Al-Qaeda's Threat Against 'Vital Interests of the U.S., Israel, and Their Allies'

In response to U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the 'capital of Israel', Al-Qaeda has called for jihad and attacks on the vital interests of the U.S., Israel, and their allies. According to the English section of the Times of Israel, Al-Qaeda's call was published on the group's website, Al-Sahab, on December 8. The statement from Al-Qaeda says, 'The most certain and quickest way to confront the oppression of America, this Pharaoh of our time, is jihad under the banner of Allah, targeting the vital interests of America and its Zionist and Crusader allies around the world.' At the same time, other branches of Al-Qaeda, including its North African branch known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (formed from the merger of Al-Qaeda branches in Yemen and Saudi Arabia), have issued similar statements. The Al-Qaeda network has been in decline after recent setbacks and the successive deaths of its leaders, including the recent death of its leader in Afghanistan. Since the death of Osama bin Laden in the spring of 2011, Al-Qaeda has been led by Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri, a 66-year-old Egyptian extremist cleric and a graduate of Cairo University’s medical school. The U.S. has a $25 million reward for information leading to Ayman al-Zawahiri's whereabouts. Al-Qaeda remains active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asian countries, and Indonesia, and has been actively involved in the Syrian civil war; however, individuals affiliated with Al-Qaeda have been arrested in recent years in several other countries, including the UK. The largest terrorist act attributed to Al-Qaeda in Europe was the 2005 attack on the railways in the UK; the last major massacre by this group in an Islamic country also occurred in the spring of 2011, resulting in the deaths of eighty people in a double explosion in Pakistan. Despite 69 years since the establishment of the state of Israel, Donald Trump is the first U.S. president and global leader to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. On December 6, Trump announced at the White House the beginning of the process of relocating the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, although he suspended the congressional resolution for six more months, acknowledging that this goal would be realized in the coming years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Trump's action, stating that the U.S. president's name would be recorded in history as a brave leader who recognized the Jewish people's sovereignty in the ancient land of Jerusalem after three thousand years. However, this strategic shift in U.S. policy has faced angry reactions from Palestinians, Muslims in many countries around the world, and negative responses from the closest allies of the U.S. and Israel. Only the Czech Republic has stated that it may positively consider relocating its embassy to Jerusalem following Trump's announcement. On December 8, angry protests were ongoing in the Palestinian territories, the Arab areas within Israel, and even in far eastern countries. The neighborhoods along the friction line between East and West Jerusalem witnessed some clashes despite a calm Friday prayer. The Hamas movement called for a new intifada in defense of Jerusalem in response to Trump's statement, declaring that the U.S. has 'opened the gates of hell'; however, evidence suggests that in the past three days, large-scale protests have not occurred as Hamas desired, and only clashes that Israel had anticipated took place.