the total destruction of Israel.

Israel needs to seriously consider whether it should resume negotiations with Abbas whilst he retains both positions following his re-election as Chairman of Fatah in Bethlehem last week.

The long running power struggle between Hamas and Fatah continues unabated. The intrusion of a new terrorist movement into Gaza politics - Jund Ansar Allah - has seen 30 Gazans killed and more than 100 wounded in fratricidal blood letting last weekend. Gaza and the West Bank remain divided into separate Hamas and Fatah fiefdoms with no end to that confrontation in sight. Read More here ...

Source: CFP

Hamas hit hardliners in Gaza battle

John Lyons, Middle East correspondent | August 17

DIVISIONS within the Palestinian side of politics reached crisis point yesterday after 24 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in a seven-hour shoot-out in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and hardline Islamists linked to al-Qa'ida.

Security officers from Hamas, which runs Gaza, moved against Jund Ansar Allah - also known as Jihadi Soldiers of God, or Soldiers of the Partisans of God - after its leader Sheik Abdel-Latif Moussa, declared Gaza was "an Islamic emirate".

"We will set up the Gaza emirate on our dead bodies, and we will apply the laws and edicts of sharia," he told his followers, many of whom were armed.

Over the next several hours, a gun battle ensued between the two sides, with the majority of the 24 killed being from Jund Ansar Allah. Moussa himself was killed.

It appeared that heavily armed followers of the Sheik had helped him escape from the mosque where he had delivered the sermon back to his nearby house, where he was killed in the gun battles that followed.

Hamas claimed Moussa had blown himself and others up in a suicide action when trapped in the house, but Hamas would not allow journalists to enter Rafah to independently verify the claims.

Tensions had been growing between Hamas and Jund Ansar Allah for several months, with the latter trying to impose a strict sharia law upon the coastal strip.

While Hamas is considered a militant Islamic group, it is divided over whether sharia law should be mandatory for the 1.5million Gazans. Read more here ...

Source: The Australian

Gaza clashes between Hamas, Islamist radicals kill 13

From correspondents in Gaza City | August 15

CLASHES between Hamas and Islamist radicals have killed 13 and injured at least 100 in one of the most violent incidents in the region since Israel's onslaught in January.

The clashes were sparked when Hamas police stormed a Gaza mosque where radicals had declared an Islamist "emirate," emergency services say.

Shooting began in the afternoon following weekly prayers, witnesses said, and continued into the evening. The incident occurred in the southern city of Rafah, which straddles the Egyptian border.

Among the dead was Mohammed al-Shamali, head of the Hamas military unit for southern Gaza.

Emergency services said that bodies of some other victims could not be reached because of the intensity of the fighting.

Twenty of the wounded were said to be in serious condition as the confrontation developed into one of the most violent incidents in Gaza since Israel's 22-day onslaught on the impoverished enclave in December and January.

An Egyptian security official said a three-year-old boy was critically wounded by a bullet from the fighting across the border.

Witnesses said that following prayers, a group of Palestinians announced the formation of the Islamist "emirate," defying the authority of Hamas, which has ruled Gaza's 1.5 million people for the past two years.

"We are today proclaiming the creation of an Islamist Emirate in the Gaza Strip," Abdul Latif Musa said at the Bin Taymiyya mosque, witnesses said.

He was surrounded by armed fighters and spoke on behalf of Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Partisans of God).

Jund Ansar Allah seeks the strict enforcement of Islamic Sharia law and accuses Hamas of being too liberal, witnesses in Gaza said.

Rafah is the Gaza stronghold of the so-called Salafist movement, of which Jund Ansar Allah is said to a part and which is ideologically close to Al-Qaeda.

Hamas police reportedly blocked all entrances to Rafah and dynamited Musa's house, although it is not clear whether the Islamist was there at the time.

Source: The Australian