Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA)

Strategic Alliances for a Secure, Connected, and Prosperous Region

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A Conversation between Ambassador Dore Gold and Barak M. Seener

July 11, 2007 | Amb. Dore Gold

The Mecca Agreement served the function of not renouncing violence along with the generic demands of the international community. It also created a fusion between the alleged moderate branch of the Palestinian Authority headed by Fatah leader Abbas, and Hamas that maintains links with the Muslim Brotherhood. • It was precisely whilst the US was actively engaged in conflict management between Israel and the Palestinians that al-Qaeda was planning terrorist attacks. • Islamist organizations, like al-Qaeda, may raise specific political grievances at times from the Balkans, Chechnya, or Kashmir, but what empirically has really helped these organizations surge in strength is their sense of victory from the battles in any of these clashes. Withdrawal in the face of radical Islam only strengthens the present worldwide militant wave and empowers its adherents. • Recent apocalyptic Sunni and Shiite literature perceives the recovery of Jerusalem as a trigger to a new wave of global jihad. This doctrine predicts an imminent clash between the Mahdi – a Muslim saviour – and the Islamic antichrist, known as the Dajjal in the Holy City. Thus begins a new stage of worldwide violence extending to Rome and the entire West.