A regional offshoot of al-Qaeda known as the Nusra Front currently controls a swath of territory that extends from northwestern Syria, through Lebanon, into the area east of the Golan Heights. Viewing Islamic State and Syrian rebel groups as rivals, it sometimes cooperates with them and sometimes attacks them. It has recently been fighting the Shiite Hizballah, which it may well hope to replace as the dominant Islamist militia in Lebanon. And then? Jonathan Spyer speculates:
It is . . . by no means impossible that Nusra could, at a certain point, turn its attention to Israel. Certainly, the current attempt by Palestinian organizations to refocus attention on their struggle through the prism of pan-Islamic concerns for the al-Aqsa Mosque makes such an outcome more likely. Nusra seems determined to emerge as a kind of mirror image of the Shiite Hizballah—combining an uncompromising jihadi ideology with tactical flexibility and an ability to work with its own public (Sunnis), rather than simply terrorize them into submission. Israeli and Western governments should be watching the organization very carefully.
Read more on Middle East Forum: http://www.meforum.org/4882/nusra-sunni-hezbollah