Jihad is today's lingua franca of the Muslim world.
The coercive goal of jihad is to convert people (and lands) to Islam.
Jihadists use jihad to advance Islam's takeover of lands, as Caroline Glick reminds us in her article of August, 11, 2006,Why Iran must win:
"The path of jihad is the path of terror. Using terror, the jihadists believe that they can destroy the confidence of citizens of free societies and so coerce them to bend to their will.
In his letter to US President George Bush last May, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad enunciated the coercive goal of jihad when he threatened the US with war unless Bush converts to Islam. Iran, which today leads the global jihad, has managed to make the language of jihad the lingua franca of the Muslim world."
The destruction and annihiliation of Israel by conquering Jerusalem is a central battle of Global Jihad. Jihadists don't want to conquer Israel but to destroy it:
"as a stepping stone on the path toward global domination... If Israel is defeated... the march of Jihad will move forward with unprecedented force." (CG, op.cit.).
As a Hamas spokesman said (in an August 2006 training videotape showing the Popular Resistance Committees' deployment of its female suicide bomber unit in Gaza), they won't stop fighting "until the liberation of Palestine and until the message 'There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His Messenger' reaches the enire world" (as reported by CG).
AsCaroline Glick reports (her article of April, 28, 2006, Israel's new war), Zawahiri laid out al-Qaeda's long-term strategy to Fouad Hussein, Jordanian journalist, who writes about it in his 2005 book Al Zarqawi: Al Qaeda's second Generation, where he interviews al-Qaeda top lieutenants. According to Zawahiri Global jihad started in 2000 and will end in 2020 and will follow seven stages directed to the stablishment of the global caliphate:
2001-2003 - the "awakening" of Muslims' consciousness worldwide following September 11, 2001. The aim of the attacks was to provoke the US into declaring war on the Islamic world and thereby mobilising the radicals. This, this phase concluded in 2003 when the coaltion troops entered Irak.
2003-2006 - "Opening Eyes", to make the "Western conspiracy" aware of the "Islamic community" while recruiting battalions of youns muslims ready for battle.
2007-2010 - "Arising and Standing Up", with increasingly frequent attacks against secular Turkey and arch-enemy Israel.
2010-2013 - the downfall of hated Arab regimes, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Oil suppliers will be attacked and the US economy will be targeted using cyber terrorism.
2013-2016 - Declaration of an Islamic State
2016-2018 - "Total confrontation". The caliphate's "Islamic army" will instigate the "fight between believers and non-believers" so often been predicted by bin Laden.
2019-2020 - "Definitive victory". The rest of the world is so beaten down by the "One-and-a-half billion Muslims" that the caliphate will undoubtedly succeed.
So we are in phase 3:
"Today we are in the third stage, which includes the toppling of the regimes in Jordan, Syria and Egipt and thetargeting of Israel for destruction."
Bin Laden and Zarqawi** followed Zawahiri with an audiotape and a videotape, respectively, released in April, 2006:
"In his video this week, Zarqawi emphasized that the destruction of Israel through the conquest of Jerusalem is one of his major goals. Both him and bin Laden made clear that, from their perspectives, the war against the US and the war against Israel are the same war." (CG, op.cit.)
The Jordan Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi pledged his group's loyalty to Osama bin Laden in 2005. Fouad Hussein' book chronicles his presence in Afghanistan and his relationship with al-Qaeda, which funded Zarqawi's training camps in Herat in 2001. Sayf al-Adl, the official in charge of security for the Islam Army of al-Qaeda's Global Jihad, recounts in the book that, following Irak's invasion, al-Zarqawi and other Al-Qaeda leaders scattered and regrouped in Iran, pledging to reassemble in Afghanistan in seven years' time.
Zarqawi's video is titled A message to the People. Video here; a comment and partial transcript here. Zarqawi was killed shortly after that in Irak... so no Afghanistan in seven years.
Bin Laden's audiotape was titled State of Jihad. Comment and partial transcript here. Bin Laden's 2003-2006 speeches during 2003-2006 here. In January 2009, Bin Laden urges jihad against Israel in new tape.
Here an analysis of 2008 by Blake Ward: Osama's wake: the second generation of al-Qaeda.
And here a 2005 comment on al-Qaeda leaders' strategy discrepancies: The Zawahiri Letter and the Strategy of Al-Qaeda, by Shmuel Bar & Yair Minzili. They analyse a letter from Zawahiri to Zarqawi, intercepted in 9 July and published in 6 October, 2005, where the latter presents a sophisticated, logical analysis of the goals of the jihad in Iraq and the strategies for achieving those goals.
Another analysis on Zawahiri and the discrepancies at the head of al-Qaeda, by Brown & Lihou.
As Olivier Guitta explains (in his article, you can find some details on al-Qaeda's 2008 whereabouts in Gaza):
"The strategy followed to best attack Israel has been to penetrate all the neighboring countries of the Hebrew state. It started with Egypt that was targeted by Al Qaeda as early as October 2004 when a triple attack targeted Israeli tourists in the Sinai. Then the terror attacks of Sharm el Sheikh in April and July of 2005 confirmed Al Qaeda's presence in Egypt. After being aggressively pursued by Egyptian authorities and coinciding with Israel's disengagement from Gaza over the 2005 summer, Al Qaeda operatives settled mostly in Gaza.
Al Qaeda's presence in the region was also felt in Jordan when a series of coordinated terror attacks on three hotels in Amman was carried out by Al Qaeda in November 2005. Al Qaeda is also trying to penetrate and control Al Sham (Syria and Lebanon). For proof of its success in Lebanon, the emergence of the terror group Fatah Al Islam who fought tooth and nail the Lebanese army in 2007 in the Palestinian camp of Nahr El Bared.
Interestingly, Fatah al Islam's birth coincided with Ayman Al Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's number 2, calling for the mujahedeen 'to carry the jihad at the borders of Palestine'. To confirm their focus on Israel, one of Fatah al Islam leaders, Abu Muayed, declared: 'We are here to liberate Jerusalem.' Other Salafist extremists groups are gaining power in Lebanon and especially in the town of Tripoli. They are loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda but plan on a closer relationship in the next few months. Interestingly, Omar Bakri, the extremist preacher and alleged al-Qaeda's mouthpiece who was kicked out of England after the July 7, 2005 bombings, now residing in Tripoli, confirms the emergence of al-Qaeda in Lebanon. (more on this in Part 3)
So, Al Qaeda's strategy to infiltrate the countries surrounding Israel is implemented and in the future Al Qaeda could potentially have different bases to attack the Jewish state."
Caroline's deduction is clear:
"If in the past it was possible to say that the war being waged against Israel was unique and distinct from the global jihad, after the events of the past week [April 2006], it is no longer possible to credibly make such a claim. Four events that occurred this week - the attacks in the Sinai; the release of Osama bin Laden's audiotape; the release of Abu Musab Zarqawi's videotape; and the arrest of Hamas terrorists by Jordan - all proved clearly that today it is impossible to separate the wars."
Any how, we shall not forget the initial remark of Shmuel Bar & Yair Minzili (op.cit.):
"The strategy and ideology of al-Qaeda have evolved constantly since it was formed. The direction of this evolution has been determined by a number of factors: the theater in which the organization operated, the operational opportunities that presented themselves, and the ideological and practical predilections of the religious and operational leaders of both the radical Islamic camp in general and al-Qaeda in particular."