Islamic State Is Unlikely to Prioritize Killing Israelis https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/israel-zionism/2022/04/islamic-state-is-unlikely-to-prioritize-killing-israelis/

April 21, 2022 | Cole Bunzel
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The recent wave of terrorism in Israel was touched off by two attacks linked to Islamic State (IS). Until now, notes Cole Bunzel, such attacks have been exceedingly rare, largely because IS “is not ideologically disposed” to focus its military efforts on the Jewish state. Bunzel sketches the objectives and attitudes of key IS leaders and concludes that, while the terrorist group may occasionally execute one-off strikes against Israel, it is unlikely to devote serious resources to it.

To understand how Islamic State views Israel, it is helpful to begin with the relevant statements of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (d. 2006), the Jordanian founder of al-Qaeda in Iraq whose ideas form the foundation stone of the present-day caliphate. Palestine was not a prominent theme in al-Zarqawi’s speeches and lectures. Nor was attacking the Israelis a priority for him. On several occasions, he claimed that the liberation of Palestine would come only after victory had been achieved in Iraq and the Shiites had been subdued.

It was his view . . . that before one could effectively fight the “original unbelievers,” meaning the Jews and the Christians, it was first necessary to fight the Shiites. In this he was guided by his reading of medieval Islamic history, in particular the late Crusader period coinciding with rise of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (aka Saladin) and his defeat of the Shiite Fatimid caliphate in Egypt. In 1171, Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate and went on to construct a Sunni state spanning Egypt and Syria. A decade and a half later, in 1187, he captured Jerusalem following the decisive Battle of Hattin against the Crusader forces.

As Zarqawi saw it, there was “an important lesson” to be gleaned from this history. This was that “there will not be victory over the original unbelievers except after fighting the apostate unbelievers who are allied with the original believers.”

Read more on Jihadica: https://www.jihadica.com/the-islamic-state-vs-the-jewish-state/