Op-ed implies Israel and US behind terror attacks in Egypt and Jordan
Headline: "No to terror of any type, wherever it may be"
Excerpt of op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
"Terror – as anyone who follows the subject can confirm – has no religion, no identity, and no gender. Terror is a criminal and despicable act, which targets the innocents of one people or another, or foreign tourists on the pretext that they hold a certain citizenship. Likewise, it has already been emphasized that the roots of terror lie in the colonialist world view that is hostile to the peoples of the world. Therefore, the foundations of terror have been laid by the US, the Western capitalist states, and their protégé – Israel…
The Takfiri organizations (i.e., Muslims who accuse other Muslims of heresy), whatever their nation or religion may be, are nothing but a natural extension of the policy of the colonialist states and the states that follow their path. When the world gets rid of the policy of colonialism and the maltreatment of peoples and nations, it will also get rid of the terror in Palestine, Syria, and others.
In recent days, grave acts of terror have taken place in Egypt and Jordan…
On Sunday, Dec. 11, [2016,] at the Saint Mark's Church (sic., St. Peter's Church was bombed - it is located next to the Coptic Christian St. Mark's Cathedral) in Abbasiya in Cairo, during Sunday Mass, a barbaric act took place against innocent women and children, which took 25 Martyrs (Shahids) and [left] 49 injured…
Two days ago [Dec. 18, 2016], in the city of Karak [in Jordan] and at a fortress in it, a despicable crime of terror took place that took 11 Martyrs (sic., 10 killed) and [left] 32 injured…
There is no choice but to present many critical and important questions to the decision makers in the two states: Why are these acts taking place now, on the eve of the liberation of Aleppo [in Syria] from the Takfiri organizations, and after its liberation? Is there a connection between them, or is it coincidence? What are the messages that the murderers and those standing behind them wanted to convey to the official bodies in the two states? Do these acts, and especially the one in the Kingdom of Jordan, constitute a stage on the way to their expansion? And have the regimes learned lessons from these crimes?
Yes, there is a deep connection between the liberation of Aleppo from the the Takfiri organizations and the last two acts in Cairo and Karak, and they cannot be separated. This is because the states that stand behind the defeated organizations in Syria, and especially in Aleppo, were infuriated by what happened, and therefore they tried to respond through cowardly and despicable acts that took the lives of innocent civilians…
Therefore, the two acts are not coincidence; they are calculated acts that were methodically planned according to a precise plan. The message to the Egyptian and Jordanian regimes is: Your support of the Syrian regime or your silence over what is happening on its land and not taking a stance against it makes you responsible, and you will pay a heavy price from the living flesh of the members of your people.
There is an additional message to the Jordanian kingdom: The liberation of Aleppo does not mean that the hand of terror is far from Jordan, and this is a threat of transferring the acts of terror to the Jordanian cities and interests…
Regarding Egypt, the political and security leadership knows for certain that many Arab and Islamic states, together with Israel and the US, are targeting them."