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| Who is the Enemy of ISIS? |
In several of my German articles I have been arguing that an "Islamic State" doesn't make any sense without the control over the sacred sites of Islam, Mecca and Medina. That is why, so my reasoning, ISIS should not have attacked Al-Assad or the Al-Abadi regime, not to speak of Israel, but the Wahhabite Salafist Saudi Arabian dictatorship. This regime is the real enemy of Islam and bears partly the responsibility for the worldwide spread of its totalitarian ideology. But one should not forget that the US empire did everything possible to further this endeavor. Finally, the IS leadership has declared its political and ideological priorities in an article that was published in the 22nd issue of its mouthpiece "Al-Naba" titled: "Beit Al-Maqdis" ; this name stands for Jerusalem and is also symbolically used for its surroundings.
The article was translated by MEMRI, a media organization founded in 1998 by Yigal Carmon, Colonel in the Military Intelligence Directorate in Israel. The other founding members of MEMRI also served in the Military Intelligence of the IDF. MEMRI has a strong anti-Muslim bias.
I want to draw readers’ attention that this article could be a fabrication. Its main thrust is directed against the Muslim regimes and spares the West and Israel. Be that as it may, whether the article is authentic or a forgery of intelligence agencies, it gives insights into the methods of the war of ideas waged along the massive battles in the Middle East.
For ISIS, the Palestinian cause is not a top priority and is criticized as a "religiously prohibited excess". According to the article, jihad in Palestine has the same priority as jihad elsewhere in a world ruled by infidels. It continues that Palestine is not the primary cause of Muslims, and the fight against Israel is an internal affair of the Palestinian people. Fighting jihad for the current Fatah and Hamas regimes in Palestine is described as a waste of time. "Waging jihad with the aim of replacing the rule of the Jews with a regime like that of those who currently rule Gaza and the West Bank is jihad that is null and void – because it is being waged for the sake [of the Taghout=to idealize a person or entity instead of Allah], not for the sake of Allah."
The article is very critical of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Hafez al-Assad, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, who have argued over years that Palestine is the primary cause of Muslims. In doing so, they traded in the Palestinian issue and disillusioned their followers. This ISIS view seems incorrect because the above mentioned were Pan-Arab leaders. "The trade in Palestine goes beyond the nationalists, the leftists, and the Rafidites; it has long since entered the core of the platforms of the parties, groups, and organizations that falsely affiliate themselves with Islam. They see it as a means of recruiting men and uniting the ranks, because they can find no other goal on which people agree but the Palestinian cause – in which everyone, without exception, trades. They thought it would be easy to build their platform on the foundation of the 'problem of Palestine'... since they have found that people are distant from the religion. Therefore, they were tempted to rally people around themselves based on this defective foundation." The article calls "the apostate [tyrants] who rule the lands of Islam are graver infidels than [the Jews], and war against them takes precedence over the war against the original infidels".
The article is also very critical of the Shiites, especially Hezbollah, and it condemns also the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Muslin jihadists should fight against the Shiites and against Egypt's strongman Fattah as-Sisi. The fight in Israel/Palestine should also be carried out by Muslims. The jihadists who flocked into Syria should return and take on the jihad against "infidels" nearest to them.
The article spells out a warning to Palestinians not to join any organization but ISIS. "Waging jihad to rescue Beit Al-Maqdis from the Jews is no justification for joining infidel factions and parties such as the Shi'ite Hizb Al-Lat or the Islamic Jihad movement that is tied to it, or secularist and communist movements such as Fatah, the DFLP and the PFLP, or movements that claim to be Islamic but refrain from implementing the laws of Allah and instead effectively implement the polytheism of democracy, such as the apostate Hamas movement."
In sum, only after all Arab regimes that support Israel have been overthrown, jihadist forces can confront directly Israel and its army. "War against the Jews can be waged only by eliminating these [tyrants], toppling their regimes, and destroying their armies, and then arriving at the borders of the Jewish State and confronting its army directly."
So far, the Israel security establishment doesn't see ISIS and the other terrorist groups in Syria as an existential threat to its security. On the contrary, Israel treats wounded jihadist fighters in its hospitals and sends them back to the battlefield. The Israeli leadership still considers Iran and its affiliate Hezbollah the largest threat to Israel's security. According to the article, Israel doesn't have to worry, because the jihadists from ISIS have first to topple all the infidel Arab regimes before they will tackle Israel.
