Jihadist war is global and state-backed; Israel fights reality while the West hides behind denial.
The West is not failing against terrorism due to shortages of intelligence, technology, or military power. It is failing because it refuses to confront the scale of the enemy—and lacks the resolve to fight accordingly. Western leaders increasingly admit that today’s threat is ideological, coordinated, transnational, and often state-sponsored. Yet they still treat it as a sequence of isolated crimes, rather than as a unified war.
The truth is unavoidable: a global war is already underway. What is missing is not awareness, but doctrine—along with the legal and strategic architecture required to wage such a war. The massacre of Jews at Bondi Beach, like attacks from Pittsburgh to Paris, was not random violence. It was a frontline action in a coordinated campaign. Iran and its proxies have openly declared their intent to globalize the intifada. Jews are targeted first not by chance, but because history has proven they are the most familiar and visible enemy. They are the early warning system. Others will follow.
Western governments now recognize the pattern, yet remain trapped in inertia. They issue condemnations, harden security, and perform symbolic gestures—while preserving institutions designed for a world that no longer exists. Recognition without adaptation does not win wars.
Israel learned this lesson at unbearable cost. For years, it sought to manage terror through deterrence, barriers, limited strikes, and repeated ceasefires—often under international pressure. The illusion that jihadist movements could be contained collapsed on October 7. Terror cannot be managed. It must be defeated.
The challenge lies not in naming the enemy, but in updating the rules of engagement. Modern terror networks operate across borders, exploit open societies, and weaponize sovereignty while rejecting its obligations. In this reality, sovereignty cannot remain unconditional. States that host training camps, financial hubs, or command centers must dismantle them within verifiable timelines—or face consequences. If a country cannot or will not neutralize terror operating from its territory, others must.
Failure—whether through incapacity, corruption, or complicity—cannot be consequence-free. Collective enforcement is not an assault on international order; it is its modernization.
This demands a unified Western doctrine—moving decisively from recognition to action. First, intelligence must be fully integrated. Terror networks ignore borders; intelligence sharing must do the same. The culture of “need-to-know” must be replaced by a “need-to-share” imperative.
Second, the war must target terror’s financial and logistical lifelines. Eliminating operatives is insufficient. Jihadist movements depend on banks, charities, digital platforms, ideological institutions, and state sponsors. Sustained financial warfare—not episodic sanctions—is essential to collapse their capacity to function.
Third, states that tolerate terror infrastructure must face escalating consequences—economic, diplomatic, cyber, and, if necessary, kinetic. Neutrality cannot shield mass murder. Conditional sovereignty is overdue.
Fourth, ideology must be confronted head-on. Movements that sanctify violence cannot be defeated without dismantling the belief systems that sustain them. History shows this is possible: postwar Germany dismantled Nazi ideology through media, education, and institutional reform. Many societies have reformed destructive doctrines; there is no reason jihadist ideologies should be exempt.
Finally, moral clarity must be restored. Hesitation masquerading as wisdom has repeatedly invited catastrophe. This war is not against a religion; it is against movements that glorify death and seek civilizational destruction. Wars are not fought because victory is guaranteed, but because surrender to barbarism is unacceptable.
The infrastructure for victory already exists. The coalition that defeated ISIS liberated cities, collapsed a caliphate, and freed millions. That framework must be expanded into a declared global war on terror—fought with strategy, resolve, and clarity of purpose. Vengeance is not a strategy. Victory is.
The consequences of delay are already visible. When synagogues require armed guards, the war has arrived. When public celebrations are canceled or encased in concrete, ground has been lost. When families hesitate to live freely, the enemy is winning.
Globalizing the war on terror is not a call for endless conflict; it is a demand to restore security, freedom, and decency. If the fire is not extinguished at its source, the entire structure will burn. The question is no longer whether the West can afford to fight this war as a war. It is whether it can afford not to.
