First published on the CST Blog

A new report from CST, Terrorist Incidents Against Jewish Communities and Israeli Citizens Abroad, 1968–2010, lists 427 successful terrorist attacks and foiled or aborted terrorist plots, directed against Jewish or Israeli targets in 57 countries outside Israel, since 1968. The first edition of this book, which was published in 2003 by CST and the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, was the first time that this history of post-1967 anti-Jewish terrorism had been comprehensively collated. This edition, published solely by CST, includes an updated chronology of attacks, an expanded analysis and new statistical tables. It provides an invaluable aid to Jewish security professionals and volunteers, law enforcement agencies, governments, academics and others interested in the study of terrorism, antisemitism, political and religious extremism and the terrorist threat to Jewish Diaspora communities.

Trans-European Trends in Right Wing Extremism, a new paper by CST’s Director of Government and International Affairs Michael Whine, is now available to download in full here. The paper will appear as a chapter in a forthcoming book, a forthcoming book, Mapping the Extreme Right in Contemporary Europe (Berghahn Books) due to be published later this year.

This chapter examines the effects that the easing of Europe’s borders and the development of information and communications technologies are having on the outlook and activities of right-wing extremists. It will argue that these developments are the new ‘enablers’ allowing white supremacists and neo-Nazis to connect and move closer to the cooperation that earlier extremists argued for, but failed to accomplish. Of course right-wing extremists are not the only political activists who benefit. The extreme left has always been internationalist, and anti-globalization protestors communicated and organized across borders to stage demonstrations and riots in Gothenburg (2000), Genoa (2001) and elsewhere. The extreme right, however, has not, and attempts to create enduring international collaboration have been less successful.

The chapter’s focus is on white supremacists, neo-Nazi groups and the youth cultures they frequently recruit from, rather than parties, although there may be links between them. Their lifestyles are a consequence of easier movement and the adoption of contemporary cultures, most notably music and clothing. A trend towards focused terrorist violence is also emerging.

First published in the CST Blog

First published in Tel-Aviv Notes, Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University.

On June 16, 2011, Ayman al-Zawahiri was named Usama Bin Ladin's successor as al-Qa‘ida's leader. His appointment was not taken for granted and had to be approved by al-Qa‘ida's central command. His ascension compels one to raise a number of questions: What is the state of the organization he is supposed to lead after more than a decade of war against it? Will he be able to rally the various factions around his leadership and gain their trust and support? What will be the impact of Bin Ladin's death on the organization? Will it continue on the same jihadist ideological path? In the aftermath of the tumultuous events in the region known as the "Arab Spring," what are its prospects and those of other jihadist movements?

First published as "Israel: hope for the best, prepare for the worst," Longitude, The Italian Monthly on World Affairs, May 2011, pp. 59-66.

Not often does Israel finds itself a passive bystander amid Middle East turmoil. But as history shows, whether or not the Jewish state is a protagonist, it always winds up in someone's sights. So until the dust settles, there's not much to do but plan for contingencies. 

This piece analyses the growth of Dr. Zawahiri among jihadist ranks and tries to forecast the future direction of Al-Qaeda under his aegis. This essay concludes that Zawahiri’s present weakness among jihadists is an initial irritant to the wider plans of Zawahiri, which would include re-focusing efforts towards the Arab world’s unrest before returning to target the West.

On June 11, 2011 Somali police reported that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of Africa's most wanted al-Qaeda operatives, was killed in the capital of the Horn of Africa. Mohammed was reputed to be the head of al-Qaeda in east Africa, operated in Somalia and is accused of playing a lead role in the 1998 embassy attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which killed 240 people. Mohammed is also believed to have masterminded the suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombassa, Kenya in November 2002 that killed 15 people, including three Israeli tourists.

First published by Perspectives on Terrorism - Volume 5, Issue 2

In recent years, Al-Qaeda has suffered a number of setbacks, but has also successfully spawned an expansionist global jihadist movement that will survive the death of Osama bin Laden. This article describes how the multifaceted threat posed by global jihadism has evolved over the last decade. It first recounts some of the more salient examples of Al-Qaeda’s post-9/11 strategic, ideological, and structural adaptations, and then offers a balance sheet of Al-Qaeda’s contemporary strengths and weaknesses. Al-Qaeda continues to enable the violence of others, orient that violence towards the United States and its allies in a distributed game of attrition warfare, and foster a dichotomous “us versus them” narrative between the Muslim world and the rest of the international community. Despite this overarching consistency, Al-Qaeda shepherds a different phenomenon than it did ten years ago. The aggregation of the movement’s strategic, ideological, and structural adaptations has fundamentally changed the nature of the jihadist threat to the West. This evolved threat is not inherently more dangerous, as counterterrorism efforts today focus on and disrupt capability earlier and more consistently than prior to September 2001. This multifaceted global jihad will, however, continue to produce greater numbers of attacks in more locations, from a more diverse cadre of individuals spanning a wider ideological spectrum.

This interim report includes significant extracts and summaries of information from Jihad websites and forums relating to Osama Bin Laden, as well as a profile of the former Al-Qaeda leader. The report also contains ICT analysis and reaction to Bin Laden's death in the global media, and past articles published by the ICT on the subject of Bin Laden.

The paper examines the likely geopolitical and economic impacts on Africa of the current fight between the rebels marching west to overthrow Libya’s Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi and the loyal military units taking the offensive against rebel-held towns in the eastern part of the country.

Paper first published in the World Defense Review, March 2011