It’s Jihad, Stupid

Israel is experiencing a sharp increase in terrorist activity in the form of rock-throwing, Molotov cocktails and live ammunition aimed at Israeli vehicles, which began to be noticeable several months ago and has escalated rapidly over the last few weeks. It is happening in Judea and Samaria, but the focus of the violence is in Jerusalem, where any incident involving the Temple Mount – el Aksa in Arabic – draws regional and even world attention.

Are we witnessing an organized set of terror attacks or an ongoing continuum of spontaneous events?  Is this the harbinger of a third Intifada? And if not, what is it? The jury seems to be out on the question.

The undecided internal debate about the significance of the violence is expressed by the media's selective choice of words. Should young people's actions be labeled acts perpetrated by "youths," a word emphasizing their age, but not claiming that they are minors? Should they instead be called "activists?" "terrorists?" "militants?" "hooligans?" It goes without saying that the choice of term makes a statement about the speaker's position regarding the violence as well his opinion on the punishment the perpetrators should receive if and when they are apprehended. There is a great deal of difference between "driver killed by rock thrown by youths" and "driver killed by rock thrown by terrorists."

What we in Israel are experiencing at the present time is an Islamic religious war,
It is sad to see the lack of real understanding on the part of Israelis and the rest of the world as to what actually is happening out there, because there is only one word that describes the truth about what the other side sees as reality - that is, the side that screams about Jews ascending the Temple Mount, throws rocks, hurls boulders and Molotov cocktails, stabs and shoots. That word, and it is the only applicable word, is "Jihad." This, to many Israelis, is the word "that must not be said" because it tells us is that what we in Israel are experiencing at the present time is an Islamic religious war.

Denial won't change anything, however, because there are at least seven different ways to prove that Israel is, as it always was, a "Jihad" target.

First and foremost, the struggle today, as in the past, is over the religious supremacy issue. According to Islam, the Jewish religion is passé, Din al-Batil, while Islam is the true religion, or  Din al-Haqq. According to Islam, Jews may live under Islamic rule if they cooperate and accept the lowly role of "dhimmi", protected ones, sans sovereignty, arms and citizens' status. The situation today where Jews rule "Palestine," a land Islam considers holy to Muslims alone, and are able to tell Muslims what they are allowed and not allowed to do, contradicts the most basic Islamic tenet: "Al-Islam Ya'lu wala yu'la 'alayhi" - Islam is supreme and nothing can be above it.

A situation where another religion, and certainly Judaism, controls Muslims and an Islamic land, mandates a "Jihad."

Second, according to Islamic doctrine, "Jihad" can assume various forms depending on prevailing circumstances. Screams, curses, blows, rocks, boulders, firecrackers, firebombs, knives, shots – all are weapons, each chosen after assessing the particular situation. Cameras are also weapons, especially for the media, which acts as the preferred Jihadist arena. The photographer and journalist are fighters in the "Communications Jihad."

"Legal Jihad" continues the struggle in the halls of international courts and institutions, while "Economic Jihad" is waged in BDS calls to boycott Israel, pull out of financial investments in the Jewish state and lay on sanctions.

The Bedouin in the Sinai have been carrying on a Jihad against Israel by smuggling infiltrators – many of them Muslim (surprise!) - and weapons into Gaza and into Israeli territory. The leader of the infiltrators in Israel is a Muslim, and his activities against the state, its citizens and laws can be lumped together as "Migrant Jihad."

A Muslim MK who defames Israel from the Knesset podium is a "Political Jihadist." The UN podium is no different. 

Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the United Nations and other world forums and the Palestinian Authority's attempt to receive international recognition as a state, are a kind of "Political Jihad" whose goal is the establishment of Muslim State No. 58 on the ruins of the one and only Jewish State. These efforts are camouflaged as legitimate political activity through which, by presenting a false image that depicts them as "peace lovers,"  the Muslims living both in Israel and outside of its borders are attempting to persuade the world to agree to destroy the Jewish State. The doctrine of Islamic Jihad mandates the inclusion of an element of deceit, and Mahmoud Abbas is a master of deception.

Make no mistake, all of the above are different types of Islamic Jihad.

Third is the increasing involvement of the Islamic Movement, particularly the northern branch led by Raed Salah (aka the el Aksa Sheikh) in staging incidents, incitement, financing the al-Murabitoun  and  al-Murabitat organizations and in its growing coordination with Hamas.

Each of these organizations carries on its anti-Israel Jihad to the best of its abilities, but all share a common religious goal: transforming all of "Palestine," stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, into a part of the Islamic Caliphate, with its capital in Al Quds (Jerusalem). The first religious leader of the Arabs in the area designated as the Jewish Homeland – the Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini - was involved in Military Jihad against the Jews of Israel but was also actively involved in the annihilation of a half million Hungarian Jews in 1944.

Fourth is the meaning of the the historically and religiously significant names of the above-mentioned organizations. They refer to the entire land and especially to the areas bordering it, where Muslims battle infidels in order to strengthen Islam and establish its rule over them and their countries. There have been organizations with similar names outside of Israel, all of them Islamic Jihadist in character.

The fifth indication is the expression used for anyone killed in anti-Israel incidents. Today, as well as in the past, the term employed is "shaheed", a religious term meaning someone who dwells in Paradise near Allah and receives the reward for martyrdom for the sake of Islam from Allah's hand.

And the sixth proof? Just look at what is going on in the Muslim world. All the Muslims living west of the Jordan River, in Israel and the Palestinian Authority are well-informed about the developments in Syria, Iraq and the Sinai. They are privileged to see in real time how original, fundamentalist, pure and unadulterated Islam is going about a bold and successful Jihad – including beheadings on camera – against Alawite, Yazidi, Druze and Shiite infidels, as well as foreigners like the Americans, whom they  do not fear in the least.

Everyone knows what is happening in the Jihad-land that has blossomed in the Sinai Desert, and how the Jihadists are successfully fighting an all-out war against Egyptian military forces, the largest army in the Middle East. Joy at Jihad successes in the countries surrounding Israel has found its way into the hearts of the Muslims living West of the Jordan and motivates them to join the Jihad against the Jews, the "enemies of Allah and Islam," and become part of the wave of Islamic successes that have the entire world trembling in fear.

Seventh, the illegal Arab construction going on all over Israel west of the Jordan River is a kind of Jihad known as "Construction Jihad."  

Not coincidentally, that is the name of the construction company owned by Hezbollah, no problem because the idea of a joint Jihad against Israel is an integral part of Islam to both Sunnis and Shiites and is one of the few points of agreement between them.

The multi-pronged Jihad against Israel described here is not announced publicly (or explained in detail as I have done), because the Muslims know full well that the world will not support Jihad if its fighters are openly attempting to destroy Israel.

Our media, still dreaming about a new Middle East as postulated by their delusional leader and Pied Piper of Hamelin, Shimon Peres...have no tools to fight a religious war against soldiers who have Allah's praise on their lips.
That is why Israel's leaders, spokespersons and media, every last one of them, must begin to pull their heads out of the sand, call the "Jihad" by its name and talk about what is happening here in real terms, that is, religious ones. It is time to say from morning to night that what we - and not only we - are facing is a Jihad, nothing else, and the fighters – women, children, adults and youth – are Jihad fighters. That is what they identify with, that is why they are enlisting.

Rock, boulder, firebomb, knife and gun, along with the camera, courts, boycott and migration – are all weapons in the hands of Jihad fighters, all are meant to topple Israeli security, society, economics and standing. Israel must take them seriously – and remember that in war as in war. Our media people, who are still dreaming about a new Middle East as postulated by their delusional leader and Pied Piper of Hamelin, Shimon Peres, are afraid of Jihadism, because they, like all liberals, have no tools to fight a religious war against soldiers who have Allah's praise on their lips.

Every time I try to tell Israeli media that Israel is fighting Jihadists, the interviewers quiet me fearfully and tell me not to change the nationalist Israeli-Palestinian conflict into an Islamic-Jewish religious war. I make an effort to tell them that with or without my saying it and whether or not they admit it, the war is a religious one. In fact, I add that even if they do not allow me to say it, the roots of the entire conflict are Islamist and religious. 

It may be presented as a nationalist, territorial, legal, political or any other kind of struggle, but that is an exercise in self-deception. The conflict stems from a source of Islamic religious fire, one that burns in the hearts of men and inside  the firebombs. In the War of Independence, the Arabs shouted "Idbah al-Yahoud – butcher the Jew." Note that they did not say Israeli or Zionist, but Jew. It is the Jews that they want to be rid of.

Shimon Peres, Yossi Beilin, Alon Liel and the other hallucinatory figures tried to convince us that there is a difference between the bad Jihadists of Hamas and the "charming", "pleasant' PLO ones, those true lovers of peace and tranquility, those whose arch-Jihadist leader Yasser Arafat was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Even Abbas' incendiary UN speech will not change their minds.

Theirs was an unfounded and utterly delusionary point of view, but it cost the lives of over 1500 very real Israelis, because the only difference between Hamas and the PLO is that Hamas declares openly that it is a Jihad fighter organization, while some PLO members hide the fact that they are as well.  Some of them – those in the el-Aksa Brigades - don't bother to hide it and their president, Mahmoud Abbas, finances them.  Those of us who are battle-weary attempt to kosher the Jihadist PLO vermin just as they attempted to gloss over Haj Amin al Husseini's part in the Holocaust of European Jewry.

Let's wake up and tell the truth – to ourselves and to the world. Only the truth can help us understand reality and deal with it properly. The truth is that we are a Jihad target for Hamas and the PLO, each one using its own methods of trying to dissemble and pull the wool over our eyes, and if we fall – thanks in part to the European money pouring into the arteries of the PA Jihad – Europe will be the next objective of that very same Jihad, which is already in the midst of exporting itself to Europe by means of massive Muslim immigration to the aging and deteriorating continent.

This is a Jihad. Our enemies, no matter what else they are, are all Jihad fighters. We have to adapt our way of talking about this situation and deal with it accordingly. The faster we do so the better it will be for us and the world.

Written in Hebrew for Arutz Sheva, translated by Op-ed and Judaism Editor, Rochel Sylvetsky.