Schippert: Hizballah Paying Palestinians for Attacks? Nah . .

Posted by johnhouk on Nov 27, 2008
 There is a common misconception among pro-Arab American Intelligence advisors that the hatred that exists between Sunni (90%) Muslims and Shia (10%) Muslims is so horrendous that the extremists in both Mohammedan sects would never cooperate with each other.

This is the kind of advice President Elect Obama is receiving.

Steve Schippert writing for the NRO blog the tank has information that will demonstrate this is yet another PC Islamic myth.

JRH 11/26/08 (Hat tip ThreatsWatch.org)
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Hizballah Paying Palestinians for Attacks? Nah . . .

Steve Schippert
NRO the tank blog
November 25, 2008

Shia Hizballah cooperating with Sunni Hamas? Couldn't possibly be right, could it? After all, Shia and Sunni terrorists will never cooperate in any meaningful way, right? Sigh. . . . From the Jerusalem Post:

Fearing a harsh military response if it attacks Israel directly, Hizbullah has paid Palestinian terrorist cells to avenge the assassination of the group's military commander, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Hizbullah, Israeli officials told the Post, has paid tens of thousands of dollars to Palestinian terrorist groups, asking them to carry out large-scale attacks against Israel - including the kidnapping of IDF soldiers - in retaliation for the February assassination of Imad Mughniyeh.

Hizbullah has accused Israel of killing Mughniyeh in a Damascus car bombing on February 12. Hizbullah has threatened repeatedly to avenge the assassination.

Hizbullah's decision to ask the Palestinian groups to attack Israel in its place stems from concern, officials said, that an attack carried out directly by Hizbullah operatives would lead to a fierce Israeli military response in Lebanon.


I added this to today's DailyBriefing, and immediately included some contemporary historical reference others may find useful. I took to chronicling the Iran/Hizballah relationship with Palestinian Sunni terrorists in 2006 and 2007, and find some of the archives particularly illustrative. You may as well.

    Contemporary Historical Perspective:

    2006 InBrief: Hezbollah, al-Aqsa and Islamic Jihad Coordinating Attacks - ThreatsWatch

    2006 RapidRecon: The Hizballah, Hamas & Fatah Alliance - ThreatsWatch

    2006 InBrief: Gaza: Trouble Brewing with Hizballah Support - ThreatsWatch

    2007 PrincipalAnalysis: Hamas, Iran And The New Two State Solution - ThreatsWatch


With regards to significant Sunni-Shia terrorist cooperation, I took issue with the general dismissal of the concept issued by Bruce Reidel, now Barack Obama's chief advisor on terrorism. Though in hindsight I did wish I had worded my dissent a bit differently, as I respect Bruce Reidel a great deal, the dissent remains. Yes, serious theological differences exist and will remain between Shia and Sunni terrorist groups. But we dare not discount the level of cooperation among them against a common foe, be it America, Israel, or other Western nations.

That, of course, was the whole point of the Sudan conferences that took place in the aftermath of the Gulf War. Sunni and Shia terrorist groups and the states that sponsor them were brought together by the Pope of Terrorism, Sudan's Hassan al-Turabi, and urged to shelve their differences and cooperate against their common American and Israeli enemies. Present were delegations from Hamas, Hizballah, and the states of Iran, Iraq, and Sudan, as well as bin Laden and what would later become al-Qaeda and others. (See Tom Joscelyn's Pope of Terrorism Part I and Part II at The Weekly Standard.)

So today's report that Hizballah has been paying Palestinians to attack Israel comes to most of us as no surprise, and not even a new development. They have not only been paying Palestinian terrorists of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, they have armed them, trained them and coordinated attacks with them. Sunni and Shia alike.

Their war is against Crusaders and Jews, as al-Qaeda put it bluntly in their 1996 formative fatwa. While they maintain their differences and still fight amongst themselves, they will settle their larger scores later. For now, cooperation is possible. And you are their target.

For some added context to Hizballah's coordinated moves, you may like to see also the following from Israel's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center regarding Hizballah actions in defiance of UN Resolution 1701.

Recently, Hezbollah conducted a military exercise north and south of the Litani River, blatantly violating Resolution 1701. The exercises conducted by Hezbollah since the second Lebanon war are intended to send a message of strength to Israel and to the Lebanese government, emphasizing Hezbollah’s role as “the defender of Lebanon”.


Resolutions from the West and preconceptions by the West are of increasingly little utility.
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