Translation by Laura Mansfield: Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri: “Palestine is our concern and the concern of every Muslim”

In the name of God, praise be to God, and peace and prayers be upon the messenger of God, his household, companions, and followers.

O Brother Muslims everywhere, may God's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you.

I speak to you at a time when the Crusader onslaught against the countries of Islam is escalating. With the grace of God, Muslims are moving from one victory to another, while the Crusaders are facing one failure after the other. Dick Cheney came to ask Musharraf to show him what he did in return for the bribes he had taken. Musharraf bowed and begged him in Islamabad. As for Taliban, who bow their head only to God in prayers, received him well in Bagram.

Tony Blair continued to deceive his people. He made them believe that he would achieve victory with the 1,400 British soldiers that he would send to Afghanistan. I remind him that Dr Brydon returned to India after leaving behind him more than 16,000 dead in Afghanistan. Send your troops, and we will send to you, with the help of God. Incite and we will incite and mobilize troops and we will mobilize our forces, with the help of God. God is the best supporter.

The Crusader series of plotting continues. The UN courts have acquitted the Serbian Government of killing 100,000 Muslims and Croatians in Bosnia, while they demand the conviction of 52 defendants in Darfur. I am not defending the Sudanese Government, as everyone who committed a crime in Darfur must pay the price for it. But I ask two questions. The firs question is: Who gave the killers the right to appoint judges to interfere in the affairs of Muslims? By what right the Security Council interferes in the affairs of Muslims and forms courts, which acquit this and convict that, while the hands of their criminals are stained with Muslims' blood in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Algeria, Chechnya, and East Turkestan? How does America refer the Darfur case to an international court which it does not recognize and refuses to be subject to it? What injustice is governing this world.

The second question is: If you want to try those who term criminals in Darfur, who will try the criminals in Bosnia, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya, Kashmir, Indonesia, Philippines, and East Turkestan? Who will try Bush, Blair, Putin, and Sharon? Who will try the villains who are shedding our blood and violating our sanctities on a daily basis, which is many times more than what was committed in Darfur? Who will try Mubarak, Al Sa'ud, Bouteflika, Zine El Abidine, and Bin-al-Husayn, and Musharraf? O the law of the jungle, the civilization of wolves, and the United Nations of criminal s tates, the Muslims have suffered enough at your hands. Muslims have sought the help of God and decided to confront you.

The Crusader plotting continues in Iraq. They decided to hold a conference in it in a bid to strike a deal to facilitate the exit of the Crusaders. As I said before, the Americans are not negotiating with the real forces in the Islamic world. Some mass media distorted my statements by saying that I call for negotiations. I have not called and will not call for negotiations. I am just describing the confused and deteriorating situation of the Americans. Shaykh Usama Bin Ladin had proposed to them a truce and they rejected it. Let them bear the consequences of their rejection.

The series of Zionist-Crusader deception in Palestine continues. Israel attacks the sanctuary of Al-Aqsa Mosque, while the so-called governments of Arab and Islamic countries have no choice but shout and denounce. The Jews knew the real value (of the Arab and Islamic governments) after most of them recognized Israel or showed willingness to do so, as Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz did in his initiative, which was dictated to him by the Jew Thomas Friedman, and which Arabs beg Israel to accept.

Unfortunately, a different kind of aggression is going on in Palestine. The HAMAS Movement's leadership has transgressed on the rights of the Muslim nation and agreed to what it called respecting the international agreements, thus ridiculing Muslims' minds and sentiments.

I am sorry to face the Muslim nation with the truth, and to tell it please accept our condolences for (the loss) of the HAMAS leadership. It has fallen in the swamp of capitulation. In the past, at the time of Al-Nakbah , Hasan al-Banna, whom we pray God would regard as a martyr, and Shaykh Amin al-Husayni, may God have mercy on their souls, gathered the fedayeen groups and marched toward Palestine. Now, at the time of the deal, the HAMAS leadership is handing over to the Jews most of Palestine.

In our childhood, we used to memorize the poem of Hashim Rashid to his son:

Hayfa is wailing, so have you heard the wailing of Hayfa?

Today, however, HAMAS leadership will teach it to their students, saying:

Haifa is wailing, so do not be alarmed by the wail of Haifa;

sell her for a third of the cabinet wrongly and unfairly,

and bear witness to that beside the house with falsehood;

sell her as a guest in the palace of the traitor and broker;

sell her to win the affection of America and get close to it;

Al-Sadat sold her and became a role model for us to follow;

blessed be who follows his treason and leads to the path;

sell her even if the wounds of the freeman run red;

sell her even if the martyr paints the horizon with hi blood;

sell her and do not allow Al-Qassam to bomb, for he has been dead for a long time;

let the sadness of a widow emaciate her body;

get up and sell your weapon and buy a drum and tambourine,

and dance with them in the parade of lies,

and hold a demonstration in solidarity with the spy;

forget about Haifa for she will die;

sell her and sign your name;

Hayfa is like Spain.

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.

For the sake of retaining one third of the seats in this ridiculous government, HAMAS leadership has abandoned the rule of Shar'iah. It has also ceded most of the Palestinian territories. For one-third of the seats of this ridiculous government, they abandoned the resistance movement and accepted the government of bargaining; they abandoned the movement of martyrdom operations and accepted the government of respect for international resolutions; they abandoned the heroic struggler movement and accepted the domesticated beggar government; they abandoned the movement of penetrating the enemy throngs with explosives and accepted the government of playing with words in the halls of palaces. For a third of the seats in t he government, they abandoned the rule of Shari'ah and bowed to the international legitimacy.

The HAMAS leadership shows contempt for the minds and sentiments of Muslims, saying that it will respect, and not commit itself to, international resolutions.

O sensible and honorable people, what is the difference between committing oneself to international resolutions and respecting them? Is it not the same difference between submissiveness and servility, defeat and withdrawal, between retreat and concession, and between lying on someone's stomach and throwing oneself to the ground? This is nothing but a play with words, which does not exist in the dictionary of jihad, steadfastness, holding fast to God's orders, and fighting for the sake of religion and honor.

It is surprising that they have failed even in playing (with words). Respect has a higher rank than commitment. Someone can commit themselves to something reluctantly, but he who respects shows high esteem for what they respect.

And this is from God's desertion of them. The commander of the faithful, our master Ali Bin Abi-Talib, may God be pleased with him, said: If God's help is not with somebody, they will be hurt most by his own judgment. How painful was the stand taken by the prime minister when he acquiesced to Mahmud Abbas, the top man of the United States, to charge him to form a government which submits to the resolutions of presenting Palestine to the Jews. He responds by saying that he will comply with the letter of designation and act accordingly. That means that he will relinquish most of Palestine to the Jews like what others did.

O sensible people, why is all this backtracking in front of the US plan while the United States is being defeated in Afghanistan and Iraq, groaning because of the blows of the mujahidin, and searching for an escape? Why are they backtracking while the mujahidin are advancing toward Palestine rapidly? Why are they backtracking when there is a jihadist awakening that has shaken the Ummah to the core and revitalized it?

The serious lesson for all of us in this blunder is that doctrinal deviation has facilitated behavioral deviation.

When it has become easy for them to abandon Al-Shari'ah, it has become even easier for them to relinquish most of Palestine.

My brother Muslims, it is, with absolute frankness, the US plan to wind down the Islamic Jihadist resistance through the Crusader-Zionist expedition.

The United States has realized that it must solve the issue of Palestine nominally or rather farcically in order to remove one of the biggest reasons for the Muslims' hatred for it. The HAMAS's leadership accepted, through the policies of starvation, siege, murder, haggling, and temptation with scraps of power to go along to this plot. Hence, it took a ride with the US devil and its Saudi representative; however, it forgot that whoever takes a ride with the devil becomes a loser.

God says: "Satan makes them promises, and creates in them false desires; but Satan's promises are nothing but deception."

Those who spread lies will say about us that we do not want to spare the Palestinian lives, and do not want the Palestinian unity. But we say to them: what do sparing Palestinian blood and Palestinian unity have to do with selling Palestine out? Reach agreements -- if you would like -- to spare the Palestinian lives but do not reach agreements on selling out Palestine. Or was the call for sparing the Palestinian blood used as a cover for peddling the selling of Palestine? Or was the aggression of Fatah, which is supported by US funds and Egyptian weapons, against you has obliged you to submit to its will?

Those who spread lies will say: "Palestine is not of your business." We say to them: This is amazing. You invite all the enemies of Islam, including the Quartet, the United Nations, the European Union, and even the agent governorates in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, and Jordan, to interfere in the affairs of Palestine and you prohibit the Mujahidin to do so?

Palestine is verily our business and the business of every Muslim, and we will not abandon it. Palestine was a land of Islam and it is individual duty for every Muslim to liberate it.

The martyr of Islam, Abdallah Azzam, May God's mercy be upon him, said: Jihad is the individual duty of the entire Islamic nation and the entire Islamic nation is sinful because it has not liberated Andalusia, Bukhara, Palestine, and Afghanistan. And Jihad remains an individual duty until all Islamic spots return to the hands of Muslims. May God's mercy be upon you all, Abdallah Azzam. Praise be to God who granted you martyrdom lest you see those whom you praised while they are entering aboard the US tanks and lest you see the leadership of HAMAS joining the train of Al Sadat and Arafat.

My Muslim nation: This is the fruit of secular democracy, and the fruit of elections under occupation and under the authority of the secular constitutions: Surrender, concessions, and admission of the legitimacy of Israel. Therefore, I tell my brothers, the brothers of steadfastness, martyrdom, and jihad in Palestine, that they are mujahidin for the cause of God, and that they should renounce the international resolutions which handed over Palestine over to the Jews.

They should not respect those resolutions; rather, they should disdain, denounce, and renounce those resolutions. They should continue their jihad for the sake of God until every Muslim land invaded by the infidels, from Andalusia to Iraq, is liberated, and until the word of God has the upper hand and the caliphate is restored to protect Islam and spread its way. I appeal to them to work according to the Koran, stick to their trenches, and be proud of their rifles. They should not allow anybody to sell those rifles in the market of politics, whereby they would lose both the religion and life.

I appeal to all my Muslim brothers to set themselves free from the shackles of the organizations leading them into the mazes of politics. They should know that their affiliation with Islam is higher, more sublime, and more worthy than their affiliation with any group or organization. The groups that have chosen to reconcile with the hireling governments and work in accordance with their constitutions and laws will continue to revolve in a closed circle, and will move from one concession to another. Despite all this, the wolves of the Crusader campaign will not be satisfied with them.

In this vein, the Egyptian Government has regarded it as excessive for the youths of the Al-Azhar University to perform a sports show, while the armies of the Crusaders and Jews are desecrating our land in Chechnya, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and Somalia. They regarded as excessive for the youths to perform a sports show, for they want the nation to be herds of sheep, driven to the slaughterhouse one after another.

The Egyptian Government is pouncing on those who recognized the legitimacy of its president, constitution, and laws. It is pouncing on those who accepted the rule of the majority of voters, and renounced the rule of Shari'ah. It is pouncing on those who accepted citizenship and abandoned and renounced the brotherhood of Islam.

It is pouncing on those who accepted the national state and abandoned the state of the caliphate. It is pouncing on those who denounced jihad and mujahidin and obeyed the false secular law. It is pouncing on those who said they will not go to jihad until their governments give them permission; that is, until the United states and Israel give them such permission. It is pouncing on those who said that jihad is only sanctioned against the foreign enemy only.

Yet, we found them cooperating with and joining the foreign Crusader occupation forces and entering Kabul and Baghdad aboard foreign, Crusader, US tanks. We found them in Palestine accepting one-third of the government in return for conceding most of Palestine and the rule of Shari'ah, thus losing the last pretext that they are still fighting the foreign enemy. The Egyptian government pounced on them despite all their concessions, which neither interceded for them with it, nor with the United States and Israel. This is because whoever goes for a ride with devil must come back a loser. God says: Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with thee unless thou follow their form of religion.

O Muslim brothers in the fields of jihad, in Algeria, Somalia, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and everywhere, confront -- by holding tightly to your faith and to your resolve and steadfastness -- the Zionist-Crusader plot, which is reeling, with the power of God, under your blows. And rejoice at the stateme nt of the Prophet, may peace be upon him: A party from nation will continue to fight for the truth and victorious until the Day of Judgment.

As for Palestine, which has been burdened with plots and conspiracies, where those who used to claim to defend it have fled from holding onto it, I borrow for it verses composed by my steadfast brother Abu-Hafs al-Muaritani, may God preserve him, who says:

The children of Islam are but noblemen, who were

Exhausted and wasted by the tragedy of your loss,

But despite the wounds, their certainty about the

Return of the caliphate's glories increases,

And that the solutions of the traitors are but

Scattered dust on the path of jihad,

And they have sworn by God that their jihad

Shall continue, even if Khusrav and Caezar resist.

And our last prayer is that all praise is due to God, and may peace and prayers be upon our master Muhammad, and his family and companions.