A bastion against terrorism

The Middle East is home to the world’s most brutal and ruthless terror groups, all of whom want not only to destroy the state of Israel and wipe out the Jewish people, but also direct their terror at the West. The outside world often chooses to turn a blind eye to the existential threat that these terrorist groups pose to Israel.

The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, was carried out by the terrorist group al-Qaeda, from which Syria’s new leadership has its background. Photo: Wally Gobetz

The Middle East is the launching point for large numbers of the world’s most brutal terrorist groups. Many of these groups in the region want to introduce Islamic Sharia law, while several communist-socialistic terror groups are also active in the area.
Common factors are acts of terrorism, both in the region and in the West, as a means to achieve their goals. Although most of the Islamists’ terrorist acts have occurred in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, a number of them have also been carried out in the United States and Europe. On September 11, 2001, the United States was subjected to the worst terror attack ever in its history when the al-Qaeda network hijacked two planes full of passengers and flew them, a quarter of an hour apart, straight into two of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, the Twin Towers in Manhattan. A third plane flew into the Pentagon, which caught fire, while a fourth, which took off from Pennsylvania and was intended for the White House in Washington, did not reach its destination.

The Houthi rebels are an Iran-backed Shia Islamic terrorist group in Yemen, which is labeled by the United States and the Arab League as a terrorist organization. The Houthi rebels’ flag reads “Allah is the greatest”, “Death to the United States”, “Death to Israel”, “A curse on the Jews” and “Victory to Islam”. The Houthi rebels declared war on Israel on October 31, 2023, after firing a barrage of ballistic and cruise missiles at the country.
Hezbollah is another Shiite terror group whose goal is to destroy Israel, considering the Jewish state as illegitimate. This terrorist group was formed in the early 1980s by Ayatollah Khomeini’s followers, with the aim of spreading the Islamic revolution.
All Jews are seen as legitimate targets for terror attacks. Last year, an Argentine court ruled that the Hezbollah terrorist group was behind two deadly terror attacks 30 years ago in Buenos Aires that took the lives of 124 people.
The day after the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah began firing rockets and artillery at Israel in solidarity with Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.

On October 7, 2023, the Hamas terrorist group murdered 1,200 people took 250 hostage in the worst terror attack on Jews since the Holocaust and the bloodiest day in Israel’s modern history. The Hamas terror group’s ruthless attack included torture, murdering parents in front of their children and children in front of their parents, mutilation of corpses, rape of both women and men who were torn from shelters and then burned. The massacre was celebrated in the streets of the Arab world and shortly after the act of terror, Hamas vowed to repeat the massacre until Israel was annihilated.
After the massacre, the Turkish president Erdogan designated Hamas “freedom fighters”, Qatar held Israel responsible for the massacre, Syria called the massacre a “glorious achievement” while Iran and Iraq joined in the praise.
Delegations from the terror group were then received as guests of honor in Moscow, Istanbul, Tehran and Beijing with the aim of giving Hamas a role in a future Palestinian state.
In the ensuing war, Hamas leaders deliberately targeted Israeli civilians, used Palestinian civilians as human shields while they themselves hid in tunnels or took refuge in luxury hotels in Qatar.

In Israel’s immediate neighbourhood, there are also the terrorist groups al Qaeda (which was behind the terror attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001 and from which Syria’s new leadership comes), ISIS, the Nusra Front, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, the PFLP, Islamic Jihad and & PFLP-GC.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and is today present in Sudan, Syria, Lebanon and large parts of North Africa. It is today one of the world’s most influential Islamist movements with branches in over 70 countries.
One of the movement’s leaders, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, collaborated with the Nazis and fascists during World War II. The Grand Mufti met with both Mussolini and Hitler to coordinate the war against the Allies.
ISIS (Islamic State in Syria) has been accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations, systematic rape and other forms of sexual violence, mass murder of prisoners of war, summary executions, public floggings, beheadings and political assassinations of judges.
Western media largely ignores the existential threat to Israel posed by these brutal terrorist groups, which makes Israel’s resolute action against terror appear incomprehensible.