Message from OBL

Anyone who has any doubts about the intentions of Israel's enemies in the Middle East should stop and reassess their positions following the release of Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape yesterday. In it, OBL vowed to expand al-Qaida's holy war to Israel saying "We will not recognize a state for the Jews over even an inch of Palestinian soil," according to the Reuters international news service, and promising "blood for blood, destruction for destruction." Is it any wonder why Israel seems so paranoid? No doubt millions of Arabs feel the same way, particularly those who lived in Palestine when Israel was created and left at the behest of Israel's neighbors who promised they would return after the Arab states attacked the Jewish state in 1948 and 1967. Of course, that didn't happen and the Palestinians were stuck because Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon refused to admit the refugees. OBL also had choice words for Sunni Arabs in western Iraq who have joined a U.S.-sponsored coalition to fight al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Anbar province, saying they would "suffer in life and in the afterlife." Al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called Sunnis who cooperate with the U.S. "traitors" in a Dec. 16 videotape. U.S. officials credit the coalition with helping to reduce the level of conflict in Iraq and are trying to form similar "Awakening Councils" in other parts of the country. A spokesman for the White House said bin Laden's tape demonstrates that al-Qaida is trying to block democracy and freedom in Iraq.