Lebanon, Gaza and West Bank Terrorist Groups Threatening Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

                            Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorists 

Lebanon:  Hezbollah (Party of God),

Sponsored by Iran with revolutionary Guards,  Goal--Creation of  Islamic state across  the Arab world;  destruction of Israel, fight Western imperialism.  Supports Palestinian terrorist groups.  Set up cells in West Bank and Gaza.  Attacks across the border.  On US state Department  Terrorist List.  Started in 1982.

Hassan Nasrallah b: 31 August 1960, a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel Defense Forces in February 1992.  During Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah acquired rockets with a longer range, which allowed them to strike at northern Israel despite the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. 

Judea (southern) and Samarian (Northern) part of what Jordan renamed as West Bank, was originally Judah, lost to the Jews in the Roman occupation and destroyed in 70 CE, renamed for the Jews' worst enemy, the Philistines as Palestine.  It had before been Israel, ruled by kings Saul, David, Solomon, etc.  

Judea-Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza:  PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad),

In the news today attacking Israel.  Sponsored by Iran and Syria Goals:  Goal-- Creation of Islamic Palestinian State-will succeed if 2 state solution goes through;  destruction of Israel through holy war.  Pet peeves:  pro-western and Arab governments, cease fires, lulls in terrorist operations.  They recruit followers in mosques and universities.  Started in 1979-1981.  PIJ formed as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and was influenced ideologically in its formation by the Islamic regime in Iran. 

 It was established by Palestinian students in Egypt who were admirers of the Iranian Revolution and the Muslim Brotherhood.  PIJ was formally established in Gaza in 1981 by two Palestinian activists: Dr Fathi abd al-Aziz Shaqaqi, a Rafah-based physician, and Shaykh Abd al-Aziz Awda, an Islamic preacher from the Jabaliyya refugee camp, as well as Ramadan Shalah, Bashir Moussa and three other Palestinian radicals. Like Hamas, its expressed goal is the violent destruction of the State of Israel, which Islamic Jihad believes will then bring about the unification of the Arab and Islamic world, “purified of modern Western elements.”

Judea Samaria (West Bank), Gaza, Syria, Lebanon:  PFLP (Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine), 

 Arm of PLO that broke off, sponsored by Palestinians George Habash and Ahmad Sadat, Refuse to recognize Israel, Goals: Liberating Palestine in stages, major terrorists in 1970s, 1980s using media-oriented attacks.  Started in 1967.  

The PFLP has generally taken a hard line on Palestinian national aspirations, opposing the more moderate stance of Fatah. It does not recognise the State of Israel, it opposes negotiations with the Israeli government, and favours a one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict- their state. The military wing of the PFLP is called the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades. The PFLP is well known for pioneering armed aircraft-hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. According to PFLP Politburo member and former aircraft-hijacker Leila Khaled, the PFLP does not see suicide bombing as a form of resistance to occupation or as a strategic action or policy and no longer carries out such attacks. The PFLP has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and the European Union. 

Judea Samaria (West Bank), Gaza, Syria, Lebanon: DFLP (Democratic Front For the Liberation of Palestine), 

is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization. It is also frequently referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha al-Dimuqratiyah.  It is a member organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Alliance of Palestinian Forces and the Democratic Alliance List.  It started in 1967 by George Habash as a left-wing organization..   One of the attacks for which the DFLP is best known is the 1974 Ma'alot massacre in which 25 schoolchildren and teachers were killed.

Judea Samaria(West Bank) Israel:  PLO  (Palestine Liberation Organization),

Sponsored by Egypt's Gamal Nasser, Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, Goal: To liberate Palestine by fighting League of Nations, UN all illegal acts,  PLO charter 1968, started 1964.  

The PLO served as an umbrella institution for many terror groups that opposed the existence of Israel. These groups, often described as “factions,” include Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and others.  It was designed to serve as a “government in exile” and included a 740-member parliament called the Palestine National Council (PNC) “elected” by the people, and an 18-member executive government elected by the parliament. The PLO created a Palestinian National Charter which described its ideology, and a constitution called the “Fundamental Law.”

 Judea Samaria (West Bank):  Fatah (Movement For The National Liberation of Palestine,

Fatah (Arabic: فتح Fatḥ), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and second-largest party in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
 Militias of Tanzim, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, offshoot of PLO, sponsored by Yasser Arafat, Mahmood Abbas, Goal-made up of militias, coordinates with radical Islamist terrorist groups for joint terrorist attacks, usual liberating Palestine an destroying Israel goals.  Less obvious than Hamas who broke off from them.  In the 2006 election for the PLC, the party lost its majority in the PLC to Hamas. However, the Hamas legislative victory led to a conflict between Fatah and Hamas, with Fatah retaining control of the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank through its president. Fatah is also active in the control of Palestinian refugee camps. 

 Fatah claims to have in 12 areas the total of 2,862,485 population living in 5,671 square kms.    The 12 are Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarm, Nablus, Qalqilya, Salfit, Ramallah and Al Bireh, Jericho, Jerusalem including East Jerusalem with Israeli citizenship, Bethlehem, Hebron Governates, Fatah started in 1959.

Note:  They are claiming Jerusalem which is again in Israel's hands as it always has been since King David.  Jerusalem is not a divided city anymore.  It is unified and a part of Israel.  Land it covers is from Demographics of 2017:  125.156 square km  or 48.323 square miles.  Population of Jerusalem is 936,425 with 60.8% Jews, 37.9 Arabs and 1.3% Christians, etc. 

Gaza:  Hamas:  (Islamic Resistance Movement)

  Sponsored by Yasser Arafat, Mahmood Abbas Militia arm of PLO, broke off to be more militant in 1968 to be PLOs largest faction, attack more.  Now took over governing Gaza, so got into politics as well as dictators. terrorist attacks against Israel, drive them into sea. Hamas' declared objectives are to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation and transform the country into an Islamic state. Which of these two objectives is the primary goal is disputed. The movement's original charter committed it to waging an armed struggle to destroy the state of Israel. Started 1968.  There are 756,083 living in Gaza that Hamas presides over.

 Arafat was born in Cairo, Egypt to a Palestinian father from Gaza City in 1929. He died in 2004.  Jerusalem was the family home of his mother, Zahwa Abul Saud, who died from a kidney ailment in 1933, when Arafat was 4 years of age. Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar, was a 5'2" tall  Palestinian political leader.  Exasperating, Barak said "He did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all. He just kept saying no to every offer, never making any counterproposals of his own," he says. 

Yasser Arafat speaks before the United Nations General Assembly in 1974. He had remove his gun from the holster before getting on stage. File photo: AFP

 He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 to 2004 and President of the Palestinian National Authority from 1994 to 2004.  

 He became the biggest terrorist besides establishing many terrorist groups, but was given the Nobel Peace Prize by those who were in awe of him, evidently. 

Mahmoud Abbas was born on 15 November 1935 in Safed, in the Galilee region of Mandatory Palestine (now Israel). His family fled to Syria during the 1948 Palestine war. Before going to Egypt, Abbas graduated from the University of Damascus in Syria, where he studied law.  He is the president of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority. He has been the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since 11 November 2004, PNA president since 15 January 2005, and State of Palestine president since 8 May 2005. Abbas is also a member of the Fatah party and was elected chairman in 2009.  Abbas has been chairman for 18 years.

While in Qatar in 1961 at age 26, he was recruited to become a member of Fatah, founded by Yasser Arafat and five other Palestinians in Kuwait in the late 1950s. At the time, Arafat was establishing the groundwork of Fatah by enlisting wealthy Palestinians in Qatar, Kuwait, and other Gulf States. According to Abu Daoud, part of the funds raised by Abbas were used, without the latter's knowledge, to implement the 1972 Munich massacre. 

           

George Habash (2 August 1926-26 January 2008) 

Habash was born in Lod (Lydda), Palestine then, Israel now;  a Palestinian Christian politician studying to be a doctor who founded the Marxist–Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He became a doctor, and in 1951, after graduating first in his class from medical school, Habash worked in refugee camps in Jordan and ran a clinic with Wadie Haddad in Amman. He firmly believed that the state of Israel should be ended by all possible means, including political violence.

 Habash served as General Secretary of the PFLP until 2000, when ill health forced him to resign. Habash was a leading member of the Palestine Liberation Organization until 1967 when he was sidelined by Fatah leader Yasser Arafat, with whom he had a complex relationship described as a mix of "camaraderie and rivalry" and "a love-hate relationship". In response, Habash founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.  

Ahmad Sa'adat was born in 1953 in Al Bireh, Jordanian Judea Samaria (West Bank)..

 Ahmad Sa'adat, also known as Abu Ghassan, is a Palestinian militant and Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist–Leninist Palestinian nationalist organisation. Sa'adat graduated in 1975 from the UNRWA Teachers College, Ramallah, specializing in Mathematics.  He spent 10 years in Israeli prisons.  Sa'adat is a Marxist–Leninist, and is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Sa'adat persistently claims that a one state solution is the only possible solution for the conflict, he holds that "The solution is the one-state solution and not the two-state solution," Saadat said: "There are no other horizons for any other settlement." Sa'adat also holds that "The communist forces in the Arab world have applied the viewpoints of the Soviet Union by the book and have never developed their own theoretical and political 'flavor.'

Terrorist groups of Al Qaeda and ISIS are another group equally as bad if not worse.  They can be spoken of in a future article.  

Resource:

Israel 101 magazine from StandWithUs,  2010, p. 24-26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Jihad_Movement_in_Palestine

https://honestreporting.com/palestine-liberation-organization-what-is-the-plo/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjIKYBhC6ARIsAGEds-IeBv1yBPfqKSgNLUImuwS4fJlT1cA3QTy0GJ4joH7tAU4F2dNvELkaAjd7EALw_wcB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Palestine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Habash

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Sa%27adat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/23/israel3

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/israels-military-operation-against-pij-was-a-short-term-success-heres-how-it-could-be-a-longer-term-one-too/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Abbas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Nasrallah

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62445951-background only