Al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader warned in a new videotape released Thursday that Osama bin Laden's network would not stand idly by while Israeli bombardments "burn our brothers" in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
In the message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri said that al-Qaeda now saw "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us." He said the Hizbullah and Palestinian battles against Israel would not be ended with "cease-fires or agreements."
He called on Muslims to join forces and fight what he called the "Zionist-crusader war" against Muslim nations. "Oh Muslims everywhere, I call on you to fight and become martyrs in the war against the Zionists and the crusaders," the deputy to Osama bin Laden said.
"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a Jihad for God's sake and will last until (our) religion prevails," al-Zawahri said. "The entire world is an open battlefield for us and since they are attacking us everywhere, we will attack everywhere."
"The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli (weapons), but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price," al-Zawahri said.
He also suggested that the world cared more about Israelis than Palestinians. "The 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel's prisons do not move anything while three Israeli prisoners have shaken the world," he said.
