Netanyahu and the Nightmare of the Khilafah (Caliphate)!
By Engineer Baher Saleh
(Translated)

The Prime Minister of the Jewish entity, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, that his government “will never give up on achieving victory in the war,” adding, “We are determined to recover the captives, and we will not allow the establishment of any Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate), neither in the north nor in the south nor anywhere else.” He said, “If the extremists defeat us, the Western world will be their next target.” This is not the first time Netanyahu has mentioned the Khilafah as a threat he is fighting to prevent. It is the second time this week, and the third time during the war on Gaza, albeit not with the same nomenclature and structures, but with the same meaning.

Now, what prompted Netanyahu recently to focus on the Khilafah and raise it as a fear he seeks to eliminate? Does this have implications for developments in the war on Gaza? What are the implications of the speech itself?

These questions and others are what I will attempt to shed light on in this short article:

It is clear from the outset that the enemy of Allah (swt), Netanyahu, was drunk with the euphoria of power and victory, after being deceived by the stances of the servile rulers of Muslims, who prevented the Ummah and its armies from supporting Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria. These servile rulers allowed Netanyahu to bomb, kill, destroy, burn, displace, and threaten, without mobilizing a single soldier, aircraft, warship, or tank. Instead, the servile rulers aided Netanyahu in besieging the people of Gaza, supplying him with money, food, clothing, and weapons. This led Netanyahu to believe that the Ummah was weak, and that he was capable of achieving his dreams and desires without any hindrance, as long as he enjoyed the absolute and continuous support of his entity from America, the West, and the rulers of Muslims.

However, what is certain is that this euphoria and sense of power did not make Netanyahu lose sight of reality and the fact that his entity alone was unable to achieve his dreams. Having sensed that America wanted to rely on his entity to fight Islam in the region, after America began planning to reduce Iran’s role and began doing so, Netanyahu now sees himself as representing the interests and plans of the West, led by America, in fighting Islam in the most volatile region in the world and preventing Muslims from regaining their authority and establishing their Khilafah.

However, this rogue faces two challenges that Netanyahu constantly strives to overcome. The first relates to Netanyahu’s popular platform and the Jewish people, who are paying the price of the war in soldiers, security, and economy. The second relates to global public opinion, the West's support for Netanyahu and the ability of its leaders to continue this support.

So, for example, when Netanyahu talks about changing the face of the Middle East repeatedly, despite his awareness that he would not have continued his war on Gaza, or any other front, without the West’s continued support for his entity and his awareness that to date he has not engaged in a single war against a single Muslim army, and that he is only attacking formations that possess only a minimal amount of weaponry and munitions, Netanyahu nevertheless speaks, deluding himself and his followers, that he is fighting on seven fronts.

Netanyahu is directing this discourse at home and at the domestic popular platform he is trying to preserve to make them believe that he is a strong person with a firm will and lofty goals to the point that he is fighting on seven fronts. Therefore, there is no objection to paying a heavy price as long as the goals and achievements are great, as his Defense Minister Katz stated a few days ago.

When Netanyahu speaks of the obsession with the Khilafah and says, “If the extremists defeat us, the Western world will be their next target”, he knows that the return of Islam, especially pure and unadulterated Islam under the Khilafah, is the West’s greatest concern in the region. Therefore, Netanyahu deludes them into believing that the outcome, if he does not continue his crimes and war against the women, children, elderly, schools, masjids, and hospitals of Gaza, will be the establishment of a Khilafah in the region. Here, Netanyahu is actually directing his message externally.

Netanyahu knows that the resistance movements in Gaza, i.e., in the south, Iran’s Hezb in Lebanon, i.e., in the north, as well as the Houthis in Yemen, the new rulers of Syria, and Iran itself, do not call for the Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly-Guided Caliphate) or seek to establish it. However, Netanyahu frames his brutal war within the context of the caliphate-phobia that exists among Western leaders and their political class, thereby eliciting their support and blessing for his brutal war on Gaza and his attacks on Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria.

This is an indication that Netanyahu is beginning to find it difficult to cope with the gradual easing and decline of support. Trump’s statement on Air Force One, “Gaza came up and I said, ‘We’ve got to be good to Gaza... Those people are suffering. We’ve got to be good to Gaza. We’re going to take care of them.” Every time Netanyahu senses that the American and the Western support is beginning to wane, in light of the brutality and protracted nature of the war, he resorts to rekindling Western fears about the consequences and leniency toward the resistance.

However, in reality, Netanyahu knows that his entity is too weak to confront the Ummah or its serious efforts. Netanyahu sees how his army is killing defenseless children, women, and the elderly, and bombing homes, schools, mosques, and shelters, without confronting an army. Netanyahu sees how, for eighteen months, he, along with all the countries of the world, led by America, Germany, France, and all the rulers of Muslims, has been unable to decisively defeat the Gaza front, where there are only a handful of mujahideen and a defenseless, besieged people. How will he be able to confront a single Muslim army?!

Netanyahu’s discourse on the Khilafah is truly directed at the West, at its peoples, political circles, and leaders, not at its popular platform, the Islamic Ummah, or the resistance movements. It demonstrates the escalating crisis facing him in Gaza and the diminishing prospects for war, given his inability to resolve the battle, and his entry into a protracted, war of attrition. This demonstrates that the Khilafah, even if excluded from media discourse, or kept out of the discourse of Western politicians and their agents in Muslim countries, represents the West’s greatest obsession and constant nightmare that they remind each other of whenever necessary.

As for the Second Khilafah Rashidah upon the Method of Prophethood, it will come, inshaaAllah, with honor, or after humiliation. Khilafah is a promise and a glad tiding, as foretold by our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw), «ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ» “Then there will be a Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood.” Soon, inshaaAllah, the nightmare that haunts Western leaders in their dreams will become a reality before their eyes. Allah (swt) said,

[وَعْدَ اللهِ لَا يُخْلِفُ اللهُ وَعْدَهُ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ]

“The Promise of Allah. Allah does not fail in His promise, but most of the people do not know.” [TMQ Surah ar-Rum 6]

* Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir