The Islamic State’s (ISIS) threats against Israel have mainly to do with propaganda, Professor Eyal Zisser of Tel Aviv University told Arutz Sheva on Sunday, in the wake of the recording released on Saturday in which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said his jihadists will attack the Jewish state.
“People come and ask ISIS, ‘Where are you with regards to the Palestinian question, to the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis?’ and we don’t hear ISIS, but ISIS cannot allow itself to leave it unanswered,” he explained.
“I think that most Arabs on the individual level see what ISIS is doing all over the region – chaos and destruction – and even the PA and Hamas are not happy about ISIS,” said Zisser.
At the same time, he stressed, “we have to understand that there are people who are followers, who sympathize with ISIS. In France, around 20% of [Muslims] who were asked expressed some sympathy. You need only 10% of them to decide that they’re going to do something about it, and you receive terrorist attacks carried out by individuals.”
ISIS itself, noted Zisser, is very busy in Syria and Iraq, but Israel should be aware of the threat from Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria and even in Israel who follow ISIS and sympathize with it.
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