Bin Laden Calls For Jihad In Gaza

CNN reports that Osama bin Laden’s latest audiotape is about Gaza:

The message is “an invitation” from bin Laden to take part in “jihad to stop the aggression against Gaza.”

The terrorist leader has attempted to hijack the cause of the Palestinians before, so this was probably inevitable. What’s always been interesting is how few Palestinians there are in Al Qaeda, a point that Peter Bergen, among others, has made. Palestinians, one presumes, have problems far more close to home that preclude a fascination with global jihad. Yet In an interesting post at Wonk Room last week, Matt Duss surveyed the rise of ultra-extreme Islamist elements in Gaza — yes, more extreme than Hamas — that are competing with Hamas for power. It doesn’t appear that those are Al Qaeda elements, but just as Israel and the United States blithely squeezed Fatah and wound up with Hamas, it’s worth wondering if there’s an alternative in Gaza worse than Hamas as well.