Quick Takes: News From Israel You May Have Missed

Members of Hamas are debating whether to carry out attacks against the U.S. in the Middle East following America’s support for the rival Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to a report in Time magazine.

The Time report quoted several anonymous Hamas sources that clandestine meetings were held in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to discuss the possibility of targeting the U.S. due to its perceived “one-sided” support of Israel and reported calls for Abbas to dissolve the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

The report said the Israeli intelligence estimate is that, for now, Hamas will refrain from targeting the U.S., but if its government is toppled, such restraint could dissipate.

Speaking openly to WorldNetDaily, Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas’s so-called military wing in Gaza, confirmed the Time report.

“The Americans are supporting Israel unfairly and are playing a leading role in the conspiracy against the (Hamas-led) Palestinian government. All Palestinians feel a hatred toward the American government and wouldn’t mind attacks [against it], but for now we are limiting our fight to Palestine,” Abdullah said. He warned that if the Hamas government is “toppled” with the help of the U.S. then “all options are open.”

Members of Abbas’s Force 17 security detail are “praying to Allah” that the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq continues and that American soldiers are returned to their homes in body bags, according to an officer of Force 17, which the U.S. is reportedly training and arming.

“The U.S. is in trouble in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and we are very glad for that. We pray for Allah that this situation will go on and the Mujahedeen will keep fighting the Americans and causing them more and more damages so that the taxes that the American people pay are used for transporting the bodies of American soldiers who got killed in Iraq and in Afghanistan,” Force 17 officer Abu Yousuf told WorldNetDaily.

Abu Yousuf, like several Force 17 members, is also a member of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades. He said the weapons and aid the U.S. may provide to his group will not be used for “force and violence against our brothers in Hamas unless they will endanger [Abbas].”

Palestinian terror groups have smuggled tons of heavy weaponry into the Gaza Strip and are seeking to counterbalance Israel’s military capabilities for a possible confrontation in the territory, according to information released yesterday by the Israel Defense Forces.

Senior IDF officials said that more than 20 tons of weapons have been brought into Gaza from the neighboring Sinai desert in the last 10 months alone, including a large number of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

The officials warned that Hamas is preparing for the possibility of launching a large-scale conflict with Israel. They said the terror group is focusing much of its efforts on acquiring longer-range rockets, such as advanced assams and Katyusha rockets, which could target Jewish communities near Gaza and also endanger Israeli aircraft.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in August 2005. In a deal brokered in November by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Egypt-Gaza border, once controlled by the Jewish state, now is manned by Egyptian and Palestinian security officials and observed by European monitors. The monitors reportedly have fled their duty several times in the past few months.

Israeli security officials have noted multiple breaches in border security, including the open transport of terrorists and weapons across the border. They say several key sections of the border are penetrable and that smuggling tunnels that snake under the border are “thriving.”

The Davidic Dynasty, a recently founded international organization, is seeking to gather Jewish descendants of King David, the second biblical king of Israel, for a reunion next year in Jerusalem aimed at fostering Jewish unity.

The Dynasty is holding a launch dinner in New York this week ahead of a larger conference and a first-ever reunion of those who believe they are Davidic descendants.

The reunion in Jerusalem, slated for May 28-30, will honori the 40-year reign of David and coincide with the 40th-year anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, which was recaptured by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.

Highlights of the reunion are to include the opening of a Jerusalem-based museum dedicated to King David, a recitation at the Western Wall of Psalms, which King David authored; visits to archaeological sites connected to David; lectures from scholars and genealogy experts; and the dedication of a Torah scroll in honor of King David.

“King David was the first and essentially the only king of Israel to unite all of the Jewish people under one kingdom,” said Davidic Dynasty founder Susan Roth.