Bin Laden vows to fight as Israel marks 60th anniversary

DUBAI - Osama bin Laden vowed in an audio tape timed to coincide with Israel's 60th anniversary to continue to fight the Jewish state and its allies in the West.

|PIC1|Bin Laden has placed growing emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in recent pronouncements.

He said it was at the heart of the Muslim battle with the West and an inspiration to the 19 bombers who carried out the attacks on U.S. cities on September 11, 2001.

"We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on earth," the leader of al Qaeda said in the latest message, posted on an Islamist website on Friday.

He said Israel's anniversary celebrations were a reminder that it did not exist 60 years ago, and had been established on land seized from Palestinians by force.

"This is evidence that Palestine is our land, and the Israelis are invaders and occupiers who should be fought," he said.

The Saudi-born militant noted that decades of peace initiatives had failed to establish a Palestinian state, and said the West sided with Israel.

"The participation of Western leaders with the Jews in this celebration confirms that the West backs this Jewish occupation of our land, and that they stand in the Israeli corner against us," he said. "They proved this in practice by sending their forces to southern Lebanon."

He also said Western media had over the years painted Israelis as victims, and the Palestinians who had been displaced from their land as terrorists.

The authenticity of the tape could not immediately be verified but the voice sounded like Bin Laden's.

Laura Mansfield, an organisation that monitors Islamist websites, said Bin Laden appeared to be changing his emphasis.

"In his initial messages, bin Laden's focus was on the removal of U.S. forces from (Saudi Arabia) but in recent years he has more closely wedded himself to the Palestinian issue."

In a message on March 20, bin Laden urged Muslims to maintain the struggle against U.S. forces in Iraq as a path toward "liberating Palestine".

Al Qaeda has vowed attacks on Jews both inside and outside Israel, and regularly expressed support for the Palestinians.

Al Qaeda is widely blamed for a suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya and a simultaneous failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli charter jet near Mombasa airport in Kenya in 2002.

But despite calls by al Qaeda supporters for the militant network to establish a presence in Palestinian areas, U.S. intelligence officials see no evidence it has done so.

Analysts say it faces competition for turf, in particular in the Gaza Strip, from the well-established Hamas.