Zawahiri's Unprecedented Attack on Hamas Could Signal Spilt with Muslim Brotherhood
By Douglas Farah
Ayman Zawahiri, al Qaeda's deputy leader, issued an unprecedented and blistering attack against Hamas over the weekend, perhaps signaling a permanent rupture between the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda-led jihadist movements. The translation I am using was done by Laura Mansfield.
These words will not be easy to retract, and making the dispute public will likely find an echo on the Palestinian street, frustrated by the deepening Palestinian divide.
Not only did Zawahiri, and one has to interpret that he is speaking for bin Laden and the "old guard" al Qaeda as well, disagree with Hamas' decision to join the coalition government with Fatah, he taunted and ridiculed Hamas in some of the most insulting terms possible. He takes the unprecedented step of comparing Hamas's policies to those of the hated Anwar Sadat-who members of the Muslim Brotherhood gunned down. In the end he virtually declares Hamas to be the enemy:
"The HAMAS leadership has finally joined the train of Al Sadat for humiliation and capitulation. The HAMAS leadership has sold out Palestine, and earlier it had sold out referring to Shari'ah as the source of jurisdiction. It has sold all that to be allowed to maintain one-third of the government."
"And what kind of government is this that does not have control over entry or exit, and movement between its two parts without a permit from Israel? It is a government whose prime minister is not allowed to enter his homeland and is not allowed to do so unless the Egyptians mediate between him and the Israeli defense minister. He would stay outside in the cold in front of the Rafah crossing until the Israeli minister gives approval." My full blog is here.
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