Al Qaeda Sets Up Shop In Gaza

Pity the poor Palestinians of Gaza. It was not enough that they suffered from the fanaticism of Hamas and the corruption and misgovernment of the Palestinian Authority. Now they have to endure Al Qaeda. And Al Qaeda has initiated its activities in Gaza with attacks on their fellow Sunni Muslim Palestinians. As reported here by Ynet, after first taking credit for the assassination of a senior Palestinian intelligence official and four of his escorts three weeks ago, this past Sunday gunmen from the Palestinian branch of Al Qaeda shot up and set fire to an internet cafe.

Just how this campaign will help the Gazans rid free themselves from the Little Satan (Israel) and the Big Satan (the United States)was not explained. However, in the organization's announcement, it was stated that burning the coffee shop is "part of a series of actions aimed at fighting corruption and the corrupt. During the holy month of Ramadan, our fighters have started operating on the holy land and in the early morning placed a bomb weighing ten kilograms (22 pounds) next to the coffee shop, ridden with corruption and characteristic of the unethical activities that have increased in recent days. Jihad fighters detonated the bomb as a message to all the corrupt people."

Ynet further reports another sign of the increasing influence of Al Qaeda in Gaza: the proliferation of posters depicting the organization's former leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, of not blessed memory (photo upper left), are plastered on walls throughout the Gaza Strip. After his assassination by the Americans a few months ago, symbolic vigils in his honor have even been erected, and the kind of hat he used to wear has become a real hit among Gazan and West Bank youth. (HT: Little Green Footballs.)