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The proxy war goes on. "Palestinian group Hamas admits that its fighters are trained in Iran," by Marie Colvin for the Sunday Times:
The Palestinian group Hamas, blamed for last week’s massacre of eight students at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, has revealed that hundreds of its fighters have been trained in Iran.
A senior commander interviewed by The Sunday Times said 300 of the group’s “best brains” had been secretly sent to Tehran.
Half are still being trained by Revolutionary Guards. They are learning how to make explosives from everyday items and produce deadlier rockets.
The rest have already returned from a Revolutionary Guard base in Tehran. Some have been trained as snipers. Others have learnt to use tunnels in attacks on Israeli forces.
“Iran is our mother,” the commander said. “She gives us information, military supplies and financial support.”
Seven separate groups of Hamas militants have spent up to six months in Tehran since the training began in 2005.
The scale of Iran’s operation exceeds Israeli intelligence suspicions that Hamas had dispatched “tens” of fighters to Tehran. Yuval Diskin, the head of Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service, said last week: “I see this as the strategic danger, more than any weapons smuggled into Gaza.”
Israeli officials believe that Iran is waging a “proxy war” against their country on two fronts – through Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Hamas commander said Iranian-trained instructors had also taught more than 700 fighters at a base in Syria.
More from Colvin, in "A Hamas leader admits hundreds of his fighters have been travelling to Tehran," also for the Sunday Times:
The Hamas commander was in a hurry. Hunched forward in a navy-blue parka, with the wind-chapped skin and drawn eyes of someone who had been outdoors all night, he had just returned from the front line with Israel. The whine of drones overhead signalled that his enemy was hunting for blood. [...]
He is in the vanguard of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas which is growing into a disciplined army, trained to fight for victory rather than be consigned to the “martyr’s death” of the suicide bomber.
Israel has long insisted that Iran is behind this training. Last week Yuval Diskin, the head of the Israeli internal security service Shin Bet, said as much when he claimed that Hamas had “started to dispatch people to Iran, tens and a promise of hundreds”. He provided no evidence.
The Hamas commander, however, confirmed for the first time that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been training its men in Tehran for more than two years and is currently honing the skills of 150 fighters.
The details he gave suggested that, if anything, Shin Bet has underestimated the extent of Iran’s influence on Hamas’s increasingly sophisticated tactics and weaponry. [...]
“We have sent seven ‘courses’ of our fighters to Iran,” he said. “During each course, the group receives training that he will use to increase our capacity to fight.”
The most promising members of each group stay longer for an advanced course and return as trainers themselves, he said.
So far, 150 members of Qassam have passed through training in Tehran, where they study for between 45 days and six months at a closed military base under the command of the elite Revolutionary Guard force. [...]
According to the commander, a further 650 Hamas fighters have trained in Syria under instructors who learnt their techniques in Iran. Sixty-two are in Syria now.
Posted by Marisol at March 9, 2008 12:07 AM
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The current training of "Palestinian" terrorists in the Islamic Republic of Iran is only quid for a previous quo. For back in the late 1970s, it was the "Palestinians" who extended such critical aid, in men and training, to those who would overthrow the Shah and replace him with the Ayatollah Khomein.
Iranian lefitsts of the Feda’iyin-e Khalq were trained by George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. And the Muhajedin-e Khalq, was organized and trainied by Fatah (the same Fatah that warlord and Arafat henchman Mahmoud Abbas now relies on as the armed wing -- let's call it the west wing -- of the "moderate" facade he presents to eager Westen donors, with their Will To Believe (Anything). Fatah also trained future members of the Revolutionary Guards of Iran.
When Khomeini came to power, his first foreign visitor, welcomed royally, was Yassir Arafat, and with him came a large number of PLO officials. No doubt Mahmoud Abbas was among them. And there, the Israeli Embassy, which had been seized by Khomeini's men, was formaly turned over to the PLO, the "Palestinian" flag raised over it, and a "Palestinian" ambassador solemnly named to Iran.
Perhaps you are an intelligent, thoughtful Iranian in exile. As you walk the streets of London or Los Angeles, you sometimes imagine yourself as a Russian in exile in the 1920s, trying to explain to the locals what the Russian Revolution wrought, and realizing how impossible it is to convey that reality to someone who did not live through it. You have tried, not always with success, with your own children, or other young relatives who never knew what Iran, with all of the admitted faults of its ancien regime, was like before Khomeini. For you know, and feel keenly, what a horror Khomeini, and his hanging judge Khalkhali, and those mullahs, and that Ahmadinajad, and all the rest of them, have been for Iran. You know, though perhaps you don't like to dwell on it -- it may be too painful -- that Iran's cultural significance or civilizational greatness existed before Islam, and even after Arabs brought "the gift of Islam," that greatness was embodied in Persian poets (Firdowsi, Sa'adi, Hafiz, Omar Khayyam) who were great despite Islam, and often in opposition to the cultural and linguistic imperialiism of the Arabs that accompanied Islam. Despite a Blue Mosque or two or ten, what would Iran have been like, you wonder, had the Arabs never brought that Islam.
And you might ask yourself, as well, what would Iran be like today, had not the shock troops of the Jihad against Israel, the "Palestinians," been so favored by the world, and had they not, therefore, been in a position to help bring to power someone with the world-view of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and continuing in a direct line to such epigones as the Ayatollah Khameini, and Mr. Ahmadinejad, and all their works, and days.
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at March 9, 2008 12:26 AM
Duh_swami
Someone should tell them that while Iran is their mother, Saudi Arabia is their father. It'd be priceless to see the expression on the face of the Iranians that they are being screwed by the Arabs, in a manner of speaking. If you have countries marrying countries, or at least 'consumating' their relationships, and the prouder country finds out that it's the mother, it would be funny to see their reaction.
How do we get Shia vs Sunni divisions among the Palis, who are almost all Sunnis? Maybe unleash Hizbullah dawa artists in Gaza, and then see how Hamas reacts?
Posted by: Infidel Pride at March 9, 2008 3:32 AM
OT, from an Islamic website;
looks like some American black Muslims are becoming increasingly irritated about the Arab supremacy peddled by some of the imams:
Salafi Imam: We Must BELIEVE Arabs are “Master Race”
Sheikh-ul-Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah (ra) was of the opinion that Arabs ARE SUPERIOR (Afdal) than Non-Arabs and he claimed that this was the view that was held by the MAJORITY of the scholars - ‘Al-Jamhoor’- .
He wrote: “And the MAJORITY of scholars are of the opinion that the Arab species is better (Afdal) than the Non-Arab (species) just as the nation of Quraish is better (Afdal) than the Non-Quraishite nations and (just as) the nation of Bani Haashim is better (Afdal) than the Non-Bani Haashim (nations).” Majm’u Al-Fataawa 19/29
He also wrote: “…This was the position of Imam Ahmed (ra) and the MAJORITY of Ahlul ‘Ilm.” Iqtidaa As-Siraatil-Mustaqeem 2/421
Also, refer to what he said in Majmu’ Fataawa 27/472.
For great scholars of Ahmed ibn Hanbal and Ibn Taymiyyah’s caliber to advance such racist garbage is truly disheartening, nevertheless Ibn Taymiyyah claims it is the position of the “majority” of Muslim scholars.
http://singularvoice.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/salafi-imam-we-must-believe-arabs-are-master-race/
at March 9, 2008 7:43 AM
Per Islamic theology, Jews have no right to Palestine since the key biblical figures from Abraham on down were really Muslims, and the Jews falsified Allah's word, making the Torah. Thus, Allah is angry with them. This theme carries over into Holocaust denial, which says that the only Holocaust to have occurred happened to Muslims, the Palestinians. Iran is a big proponent of that, essentially extending the logical absurdity of Muslim replacement theology.
Over time, all non-Muslims in the Islamic lands have gradually been "replaced".
Ali Sina is right. Mohammed was a narcissist, as are his followers. But then, aren't all fascists?
at March 9, 2008 7:47 AM
No surprise to us blogging for the last five years that it was madness to leave Gaza.
Sadly because of the deficiency of a strong base and an informed leadership, the chickens have come home to roost.
The next round for the Israelis and the West will not be simple or pleasant.
The stupidity was playing to the useless Europeans and a Bush who is trying to garner laurels from petrosnakes who will fund his retirement.
Unfortunate consequences for those who would mortgage the future for expediency.
Posted by: dgene at March 9, 2008 9:08 AM
Militant stupidity.
Posted by: FreeSpeech at March 9, 2008 9:24 AM
Leaving Gaza should have removed the "victim" status and claims of "occupation". Unfortunately, the 4th Estate will not allow that view to surface. Knowing full well doing so would dissolve their creditability.
Posted by: flowerknife_us at March 9, 2008 10:48 AM
Infidel Pride...Looks like the post you were referring to was deleted. That happens sometimes.
I was using sarcasm to illustrate an absurdity, 'Iran is our mother'. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it don't, I guess in this case, it didn't.
at March 9, 2008 10:52 AM
dgene wrote above;
"The stupidity was playing to the useless Europeans and a Bush who is trying to garner laurels from petrosnakes who will fund his retirement."
Our constitution is pretty explicit about any officer, elected or otherwise accepting any titles, rewards or payments from any foreign entity. That this stricture is regularly ignored since dems and repubs both routinely violate it, and even lower level employees are under rules about what gifts can be accepted and which can not.
But the constitution is rarely read anymore, it is more often interpreted.
In any case are not those who recieve pay from foreign entities compelled to register as an agent for that foreign body?
Posted by: stickman at March 9, 2008 12:01 PM
More proof that the Sunni/Shia "divide" is one of convenience. It was first highlighted in the wake of the Islamic Revolution. Americans asking about Islam were told: no, no, these aren't the Muslims you think you know. They're breakaways. The rest of us are the "moderate" Muslims and we're your friends.
When it's to their interests to work together, all become Muslims and sectarian differences become less important. A similar instance can be seen in the case of Osama. This author makes the case for Iran being Osama's current residence. Its police state apparatus is the only thing that can really protect him and his comrades. The tribal areas, however remote, are not immune to penetration and Osama would always run the risk of local people dropping a stray remark that might alert newcomers who happened to be nearby.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/whither_osama_1.html
at March 9, 2008 1:02 PM
It is sad when we can read more about this sort of training on-line than the Israeli "intelligence" agencies can gather on their own...do they need to experience another disaster like the 2006 war, for which they were completely unprepared psychologically?
Part of the problem, I believe, is that they are being brainwashed by the US administration, which is delusional, and fails to see inconvenient realities when they don't fit their pathetic fantasy view of the world, so they are bringing the Israelis down with them.
Posted by: ReligionofPeas at March 9, 2008 1:29 PM
It is time to put away the Fantasy of a two state solution. OMG I have bome a Zionist.
Posted by: Ruebacca at March 9, 2008 1:31 PM
I think Israel has to deal with the fact that a growing terrorist population around them with better weapons, especially within Gaza, means that the operative principle now is Pay Now Or Pay Latter, i.e. Wipe Hamas Out Now Or Fight Them Latter when they're much stonger. There is no possible peace with such Muslims. The only other alternative is to pack up and move to NY and Florida – which I think will happen some day to Israeli survivors if Israel keeps up it's usual conscience ridden pussyfooting around worrying about EU critics.
Posted by: FM at March 9, 2008 2:27 PM
What Iran, no surely not?
How could this be?
Shit, we'd better invade Iraq then, that's the solution.
Next weeks episode, American's elect an idiot. No my mistake they've already done that.
at March 9, 2008 4:11 PM
WARNING: Cheezey Iranian Propaganda Alert:
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1678.htm
Posted by: skevin at March 9, 2008 4:11 PM
Hugh, I had to comment on your provocative post: well said… I am going to pass this on to some Iranian friends and acquaintances, if you do not mind, who, as mentioned, sought refuge elsewhere to escape the psychotic, scourge of the Khomeini regime and its co-conspirators.
Many thanks!
at March 9, 2008 5:00 PM
". . . what kind of Jews were these who reacted to oppression with force? Surely we who so properly have deplored Jewish violence as fascistic, immoral and (above all) un-Jewish, stand in horror as we contemplate Jews who declined to picket the Syrian Greeks to death and who rejected quiet diplomacy for the sword, spear and arrow (had there been bombs in those days, who can tell what they might have done?) and "descended to the level of 'evil' thus rejecting the ethical and moral concepts of Judaism."
--written about the "origin of Hannukah" by a man who knew what the solution to Israel's problem was and is, who was and still is much maligned.
from The Jew in Yellow
at March 9, 2008 9:00 PM
Hugh,
"had not the shock troops of the Jihad against Israel, the "Palestinians," been so favored by the world,"
and by Jimmie Carter
who left the Shah figuratively twisting in the wind and who still hates Israel and Jews, and supports the "Palestinians."
at March 9, 2008 9:08 PM
"More proof that the Sunni/Shia "divide" is one of convenience."
-- from a posting above
This misinterprets the facts. That Shi'a Iran might support Sunni Hamas against Israel, or that Shi'a Iran might even supply training or aid to Sunnis in Iraq fighting the Americans, should not surprise. Sects and factions within Islam can unite, or help one another, against Infidels. But they have plenty of enmity left over for each other, and it only takes the removal of those Infidels from the equation to allow that enmity to grow. Do you think that if the Americans leave Iraq, that the Sunnis and Shi'ah will make peace, because that "Sunni/Shi'a 'divide' is one of convenience"?
You have it backwards. It is not the "divide" between Sunni and Shi'a that can be described as "one of convenience." Rather, it is the occasions on which they unite against a common enemy, the Infidels, that could be described as a temporary alliance "of convenience."
Posted by: Hugh at March 9, 2008 9:27 PM
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