Khamenei Reminds Us What the War Against Israel is All About

Saturday morning’s tweet reveals a taboo truth.

October 16, 2023

By Robert Spencer

Reprinted from FrontPageMag

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is likely to be more responsible than anyone else, other than Old Joe Biden, for the jihad war on Israel, so he above all people should know what it’s all about. On Saturday morning, he made it clear yet again for those inattentive students in the back of the classroom, tweeting: “Palestine and Gaza are manifestations of Islam’s power.” “Palestine” and Gaza are entities in which jihad terrorism is celebrated and the desire to kill Jews and destroy Israel is systematically inculcated into children from the earliest ages. As Khamenei reminds us, that situation and this present war, are all about Islam.

If Khamenei’s words weren’t enough, the lesson was reinforced yet again when an Islamic State (ISIS) flag was found in the wake of the Oct. 7 jihad massacres in Israel. The Times of Israel reported Wednesday that “a Telegram channel called South First Responders, which has been distributing shocking footage from scenes on kibbutzim and other areas devastated in Saturday’s attack, claims that soldiers found an flag of the Islamic State terror group on the vest of a terrorist killed during an assault on Kibbutz Sufa, near the Gaza border.”

The report goes on to warn us that “the picture’s authenticity cannot be immediately confirmed.” All right. But there is nothing implausible about the idea that an Islamic State jihadi was among the Hamas jihadis who did the killing in Israel. The establishment media will never come close to informing people of the fact, but there are absolutely no ideological differences between Hamas and the Islamic State. They have the same beliefs, the same goals, and the same methodology. Both are dedicated to establishing the rule of Islam and the hegemony of Islam everywhere they can, and ultimately over the entire world.

Those who assume that Hamas is simply a “resistance” movement against Israel should note the words of Hamas top dog Mahmoud al-Zahar in Dec. 2022: “We are not talking about liberating our land alone – but we believe in what our Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Allah drew the ends of the world near one another for my sake, and I have seen its eastern and western ends. The dominion of my nation would reach those ends that have been drawn near me.’” Al-Zahar believes this to be a prediction of the coming Islamic domination of the world: “The entire 510 million square kilometers of Planet Earth will come under [a system] where there is no injustice, no oppression, no treachery, no Zionism, no treacherous Christianity, and no killings and crimes, like those being committed against the Palestinians, and against the Arabs in all the Arab countries – in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and other countries.”

No ISIS leader would find anything to quibble with in that. Nor would ISIS look askance at the numerous atrocities Hamas committed in Israel. Both groups have the same guiding principle: “Make ready for them all that you can of force and of warhorses, so that by them you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy…” (Qur’an 8:60) Nowadays the jihadis have bombs and rocket launchers, not warhorses, but the goal is the same: strike terror in Allah’s enemies.

Terror is not a practice that “extremist” Muslims engage in while “moderate” eschew it; terror is the primary way that the Qur’an directs Muslims to gain and enforce the submission of their foes. The idea on Oct. 7 was to terrify Israelis into thinking not only that resistance to the jihadis was useless, but that the whole enterprise of Israel itself was unsustainable, and that they should go live elsewhere. The Islamic State operated in the same way in Iraq and Syria, and now continues to do so in its operations in Gaza.

Khamenei is right: “Palestine” and Gaza are manifestations of Islam’s power because Islam’s power is entirely based upon terror. Acts such as what we saw in Israel on Oct. 7 strike terror into the perceived enemies of Islam. The killings and death threats over cartoons and desecrations of the Qur’an strike terror in those who would exercise the freedom of expression. The death penalty for apostasy strikes terror into Muslims who might be getting skeptical about their religion. The allowance for the beating of disobedient women strikes terror in females who might long to live as freely as their sisters in the West live. “Palestine and Gaza are manifestations of Islam’s power,” and that power is terror. The key to defeating this is to refuse to be afraid, and to continue to stand for what is good and true and right, come what may.

RELATED:

How the Biden Administration Helped Iran’s Mullahs Try to Fulfill Their Dream of Annihilating Israel

How Iran, the ‘Head of the Snake,’ Directly Helped Hamas’s Assault on Israel 

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 26 books including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad and The History of Jihad.