People attend the ‘Light Over Darkness’ vigil honoring victims and survivors of a deadly mass shooting during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams

You are far more likely to die from an Islamist terror attack in the foreseeable future than a war with China.

That’s not to diminish the threat from Beijing, which poses the greatest long-term strategic challenge to the West. But it means that an ISIS-inspired nut could realistically run into a supermarket in New York or Sydney tomorrow with a knife shouting “Allahu Akbar!”

Unlikely, sure, but possible. I’d argue the odds of China invading Taiwan tomorrow are lower.

The point is, the global war on terrorism isn’t over, even if we don’t like to use such language anymore.

Jews should be more aware of this reality than most for two reasons. First, they are disproportionally targeted on every continent except Antarctica (our reporting on the Jewish community there is admittedly a little thin). And second, the world’s only Jewish state is now leading the civilized world in the fight against global jihadist terrorism, a quarter century after the US declared a “war on terror.”

It’s fitting, then, that Rosh Hashanah begins this year on the evening of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As Jews around the world celebrate the new year, they can remember that the privilege of continuing a 4,000-year-old heritage carries a burden: eternal vigilance. The Jewish story of survival, continuity, and flourishment, despite unparalleled persecution, includes the ongoing fight against modern jihadist terrorism. Israel is keenly aware of this fact.

Too many people, however, seem to think Islamist terrorism receded into the background of history — perhaps when the US withdrew from Afghanistan, if not earlier.

The irony is that the Taliban now control Afghanistan, reportedly allowing al Qaeda to operate there in an environment eerily reminiscent of the world on Sept. 10, 2001.

The terrorist threat extends well beyond where the 9/11 attacks were planned. For example, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in the Sahel, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), has besieged Mali’s capital and wreaked havoc across the region, while its Somali affiliate, al-Shabaab, continues to drive instability in the Horn of Africa.

Meanwhile, a resurgent terrorist threat from Islamic State (ISIS) has US officials alarmed, with the group’s branches spreading across the Middle East and Africa and carrying out attacks in places far afield such as Russia. ISIS has also inspired attacks around the world, from the US to Australia.

“In region after region, terrorist groups are outpacing the ability of local governments to respond,” US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said at a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy in April. “The failures threaten our interest globally and endanger the American homeland. The threat is rapidly growing and demands attention.”

Then there’s Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis — and more of Iran’s network of terrorist proxies, which are largely based in the Middle East but operate across Eurasia, Africa, and even the Western Hemisphere. Just this year, a new Iran-backed group claimed responsibility for a string of arson and bombing attacks in Europe, primarily against Jewish targets.

All of this sounds grim, but it doesn’t mean the war on terror was a failure. Actually, it was largely a success.

Above all, there was no subsequent major terrorist attack on US soil after the Twin Towers fell. Indeed, only one lethal incident directed by a foreign jihadist organization took place in the country since 9/11: the 2019 shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where an al Qaeda operative killed three people. That was the only “success” among several thwarted and otherwise failed plots.

Other atrocities — such as the Pulse nightclub attack in Florida in 2016 — were perpetrated by lone-wolf, self-radicalized jihadists inside the US.

There were many additional attacks around the world, from Madrid in 2004 to Moscow in 2024. But better airport security, improved international efforts to stop the terrorist money flow, and an entire counterterrorism infrastructure built in the wake of 9/11 have made such tragedies significantly more difficult to perpetrate, particularly in the US. And critically, much of the Sunni Arab world, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have cracked down on radicalism and moderated what they teach in schools.

Still, this is a multi-generational struggle against an enemy that thinks in terms of centuries, even millennia, not election cycles. And as Jews should be aware, this multifaceted Islamist enemy is not done trying to kill.

Since last Rosh Hashanah, Jewish communities suffered the Bondi and Manchester atrocities, both perpetrated by jihadists.

Then in March, an assailant rammed a truck full of explosives into a Michigan synagogue, prepared to open fire on children inside before being stopped by security and killing himself. The attacker was inspired by and even linked to Hezbollah, according to the FBI.

Months earlier, the US saw the return of fatal antisemitic violence, with Jewish victims killed in such attacks for the first time since 2019. Specifically, two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead in Washington, DC, last May, followed weeks later by a firebombing in Colorado that killed one person and left several others injured. In each case, authorities said the assailant called for a “Free Palestine” and indicated he was motivated by the Gaza war.

In the Middle East, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran are maniacally trying to destroy Israel, home to roughly half the world’s Jews and the Jewish people’s only true place of refuge, while also plotting attacks across Europe and beyond. The Israelis are actively fighting all these forces, even as much of the Western world criticizes them for it.

Of course, this is not just about Jews. In Nigeria, for example, Islamist terror groups are slaughtering Christians. And Muslims are always the main targets of jihadists seeking to impose Islamic supremacism wherever they can.

This really is a civilizational struggle, with Israel leading the charge. Those wishing to isolate Israel risk, among other things, making all of us more vulnerable to terrorism — Jews and non-Jews alike.

Amid the hostility, Jews in Israel and the diaspora are doing what they do best: surviving and living well. After all, life goes on; the Jewish people endure. And thanks to the Mossad and the IDF, a lot of terrorists die.

Rosh Hashanah’s coinciding with 9/11 presents an opportunity to reflect on the constant, never-ending vigilance that’s required of the Jewish people to ensure their own survival, especially after Oct. 7, 2023.

Jewish and Israeli life will continue, amid all the terrorism and antisemitism. The people who brought monotheism to the world and laid the moral, legal, and spiritual foundation for Western civilization will always have a special responsibility to continue the tradition — and therefore carry a unique burden to be targeted for it. As I’ve written before, antisemitism persists so stubbornly and pervasively because people believe Jews are the “chosen people,” and they see in Israel that same chosenness.

In multiple ways, the Jewish people are on the frontlines of the war on terror. As we enter the year 5787, Jews should not underestimate the jihadist threat, but they should rest well knowing they are the standard-bearers of civilization in the fight. Large chunks of the world don’t appreciate this fact, which means that Jews just need to be that much more honorable in performing their duty to the world.

Aaron Kliegman is the executive editor of The Algemeiner.