Zawahiri votes -- with reservations -- for Hamas, calling Abbas "America's man in Palestine," which he certainly is. Our friend Jeffrey Imm, who has sent us countless important links over the years, has an excellent summary report of the new Zawahiri message over at the [1] Counterterrorism Blog:

[2] Al-Jazeera television released an excerpt of Al Qaeda deputy Al-Zawahiri's latest message in a Wednesday morning news bulletin, stating that it will air a longer segment later.

In this morning's excerpt of the latest Al-Zawahiri message, the Al Qaeda deputy stated: "[3] Those who are trying to liberate the Islamic territories through elections based on secular constitutions, or on decisions to hand over Palestine to the Jews, will not liberate one grain of sand of Palestine, but will choke jihad." This is in apparent response to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's proposal for early elections to resolve the conflict between the Fatah and Hamas parties.

Zawahiri called Abbas [4] "America's man in Palestine," warning that if Palestinians accepted Abbas as their president, it would be "the end of holy war".

[5] Zawahiri also criticized Hamas (although not mentioning the group by name), accusing the group of meeting concessions that would lead to "the recognition of Israel", accusing Hamas of concessions starting with signing "the truce" with Israel last year, and taking part in January elections "based on a secular constitution". Zawahiri asked: "Aren't they an Islamic movement? Aren't they campaigning for the word of God to be supreme?" he said, adding the party should have insisted on the drafting of "an Islamic constitution for Palestine."

The Al Qaeda deputy also stated: [6] "Every way which is not Jihad will only result in defeat. He who tries to liberate the lands of Islam through elections is relying on secular principles and must realize that he is surrendering to the Jews." "The decision to surrender to the Jews will not free the Palestinian territories. To retreat before the West will not achieve anything. The Qur'an in fact tells us not to choose the Christians and Jews as allies so as not to follow their religion"....