Like the leaders of other Western countries targeted by Islamist terrorists, French President François Hollande has insisted that the recent attacks in Paris are not a product of Islam. At the same time, terrorists operating against Western targets themselves believe and insist that their acts of brutal violence against non-Muslim targets are indeed inspired, even required by Islam. Given that the debate about the “truth” of the Muslim-terrorism nexus is ultimately inconclusive, Western political leaders would be better advised, at...
The shock that gripped France following the terrorist attacks in Paris in early January 2015 will probably wane as time passes. Similarly, the urgency assigned to effective handling of the danger originating on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq that threatens Western democracies will likely decline. The need to take up the challenge will be postponed to a time when the leaders of Western countries have no choice but to deal with it directly, on a broad scale, and perhaps violently. Presumably only a chain of exceptional events,...
Since the start of the millennium, suicide attacks have become a common mode of operation for many terrorist groups around the world, particularly Sunni Salafist jihadi organizations affiliated with global jihad. For them, suicide attacks are not only an effective tactic for causing death and destruction and sowing terror; they are also a trademark and proof of the willingness of their operatives to sacrifice themselves for the sake of God (fi sabil Allah). In 2014 there were 592 suicide attacks, a 94 percent increase over the...
Since the start of the previous decade, and especially in the past four years, the Middle East has experienced upheavals that will change the face of the region for many years to come. This turmoil has several sources: the United States occupation of Iraq in 2003, which altered the country’s political structure and military capabilities for the foreseeable future; the sociopolitical turbulence, originally called the “Arab Spring,” experienced by many regimes in the Arab world; the growing strength of radical Islamic groups in the...
In light of the complex evolving predicament facing Hizbollah, the alleged discovery of yet another infiltration would probably be branded by the organization as an operational victory. Indeed, by uncovering high level infiltrators, the group can project power and efficiency and discredit Israel’s intelligence apparatus. Even more significant, assuming media reports are credible, and although other intelligence assets may still be utilized by Israel, the arrested senior operative and his four accomplices may have contributed to the...
On November 13, 2014 the Treasury of the Islamic State organization (IS) announced its intention to mint a first series of coins to be used in the territory under its control. For the leaders of IS, this move has both symbolic and economic meaning. Not only does the minting of coins reflect the group’s ambition to signal to its domestic public and its audience abroad that it is a sovereign state, not an organization, and to give this message iconographic expression. It also constitutes another stage in realizing the radical...
At this point it is too early to determine whether Baghdadi’s positive situation assessment of the Islamic State organization is justified. While it is true that the organization has managed to establish control over the locations it has conquered and attract tens of thousands of Muslim volunteers from all over the world, it also seems that the intervention of coalition forces, which are still in the early stages of activity, has already succeeded in stopping the rapid and successful spread of ISIS. The evil wind blowing from ISIS is...
The terrorist attack on November 18, 2014 in a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem was another step in an emerging trend whereby the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is liable to evolve from a national struggle into a religious war. In recent months, the main Palestinian area of concern has been the struggle over Jerusalem, and debate of the issue is rife with religious extremism. Israel must prevent the continuing slide of the conflict from the national to the religious level, particularly given the lack of effective...
The Egyptian military announced recently that it would put in place a long-planned “security zone” on its eastern border, where the Sinai Peninsula abuts the Gaza Strip. Egyptian forces began evacuating eight hundred homes in Egyptian Rafah, all within 500 meters of the Gaza border, displacing an estimated ten thousand Sinai residents; the size of the proposed secured area was subsequently doubled to 1000 meters. Policymakers in Cairo believe this buffer zone will stop the infiltration of weapons and militants through tunnels from...
The struggle against the Islamic State (IS) organization led by the United States and its allies appears thus far to be something of a Sisyphean war: ineffective, limited to scratches on the surface of the jihadi pyramid, beyond the roots of the phenomenon, unable to end the civil wars in Syria and Iraq, and relegated to serve as another layer in the existing chaos in Syria and Iraq, and soon perhaps in part of Lebanon as well. The destruction plaguing the Middle East is accompanied by a frightening thought in the Western world of IS...
Israel is not currently a top priority for Al Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, or even for ISIS. Yet in light of the situation described above, and since these organizations regard Israel as a partner in the Western coalition, they may choose to undertake action against it at an earlier stage than originally planned stage. Despite this risk, it is best for Israel to avoid initiating premature military measures against them, as long as it is not forced into an operation in order to thwart direct action against it. Israel should leave this task...
Terrorist activity by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis has increased in recent weeks. Presumably the organization’s growing activity in Sinai, which is spilling over into Egyptian cities, is affected by the tightening of its relations with non-Egyptian terrorist organizations, headed by ISIS and Salafi jihadi affiliates from the Gaza Strip, and constitutes a strong challenge to the sense of security and stability of the el-Sisi regime. This is the background to the recently heightened activity by the Egyptian army against terrorism in Sinai.
