Tuesday night\u2019s terror attack in Tel Aviv\u2014the second in a week, both within a few blocks of my home\u2014underscores a familiar pattern for Israelis. Yet, this second attack reveals something even more troubling: the profile of the perpetrator. Abdelaziz Kaddi, a 29-year-old Moroccan holding a US green card, entered Israel on January 18 on a tourist visa. His social media footprint tells a story: a fixation on Palestine, the glorification of martyrdom, and promises of divine reward.<\/p>\n
In one post, accompanying a video of a Palestinian mother exalting her son\u2019s martyrdom during the atrocities of October 7, Kaddi writes, \u201cWhat is happening now may be the reason for doubling the number of martyrs to Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is all a textbook articulation of the jihadist worldview. So if you\u2019re wondering what compels a man living in Brooklyn to embrace a path of violence, the answer isn\u2019t buried in some enigmatic psychological void. It is plainly visible in an ideology that sanctifies murder with a sense of purpose. When violence becomes not just permissible but holy, the boundaries of morality are not merely blurred\u2014they are reversed. The promise of cosmic rewards transforms the act of killing into an act of faith, stripping it of shame and dressing it in righteousness.<\/p>\n
This is also why more British born Muslims traveled to fight for ISIS than signed up to defend their country in its military. It\u2019s why the devastation of 9\/11, the atrocities of October 7, and the terror unleashed by Boko Haram in Nigeria and Ansar al-Sunna in Mozambique continue to follow the same blueprint. While the scale and methods of these attacks differ\u2014from coordinated massacres to spontaneous acts of \u201clone-wolf\u201d terror\u2014the root cause\u2014an ideology, remains constant.<\/p>\n
But what demands our attention here goes far beyond the singular story of a man traveling from Brooklyn to Tel Aviv to murder innocents enjoying a night out with friends. It allows the opportunity to expose the entrenched networks of Islamic extremism that have operated in the United States for decades. An October 2023 report from George Washington University\u2019s Program on Extremism highlights this reality: Hamas supporters have been active in the US since the 1980s. FBI wiretaps reveal a nationwide network engaged in fundraising, propaganda, and lobbying. This network was formalized in 1988 with the creation of the Palestine Committee, which had explicit goals: to bolster Hamas financially and morally, oppose peace efforts, and amplify anti-Jewish rhetoric.<\/p>\n
A 1992 internal memorandum openly framed their mission as a jihad against Jews, describing it as a struggle for either victory or martyrdom. When the Oslo Accords in 1993 threatened their operations, Hamas affiliates in the US adapted. At a Philadelphia meeting secretly recorded by the FBI, leaders agreed to conceal their intentions under the rhetoric of democracy and human rights\u2014values deeply resonant in the American psyche. They created the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) to fundraise under the pretense of aiding Palestinian orphans, funneling millions to Hamas. \u201cWe give the Islamists $100,000 and we give others $5,000,\u201d stated a leader of the group, Abu Baker, outlining how HLF could maintain the appearance of being a charitable organization and avoid scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Participants also agreed to spread their message among American youth, ensuring that \u201cthe children of the American-Muslim community\u201d would not grow up \u201csurrendering to the issue of peace with Jews.\u201d They emphasized the need for curricula in schools that would perpetuate their views. They also recognized the importance of influencing American public opinion and policymakers. They also developed a sophisticated media campaign to defend Hamas\u2019s activities while avoiding explicit endorsement of violence. It is not a coincidence that there was an entire industry of lies ready and waiting full of \u201ccontext\u201d, apologia and denialism immediately after October 7.<\/p>\n
Figures like Musa Abu Marzook and Ahmed Yousef\u2014despite their documented ties to Hamas\u2014managed to publish op-eds in major American newspapers. Abu Marzook went on to become one of Hamas\u2019 most senior leaders, serving in the organization\u2019s political bureau and occupying the position of deputy chairman from 1997 to 2014. All of this speaks volumes about the state of American media as it pertains to this issue.<\/p>\n
When the US designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, the network evolved again, creating new organizations with moderate-sounding names. Some US authorities believe the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), founded shortly after the Philadelphia meeting, is one such entity.<\/p>\n
Even after a 2008 federal investigation exposed the HLF\u2019s operations and led to convictions for funding Hamas, the influence of these networks has only grown. Today, their rhetoric is openly echoed on university campuses and in media outlets. Groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and figures like Mohammed El-Kurd can now openly justify Hamas\u2019s violence under the guise of \u201cresistance,\u201d fueling a wave of antisemitism across American institutions.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not in the least bit surprised that the day came when the Islamic extremism birthed in the Arab world, now fostered and tolerated in the West, returned home to the Middle East with a deadly mission.<\/p>\n
These stabbing attacks occur against the backdrop of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The psychological dissonance of the past few days is difficult to overstate. It is impossible not to be moved by the profound relief of seeing hostages reunited with their families\u2014lives rescued from the unimaginable. These moments remind us of what is at stake in defending civilization itself: the sanctity of life, the power of love, and the unyielding hope for freedom.<\/p>\n
What makes such decisions challenging is that we live in a world fractured between social orders that prioritize life and those that sanctify death. As Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, famously said: \u201cWe are not afraid of death; we desire it. Death is life for us, and life without martyrdom is death.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the moment the ceasefire took effect, thousands of Gazans poured into the streets, chanting, \u201cKhaibar, O Jews, Mohammad\u2019s Army will return [to kill you].\u201d Some have claimed these scenes were staged by Hamas. Even if that is true, it does not account for the same sadistic and triumphant celebrations witnessed in Gaza on October 7, as the so-called \u201cParties of God\u201d were slaughtering innocent men, women, and children in southern Israel. It does not explain the videos showing mobs chasing cars holding Israeli hostages, attempting to lynch them. Nor does it address the disturbing fact that, whenever polled, support for suicide attacks against civilians has consistently been alarmingly high among Palestinians\u2014hovering around 70 percent.<\/p>\n
Even granting the most charitable interpretation of this grotesque display\u2014that the chanting crowds were coerced into performing for gun-wielding fanatics\u2014this only sharpens the point. If this was theater, who was the audience? The message seems clear. For Gazans, it served as a brutal reminder of Hamas\u2019s grip and a warning against dissent. For the wider world, it was a demonstration of defiance: a signal that, even after months of war, Hamas\u2019s ideology thrives in the Strip. Whether staged or spontaneous, the problem of jihadism remains the same. No amount of diplomatic hedging or belief in cultural relativism can obscure this bright line.<\/p>\n
Those who desire long term peace need to be really sober about the true nature of the problem here. Until the ideological infrastructure of Islamism is dismantled\u2014its networks disrupted and its moral logic exposed\u2014this violence will persist, imposing devastating costs on societies worldwide.<\/p>\n