Global Wave of Terror Plots Sparks New Alarms Over the West’s Growing Vulnerability

A terrorist assault on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, combined with Germany’s arrest of five suspected Islamist militants accused of plotting a Christmas-market attack, is renewing fears that Western democracies are entering a more volatile era marked by ideologically driven violence.

The incidents, striking symbolic holiday gatherings on opposite sides of the world, have intensified debate across the United States and Europe over whether open societies are prepared for a resurgence of extremist threats.

The sense of unease deepened further after an ISIS-affiliated gunman in Syria killed two U.S. service members and wounded an American civilian working alongside American forces. While the attack took place overseas, national security analysts say it reflects a pattern troubling Western governments: individuals able to inflict harm quickly with minimal planning, animated by broader ideological movements rather than directed by terrorist networks.

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Michael Makovsky, president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, said the Sydney, Germany and Syria incidents reflect a broader trend Western leaders have been slow to confront.

“Clearly, the threat hasn’t diminished,” Makovsky said, adding that extremist networks appear more energized in the wake of recent Middle Eastern conflicts.

He criticized governments that he believes underestimated the risks.

“People have been warning the Australian government … there’s a spike in Islamic extremism, and they just didn’t do anything,” he said of the Sydney attack, questioning how such a large public Jewish event lacked stronger security. “I don’t know where the security was in all this and why it took the police so long to respond.”

Makovsky praised the Trump administration’s efforts to confront a rise in antisemitism but warned that the U.S. may be overlooking risks inherent in its partnership with Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Shaara, a former wanted terrorist.

“The administration is very invested right now in Shaara, and seems to want to minimize that the killer was from Shaara’s security forces,” he said. “There are a lot of bad people still around Shaara.”

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