Israeli Expert: Arab Regime Crackdowns Are Pushing New ISIS Recruiting: TheJerusalemCenter

TheJerusalemCenter

Published on Aug 21, 2016

Assessing the strength of the Islamic State, Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, former Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence, said: "A huge coalition of forces, air forces, and other countries are participating in trying to quell the Islamic state. But they haven't reached the final goal because they don't have boots on the ground. Now with 30,000 fighters, it seems that the Islamic State is still there to accompany us for the next couple of years at least." "In Saudi Arabia, it's almost impossible to stabilize the kingdom. Every two weeks you have suicide bombers. And what is the most aggravating fact in what is happening in Saudi Arabia is that most of the suicide bombers originate from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan. This is very difficult and very problematic because in this area of the world you have four to eight million Asians working in the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia, meaning that the Islamic State can infiltrate these populations and try to recruit them against the local government." "We are confronting a situation where the Arab states have understood that they have to react. The reaction in most of the Arab states is in harsher measures against most of the population. Repressive regimes have replaced the moderate Arab regimes. If you look at what is happening today in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, compared to how they were three or four years before, there is a huge change in the way that the regime looks at its own citizens." Q: Doesn't this play into the hands of ISIS? Neriah: "Exactly so. When you push the population and try to stop them criticizing the regime by first saying that 'You cannot spread rumors.' If you spread rumors you will spend ten years in jail. You cannot have any meeting beyond ten people in the streets. If they are pupils having a meeting in the street or saying they didn't get the marks they should have in school, they're put in jail. There are thousands and thousands of anti-regime militants that are awaiting trial and they could wait for five or ten years in jail." "So this is what's happening and this is the fertile terrain where ISIS works. This is where ISIS can recruit very easily and try to bring those people to work against the regime."