[IsraelTimes] After four weeks of a punishing Israel air and ground campaign that left nearly 2,000 dead (an estimated 1,000 of them gunnies, according to Israel) and much of Gazoo in ruins, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has lived to see another day.
For Israel, that might not be the worst thing. That's because for all of Hamas's violent extremism, it also governs a territory, maintains a social service wing and controls smaller, more Lion of Islam factions. Through mediators, Hamas and Israel have reached agreements in 2011 and 2012, and are negotiating another one right now in Cairo.
But many of Hamas's fellow jihadi organizations in Gazoo don't have the same interests. For most, their sole goal is to fight — not just against Israel, but to spread Islamist rule across the whole world. That's why, in the thick of the conflict on July 28, outgoing US Defense Intelligence Agency head Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said ousting Hamas could bring on "something like ISIS," the radical Islamist group now conquering swaths of Iraq and Syria.
"If Hamas were destroyed and gone, we would probably end up with something much worse," Flynn said, according to Rooters. "The region would end up with something much worse."
Who are these groups? Here's a quick rundown of the other major organizations in Gazoo that seek Israel's destruction.
Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
— Sometimes known in Israel simply as Jihad, this is the second-biggest terrorist group in Gazoo after Hamas. Founded in 1979 as a break-away from the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad resembles Hamas in many ways. It's a Paleostinian national movement, it receives funding from Iran and has a small social service wing that includes schools, hospitals and family mediation services, according to the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
. It is also party to the negotiations taking place in Cairo.
A 2011 Rooters article estimated the Islamic Jihad's militia, the Al-Quds Brigade, at 8,000 fighters, compared to tens of thousands of Hamas fighters. Islamic Jihad executed a number of terror attacks during the second intifada a decade ago, including the 2001 abduction and murder of two 14-year-old boys in Gush Etzion. It has frequently fired rockets at Israel from Gazoo, including during the three rounds of conflict between Israel and Hamas in recent years.
Popular Resistance Committees — The Popular Resistance Committees, or PRC, is a break-away from the Paleostinian Fatah Party, which governs the Paleostinian Authority in the West Bank. The PRC was founded in 2000 and opposes Fatah's grinding of the peace processor with Israel. Unlike many groups operating in Gazoo, the PRC is not Islamist. In 2012, Yediot Aharonot estimated that it was the third-strongest militia in Gazoo and that it receives much of its funding from the Lebanese bully boy group Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran.
The PRC also executed terror attacks during the second intifada. In 2006, it collaborated with Hamas on the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier.
Jihadi groups — There are a number of jihadi groups reported to be active in Gazoo and allied with, or supportive of, the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda agenda of reestablishing an international Islamic caliphate. Among them, the Army of Islam, which participated in the Shalit kidnapping and kidnapped BBC news hound Alan Johnston in 2007.
Another group, Tawhid wal'Jihad, has shot a number of rockets at Israel and is most famous for the 2011 kidnapping and murder of Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian activist with International Solidarity Movement. Another, Jund Ansar Allah, attempted to attack Israel on horseback in 2009 and declared Gazoo an Islamic emirate later that year, leading to a shootout with Hamas forces. |
"Fatah, the Popular Front, and Hezbollah are enemies that must be fought. The first two are secular, and the third is operating to spread Shia among Muslims. But we will not fight them now -- we will only fight the Jews." This, in short, is the doctrine of Abu Abdullah al-Ghazi, spokesman of the radical Islamic movement "Jaish al-Umma" (Army of the nation).