Bin Laden urges jihad and slams Arab leaders over Gaza

By Firouz Sedarat

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called on Muslims to rise in a jihad (holy struggle) against the Israeli offensive in Gaza and accused Arab leaders of collusion with Israel, in an audio tape issued on Wednesday.

The Saudi-born militant also said outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush had left his successor, President-elect Barack Obama, a sapping legacy of war and economic woe.

Bin Laden said the global financial crisis had exposed the waning U.S. influence in world affairs and would in turn weaken its ally Israel.

"Our brothers in Palestine, you have suffered a lot.... the Muslims sympathise with you in what they see and hear. We, the mujahideen, sympathise with you also..." bin Laden said on the tape entitled 'A Call for Jihad to Stop the Aggression against Gaza', that appeared on Islamist websites.

"We are with you and we will not let you down. Our fate is tied to yours in fighting the Crusader-Zionist (Western-Israeli) coalition, in fighting until victory or martyrdom."

He called on Muslims to rise in support of Gazans and not to rely on Arab leaders "the great majority of whom are allied with the Crusader-Zionist coalition."

The Palestinian death toll from a 19-day-old Israeli offensive against the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza has passed 1,000. Israel says it has lost three civilians, hit by rockets or mortars from Gaza, and 10 soldiers.

In Washington, the White House said the tape, in which bin Laden also appealed to Muslims to donate money to militants in a "financial jihad," showed his isolation.