Moshe "Bogie" Ya’alon is pleased with what he calls “the awakening of the West with regard to the danger of the Islamic State [IS].”

In interviews with Israeli news outlets during Sukkot (Oct. 14), the Israeli defense minister explained: “The very fact that Western countries are waking up is important, because the Islamic State is a threat not just to our region. The West — Europe and the United States — is experiencing this threat exactly the way we do. Fighters leave Europe to fight in Syria and Iraq. Then they go back home as trained terrorists. This leads to terror attacks such as the one at the Jewish Museum in Brussels [May 24]."

Ya'alon added, "Right now there are two coalitions on the offensive — one in Iraq and another in Syria. The coalition in Iraq is a Western one, led by the United States with the participation of other countries such as the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and the UK. The other coalition, operating in Syria, is an Arab one, and is also led by the United States. Its participants include, among others, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Qatar. As for the latter, I don’t know whether it is actively taking part in the offensive, but it is nonetheless part of the coalition.

"Airstrikes are important, because as long as the Syrians or Iraqis did not have air supremacy, those convoys, which consisted of pickup trucks mounted with machine guns and Kalashnikovs, as well as looted tanks, simply advanced uninterruptedly, in broad daylight. Nobody was stopping them. This phenomenon has been blocked.