No, Strewth and I are not the same person, maybe we have read the same books or attended the same university, I don't know.

My last word is an apology: I have unintentionally misspelt Mr Lapkin's name thoughtout my posts. I apologise to him for this error.

Morning, Ted: Lehi/Stern Gang "despised and condemned by the Jewish establishment"? This didn't prevent Ben-G from collaborating with it and the Irgun in a joint military campaign against the British in 1945, and again from March to September 1948, when the Sternists assassinated UN Mediator, Bernadotte. Nor did it prevent the Gang's leader, Shamir (or the Irgun's leader, Begin) from becoming Israeli Prime Ministers.

"Arab opposition" to partition. For the perfectly valid reasons I've already touched on. The "moral" position of the Jewish leadership: beggars can't be choosers, we can grab the rest later. B-G: "[A] Jewish state in part of [Palestine] is not an end, but a beginning...Establishing a [small] state...will serve as a very potent lever in our historical efforts to redeem the whole country."

My "questions": I'll make it easy for you - Hamas is in "overt alliance" with al-Qaida. True or false?

Goodness, Ted, you've got this "Ephraim" (sic) Karsh bloke "ripping" into and "eviscerating" all and sundry: Benny, Avi, Ilan. Maybe we should check out Efraim the ripper/eviscerator: He's written an article called 'What Occupation?'[?]; writes for Daniel Pipes [?] MEQuarterly, journal of the MEForum, "a think tank working to define and promote American interests in the ME [?],...convincing the Palestinians that Israel is permanent [? aka, ensuring that Palestine is impermanent],...slowing down the democratization process [?]...developing strategies to contain Iran [?]." "American interests"? Really? Sounds like Efraim has an agenda to me. And speaking of agendas, why is it we can't trust a "professional pro-Palestinian polemicist" like Palumbo, but trust a professional pro-Israeli polemicist such as yourself?

STREWTH - True.

The two (Hamas and AQ) are philosophically allied because they share the same ideological parent, the Moslem Brotherhood. In the past they might have had slightly different orientations, with Hamas initially focused on Israel, and AQ initally focused on expelling US troops from Saudi Arabia. But in the longer term strategic sense, both organisations have always shared the same worldview and objective - the creation of a new Caliphate that will impose a strict Sharia regime throughout the Islamic Waqf - which to their mind includes such places as Spain and E. Timor. They have also had longstanding cooperative links when it comes to fundraising and money laundering.

And in recent years that philosophical alliance has become more operational as well. The Sharm a Sheik and Aman hotel bombings were carried out by AQ cells in Egypt and Jordan. And In a recent Associated Press story entitled "Israel may be next al-Qaida battleground," Steven Gutkin writes "signs are mounting that al-Qaeda terrorists are setting their sights on Israel and the Palestinian territories as their next battleground. Israel has indicted two West Bank militants for al-Qaida membership, Egypt arrested operatives trying to cross into Israel and a Palestinian security official has acknowledged that al-Qaida is ''organising cells and gathering supporters.'"

The story continues: "Egyptican forces arrested two sets of suspected al-Qaida operatives - one month ago and another three months ago - who were trying to enter Israel through Sinai "most probably carrying explosives."

I don't know, STREWTHIE, but that seems like an overt alliance to me.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060322/ap_on_re_miea/palestinians_al_qaida)

quote:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/americas-bornagain-apartheid/2006/03/26/1143330925739.html?page=2

Hamlet,
i wouldn't place too much credibility on the Fairfax press with its left wing agenda anti-American and anti-Iraqi war stance.