“The increasing pressure on the Islamic State [IS] is causing the organization to change and to alter its modus operandi,” a former Israeli Mossad official told Al-Monitor, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The organization has lost quite a bit of territory in recent weeks and absorbing military defeats on the ground. In light of this situation, there are signs that IS is changing its strategy. From attempts to expand and continue building a caliphate, it is shifting to a survival mentality, maintenance of its current assets. In addition, it now emphasizes the launching of numerous, high-quality terrorist attacks on sensitive sites in the West, with its focus on nearby Europe, in which it can operate relatively easily.”

In recent months, Israel’s intelligence and security branches came to similar conclusions. IS, according to their assessments, is evolving into a more dangerous mutant. “We are looking at a new battlefield,” said the former official. “The West must learn to understand it, prepare for it and immediately battle against it. Any delay will cause great damage.”

After the March 22 IS attack in Brussels, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said, “This is a Third World War against our common values.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a taped speech delivered to the AIPAC conference in Washington, said, “Every day high-level delegations land at Ben Gurion Airport. They come from America. They come from Europe. Increasingly they come from Asia, from Africa, from Latin America. … They wish to learn from Israel’s proven security and intelligence capabilities how to better protect their own people.”

On this issue, a senior Israeli security official who requested anonymity said, “Israel should also adopt some humility on the issue. While it's true that we teach everyone else how to fight terror, we ourselves are unable to cope with the current terror wave that is mainly comprised of teenagers with knives or improvised guns.” Despite this cautionary statement, the West still knows that Israel has the most accumulated experience in dealing with Islamic terror, which has accompanied the state since the day it was founded.