14 Jun 14. Analysts and journalists reacting to the lightening advance of fighters loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) – the Al Qaeda offshoot that has been steadily consolidating territory across northern Iraq this week – focused Thursday and Friday on years of systematic efforts by the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to politicize Iraqi institutions along sectarian lines, alienating the country’s minority Sunni population in unprecedented ways. Writing for CNN, Derek Harvey and Michael Pregent – respectively a former senior intelligence official who worked on Iraq from 2003-2009 and a former senior intelligence analyst who worked on Iraq from 2003-2011 – emphasized that “the speed and scope of this week’s assaults on every major city [by ISIS]… has been the predictable culmination of a long deterioration, brought on by the government’s politicization of its security forces.” The process had long ago been dubbed one of “Shiafication.” More broadly, the Iran-backed Maliki is now being widely criticized for having prioritized Shiite expansionism over building pluralistic institutions that would have incorporated minority Sunnis. Anthony Cordesman, who holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, did not pull punches in calling for the U.S. to push Maliki out of power, linking him to every major crisis throughout the region: “he has made the Iraqi security force his political tool… [h]is ruthless repression of legitimate Sunni opposition and pressure on the Kurds – and lies and broken promises to Sunni tribal leaders – have lost him the support of Iraq’s Sunnis and Kurds and empowered ISIS… his ties to Iran have helped it ship arms and volunteers to Syria, Hezbollah – which now presents a massive rocket and missile threat to Israel – and helped create the same rising threat in Gaza.” The sectarian divisions, which Maliki’s policies are said to have hardened, now seem set to escalate into a proxy war between the region’s Sunni and Shiite powers. Simon Henderson, the Washington Institute’s Baker Fellow and the director of its Gulf and Energy Policy Program, assessed in Foreign Policy on Thursday that “the ISIS invasion of Iraq is really a war between Shiites and Sunnis for control of the Middle East.” (Source: theisraelproject.org)
14 Jun 14. English- and Arabic-language outlets throughout the week reported on trends suggesting that radical Islamist groups are gaining a foothold in the Gaza Strip, developments that appear to have been taking place alongside growing efforts by Hamas to rebuild its infrastructure in the West Bank. Reports have been emerging since the announcement of a Palestinian unity pact – under which the Western-backed Fatah faction struck a deal with the terror group on the formation of a new cabinet – that Hamas had successfully brushed off a year of international isolation and was establishing influence in the West Bank. This week Palestinian journalist Rasha Abou Jalal, reporting out of the Gaza Strip, revealed that a former Palestinian Islamic Jihad figure had launched a new terror group in the territory. The group, named Al-Sabirin [The Patient] for the Victory of Palestine,” had generated particular interest and unease because of apparent Shiite influences. Meanwhile Arabic-language Palestinian outlets reported Friday that Hamas security officers had dispersed a Gaza rally celebrating military victories achieved by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), in which demonstrators celebrated the gains made by the Sunni Al Qaeda offshoot by chanting slogans promising to eradicate Jews. Evidence that relatively extremist groups are getting traction in either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip is bound to be read against the backdrop of controversies over the recent unity government. Israeli predictions that the new political arrangement would boost terrorism had been brushed off by huge swaths of the interna