Writing in Asharq Alawsat, Mamoun Fandy, Egyptian-American scholar who now works at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, offers this provocative piece. He points out that Arab media, both lazy and unquestioning, deceives in the name of marketing itself. Through its actions—and non-actions—it unwittingly promotes the agenda of Al-Qaeda and works against Arab interests. Definitely worth reading.

The Al-Qaeda/Israel Riddle
Mamoun Fandy

Why hasn’t Al-Qaeda launched a single operation against Israel despite all the pain and sympathy that Osama Bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri boastfully harp on about when it comes to usurped, occupied Palestine?

Since the emergence of the Al-Qaeda Organization, the alliance of Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri in the Hindu Kush Mountains, and the signing of the Jihad declaration against the Jews and their allies in 1998, Al-Qaeda has strived against everyone except the Zionists. What is the secret behind Al-Qaeda’s absence from the jihad battlefield in Palestine? Why hasn’t Al-Qaeda launched a single operation that targets Israel from within or even its interests abroad?

This is not an incitement for Al-Qaeda to add fuel to the fire in the region and the world. However, how can he who has not launched a single operation in Israel, issue fatwas against the real Palestinian militants, who used all means, including war and negotiations to restore their land, accusing them of being agents and traitors. As for the recipient, how can he accept and allow those who offered nothing for Palestine to practice this moral authority and issue fatwas of betrayal? In the last episode of the series of Al-Qaeda audio recordings on Al-Jazeera satellite channel, Al-Zawahiri accused the Arab countries that took part in last year’s Annapolis conference of being agents and of selling out Palestine.
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