In almost all of the conflict arenas of the Middle East, global jihadists had a strong summer. We saw the resurgence of the Islamic State in the Iraqi and Syrian arenas; Ansar al-Sharia Libya confronted and pushed back Libya’s rogue general Khalifa Hiftar’s offensive; and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is once again highly active in southern Yemen. But the jihadists made a poor military showing in the war that broke out in one crucial geographic area: The Gaza-Sinai peninsula nexus, which rates as the most symbolically important in the Muslim world and, as a result, a key location for various global jihadis to prove their bona fides.
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Check out my new article for Ha'aretz: "Will Gaza Be the Global Jihadists' Next Ground Zero?"
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