Tackling terrorism, a matter of priority

A new terrorist group is emerging and has all the potential to be a key player among Islamic Jihadists. It calls itself “Ansar Beit Al Maqdis”, in Arabic, “Partisans of Jerusalem”.

The founder of this group is Sheikh Abdallah Al Ashqar. Within the last three years, the group assassinated the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and two of his embassy staff. It defied the Egyptian authorities several times, by shooting army officers in Sinai, cutting off the Egyptian gas pipeline supplying Jordan and Israel, and launched missile attacks from Sinai at Israeli targets in Eilat.

During the last two months, the group killed several police officers in Cairo and Alexandria.

Ashqar did not build his organisation in the structural pattern others follow. He welcomes in that vast Sinai desert all dropouts from Al Qaeda or Muslim Brotherhood, malcontents from Islamic parties, as well as numerous lone wolves who receive logistic support and help.

Libyans and Yemenis form the backbone of Ashqar’s followers.

The potential danger in this terrorist group is that it is unpredictable and uncontrollable. Neither Hamas nor the Muslim Brotherhood, Ayman Al Zawahiri or Turkey can exert pressure on this group to observe a truce or respect a potential ceasefire with Israel in the distant future.

Through leaks attributed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who concluded a four-hour session of talks with American Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris a few days ago, the item of Palestinian terrorism was not on the agenda. Neither was the issue of Jewish terrorism, manifested in the settlers’ attacks, discussed.

What was leaked to the world about the Kerry’s framework peace plan, through the special envoy Martin Indyk or The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, gave no indication that there is a plan to tackle the root causes of Islamic or Jewish terrorism. 

Organised terrorist groups, whether Islamist or Jewish, should be discussed as a matter of priority in any framework for a final peace plan between the Palestinians and the Israelis.