Over the past decade, the threat of terrorism coming from radical Islamic extremists seemed to be almost nonexistent. Attitudes towards this potential danger are a far cry from what they were shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Federal agencies have been telling the public that the biggest threat to national security came from far right-wing terrorist elements in the country. But this seems to have changed after Hamas launched its October 7 terrorist attack against Israel, which ignited the current war in Gaza.
Now, the government is once again focused on possible threats coming from terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, and several others. Indeed, FBI Director Christopher Wray and other high-ranking government officials have been raising the alarm over the past few months. The question is: Will the war in Gaza inspire people to commit terrorist acts on U.S. soil?
During a recent address at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, Wray underscored the gravity of the threat, warning about the potential rise of “homegrown” terrorists – Americans and immigrants who are radicalized by terrorist propaganda on the internet and elsewhere.
Though Wray cites Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, and ISIS as making new threats against America, he said that the bureau was actually more focused on “homegrown” terrorists — Americans — as the primary current threat. “Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,” he said at West Point.
Soon after the Gaza war began, Wray appeared before the House Committee on Homeland Security and said that homegrown violent extremists, or HVEs, posed the single greatest immediate foreign terrorist threat to the United States.
According to the FBI, while inspired by the actions of foreign terrorist groups, HVEs are lone actors or members of small cells disconnected from material support of the established extremist groups they draw inspiration from. Though Wray isn’t willing to discount the likelihood of a 9/11 magnitude attack — in fact, at West Point he cites the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel as the equivalent of an attack on the United States that would have killed nearly 40,000 people in the single day — he says small-scale and “lone wolf” attacks are more likely. “Over the past five months, our Counterterrorism Division agents have been urgently running down thousands of reported threats stemming from the [Israel-Hamas] conflict,” Wray said on March 4.
“The FBI assesses HVEs as the greatest, most immediate international terrorism threat to the homeland,” Wray said in his November testimony to Congress, adding that “HVEs are people located and radicalized to violence primarily in the United States, who are not receiving individualized direction from [foreign terrorist organizations] but are inspired by FTOs, including the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (“ISIS”) and al-Qa’ida and their affiliates, to commit violence.”
Wray also indicated that extremist groups are using artificial intelligence to “access dangerous bomb-making information” and writing “more convincing propaganda.”
“Hackers are using AI to identify new vulnerabilities and write better malicious code to exploit them. It’s making amateur hackers competent and competent hackers advanced by helping them blend in and suggesting code they might not otherwise have been able to write,” the FBI Director explained.
Wray suggested that while the FBI is not ignoring the possibility of “another coordinated 9/11-style attack by a foreign terrorist organization,” it is most immediately concerned about “individuals or small groups” being motivated by the fighting in Gaza to commit their own acts of terrorism. “The threat of terrorism has not gone anyway, and it’s not going to any time soon,” he said.
New York State has also recognized the potential threat and is taking measures to prepare for such an eventuality.
The intelligence center warned that the spread of antisemitic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric on social media is fueling an increase in hate crimes targeting Jews, Muslims and Arabs.
“The expansion of Israeli operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and increase in civilian casualties raises the likelihood that violent extremist threat actors will seek to conduct attacks against targets in the West, with New York State being a focus. Terrorist messaging has placed focus on attacking ‘soft targets’ such as protests, group gatherings, and other public events,” the report said.
Further compounding the issue is the fact that younger generations could be more susceptible to falling for extremist propaganda than prior generations – especially when it comes to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. RedState’s Bob Hoge wrote about a December poll showing that a disturbing percentage of Americans aged between 18 and 25 believe Israel should be “ended.”
Antisemitism has run rampant on many campuses, and when three top school heads appeared before Congress, they failed to condemn “protesters” who were harassing Jewish students, shouting “intifada revolution,” and calling for the extermination of the entire country.
But the news about the poison being spread in our system of higher education just keeps getting more disturbing as a new Harvard-Harris poll shows that an astonishing 51 percent of American youth aged 18-24 indicated support “For Israel to be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians.”
Given these numbers and the intensifying debate over the Middle East, it is not unreasonable to speculate that concerted propaganda efforts on the part of terrorist groups could radicalize a considerable number of Americans and inspire them to carry out attacks on American soil. It has certainly happened plenty of times in the post-9/11 world.
Shortly after the war in Gaza started, a key Hamas official called on jihadist elements worldwide to join a “Day of Jihad” and engage in violence. In France, China, the United Kingdom, and other places, “lone wolf” terrorists have targeted Jewish individuals for attacks.
This has not yet happened in the United States. But with the discussion on Israel and the Palestinians becoming further inflamed, it is possible that such tragedies could occur within our borders. Indeed, some of the pro-Hamas demonstrators have already gotten violent. In at least one case, an Israel supporter was killed at a demonstration allegedly by an anti-Israel protester.
This reality further shows that federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies have their work cut out for them when protecting the public against foreign and domestic threats.
