ISIS repeats the Zionist approach

I remember back in the late 1950’s (when I first started to become aware of things) and until the mid-1960’s how the official Arab media would portray Israel. We imagined Israel to be a supernatural monster capable of achieving miracles. We imagined our soldiers as extraordinary human beings capable of executing all types of fighting missions, even the impossible missions. Of course, at the time, the Arab media was focusing on conveying the Zionist brutality and this is good, but unfortunately, the media at the time overlooked an important issue. It was, unintentionally, magnifying the capabilities of the Israelis, especially their soldiers. This contributed to creating a state of preconceived fear of the Israelis in the minds of the Arabs. This played a serious role in the Arabs’ defeat in 1967.

At the time, I was living in my home town of Qalqilya in the West Bank, and when we saw the Israelis and their army, we basically saw them as normal people, like everyone else, who were terrified. Most of the soldiers were young men in their twenties and they would constantly look around while walking out of fear. They were even afraid of rocks being thrown near them, even though they knew at the time that there were no weapons in the West Bank. The question on everyone’s minds was: are these the people who defeated us? We thought about this question for a long time, and we finally reached the correct answer: They were able to defeat us, not because of their Superman-like powers, but because we are weak and did not properly prepare for the battle. This is one of the facts of our conflict with the Zionist enemy.

Of course, the constant massacres committed by Israel contributed to the state of terror towards Israel and its army, and therefore, it intensified the Arabs’ fear of its army. However, there is a big difference between criminality and brutality as a characteristic of a state and its settlers and between the combative capabilities of the Israeli soldiers. Brutality and massacres are two characteristics to ensure the Zionist existence, but at the same time, they are the weapons of the weak. They use their crimes and massacres to justify their weakness.

The Islamic State (ISIS) is reproducing these same methods, as slaughtering people has become one of the characteristics of its existence and it helps the organisation produce and intensify the state of fear of ISIS. This also allows it to achieve more victories, both old and new. These are completely Zionist methods and ISIS is resorting to slaughtering people every time it occupies a new area, thus creating a sense of terror in others. This also encourages people to migrate away from their areas, which creates a greater sense of fear, and such actions mimic the Zionist methods and approaches.

The establishment of the two phenomena represented by Israel and ISIS were supported by the West from the ground up, especially Britain in the case of Israel at the beginning, and then later by the US. It also supported the establishment of Al-Qaeda and its branches. Israel was established as a manufactured state in our region purely for colonisation purposes to act as a hostile state with one main mission: to attack the people and countries in the region on a historical, cultural and existential level. This state has a history full of massacres against the Palestinians and the Arab nations and has come to sabotage the social unity of the people from the same nation in order to prevent them from meeting. This state also aims to fragment the countries of the region into rivalling mini-states by means of sectarian, ethnic and doctrinal conflicts and seeks to establish its own large state across most of the Arab world. These are the same goals the US created ISIS to achieve, and this has been confirmed by the former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in her recently published memoir, which caused much uproar.

It is true that the methods of killing adopted by ISIS are disgusting, horrendous and inhumane, but Israel does the same killing, albeit using different methods and on a larger scale. Israel exceeds ISIS in the number of people it kills. It also kills children who are barely a few months old by demolishing their homes while they are still in them. ISIS does not kill children, but of course, I am not defending them. In addition to this, ISIS displaces people, which Israel does as well to the Palestinians. Israel has even exceeded the number of displaced Palestinians over decades and stages. ISIS is learning from its Zionist teacher to provoke sectarian, doctrinal and ethnic conflicts in the Arab world.

Therefore the UN decided to consider Zionism a form of discrimination and apartheid, although the US pressured most countries to cancel this resolution after the fall of the Soviet Union and the socialist countries and to form a unipolar world. However, this cancellation does not get rid of the core of the resolution, its implications, or its applications. Many Latin American countries considered Israel a terrorist state after its latest attack on the Gaza Strip. In the end, murder is murder and “skinning a sheep does not harm it after it has already been slaughtered”, and this is what ISIS is doing in an innovative way under the cover of Islam, but our religion condemns such actions.

From the first moment that the Zionist attack on Gaza began, the organisations that call themselves “jihadists”, such as ISIS, Al-Nusra Front and others, should have abandoned the battles they unjustly waged against many Arab fronts and countries and aimed all their weapons at the Zionist enemy. According to Islam, Jihad against Israel is a top priority, as it seized holy Islamic land, killed Palestinian people, civilians and children, and demolished their homes; Israel is the main enemy of Islam. However, instead of fighting the greatest Jihad against our religion’s enemy, these organisations continued their plans to sabotage and destroy Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, as well as other countries. Is liberating Mosul, Nineveh, Ar-Raqqah, Ayn Al-Arab (Kobani), Damascus, and Arsal more important than liberating Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque which is under the threat of being demolished and subject to the attacks and violations of settlers on a daily basis?

ISIS continues to destroy and devastate the popular unity while it continues to occupy areas by means of provoking doctrinal, sectarian and ethnic disputes within them. However, the Arab societies have lived in sectarian harmony and peace amongst the various doctrines, sects, religions and ethnicities for centuries. There is no difference between a Muslim and Christian, a Sunni or Shia, or an Arab and a non-Arab; they are all equal in their respective countries. Religion belongs to God and the country belongs to everyone. One of the most dangerous plans being implemented by ISIS and its fellow extremist organisations is the destruction of co-existence within the Arab countries, and it has been a Zionist goal since the establishment of Israel.

It is a well-known fact that the United States facilitated the immigration of Iraqi and other Arab Christians and minorities from their countries to the US and other European and Western countries by means of coordination between the US and such countries. For example, the US displaced the Iraqi Christians and helped assassinate Iraqi scholars and intellectuals in various fields during its direct occupation of Iraq, especially those in the scientific field, and now ISIS is doing the same for the minorities, beginning with displacing them from their areas in preparation for their immigration to the West. This is also what ISIS and its supportive groups are doing in Syria in the areas they control.

This is just a drop in a sea of facts that unfortunately the media is not focusing on, all of which link the Zionist state and its student ISIS, as well as its other fellow extremist organisations which treat their wounded in Israel and carry out their activities in the Golan Heights in plain sight of Zionist forces. These Zionist forces do nothing about this, of course based on the orders from the US and its allies.

ISIS and Israel are two sides of the same coin, so why is there focus on ISIS while the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy are overlooked? We will soon find out the answer after the events of the near future.

Translated from Al-Sharq, 15 October, 2014

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.