Last week I attended the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism conference in connection with Israel’s Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (the “IDC Herzliya”). Speakers and attendees included military, diplomats and experts from every region of the world….
Speakers and attendees included military, diplomats and experts from every region of the world. All echoed one similar theme: do not underestimate Islamic State (ISIS), nor its likely replacements.
(Full disclosure, in addition to my work at HonestReporting I am also an adjunct faculty member and lecturer at the IDC. HonestReporting Française’s Walter Ben Artzi is a student at the IDC, as is HR intern Veronika Becvarova who contributed to this article.)
Former president Barak Obama once referred to terror groups in Syria and Iraq (including Islamic State) as the “JV team,” a sports metaphor indicating that he did not feel they pose a serious threat. American Presidents including Obama and Trump as well as various pundits have referred to Islamic State as being well on its way to defeat, pointing in particular to loss of territory.
ISIS’ control in Iraq and Syria is shrinking, but its influence is growing everywhere else…from Nigeria to Somalia and from Yemen to the Philippines. Therefore, we shouldn’t rejoice in the contraction of ISIS, but rather worry about its influence on various other organizations.
Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy added:
The grievances that led to the reemergence of the Islamic state still remain in Iraq and Syria. As a result this could provide a basis for recruitment.
Some experts noted that Islamic State was very nearly wiped out during the US surge in Iraq but recovered strongly.
Brian Fishman, the Lead Policy Manager for Counter-Terrorism at Facebook, pointed out:
The last time ISIS went underground (2014), they focused on the use of the internet and were very successful. For this reason, it’s not clear to me that they’re going to be defeated in Syria and Iraq despite the loss in ability to govern and hold territory.
Facebook’s Brian Fishman at the ICT conference.
Yet conference experts pointed out another, even more sinister problem: the “Coalition Forces” fighting Islamic State with Western support include brutal Shiite militia groups: often Iraqi, and often linked to the government of Iran. The result is that some regions of Syria are merely exchanging Islamic State’s violent Sunni oppression for an equally violent Shiite oppression.
Both situations serve as incubators for global terror, thus creating a serious threat for the entire Western world.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
When you sign up for email updates from HonestReporting, you will receive
Sign up for our Newsletter:
European Arrogance
Finally we come to Europe.
The same Europe that perennially “advises” Israel on how to achieve peace and security, while frequently condemning Israel for not adopting policies similar to Europe’s own disastrous strategies.
Deputy Head of Mission from the UK to Israel Tony Kay exemplified the standard European talking points:
We are doing quite a lot on… safeguarding people from becoming terrorists, or supporting terrorism… [using] a combination of soft power with hard power. We are…engaging communities [and producing] lots of successes that the UK has made on countering terrorism recently.
There is a dark irony in Kay’s statement, which came just three days before a devastating terror attack hit London’s Parsons Green, injuring 29 victims this past Friday. While Kay undoubtedly meant well, his statement served as just one more example of deadly European self-assurance, at a time when Europe desperately needs a measure of humility.
In fact, Europe’s recent track record has been bloody:
Israelis have suffered less than one fifth the number of terror related deaths as Europeans, a fact that may surprise news audiences who know Israel only through dramatic and misleading headlines.
One might even say that Europe (and not Islamic State) is the real “JV team.”
Consider that over 20% of Israel’s population is Arab, as are all of its neighboring countries, and the conclusion is obvious: for all its challenges, Israel understands how to live with Muslim neighbors and how to protect against Islamic terror. Europe, on the other hand, does not.
Yet if the speakers at the ICT conference are any indication, European leaders have yet to face and accept this hard truth.
And the people of Europe are paying for this mistake with their lives.
Former CEO of HonestReporting, Daniel managed the entire organization, its staff and programming. He began his career as an attorney in the United States where he worked for high profile law firms in New York and Chicago before starting his own law practice, and later moving to Israel.
