by Adam Warden
Pre-state terrorist groups such as Lehi (the “Stern Gang”) and Irgun, which later formed the backbone of the IDF, relied on systematic violence against Palestinian civilians to establish the Zionist state of Israel. Similarly, ISIS remnants still try to employ terror to assert dominance and fear as a means to create an Islamic caliphate across the Levant. The critical difference between the IDF and ISIS lies not in ideology, but in perception. While Lehi and Irgun were initially labelled as terrorist groups by the British and American governments, their eventual absorption into a recognised military force allowed them to shed the terrorist label and be rebranded as “state defenders”. For far too long, the international community has legitimised the actions of the IDF for this sole reason.
Despite this transformation in status, the underlying ideology of ethno-religious dominance remains unchanged.
The IDF and ISIS continue to pursue their territorial and ideological goals through military force against civilian populations. This shared foundation of violence and extremism underpins the enduring reality that the IDF continues to operate with the same terrorist tactics as its 1940s militant predecessors, highlighting further the unbroken link between its terrorist origins and its bloody campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza.
This continuity of violence traces back to the early days of the Zionist movement, where the pursuit of a Jewish state in Palestine seemingly required more than diplomacy. In a desperate attempt to secure a Jewish state atop a flourishing Palestinian society, the Zionist movement decided that militant action against both the British Mandate authorities and the Palestinian people was necessary.
Irgun was established in 1931, followed by the splinter group Lehi in 1940, with the sole purpose of weaponising terror to make the continued British presence in Palestine untenable, while also sending a dark message to the Arab population that they would target men, women and children to achieve their statehood. Bombings, assassinations, and massacres occurred frequently, with some of the most notorious acts of violence including the King David Hotel bombing in 1946 which killed 91 people, and the Deir Yassin massacre in April 1948, where Irgun and Lehi forces slaughtered at least 100 Palestinian villagers. These acts of terror were not isolated incidents, but part of a broader strategy to intimidate the Arab population into submission or flight. The Zionist movement viewed violence as a means to an end, leveraging fear to achieve political and territorial domination.
Despite international condemnation of these atrocities, the state of Israel was declared after gross violations of human rights during the Nakba, which resulted in the killing of over 15,000 Palestinians, the destruction of 530 Palestinian towns and villages, and a campaign of sexual violence against Palestinian women. Around 750,000 Palestinians were displaced. Instead of being dismantled and held accountable, the Zionist militias were absorbed into the newly formed IDF, allowing them to transition from terror groups to state actors. This absorption not only legitimised their earlier violent methodologies but also ensured the continuation of their ethnic supremacist ideology within the framework of a national armed forces.
Just as Lehi and Irgun used violence to establish the Zionist state, ISIS employs similar tactics to carve out an Islamic caliphate, and its legacy continues to stain the Middle East with the blood of innocents. ISIS has resorted to extreme violence against mainly civilian populations since its inception. Formed from the remnants of Al-Qaeda in Iraq under the leadership of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, ISIS sought to impose its radical interpretations of Islam through pure terror. This approach involved orchestrating widespread acts of brutality, including suicide bombings, beheadings and mass executions. Among its most infamous acts are the 2014 massacre of Yazidi villagers in Sinjar, where ISIS forces killed thousands and captured many others, and the relentless campaign against religious and ethnic minorities in regions like Mosul and Raqqa.
The strategy employed involved high-profile acts of terror to dismantle state structures and force compliance from local populations. These included the mass execution of 1,700 Iraqi soldiers at Camp Speicher in Tikrit, the destruction of ancient artefacts in Palmyra, and the systematic targeting of Kurdish and Shia communities across the self-declared caliphate. Such actions were integral to the strategy of creating an atmosphere of fear, destabilising the region and attracting global attention.
One form of psychological warfare used by ISIS in this respect was the online release of countless videos of beheadings and crucifixions to a global social media audience.
These videos were not only designed to terrorise local populations, but also to recruit followers by showcasing the group’s extreme interpretation of Islamic justice. The 2014 video of American journalist James Foley’s beheading exemplifies ISIS’s use of psychological terror to send a message to the West and deter intervention in Iraq and Syria.
Despite differences in command structure and regional context, both the IDF and ISIS employ terrorism strategically to advance their ideological and territorial aims, revealing a disturbing alignment in their use of asymmetric violence against non-combatants. The IDF and its military rabbinate, which provide religious services to Jewish soldiers and make decisions on issues of religion and military affairs, have invoked Jewish scripture repeatedly to justify acts of extreme violence against Palestinians. Rabbis within the IDF and those in wider Israeli society have played a crucial role in framing military campaigns rooted in genocide, ethnic cleansing and sexual assault in terms of religious duty. During Israel’s 2014 war in Gaza, soldiers were issued with pamphlets by IDF rabbis citing passages from the Torah that encouraged viewing Palestinians as enemies of God and legitimising acts of destruction as part of a holy mission. Soldiers distributed these pamphlets, which referenced biblical massacres alluding to the stories of the Amalekites and Canaanites. The war was sculpted as a necessary and divine act and was fuelled by radical interpretations of the Torah.
This invocation of religious Jewish narratives to justify violence in the present context echoes the way that ISIS invokes early Islamic battles to justify its terror campaigns in Iraq and Syria.
This is seen with Colonel Eyal Karim, the current head of the military rabbinate in the IDF. When asked if soldiers were permitted to rape women during war, Karim replied that as part of maintaining fitness for the army and the soldier’s morale during fighting, it is permitted to “breach” the walls of modesty and “satisfy the evil inclination by lying with attractive Gentile women against their will, out of consideration for the difficulties faced by the soldiers and for overall success.”
The use of religious rhetoric by the IDF’s rabbinate does more than just endorse violence, it sanctifies it, allowing soldiers to believe that they are not only acting in defence of their nation but also fulfilling a higher spiritual duty. This dangerous conflation of state terrorism with religious imperatives is not unlike ISIS’s rhetoric to portray its brutal methods as divinely mandated.
At their core, the two groups wield religious doctrine as a weapon, justifying their respective campaigns of terror and repression against civilians as part of a divine mission. This dynamic creates an environment where the worst crimes against humanity are not only justified, but also encouraged. Religious leaders in the IDF and ISIS effectively remove moral hesitation by turning war crimes into acts of faith, and, as a result, authorities do not treat atrocities such as the shelling of UN-run schools in Gaza or the targeting of ambulances and medical personnel as breaches of humanitarian law but as steps of self-defence with impunity. The religious endorsement of war crimes serves to reinforce and perpetuate cycles of violence, as it dehumanises civilians (whether Palestinian or Yazidi minorities), and frames them as mere obstacles to the fulfilment of a higher calling instead of human beings with rights and protections under international law.
The IDF, far from being a conventional military defending a nation’s borders, has institutionalised the very terrorism it claims to oppose and embeds extremist ideologies within its ranks under cover of state legitimacy. By invoking religious scripture to legitimise the systematic oppression, ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians, Israel and its allies have not only normalised war crimes but also portrayed them as morally defensible. In doing so, Israel has transformed its state terrorism into a religiously justified and internationally supported project of regional and global domination. The Zionist state embeds terror within the fabric of its military operations, and thus Israel has become a nation where terrorism is not an aberration; it is state policy, with divine approval as its ultimate shield.
No comments:
Post a Comment