The dismantling of a sabotage cell in Morocco is nothing new. Since the suicide attacks in Casablanca in 2003, the authorities have announced, from time to time, the foiling of terrorist plots. This indicates that the country is not an exception when it comes to the threat of this growing phenomenon that is not exclusive to one race, religion or ethnicity. The latest cell was, remarkably, led by a Palestinian, a precedent in the make-up and formation of sleeper cells that have been unraveled in recent years. Nearly two years ago, it was announced that a terrorist attack had been foiled; it was attributed to Shiites and this was one of several factors that led to the severing of the diplomatic relations between Rabat and Tehran. However, it is unlikely that the arrest of the Palestinian Yahya Hindi will have any repercussions on the current or future state of Moroccan-Palestinian relations. On the one hand, this is because Morocco has not closed the door to dialogue with the people of Gaza, despite its clear commitment to supporting the Palestinian National Authority, and on the other hand, the involvement of an individual should not necessarily mean a set-back for an entire cause. However, the most precarious matter in this issue is that the principled cause that involves the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation has been harmed: if not in terms of a smear upon the concept of resistance, then at the level of harming the feelings of the individuals that support this cause. How many times has Palestinian legitimacy been damaged by getting mired in inter-Arab disputes? The late King Hassan II told the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that he found it difficult to convince his friends the Americans to open dialogue with an organization they classified as “terrorist”, while his dialogue with Abu Iyad ended with concluding an agreement to keep the Arab arena distant from inter-Palestinian struggles. Nevertheless, the matter at hand is not completely disastrous. Terror remains something that is condemned and rejected, whoever is behind it. But it does not absolve holders of Palestinian citizenship from facing the same criticism that is directed at Moroccans who have been caught up in the delusion of reestablishing the Caliphate, according to their clouded vision. However, it is interesting that some perceive Morocco as fertile, inflammable territory, just because the Moroccan public appears to sympathize with just causes. Moreover, there is a difference between the rise of feelings through massive popular demonstrations, as during the American invasion of Iraq and during Israel's war of annihilation against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and the commitments to safeguard security and stability, which all Moroccans support, despite their ideological differences. Ever since Moroccan jihadists joined the Afghan Arabs, we have seen the prevailing belief that Morocco, like other Arab countries, might become more affected by the virus of extremism and terror. But there has been a false perception that contradicted facts on the ground, a perception that was being promoted with the strength of isolationism that disregarded geographical facts. And at the time, it was difficult for observers of the conditions in North Africa to differentiate carefully between what was taking place in Algeria and what was happening in Morocco. But geographical proximity also has its price, and absent from Morocco were those who considered the country's experience an exception to the transnational virus of terrorism, which would also strike Morocco, if not directly, then through the contagiousness of terrorism from which no country can be safe. Along two parallel paths, the terror phenomenon arose in Morocco, even if it has become the norm that this phenomenon is not translating into incidents and attacks, but is only surfacing through the preventative blows that smothered it in its cradle. The first path is growing, in the direction of planning attacks against vital centers and facilities and official figures, while the second seeks to attract volunteers to join the resistance in Afghanistan and Iraq, and even Somalia and the Southern Sahel region. But the thread that links these two paths is a confused type of thought, which encourages negative tendencies to violence and extremism. But the unique experience of coexistence between the Muslims and the Jews of North African origin has had an impact on these tendencies. While the experience of openness might mean repercussions for the Morocco on several levels, but terror remains one, and it is rejected, whatever clothes it wears.
