The Middle East's most violent terrorists have agreed to a frightening
megamerger in which they will pool resources to fight their common enemies:
the United States and Israel.
The new conglomerate of terror was put together at an extraordinary convention
held in Beirut recently in which extremist Islamic groups such as Osama bin
Laden's Al-Quaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah agreed to put aside old
rivalries and deep religious schisms for a common agenda aimed at destroying
the state of Israel and freeing the region of U.S. influence.
The terror convention was also attended by representatives from Iran and Iraq,
two countries that fought a bloody war against each other in the 1980s, who
have agreed to devote resources to the new alliance, named the Jerusalem
Foundation.
The gathering also drew Islamic militants from Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Qatar
and Yemen. Sudan and Algeria, ruled by Islamic governments, also sent
representatives.
In a communiqué reported by Arabic media outlets at the conclusion of the
three-day convention, the "400 delegates" rededicated themselves to the jihad,
or holy war, aimed at reclaiming Palestinian land from the Israelis and winning
full Arab sovereignty over Jerusalem.
"The participants are firm that the strategy that should be adopted in dealing with the
Jerusalem issue cannot be based on co-existence with the Zionist enemy . . . but rather by
uprooting it from our land and holy Islamic-Christian shrines," the communiqué said.
"The only decisive option to achieve this strategy is the option of jihad in all its forms and
resistance."
The communiqué denounced U.S. involvement in the Middle East, stating, "America today is a
second Israel."
At least one American man attended the convention and flew back to the United States
afterward, sources said.
Bush administration officials called a formation of a terror conglomerate against Israel a
"disturbing development" coming at a time when tensions in the Middle East are at the boiling
point, presenting President Bush with his first major foreign-policy test.
Middle East experts say there is good reason to be alarmed.
"This is a very radical group who [have] discovered that they are ideological fellow travelers on
the issue of Jerusalem, the Palestinians and the U.S.A.," said David Schenker from the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Terrorist expert Steven Emerson added, "Why do companies merge? To become more powerful.
This is dangerous for Israel and dangerous for the U.S."
Musa Abu Marzouq, the Hamas leader held in a New York jail in 1997 before being expelled to
Jordan, and Ramadham Abdullah Shallah, head of the Islamic Jihad of Palestine, were named
heads of the new terror foundation, which will have its headquarters in Beirut.
"Our only choice is jihad in all its forms and using all its tools," Marzouq said at a press
conference Feb. 1, at the conclusion of the convention.
Despite recent overtures to the West, the Iranian government also seems to be a driving force
behind the new alliance.
Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Mohtashami, a high-profile Iranian diplomat and spymaster, led a large
delegation of Iranian officials at the conference and announced afterward there would be a
second summit in Tehran on April 28.
