State Dept. terrorism report praises Israel, counts Jewish settler attacks as terror
The U.S. State Department's annual report on terrorism
said Hamas and Hezbollah continued to destabilize the Middle East and listed
attacks by extremist Jewish settlers on Palestinians as "terrorist
incidents."
An executive summary of the report for 2011, which was
released Tuesday, highlights what the authors believe to be the report's most
salient points. It is devoted to al-Qaida and opens with the assassination last
year by U.S. forces of the group's founder, Osama bin Laden.
Turning to the Middle East, the summary said Hezbollah's
"robust relationships with the regimes in Iran and Syria, involvement in
illicit financial activity, continued engagement in international attack
planning, and acquisition of increasingly sophisticated missiles and rockets
continued to threaten U.S. interests in the region."
The report also said, "Meanwhile, Hamas retained its
grip on Gaza, where it continued to stockpile weapons that pose a serious
threat to regional stability. Moreover, Hamas and other Gaza-based groups
continue to smuggle weapons, material, and people through the Sinai, taking
advantage of the vast and largely ungoverned territory."
The country report on Israel was unusually robust in its
praise, for the first time describing Israel as a "resolute
counterterrorism partner" and noting, for instance, Israel's cooperation
with the international community in tracking financing for terrorists.
The country report also unequivocally listed settler
attacks on Palestinians as "terrorist incidents," scrubbing
distinctions in previous reports between "settler violence" and
terrorism. It listed several arson attacks on mosques that are believed to have
been made by settlers.
Kahane Chai, an extremist settler group, again is listed
as a designated terrorist group, as are five Palestinian groups including
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and two affiliates of the Palestine Liberation
Organization.
The report listed four state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba,
Iran, Sudan and Syria.
"Iran was known to use the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and terrorist insurgent groups to implement
its foreign policy goals, provide cover for intelligence operations, and
support terrorist and militant groups," it said.
The report also noted that Hamas and other Palestinian
terrorist groups continued to headquarter in Damascus, adding that Hamas left
toward the end of 2011 because of the surging unrest in Syria.
In listing American victims of terrorism last year, the
report noted that one American was killed in Jerusalem on Sept. 23 and one was
injured in Tel Aviv on Aug. 19.
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