Just when you start to get caught up in the ebb and flow of the US presidential campaign - bogus sniper stories or the latest revelation about Obama's church - reality intrudes to wake you up. Almost unnoticed over the past few days was a tape released by Ayman al-Zawahiri Sunday night that is a call for terror attacks against Israel and US interests, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post:
"Israel and additional Western targets must be attacked as revenge for Israel's aggressive policy in the Gaza Strip," Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a recording released by an al-Qaida affiliated Web site on Sunday night, several days after bin Laden himself called on Palestinians to "suspend all negotiations with Israel and start a Jihad war to liberate Palestine."
"Muslims, this is our day," Zawahiri said. "Strike the interests of Jews and Americans, and all those who wield aggression against the Muslims. Today no one can say that we are battling the Jews in Palestine alone."
In discussing the IDF operations in the Gaza Strip,Zawahiri asserted that it wasn't enough to support the Palestinians by holding solidarity rallies. "We must concentrate on the armed struggle," he said. "Let them understand that they will bleed for every dollar that they spend to kill Muslims."
Zawahiri lambasted the leaders of several Arab states, who he claimed were complicit with Israel in the blockade of the Gaza Strip, calling the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia "part of a satanic pact."
"This satanic pact reveals to us its ugliness and baseness…They allowed Israel to carry out aerial raids in the Gaza Strip on a regular basis, and swore to bring an end to rocket fire on Israel," Zawahiri charged.
Like bin Laden, the al-Qaida second in command issued a threat against those countries in which cartoons of Muhammad were published, saying that "They cannot insult our prophet and support Israel and then expect to live in peace in their countries."
