Twonoteworthy incidents that were reported recently in Israel involved operativesconnected to al-Qaeda and Salafist jihadism who were engaged in terroristactivity in Israel and the West Bank. These reports emerged against the currentbackground of concern in Israel about the possibility of another intifada inthe West Bank. The question that arises is whether elements belonging toSalafist jihadism, which is identified with al-Qaeda and global jihad, havealso begun to play a significant role in possible escalation to violence on awide...
This article discusses active protection in response to the rocket threat to Israel’s home front. The defense establishment anticipates that in an allout war, the home front would be attacked for about thirty days, and that every day there would be about one thousand rocket and missile hits that would cause thousands of casualties as well as damage to infrastructures and strategic sites. Israel has an active protection system with five layers of interceptor missiles, and in cooperation with the United States, it developed Nautilus, a...
This paper critically examines the ongoing religious terrorism of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria, focusing on why the group exists and its growing connection to the global jihad. It evaluates the coercive and conciliatory responses of the Nigerian government to Boko Haram, with particular reference to the Joint Military Task Force. Problematizing a security-only, killing approach to dealing with religious terrorism, it argues that countries fighting terror abroad should learn from the Nigerian experience of fighting Boko Haram that...
The global battle against terror has done serious damage to al-Qaeda’s physical infrastructures, and thus to limit its exposure, al-Qaeda has stepped up its activity in cyberspace. Activists have learned to exploit internet technologies by using known networks to distribute material for recruitment, training, and coordination of terrorist operations. The internet has a visible side and a hidden side. The visible side includes sites that can be found through an ordinary search, while the hidden side, called the darknet, includes sites...
Al-Qaeda captured international headlines again last week, with reports of a direct threat to Western embassies – American embassies in particular – and civilians everywhere. This media event renewed the debate about the threat level currently represented by al-Qaeda. While over the last year senior figures in the US administration , members of the defense establishment, and many analysts embraced optimistic assessments, namely, that the organization is close to elimination, this past week the pendulum swung the other way and pointed...
This article will not offer a legal analysis or presume to take sides in the ongoing debate between the administration and its critics on legal positions regarding military and security issues. The basic assumption of this series of speeches asserted that such a discussion is unavoidable and even essential in any democratic country. The problem is that when it heats up, particularly in wartime, the debate is liable to frame the tension between security and values as an inevitable choice between them. Obama identified this...
Recent statements by global jihad factions inside and outside Syria reflect not only a joint vision of making post-Assad Syria part of an Islamic caliphate, but also differences over the struggle to free Syria and what constitutes appropriate behavior toward the local population. However, despite the verbal polemics in the internal dialogue among the Salafi jihadi organizations in Syria, exposing splits and tactical disputes among those often portrayed in the global media as a monolithic bloc, their shared goals should not be...
The past few weeks have not been easy for Hizbollah. On February 27, 2013 Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah appeared on the organization’s cable television station to refute claims regarding his presumed serious illness and subsequent hospitalization for urgent treatment in Iran. Around the same time, reports from the Syrian opposition claimed that Nasrallah’s deputy, Sheikh Naim Qassem, had been seriously wounded (or according to other reports, killed) in Syria. These apparently fabricated reports come at a dire time...
According to foreign sources, about two weeks ago, Israel attacked targets in Syrian territory. Assuming that a convoy of SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles en route from Syria to Lebanon was in fact attacked by Israel, as was reported by foreign sources, several questions arise. What other types of weapons could Syria move to Lebanon? What are the possible reasons for Syria choosing to move these weapons to Lebanon at this time? The article addresses these questions, discussing the motives behind the possible transfer of weapons and the...
France’s military intervention in the campaign underway in Mali is connected to the recent hostage attack in southern Algeria by the Masked Battalion, a faction that split off from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Yet despite the intervention by France and its allies, it appears that the campaign to liberate Mali from global jihadist elements is just beginning. The attempt to remove these organizations from the north of Mali is likely to lead to a bloody campaign throughout the country, and possibly beyond.
The book includes thirteen analytical essays written by INSS and outside researchers. Focus is on Israel’s strategic environment, particularly the challenges and the opportunities that await Israel in 2013. The chief issues are: the Iranian nuclear threat; renewal of the politcal process with the Palestinians; preservation of the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan; the increasing instability among Israel’s neighbors, especially Syria; and preservation of Israel’s international stature.
The elimination of Osama Bin Laden, together with the killing of many of al-Qaeda’s senior members, left the organization’s new leader, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, with a series of challenges and pivotal decisions. This chapter will focus on the way al-Zawahiri guided al-Qaeda and itsaffiliates in negotiating the obstacles before them, given the changing reality in various locales and the upheaval in the Arab world and beyond.
