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What Does an Islamic Caliphate in Iraq Mean?

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi - The newly declared "Islamic State" is trying to reinforce its battlefield achievements in Syria and Iraq by creating a new Sunni Muslim religious entity to overturn the prevailing regional political order rooted in the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916). The military capability of the "Islamic State" in Iraq to expand the territories under its rule is limited. Therefore, its leaders are directly appealing to Muslims all over the world to support the caliphate and to rebel against existing governments. The declaration of the caliphate escalates the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites and is likely to impact the Muslim communities in the West as well. As a new regional reality emerges in the Middle East, Israel faces new and more complex security challenges than in the past. These threats, once again, sharply focus the issue of defensible borders west of the Jordan River. The writer is a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center.
2014-07-01 00:00:00
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