Iran's Palestinian Proxy: Jihad against Israel and America
by Khaled Abu Toameh • January 25, 2022 at 5:00 am
The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the second largest and hugely influential group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, does not believe that the conflict with Israel is over Jerusalem, settlements, borders, checkpoints or Palestinian prisoners.
Qattati's article shows that PIJ and its masters in Tehran consider not only Israel as the "enemy," but the US too. This is the same Iran whose representatives are currently negotiating with the US and other world powers about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.
PIJ is undoubtedly hoping that the talks in Vienna will allow Iran to proceed with its plans to deceive the world into thinking that it will end its support for terrorist groups throughout the Middle East or abandon its plan to obtain nuclear weapons.
PIJ's statement shows that its supporters understand resolutions pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict by the United Nations and anti-Israel organizations around the world as a license to continue the jihad against Israel and all Jews.
It is also most critical that the Biden administration immediately place Iran's other proxy organization, the Houthis, who just bombed Abu Dhabi, back on the US List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Since the US Department of State removed them from the list in February, they have returned the favor by becoming more aggressive than ever and are successfully destabilizing the region.
When these groups are enriched and emboldened, that just means even more bad news for the US and the region.
The Biden administration might do well to remember that its arrangements with the mullahs in Iran will spill over into bloodletting by Iran's proxies throughout the Middle East -- who will be only too happy to credit the Biden administration for their toxic, destructive success.
The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the second largest and hugely influential group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, does not believe that the conflict with Israel is over Jerusalem, settlements, borders, checkpoints or Palestinian prisoners.
Like Hamas, PIJ's "logical intellectual vision considers all of Palestine still occupied from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea." For PIJ, the only way for solving the conflict is by eliminating Israel and killing as many Jews as possible. PIJ sees Israel as one big settlement and a foreign implant that needs to be dismantled as soon as possible.
PIJ and Hamas have direct control over two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has shared borders with Israel and Egypt.
Hamas says in its charter (Article 11) that it "believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic waqf [Trust] upon all Muslim generations till the day of Resurrection."
Article 15 of the charter states:
