"In Israel, as in France, terrorism is terrorism, and its motivation is radical Islam and a desire for destruction,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page. Culture Minister Miri Regev posted an image on Facebook that read: “Paris 13/11, New York 9/11, Israel 24/7.”
The Israeli comparisons between the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation and ISIS did not begin with Paris. The right wing has been claiming for years that Palestinian violence does not stem from Israel’s actions in the occupied territories, but is a consequence of a “clash of civilizations” between the West (represented by Israel) and radical Islam. In the past year, as ISIS became the world’s new Big Bad, the comparison between Palestinians and ISIS has become a major right-wing trope.
Less than a month ago, for instance, Netanyahu claimed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “has joined ISIS and Hamas” in claiming that Israel threatens the al-Aqsa mosque. And in his address to the UN General Assembly in 2014, Netanyahu said “ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree…Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.”
Wallström expressed in Swedish public television was her worries about the radicalization of young Swedes fighting for ISIS. Wallström said: “Obviously we have reason to be worried, not just in Sweden but across the world – because there are so many that are being radicalized. Here, once again, we are brought back to situations like the one in the Middle East (occupation, oppression in Irq, Syria...), where not least the Palestinians see that there is no future. We (the Palestinians draw the conclusion) must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence.”