Stop calling it terrorism; this is jihad
Only when our leaders, political, military and rabbinic, name the enemy honestly can Israel chart a path to victory.
By Avi Abelow
JNS
Sep 15, 2025
Last week, Israel experienced its deadliest terror attack since Oct. 7, 2023. Six Jewish lives were stolen in cold blood, this time by two terrorists from near Ramallah, just a stone’s throw from the internationally acclaimed Cramim Hotel and Israel’s Channel 12 news studio in Neve Ilan.
These attacks do not happen in a vacuum. They are the product of a society that raises its children to hate Jews, glorifies murder, and rewards terror. Yet, our leaders keep repeating the same line: “We are at war against terrorists.”
No. We are not.
Israel is not fighting an abstract phenomenon called “terrorism.” We are facing a genocidal Islamic jihadi movement, hiding behind the banner of an invented Palestinian national identity that seeks to erase the Jewish people from our ancestral homeland. Misdiagnosing the problem leads to failed remedies, and Israel can no longer afford that mistake.
Look at the facts. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas are not opposites. They are ideological twins. Both raise generations on Jew-hatred and glorify bloodshed. The Palestinian Authority literally pays salaries to terrorists, scaled to how many Jews they kill, with money funneled in from the international community.
United Nations-funded schools in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria teach children to kill Jews and wipe Israel off the map. Western nations and the international community have poured billions of dollars into the “Palestinian” cause over decades, yet instead of building hospitals or universities, those funds have built rockets, tunnels and salaries for “martyrs.”
Western governments know this. They see the money is fueling violence, but the funding continues. That is not just Israel’s tragedy; it is a global scandal.
We must call this enemy by its true name: the modern incarnation of Amalek. Just as Amalek in the Bible preyed on the weak and defenseless, today’s Islamic jihadists target civilians, the elderly, women and children, not just in Israel but in France, Britain, Sweden, Germany and the United States.
On Oct. 7, Hamas murdered and brutalized the most vulnerable among us, babies, children, women, and the elderly. The other morning in Jerusalem, their ideological brothers struck again against the defenseless, just trying to get to work or studies to start their day. The pattern is clear. The ideology is consistent. And unless confronted honestly, the violence will spread.
This is not about borders. This is not about statehood. This is about good and evil. The jihadist death cult that targets Jews in Jerusalem is the same ideology that targeted Americans on 9/11, Yazidis in Iraq, Druze in Syria and Christians across the Middle East and Africa. It is a danger not only to Israel, but to every freedom-loving nation.
There can be no coexistence with those who embrace this genocidal ideology. Arab Muslims who are loyal to the State of Israel or whatever Western country they live in and reject the Islamic jihadi terror can and should remain here.
On the other hand, those who glorify or support jihad must go, not out of vengeance, but out of necessity. The survival of Israel, all Western countries, and the survival of civilization depend on it.
Calling this war “a fight against terrorism” obscures reality and weakens our response. It leaves us chasing shadows instead of addressing the root of the problem. Only when our leaders, political, military and rabbinic, name the enemy honestly can Israel chart a path to victory and ensure Jewish security in our land.
We were not brought back to Israel to die holy deaths as martyrs, but to live holy lives. And that means uprooting this evil from our midst, fully reclaiming our ancestral homeland, and securing a future where Jewish blood is no longer cheapened on the streets of Jerusalem.
Anything less is denial. And denial, as history has shown, is deadly.
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