[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Alliances? Yes. But in the back rooms. And most
important: this has absolutely NOTHING to do with relations with the
Palestinians]

Between Gaza & Baghdad - The Radical Islam Threat
A titanic struggle is under way in the Middle East between radical Islam and
the Arab nation states. Is this an opportunity for Israel to establish new
alliances?
Shaul Shay 9/9/2014
http://www.israeldefense.com/?CategoryID=472&ArticleID=3111

Between Gaza & Baghdad - The Radical Islam Threat While the State of Israel
was coping, during Operation Protective Edge, with the task of neutralizing
the threats of rocket fire and the underground offensive tunnels of the
Islamic terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, a major offensive by
radical Islamic terrorist organizations was under way, at full strength, at
various focal points throughout the Middle East. This offensive consists of
local attacks by ISIL in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon; by Jabhat al-Nusra in
Syria; by Ansar Bait al-Maqdis in the Sinai and by al-Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula in the Yemen.

The radical Islamist organizations challenge the Arab nation states and
undermine the regional state structure, established in the early 20th
century on the basis of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

Radical Islam threatens, first and foremost, the Muslim states with their
government systems, their legitimacy and their borders. It is a cross-border
threat that also endangers the stability of states and political systems
that have managed to maintain, to this day, a measure of stability in the
face of the upheaval of the "Arab Spring", such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the
Gulf States, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority.

There are differences between the various Islamist organizations, mainly
with regard to the aspects of different religious emphasis and different
priorities for the implementation of their goals and the ways to implement
them, but the long-term goal of all of them is the establishment of an
Islamic religious law state (a new caliphate) that would unite under its
wings all of the Muslims of the world and become the force that leads human
society.

All of those organizations believe that the way to accomplish their goals is
Jihad and "resistance" (a Hamas definition), with the violent struggle
directed at anyone conceived as an enemy or as a threat on their way to
accomplishing their goal: illegitimate Muslim regimes, religious and ethnic
minorities (Christians, Yazidis, Kurds, Shi'ites and Alawites) and the State
of Israel, regarding which all of those organizations share the consensus
that it does not have a right to exist in the Middle East.

Organizational rivalry and in some cases personal rivalry exists between the
leaders of those Islamic organizations, which sometimes leads to violent
confrontations among themselves, like the clashes between the men of ISIL
and the men of Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria or the past confrontations between
Hamas and Salafist organizations in the Gaza Strip.

Another prominent common characteristic of all of the radical Islamic
organizations is their complete disregard to human life, their willingness
to use civilians as "live shields" (as Hamas did during Operation Cast Lead
or as al Qaeda in Iraq did during the fighting in Fallujah) and to
mercilessly strike at the civilian population in the name of which and on
behalf of which they are allegedly fighting.

These organizations also stand out owing to the brutality they display
toward their enemies, which serves as a source for deterring and terrorizing
their opponents. The Islamic organizations operating in Iraq and Syria have
performed mass executions, murdered prisoners of war and hostages by
decapitating them in front of the cameras and inflicted severe punishment on
women and children.

The threat of radical Sunni Islam is creating in the Middle East sets of
coalitions intended to fight against this threat: the coalition of Saudi
Arabia, the Gulf States, Jordan and Egypt against the Islamic State
organization (ISIL) and other Salafist organizations; the coalition led by
Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States against the Muslim
Brotherhood movement (and its Palestinian arm – Hamas), and the coalition of
the central government in the Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States
against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Additionally, a Shi'ite coalition
has been consolidated under the leadership of Iran which includes the
(Shi'ite) government in Iraq, the Assad regime in Syria and the Hezbollah
organization against the Islamic State organization (ISIL) and other
Salafist organizations in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

In order to cope with the challenges presented by radical Sunni Islam, the
governments threatened by it cooperate with external players from among the
Arab and Muslim countries while receiving assistance from the USA and
several European countries. Regard, for example, the struggle against the
spreading of ISIL in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The USA assists the government
in Iraq and recently the Kurdish autonomy as well. This assistance includes
air strikes against the ISIL forces and humanitarian aid to Kurdish,
Christian and Yazidi refugees in Iraq. Another example: in Lebanon, the
Lebanese Army has fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Hezbollah against ISIL
forces in the town of Arsal, while Saudi Arabia accelerated the
implementation of a substantial arms deal in which France supplied arms to
Lebanon through Saudi financing. In the Yemen, the USA and Saudi Arabia have
been assisting the Yemenite government in its war against al Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula.

Our southern neighbor, Egypt, has been receiving assistance from Saudi
Arabia, the Gulf States and Jordan in its struggle against the Muslim
Brotherhood movement (both this movement and the Hamas organization were
outlawed in Egypt as terrorist organizations), as well as in the struggle
against such Salafist terrorist organizations as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis.

In order to round off this complex Middle Eastern picture, it should be
stressed that at the same time as the struggle against radical Sunni Islam,
a fierce struggle is under way between the Shi'ite coalition led by Iran and
the Sunni coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt over hegemony in the
Middle East.

Hamas attempts to differentiate itself from the other Sunni Jihadist
movements and gain a legitimate status by being identified with the struggle
of the Palestinian people for an independent state and by aiming the
organization's terrorist activities at Israel exclusively, under the
"resistance" slogan. In effect, however, Hamas is regarded as a terrorist
organization by Israel, Egypt, the USA and the European countries, and the
only countries that support it are Qatar, Turkey and Iran.

The complex reality of the Middle East has provided the State of Israel with
a strategic window of opportunity for engaging in formal and informal, overt
and covert cooperation with the coalition of the moderate Sunni Arab states,
some of which already have formal peace agreements with Israel: Egypt,
Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

The arrangements pursuant to Operation Protective Edge can promote
understanding and agreements with a broad Arab coalition for the advancement
of interests this coalition shares with the State of Israel, with the
intention of halting and containing the influences and threats of radical
Islam. Senior Saudi spokespersons have recently referred to the Saudi peace
initiative adopted by the Arab League as a possible basis for the renewal of
the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and
subsequently between Israel and the members of the Arab League.

The violent confrontation initiated by Hamas and the severe blow it has
sustained can lead to a result Hamas never had in mind – a political process
that would enhance its isolation, reinstate the Palestinian Authority,
headed by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), to center stage and promote a regional
peace process between Israel and the Arab countries. ?