Recently Israeli intelligence services have registered a dramatic increase in Israeli-Arab and Palestinian interest in international jihad organizations.
In fact just in the past two months, Israeli security forces arrested six Arab men seeking to form an extreme Islamist cell to carrying out high-profile terror attacks in Jerusalem. Two of the six held Israeli citizenship, while the other four were residents of east Jerusalem.
In addition, two Israeli-Arab citizens from the town of Rahat were also arrested in recent weeks on suspicions of trying to form an Al-Qaida cell.
It appears that in both cases the young men were radicalized through involvement in Islamic study circles and Islamic Internet websites - the same process which has radicalized Muslim communities in Europe and throughout the world.
Thus Israel, which has been exposed to local terrorist organizations since its creation, is now being introduced to the global jihad organizations which already threaten Europe and the rest of the world.
Intelligence officials also point out that a contributing factor to the rise of global jihad organizations in Israel and Palestine is the surpression of the Hamas organization in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The removal of Hamas-affiliated imams in over 1,000 mosques has paradoxically opened the door for the rising prominence of "Salafi" oriented preachers.
Salafism is a strain of extreme Sunni Islamic ideology associated with Al-Qaida.
Yet it is important to note that it is the penetration of ideas and models of activity that is arriving in Israel, not the establishment of centralized global jihad movements.
In addition to the rise in the exportation of global jihad movements to Israel, Israeli intelligence sources have also registered an increase in threats to Isreal, its citizens, and Jewish people all over the world from existing worldwide Jihad organizations, specifically al-Qaeda.
Representatives from IDF Intelligence, the Shin Bet, and the Mossad said during the a recent intelligence meeting that global Jihad constitutes a threat to all Western countries, democratic regimes, and moderate Arab nations.
But most of all, Israeli intelligence officials expressed concern that the worldwide organizations will develop cooperation with local extremist groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah. 07/24/08
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