ISIS Videos Underscore Anti-Semitic Backdrop to Terror

Child exe­cu­tioner in the new ISIS video

Last week, ISIS released a video titled “To the Sons of the Jews” that depicted chil­dren mur­der­ing alleged cap­tured Syr­ian sol­diers. The video con­tained mul­ti­ple threats against Jews and Israel.

ISIS inten­tion­ally ties the vio­lence of its chil­dren – its next gen­er­a­tion of fight­ers – to future threats against Israel and Jews. The adult instruc­tor in “To the Sons of the Jews,” for exam­ple, stated, “The ambi­tion of those cubs will not be lim­ited to lib­er­at­ing Syria or Iraq…but it is to raise high the ban­ner of the Prophet…over the White House in Amer­ica and in the heart of Tel Aviv.”

The chil­dren made the same point; before com­mit­ting their mur­ders, each said, “We have been raised to con­quer the East and West, and we will restore al-Aqsa (Jerusalem) and al-Andalus (Spain), Allah per­mit­ting.” One of the chil­dren said, “O Obama, we will cut your neck and we will do the same to you and all the Jews.”

The video closed say­ing, “O sons of the Jews, know that when­ever we cut off the head of an apos­tate, your death comes closer.”

The same theme runs through prior ISIS videos fea­tur­ing child executioners.

In March 2015, ISIS released a video fea­tur­ing a child mur­der­ing an indi­vid­ual whom the group alleged was a Mossad spy. The video threat­ened both Jews and Israel; quotes included, “O Jews, Allah has gifted us with killing your fol­low­ers in your own strong­hold in France,” and, “So we fight in Iraq and our eyes are on Jerusalem.” The con­clu­sion of the video depicted the child exe­cu­tioner stand­ing in front of an image of Jerusalem.

Another video, released in July 2015, depicted a child who appeared to be the exe­cu­tioner of a cap­tured sol­dier, fol­lowed by the state­ment, “Every day we kill and cap­ture your sol­diers and offi­cers. …and what is com­ing is more cun­ning and bit­ter. Our eyes are not only on…Homs nor Dam­as­cus, but our eyes are on Beit al-Maqdis [Jerusalem] and on Rome.”

Child exe­cu­tioner in ISIS video from March 2015 in front of Jerusalem

But ISIS’s claim that their chil­dren will kill Jews and over­throw the State of Israel is only part of a larger strat­egy shared by nearly all Islamic extrem­ist orga­ni­za­tions that exploits pop­u­lar anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel to recruit and moti­vate adher­ents and to encour­age fol­low­ers to act in the group’s interest.

Just as ISIS threat­ens Jews while exe­cut­ing Syr­ian sol­diers, Al Qaeda and its affil­i­ate groups reg­u­larly urge fol­low­ers to attack the U.S. as an (alleged) way to hurt Jews and Israel. ADL has doc­u­mented these calls, and more, in our report Anti-Semitism: A Pil­lar of Islamic Extrem­ist Ide­ol­ogy.

Oth­ers have noted sim­i­lar links. In a recent arti­cle in Tablet Mag­a­zine, Liel Liebowitz noted that Jews and Israel serve as a sort of canary in the coal mine of inter­na­tional ter­ror­ism. In Israel, France, and else­where, Jews are often the first vic­tims of ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tions that go on to attack West­ern sites more broadly. Pay­ing atten­tion to extrem­ist threats against Jews is not only impor­tant to com­mu­nal secu­rity; rather, it is essen­tial for national security.

Some reports have also indi­cated that San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook was “obsessed” with Israel. ADL has doc­u­mented mul­ti­ple instances of U.S. res­i­dents linked to ter­ror­ist plots and activ­ity moti­vated by Islamic extrem­ism who reg­u­larly expressed ani­mos­ity toward Israel and Jews; a list of recent exam­ples is avail­able in the ADL report.

Of course, not every­one who espouses anti-Semitic beliefs or hatred of Israel will be a ter­ror­ist. But the link between the two is an inten­tional ele­ment of ter­ror­ist strat­egy, and the impact of that strat­egy on Amer­i­can and West­ern secu­rity is significant.

Tags: ADL, anti-defamation league, anti-Semitism, combating hate, ISIS, Israel, liel liebowitz, San Bernardino, Syed Farook, terrorism, terrorist propaganda