The latest attacks in Paris and Brussels highlight Europe’s dilemma and its need to choose between strict preservation of various individual freedoms and a decision to eliminate the terrorist bases of fundamentalist Islam in Europe. In practice, this latter struggle will require closer supervision of religious institutions, heightened monitoring of various charity organizations, and strengthened security systems at public facilities. The cumulative effect of the reports about the Islamic State’s cruelty, the destruction and...
The Israeli public, policymakers, and media are hard pressed to define the climate of terrorism that descended on Israel in September 2015 and has continued since. With a new phenomenon, the impulse is to frame it in familiar terms. For this reason, the terrorist attacks of the past half year have been referred to as an “intifada.” It is doubtful, however, that the term “intifada” suits the reality that has emerged. What can Israel do? First, it can improve the separation between Israelis and Palestinians, which will serve to reduce...
The prevalent view in Israel, which regards the young Palestinians who dig tunnels and conduct stabbing attacks as products of a process of religious and political radicalization by Hamas and of incitement led by the Palestinian Authority waged on the social media, is imprecise and at best a partial picture. The social networks are communication tools – not the root of the problems. The efforts to take care of the symptom, i.e., incitement on social media, without addressing the illness, namely, the problematic core issues in the...
The discovery of natural gas in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea is good news for Israel. The gas is expected to satisfy Israel’s energy needs for many years, and export to other states is expected to yield significant tax revenues. It is therefore generally said that the infrastructure for drilling natural gas and transporting it to Israel’s shores, mainly drilling platforms, constitutes a strategic asset for Israel.
Reciprocity is an accepted aspect of the laws of treaties and a recognized element of state responsibility. “No state is obliged by customary international law to remain passive when another state takes action inimical to its legally protected interests.” Countermeasures are likewise a recognized act of enforcement in international law, and the International Law Commission draft on the subject reads: “The wrongfulness of an act of a State not in conformity with an international obligation towards another State is precluded if...
Over the past two decades, suicide attacks have become a prominent weapon in the arsenal of terrorist organizations in general, and Salafi jihadist organizations in particular. With rare exceptions, the suicide attacks that took place in 2015 were committed by terrorist organizations associated with radical Islam. Although suicide attacks constitute only a relatively small proportion of terrorist organizations’ operations, the number of these attacks, as well as their geographic distribution, has grown over the years. The increasing...
Islamic fundamentalism is part of a worldwide phenomenon of an activist and often belligerent response to perceived threats from modernity and globalization – originating in the West – to the religious and cultural identity of various societies. In addition, the resort to religious activism was and remains a response to the severe socioeconomic upheavals these societies have experienced as a result of modernization, especially among those who were not fortunate enough to enjoy its benefits. The Islamic State is the most extreme and...
The founding of the organization known as the Islamic State in the spring of 2013, and its June 2014 announcement of the establishment of the Islamic State under the leadership of the caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, caused a split among all organizations belonging to and identifying with the global jihad camp – a camp that until then had been led by al-Qaeda. The rivalry between al-Qaeda and its partners and the Islamic State and its supporters is caused by a dispute not about vision, but rather about the strategy and the most effective...
The Islamic State burst onto the Middle East scene as an entity whose conduct and very essence challenge the existing regional order. With its military conquests in Iraq and Syria, its establishment of branches elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond, its state-like governance in the areas under its control, and the cruelty it typically exhibits, the Islamic State has become the focus of regional and international interest and concern. The articles compiled in this volume examine ways of dealing with one of the most salient military,...
This essay focuses on how the Islamic State and other non-state actors use media and technology to influence individuals and groups by combining Internet activity with activity in the real world. The Islamic State functions in an actual physical and geographical space, in cyberspace, and within the conscious realm. Eachserves the Islamic State’s communications, propaganda, psychological warfare, and recruitment, influencing individuals and groups and inducing them to carry out “spontaneous” acts of terrorism. The way the Islamic...
In executing and taking responsibility for the November 13, 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, the Islamic State has three objectives: revenge against France for its military involvement in the international coalition to eliminate the Islamic State; an undermined sense of security in France and evidence to the Western world that the struggle with the Islamic State is not restricted to Iraq and Syria; and aid to the Islamic State in its efforts to attract new recruits. Some in Israel may hope that the events in Paris will add to...
