While not much is known about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, otherwise known as the Islamic State), because it has no centralized control, and its size and command structure, along with the identity of its leaders, are unclear, it is already obvious we are only at the beginning of a new fierce war in cyberspace. Indeed, while embodying the evil spirit of fanaticism, the organization’s activity demonstrates the duality between what appears to be primitivism and 21st century cyber warfare. In turn, in a step that aroused...
In recent months the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has managed to position itself as the most significant threat to regional stability in the Middle East. The mass executions in Iraq and Syria reflect the shock and awe strategy used by the organization in the areas it has captured. In addition, its threats to conquer other Middle East states have resounded widely, giving it the media status of a global power in the making. Indeed, the Islamic State has made itself the de facto...
Qatar’s support for Hamas and the vehement opposition by Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to the US attempt to let Qatar play a role in the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip have stirred the debate about Qatar’s conduct in the regional and international arenas. Through its policies in recent years, particularly its support for Muslim extremists in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, alongside overt support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Qatar has unsettled other regional players and threatened...
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was founded in 1976, demanding the establishment of an independent state for the Tamil ethnic minority in northern and northeastern Sri Lanka. In May 2009, following over three decades of conflict, its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed and the group was dismantled. The LTTE was established long before other well-known terror groups emerged, and yet it received little attention in comparison. An analysis of the relations between Sri Lankan governments and the Tamil Tigers from the...
The abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers has returned the issue of Palestinian terror and the military threat from the Gaza Strip to the top of the public agenda. As a result, there is a strong demand to change Israel’s strategic approach to Hamas and to terror and violence in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The government of Israel has leveraged the kidnapping in order to make it clear to the Israeli public and the international community that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that there should be no tolerance...
The presence of foreign fighters in Syria and the danger posed by their return to their countries of origin could create a security problem for many countries inside and outside the region, if only because of the large number of combatants and the many different countries from which they come. There is already evidence of “Syrian alumni” becoming involved in terrorist activity in their countries of origin and in various combat zones in the Middle East. Moreover, Western security agencies have warned of the danger posed by the return...
