The watershed terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 were not the first terrorist attack in the West. But the extent of the destruction, the attackers' daring and the precisely chosen targets, which were intended to strike at the heart of the American consciousness, were all new and demanded that the nation change its thinking on everything regarding terrorism. The good news is that no attack of the same scale has been perpetrated on U.S. soil or anywhere else in the West since then. In addition, the U.S. reports it has killed 60,000 to 70,000 jihadists in various countries around the world. The battle against global terrorism (against global jihad, actually) has reached new heights in the past two years in Syria and Iraq -- not necessarily under American leadership, although Washington was certainly a partner in intelligence, operational, and diplomatic efforts in those countries. Now for the bad news, the main part of which is that terrorism is still with us, and unlikely to disappear. In recent years, it has taken on a new face that illustrates a concept or ideology and crosses national borders as well as continents. In the era of social media networks in a small global village, the Salafist-jihadi idea is making its way to Muslim communities all over the world. In recent years, it has reared its head in the form of attacks in the heart of Europe (Ankara, Brussels, Paris, London, Berlin, etc.); the tsunami of immigrants flooding Europe; "successful" attacks on symbols of the West and the desire of young people, mostly from the sidelines of society, to join Islam. All these contribute to keeping jihad alive. Where? Anywhere it is possible to commit a terrorist act against anyone whose life is by definition forfeit because he or she is an unbeliever. America itself has had a strong taste of that in the past two years in the form of the attacks in San Bernardino (December 2015) and in the gay nightclub in Orlando (June 2016). The world media, as well as local media, has been devoting plenty of airtime and print space to reports on the Islamic State and the caliphate ISIS leader Baker al-Baghdadi declared. But the truth is that the Americans haven't forgotten al-Qaida. In the years since the 9/11 attack, the desire to avenge the attacks spurred them on to step up intelligence gathering efforts and attack leaders of the group. The high point, of course, was when Osama bin Laden was eliminated in May 2011. But the Americans haven't let up. They have been responsible for the assassinations of other senior al-Qaida figures. They understand, and most European countries now understand as well, that the idea of global jihad is not the sole property of one organization or another. It is deeply rooted among Muslims throughout the world are not affiliated with any group. The new face of terrorism is the new-old type of lone-wolf attacks -- stabbings, car rammings, etc. -- alongside traditional terrorism by institutions active in Western countries, including Israel, that operate independently or under the direction of jihad command centers in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. All these will require Western intelligence branches to increase tracking of potential terrorism on social media. This is an extremely complicated challenge, but in light of the fact that we are talking about the constant perusal of a global dogma that divides the world into two (faithful Muslims are right; the infidels are wrong), the only way to go about it is to be patient and use the right tools to minimize the damage. Gadi Hitman is a lecturer in the Israel and Middle Eastern Studies Department at Ariel University.
