Eye on Extremism: July 18, 2025
Top Stories
Wall Street Journal: Iran Is Moving to Rearm Its Militia Allies
Iran suffered a significant setback when Israel killed top military leaders and the U.S. struck its nuclear facilities, but a pattern of high-value weapons seizures shows Tehran is making new efforts to arm its militia allies across the Middle East. Forces allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government this week intercepted a major shipment of missiles, drone parts and other military gear sent to Houthi rebels on the Red Sea coast. Syria’s new government says it has seized a number of weapons cargoes, including Grad rockets—for use in multiple-launch systems mounted on trucks—along its borders with Iraq and Lebanon.
Reuters: US does not support Israel's Syria strikes, Sharaa vows to protect Druze
The United States said on Thursday it did not support recent Israeli strikes on Syria and had made clear its displeasure, while Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture his country and promised to protect its Druze minority. On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus, while also hitting government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying that Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze - part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel. The airstrikes blew up part of Syria's defence ministry and hit near the presidential palace. On Thursday, the Syrian state news agency said Israel carried out an airstrike on the vicinity of Syria's Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict pitting Druze fighters against government troops and Bedouin tribes.
CEP Mentions
WTOP: “The Kill List: Russian Orders, American Proxies and Ukraine’s Shadow War”
In this episode, Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Sr. Director at the Counter Extremism Project, navigates us through the shadow war playing out across Eastern Europe, where the lines between war, terrorism, espionage, and state power are blurring.
Cicero: “Syria stands at the crossroads between statehood and disintegration”
Israel is conducting airstrikes on Damascus, while fighting rages in the Druze city of Suwayda. Middle East expert [CEP Senior Director] Hans-Jakob Schindler explains how these events are connected, the role of the fragile transitional government, and Israel's strategic goals.
Analysis
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism: The October 7, 2023 Attacks and the Maturation of Terrorism Studies
The Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023 served as a vivid reminder of terrorism’s continued relevance as a form of political violence that can have far-reaching, strategic implications on regional and international security. This article discusses the significance of the most deadly and consequential terrorist attacks since 9/11 for the study of terrorism more broadly. To situate the October 7 attack within the academic study of terrorism, we offer a temporal typology that breaks down the study of terrorism into several distinct eras.
United States
New York Times: Army Special Operations Warns Retired Members of Terror Threat
The U.S. Army Special Operations Command issued a warning on Thursday to some retired senior military personnel who served in Iraq or Syria that they were the target of a possible terrorist threat. The alert, circulated to those now living in Florida, neither specified what kind of threat or which terrorist group was involved, nor which country or entity provided the information. But officials deemed it credible enough to issue the warning, according to Col. Allie Scott, a spokeswoman for the command.
United Against Nuclear Iran, a nonprofit that opposes Tehran's effort to develop a nuclear weapon, applauded Wednesday's news. "Tehran has learned that, for the Trump administration, a deadline means a deadline," UANI Chairman and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace said in a joint statement. "After failing to agree to a deal within 60 days of diplomacy, the United States and Israel undertook targeted military action against the regime in June. Consequently, Tehran should take this new deadline seriously." On Monday, Iran warned it would retaliate if the U.N. Security Council imposes the snapback sanctions.
Reuters: US designates Pakistani group's offshoot as 'terrorist' organization over Kashmir attack
The U.S. government designated the Resistance Front, considered an offshoot of the Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a "foreign terrorist organization" over the April 22 Islamist militant attack in Indian Kashmir that killed 26 men, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.
Newsweek: Far-Right Influencer Denounces Trump Over Epstein: 'Liberals Were Right'
Far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, who is no stranger to controversy, has turned on President Donald Trump after the latter attacked his own supporters for their continued interest in the Jeffrey Epstein files. Newsweek reached out to the White House via email outside of normal business hours on Thursday evening.
Newsweek: Church Accuses Donald Trump of 'Domestic Terrorism'
A church has branded some of Donald Trump's ICE raids "domestic terrorism," saying the administration is "weaponizing the constitution." The United Church of Christ (UCC) said these things in a "Resolution of Witness" called "Responding to the federal government's attack on immigrants, migrants and refugees," which was passed (627-8) during the 35th biennial General Synod in Kansas City, Missouri.
Huffington Post: Jewish Faculty Call Out Weaponization Of Antisemitism Label In Higher Education
A growing number of Jewish staff and faculty in higher education are speaking out against what they say is the federal government and their own institutions weaponizing accusations of antisemitism in order to silence dissent, punish those who criticize the Israeli government and exert more control over the U.S. education system. On Wednesday, at least 40 such staff at the University of Virginia signed on to a statement in The Cavalier Daily, the school’s student paper, warning against the “exploitation of the term antisemitism deployed in an effort to harass, expel, arrest, deport dox and defame students, faculty, staff and other academic workers across the country.”
The Ukrainian branch of the American right-wing extremist organization the Base has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Colonel Ivan Voronych in Kyiv. Voronych is the highest-ranking SBU officer known to have been killed in Kyiv in a targeted assassination since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion. In a statement, the local affiliate — known as White Phoenix — praised its "comrades" for the July 10 killing of the SBU colonel in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv. Sources in the counter-terrorism field consider the group's claim credible, the Guardian reported. Voronych was shot multiple times and died at the scene. The SBU later announced that it had killed the alleged Russian killers — a man and a woman — involved in the murder.
Kyle Christopher Benton, 29, was sentenced in district court to two years in prison for illegally possessing guns and using those weapons “to further his standing with various racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist groups and groups espousing white supremacy,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington stated on Thursday.
A federal grand jury indicted Edward Arthur Owens Jr., 29, of Elizabeth, Pa., in the Pittsburgh area, for making an antisemitic threat to harm a public official and making false statements to federal agents, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania said on Thursday.
Louis Edward Dunn, 43, a member of the Goyim Defense League, is expected to be returned to Tennessee to face a grand jury indictment charging him with civil rights intimidation and assault, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department announced on Thursday.
As Jewish students and alumni at Columbia University await the final details of the university’s prospective deal with the Trump administration, some are expressing skepticism that a list of commitments announced by the school this week to address antisemitism on campus would have a significant impact on protecting Jewish students.
Times of Israel: NYC mayor’s antisemitism task force holds its first meeting
New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s antisemitism task force held its inaugural meeting on Thursday, as the group’s direction and methods started to take shape. Adams launched the Office to Combat Antisemitism, a citywide bureau under the mayor’s purview, in May, as the city grapples with a sustained surge in antisemitic hate crimes since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel.
Fairfax County Times: GMU under federal investigation for antisemitism and discriminatory hiring
Sitting in the heart of Fairfax County, George Mason University has landed in the political crosshairs of the Trump administration, as it investigates a culture of antisemitism on the campus, home to a large community of anti-Israel activists. The Trump administration has launched two federal civil rights investigations: one into alleged antisemitism and the other into alleged discriminatory hiring practices initiated as part of the university’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program. News of the investigation has sparked a partisan statewide uproar, placing GMU President Gregory Washington under intense scrutiny.
A Jewish student filed a bombshell lawsuit against Harvard University Thursday accusing the school of protecting students who assaulted him, and enabling an antisemitic campus environment. Yoav Segev, a Jewish student who recently received a master’s degree from Harvard Business School, sued Harvard and its police department for allegedly refusing to discipline a mob of anti-Israel students who assaulted him on campus shortly after Hamas’s mass atrocities on October 7, 2023.
Seattle Times: Snohomish County man who espoused neo-Nazi views sentenced to prison
A 29-year-old Snohomish County man and Army combat veteran who prosecutors say offered tactical training to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups has been sentenced to two years in prison on federal gun charges. Kyle Christopher Benton pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court in Seattle to charges of possession of a machine gun and possession of an unregistered short-barrel rifle. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin sentenced him to two years in prison and three years of supervised release.
Canada
The Suburban: Deborah Lyons leaves antisemitism envoy post before term ends
Deborah Lyons announced on social media Thursday that she is retiring as Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, well before her mandate ends in October. The Suburban has asked her on X why she is leaving earlier than planned, and we await a reply.
CBC: Tracking Canada’s fascist fight clubs
In public parks, gyms and martial arts clubs — where children take classes — some of Canada’s most notorious white supremacists are preparing for violence. The members of these fight clubs, known in white nationalist communities as “active clubs,” are hiding in plain sight. As part of their recruitment and online propaganda, they post videos of their training sessions, taking care to hide their faces and obscure their locations.
Czech Republic
BRNO Daily: Czechs Still See Terrorism As Biggest Security Threat, Says Survey
The Czech public continue to see Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, and international organised crime as the biggest threats to their country, according to a survey published by the STEM polling agency today, though they are more afraid of drought and politics of Russia than four years ago.
France
Naharnet: Hezbollah says Abdallah's unjust detention 'stain on French judiciary'
Hezbollah has welcomed the decision of a French appeals court to release pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats. The injustice suffered by Georges Abdallah would remain a stain on the record of the French judicial and political system, Hezbollah said in a statement Thursday.
Germany
ARD: Former NPD chairman: Right-wing extremist politician Voigt dies
The far-right politician and former NPD chairman (now "Die Heimat") Udo Voigt is dead. According to the party "Die Heimat", Voigt died after a short and serious illness. The political scientist was the federal chairman of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) from 1996 to 2011, which changed its name in 2023. He was deputy chairman from 2019. Under Voigt's leadership, the NPD became increasingly radical from 1996 onwards. Voigt had to stand trial several times; in 2005, he was initially given a suspended sentence for incitement of the people, but the case was later dropped. He sat in the European Parliament for his party from 2014 to 2019.
Reuters: Libyan ICC war crimes suspect arrested in Germany
German authorities have arrested a Libyan war crimes suspect accused of being a senior official at a notorious prison where inmates were routinely tortured and sometimes sexually abused, the International Criminal Court said on Friday. Khaled Mohamed Ali Al Hishri, alleged to have been a member of the Special Deterrence Force armed group during Libya's civil war, was arrested on Wednesday, German authorities said.
Germany deported dozens of Afghan men to their homeland on Friday, the second time it has done so since the Taliban returned to power and the first since a new government pledging a tougher line on migration took office in Berlin. German authorities said a flight took off Friday morning carrying 81 Afghans, all of them men who had previously come to judicial authorities’ attention and had had asylum applications rejected.
Italy
Reuters: Italian prosecutors appeal against Salvini's acquittal in migrant kidnapping case
Prosecutors in the Italian city of Palermo have filed a direct appeal to the Supreme Court against the acquittal of Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini in a migrant kidnapping case, a court document showed on Friday. Salvini - the leader of the League party - was charged after he ordered a boat carrying migrants to be kept out at sea when he was interior minister in 2019, an act that prosecutors said amounted to kidnapping the people on board.
Russia
Reuters: Russia convicts dozens for anti-Israel riots at Dagestan airport two years ago
Russian courts sentenced 135 people to lengthy prison sentences in connection with a mass anti-Israel protest in October 2023 at an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region, the country's Investigative Committee said on Friday. Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed an airport in the city of Makhachkala, where a plane from Tel Aviv had just arrived, in unrest in the North Caucasus over Israel's war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
A Russian military court on Friday sentenced former state television anchor Farida Kurbangaleeva to eight years in prison in absentia for spreading “false information” about the military and “justifying terrorism,” the independent news outlet Mediazona reported. Authorities pressed charges against Kurbangaleeva following her May 2024 interview with a fighter from the Free Russia Legion, a group of anti-Kremlin Russians fighting for Ukraine that Moscow has designated a terrorist organization. She was also charged over a series of posts on her anti-war Telegram channel.
Spain
Baltic News Network: Spain to step up monitoring of far-right groups after riots
After four nights of riots and clashes with migrants from African countries, Spain will step up its investigation into possible crimes committed by far-right and racist groups, Reuters reported. The unrest in Spain is among the worst to hit the country in recent years. Authorities have detained 11 people and received more than 60 reports of hate crimes and disorder. The riots in Torre Pacheco, where a third of the population are migrants, broke out on the 11th of July after an attack on a man in his twenties. Police have arrested three Moroccans for the attack.
United Kingdom
Reuters: Four pro-Palestinian activists face 2027 trial over UK military base break-in
Four pro-Palestinian activists will stand trial in 2027 charged with breaking into a British military air base and damaging two planes in protest against Britain's support for Israel. The four are accused of breaking into a Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire in central England on June 20 and spraying red paint over two Voyager aircraft used for refuelling and transport. Campaign group Palestine Action said it was behind the incident.
BBC: Boy, 15, denies terrorist attack plan
A 15-year-old boy accused of being part of a banned neo-Nazi group has denied planning a terrorist attack. The youth, from Northumberland, is charged with engaging in conduct in preparation for committing acts of terrorism on or before 20 February and one count of membership of proscribed organisation The Base.
The Standard: West London man found guilty of travelling to Syria to join Al Qaeda-linked group
A man who travelled to Syria to join a terror group has been convicted of a terrorism offence. Isa Giga, 32, previously of Hounslow, had travelled to Syria to fight for the Jaysh Al Fath group. The group is part of an alliance of Islamist militias fighting in the Syrian civil war and includes an Al Qaeda-affiliated group.
Afghanistan
New York Times: As Iran Deports a Million Afghans, ‘Where Do We Even Go?’
At the sand-swept border between Iran and Afghanistan, nearly 20,000 are crossing every day — shocked and fearful Afghans who have been expelled from Iran with few belongings in a wave of targeted crackdowns and xenophobia. More than 1.4 million Afghans have fled or been deported from Iran since January during a government clampdown on undocumented refugees, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. More than half a million have been forced into Afghanistan just since the war between Israel and Iran last month, returned to a homeland already grappling with a severe humanitarian crisis and draconian restrictions on women and girls, in one of the worst displacement crises of the past decade.
Iran
New York Times: New Assessment Finds Site at Focus of U.S. Strikes in Iran Badly Damaged
A senior Israeli official said last week that the strikes most likely did not eliminate the stockpile of near-bomb-grade fuel that could be used to produce upward of 10 nuclear weapons. But without the facilities to manufacture a weapon, U.S. officials insist, the fuel would be of little use even if the Iranians can dig it out of the rubble. The new assessment helps create a clearer picture of what the combined Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran achieved. The bombings deeply damaged Fordo — considered by the Iranians to be their best-protected and most advanced nuclear enrichment site — probably crippling Iran’s ability to make nuclear fuel for years to come.
Israel
Times of Israel: Mediators bullish on chances for Gaza deal next week after main obstacles overcome
A hostage agreement can be reached next week after Israel came down from demands regarding the scope of its withdrawal from Gaza during the 60-day truce under discussion, an Arab diplomat and a second source involved in mediation efforts told The Times of Israel on Thursday. Israel submitted a new series of maps earlier this week representing the troop redeployment that it envisions during the truce. The maps showed that Israel has come down from demands to hold onto large swaths of territory inside Gaza that it occupied since the previous ceasefire in January, the two sources said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel will continue to use military means to enforce its two red lines in Syria — the demilitarization of the area south of Damascus, near Israel’s border, and the protection of the country’s Druze minority there. Netanyahu said the Damascus regime, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, violated both those red lines in recent days. “It sent an army south of Damascus, into the area that should be demilitarized, and it began to massacre the Druze. We could not accept this in any way,” he said in a video statement. The premier added that the ceasefire Sharaa announced in southern Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province, which included the withdrawal of regime troops, “was achieved through force. Not through requests, not through pleas — through force.”
Israel’s decision to take decisive action in Syria in an effort to deter attacks on the Druze community has shown that it is possible for countries to work to preempt massacres or genocide. In the wake of the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has been vocal about protecting the Druze in Syria. The IDF has acted several times when clashes in Syria between armed groups and Druze fighters led to the killings of Druze. The attacks in Damascus on Wednesday included high-profile airstrikes near the presidential palace and targeting a military headquarters.
Jerusalem Post: IDF confirms deaths of two Hamas gov't officials, legal head, PIJ financier
The IDF and Shin Bet confirmed the deaths of four terrorists who were killed over the course of this past week in Gaza on Friday. The terrorists were named as Barhoum Shahin, the Head of the Western Gaza District in the General Security Apparatus; Asham Tzartzur, the Head of Hamas' Government Emergency Committee in eastern Gaza; Faraj al-’Aoul, the head of Hamas’ Legal Bureau; and Raed Khaled Hassan Jibain, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative and a central figure in the transfer of funds to the PIJ in the West Bank.
Lebanon
Naharnet: US Envoy to visit Lebanon next week with timeline for Hezbollah disarmament
U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack is currently holding consultations in New York and will visit Lebanon next week, local al-Joumhouria newspaper said Friday. According to the daily, Israel has told Barrack that it expects Hezbollah to hand over its ballistic and hypersonic missiles before engaging in further discussions. The new U.S. paper focused, according to the daily, on halting hostilities for a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Lebanese-Israeli conflict. It proposed a timeline for Hezbollah's disarmament.
Naharnet: Smuggling attempts to Hezbollah increasing via Syria, report says
Tehran is reportedly making new efforts to arm its allies including Hezbollah across the Middle East. Senior fellow at the Washington Institute for near east policy Michael Knights said that "Iran is rebuilding its presence in the Levant by sending missiles to Hezbollah and weapons from Iraq to Syria". Smuggling attempts to Hezbollah are increasing via Syria, though a hostile government in Damascus has crimped the arms pipeline, said Michael Cardash, the former deputy head of the Israeli National Police Bomb Disposal Division, adding that traffickers have now to smuggle arms in small shipments instead of sending truckloads.
Syria
New York Times: Blood in the Streets and Death in the Air: Residents Survey Damage in Syrian City
Since Sunday, the southern province of Sweida in Syria has been consumed by violence that has killed more than 500 people, according to the Britain-based war-monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It is the deadliest violence in this corner of Syria since the height of the country’s nearly 14-year civil war, and it has deepened fears among residents like Hossam that Syria’s new authorities are unable to provide for their security. Hossam said he had barricaded himself inside his house for days as clashes between government forces and militias of the Druse minority raged around him. Hossam, who is Druse, ventured outside only after a truce calmed the fighting and drove around his city, surveying the damage.
Reuters: Head of UN rights office urges accountability for killings in Syria's Sweida
The head of the United Nations human rights office called on Friday for Syria's interim authorities to ensure accountability and justice for killings and rights violations in the southern city of Sweida. Syria's government sent troops this week to the predominantly Druze city to quell fighting between Bedouins and Druze, but the violence grew until a ceasefire was declared.
Reuters: Israel agrees to allow Syrian troops limited access to Sweida
Israel has agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days, an Israeli official said on Friday after days of bloodshed in and around Syria's Druze city of Sweida. "In light of the ongoing instability in southwest Syria, Israel has agreed to allow limited entry of the (Syrian) internal security forces into Sweida district for the next 48 hours," the official, who declined to be named, told reporters.
Reuters: UN refugee agency concerned about impact of Sweida hostilities on aid operations
The United Nations refugee agency expressed concern on Friday about the impact of hostilities in Syria's southern city of Sweida on its aid operations, and urged all sides to allow more humanitarian access. Syria's government sent troops this week to the predominantly Druze city to quell fighting between Bedouins and Druze, but the violence grew until a fragile ceasefire took hold.
India
Reuters: What is The Resistance Front, designated by U.S. as 'terrorist' group?
The U.S. government has designated The Resistance Front, also known as the Kashmir Resistance, as a "foreign terrorist organisation" following an April 22 Islamist militant attack in Indian Kashmir that killed 26 people. The group initially took responsibility for the attack in Pahalgam before denying it days later.
The Hindu: India welcomes U.S. listing of The Resistance Front as global terrorist outfit
The Government of India on Friday (July 18, 2025) welcomed the U.S. Government’s decision to designate The Resistance Front (TRF) as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO)’ and as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) outfit. Indicating India’s international campaign to further action against terror outfits based on Pakistani soil, the Ministry of External Affairs said that India’s cooperation with international partners will continue to ensure “that terrorist organizations and their proxies are held accountable”.
Ethiopia
Ethiopian authorities have arrested 82 people suspected of being members of the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group. The country's National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) confirmed the development in a statement shared with local media outlets on Tuesday, noting that the arrests were made following a joint operation between the Federal Police and regional security forces.
Technology
The Week: Grok brings to light wider AI antisemitism
While Grok, the AI chatbot run by Elon Musk's social media platform X, has borne the brunt of recent controversy after churning out a series of antisemitic posts, it is hardly the only AI program to face issues with antisemitism. Several other AI chatbots from large corporations have also been known to exhibit antisemitic tendencies, something that tech experts say could become increasingly problematic as artificial intelligence grows more pervasive.
Forward: How I got AI to create fake Nazi memos — and what that means for the future of antisemitism
We’re living in the golden age of AI chatbots — and they pose three major risks when it comes to antisemitism. All these tools — including ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot — are what’s called generative AI, a form of artificial intelligence that can create new content. Users of textual AIs, likeChatGPT, can employ the technology to author plays, love letters and poems, as well as resumes, business plans or college essays.
Jewish Insider: Jewish Democrats press Pentagon about Grok contract after antisemitic meltdown
A group of Jewish House Democrats raised questions on Friday about the Pentagon’s decision to announce a $200 million contract with Elon Musk’s company xAI to utilize a version of its Grok artificial intelligence, days after the chatbot posted antisemitic and violent screeds on X. The legislators said they’re concerned about Musk’s potential influence on the program and lingering issues linked to the antisemitic outburst.
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