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Qasem Soleimani Targeted Jews Worldwide

(JNS) Yehudit Barsky - Qasem Soleimani was the leader of the Quds Force ("Jerusalem Force") of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The mission of the Quds Force was to fulfil Ayatollah Khomeini's declared goal of exporting the Iranian Revolution in order to "liberate Jerusalem." The Quds Force has been responsible for training thousands of operatives from Hizbullah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It has also provided logistical support as well as weapons and explosives. Since his appointment as commander of the Quds Force in 1998, Soleimani extended the scope of its attacks to Jews and Israelis on a global scale. Over the past decade, it has targeted Israeli diplomats, including a 2011 plot to bomb the Israeli embassy in Washington, a bombing in India in 2012 that injured an Israeli diplomat's wife, an attempted bombing of an Israeli diplomat's car in Georgia, and a failed plot in Thailand. Other incidents included foiled plans to attack Israeli diplomats in Turkey and Kenya, and a plot to attack Israeli interests in South Africa. In 2012, the Quds Force and Hizbullah bombed a tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, killing five Israelis and the Bulgarian driver. That same year, they conducted surveillance in preparation for attacks on Israeli tourists in Cyprus and on a synagogue in Bulgaria. A plan to attack Israeli interests in Nigeria was foiled in 2013. In 2014, a Hizbullah operative was arrested in Peru who sought to target the Israeli embassy, Israeli tourists and Jewish communal institutions. Israel and Jews worldwide must take note of the Iranian leadership's declared intentions to march in Soleimani's murderous path. The writer is a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy in New York.
2020-01-17 00:00:00
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