Palestinians Ambivalent About Bin Laden Support

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From 'PR-Inside': In his latest message to the world, Osama bin Laden portrays himself as the only true defender of the Palestinians. But Palestinian leaders, even the Islamic militants of Hamas, on Monday expressed little enthusiasm for the bear hug from the fugitive al-Qaida leader. The moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank fears its quest for independence could be sullied by perceived links to terrorism, and the rival Hamas regime in Gaza, labeled a terrorist group by the U.S. and Israel, sees al-Qaida as too extreme.

"Al-Qaida and bin Laden have caused huge damage to the image of Muslims and Arabs all over the world, and with his frequent statements about the Palestinians he just damages our image," said Nimr Hamad, an adviser to Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian president in the West Bank. The Palestinians have a "deep interest in convincing the Western world of the justice of our national cause," Hamad said. If the Palestinians are seen as "on bin Laden's side, we will definitely lose."

Bin Laden's 22-minute speech, posted on an Islamic militant Web site late Sunday, criticized Arab states for not waging war against Israel. "Those (Arab) kings and leaders sacrificed Palestine and Al-Aqsa to keep their crowns," bin Laden said, referring to the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites. Israel is weak, he charged, but the Arabs have not fought "even a single serious war to get Palestine back." He even ridiculed the leader of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which fought a bloody war with Israel in 2006, for not doing more and for allowing the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon "to protect the Jews." He attacked Arab leaders interested in negotiating with Israel: "They have decided that peace with the Zionists is their strategic option, so damn their decision." That would include Abbas, who is holding peace talks with the Israeli government.

Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, regularly launch verbal assaults on Arab leaders in the recordings they dispatch from their hideout, believed to be somewhere on the wild frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan. But recent messages have increasingly focused on the Palestinians, perhaps in an attempt to appeal to a broad Muslim audience for whom the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a pivotal issue. In Sunday's recording, bin Laden mentioned the blockade of Gaza, which was imposed by Israel and Egypt last June after the Hamas militant group seized control of the area. Israel has tightened the sanctions in recent months to try to halt daily rocket fire at Israeli towns, leading to widespread shortages of fuel and basic goods in Gaza.

Bin Laden called on militants in Egypt to take action: "They are the only ones close to its borders and they must work on breaking this blockade," he said. Egypt has a short border with Gaza, including a key a crossing. But even the Hamas militants who rule Gaza appeared uneasy about bin Laden's support. Like al-Qaida, Hamas belongs to the Sunni stream of Islam, and the two share a fundamentalist interpretation of their religion and open antipathy toward Israel and the West. As an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas -- like al-Qaida -- holds pan-Islamic beliefs, though mixed with Palestinian nationalism. But the two groups are different in key areas. Hamas does not seek to subvert secular Arab regimes as al-Qaida does. Instead, it has tried to work inside the international system rather than trying to overturn it.

Speaking Monday, spokesmen for Hamas tried carefully to distance themselves from bin Laden while not openly criticizing him. Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Hamas would also like to see Western influence in the Middle East eradicated. But he cited "a difference in method" between the two groups and said Hamas was focused on the fight with Israel. "We are with all efforts against the foreign occupation in the area, but we confirm that Hamas' work has always been in Palestinian lands," Abu Zuhri said. As for bin Laden's statements on the Palestinians, he said, "What Osama bin Laden said is an expression of Arab feelings that all nationalist and Islamic groups have expressed. There's nothing new in this." Ayman Taha, another Hamas spokesman, said Hamas wanted the blockade of Gaza's border with Egypt broken by nonviolent means, saying Hamas wanted nothing to "harm our relationship with Egypt."

Asked if bin Laden's call to break the blockade might lead to violence along the border anyway, Taha said, "It could be -- but I don't want to talk about it any more." Last January, Hamas blew up the border wall with Egypt, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to cross. The border stayed open for nearly two weeks. Both Israel and Abbas' government have alleged that al-Qaida is active in Gaza, and some small Palestinian militant groups have claimed ties to the organization. But it is unclear whether any real links exist. Hamas denies there is any al-Qaida presence in the territory.

While there have been some small pockets of public support for bin Laden in the Palestinian territories -- the government suppressed small celebrations after the September 11th attacks -- he has never enjoyed the widespread popularity of other anti-Western Arab leaders, such as Saddam Hussein. Hani al-Masri, a Palestinian analyst in the West Bank, said bin Laden's statements "don't serve the Palestinians in any way. Bin Laden is perceived in the world as a terrorist, and any connection to the Palestinians will harm the Palestinians," he said.