In this mailing: Soeren Kern: Salafi-Jihadists: "A Persistent Threat" to Europe and America Anna Mahjar-Barducci: Liberating Libya: General Vows to Crush Terrorists Malcolm Lowe: Israel Should Exploit Palestinian "Unity" - Here's How Salafi-Jihadists: "A Persistent Threat" to Europe and America by Soeren Kern  •  June 13, 2014 at 5:00 am The other key reason for the growing threat, the report says, is due to American disengagement and a significant scaling back of counterterrorism efforts. "A complete withdrawal of U.S forces from Afghanistan by 2016 could seriously jeopardize U.S. security interests.... The United States should also consider a more aggressive strategy.... The failure to weaken... jihadist groups will likely have serious repercussions for the United States." — RAND report. The European report also calls attention to the misuse of charities and other non-profit organizations to collect funds for terrorist entities. In keeping with strict conformity to European multiculturalism and moral relativism, the European Union refused to classify two of the most high-profile terrorist attacks in 2013 as "religiously inspired terrorism." The Dutch-Turkish jihadist known as Yilmaz (center) poses with fellow jihadists in Syria. The threat to Europe and the United States from Islamic terrorism is serious and growing, and new attacks with unexpected targets and timings are increasingly likely, according to two new reports that provide insights and predictions about the threats posed by al-Qaeda and other Salafi-jihadist groups. The reports — one by the US-based RAND Corporation and another by the EU-based Europol — show that al-Qaeda and related jihadist groups are evolving, splintering and morphing, and that the number of Islamic militants, especially from Western countries, is growing apace. Taken together, the two reports thoroughly dispute claims by members of the Obama Administration and other policymakers that al-Qaeda has been severely weakened and no longer poses a major threat to the West. Continue Reading Article  Liberating Libya: General Vows to Crush Terrorists by Anna Mahjar-Barducci  •  June 13, 2014 at 4:00 am "They are armed; I do not think talks will work with them. These are international criminals from Europe, Asia and Africa. Unfortunately, we are not defending only Libya, but now the entire world. If we expel them from Libya they will just go somewhere else." — Maj. Gen. Khalifa Haftar. Because Haftar prefers war over dialogue, the international media have been trying to discredit him. They have been trying to present him as a killer, and saying that he represents a disaster for Libya. Maj. Gen. Khalifa Haftar. Libya has a new man, willing to fight against Islamist extremists. Maj. Gen. Khalifa Haftar, commander-in-chief of a breakaway military force, and denounced by the Libyan central government, has been described as the new "Libyan Al-Sisi." Just as newly elected Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi declared open war on the Muslim Brotherhood, Haftar vows to crush Islamists in Libya. Sisi seems to be Haftar's role model. The Libyan general is willing to follow Sisi's model in what he sees as a fight against Egypt's and Libya's common enemy: the Muslim Brotherhood [MB]. In a recent interview in the Saudi-owned daily, Asharq Al-Awsat, Haftar defined the MB as a "malignant disease that is seeking to spread throughout the bones of the Arab world." To fight Islamism, Haftar has launched "Operation Dignity," a military campaign against Islamist militia groups in Benghazi. Continue Reading Article  Israel Should Exploit Palestinian "Unity" - Here's How by Malcolm Lowe  •  June 13, 2014 at 3:45 am The essential point that Israel needs to grasp, and to make understood internationally at every opportunity, is this: President Abbas will not become responsible for rockets in Gaza only when they are fired; he has made himself responsible for those rockets – and for their elimination – now. Let the US Congress, too, tell the new Palestinian government: "Since you now rule over Gaza, you will not get any more money from us until you agree to surrender all those rockets in Gaza to be destroyed under international control." Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) shakes hands with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during negotiations in 2007 for a short-lived unity government. (Image source: Palestinian Press Office) The formation of a Palestinian "unity" government, endorsed jointly by Fatah and Hamas, completely wrong-footed the government of Israel. This should not have happened. Unlike earlier schemes for Palestinian unity, it had been clear long enough that this one was going to bear fruit. There was ample time for Israel to have planned a response that went beyond an unqualified rejection. That response failed: both the US Administration and the European Commission have shown themselves sympathetic to working with the new Palestinian Authority [PA] government. Meanwhile, Israeli "intransigence" was labeled in many quarters, once again, as the prime obstacle to peace. So now, according to the latest rumors, "Israel seeks return of PA forces to Gaza, dismantling of Hamas military arm." Israel has "launched an international diplomatic campaign" to press that demand upon the EU and the US. Continue Reading Article

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