Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. The president said ISIS is “already here” within Israel. Photo: Twitter.

JNS.org – “The Islamic State is already here; that is no longer a secret. I am not speaking about territories bordering the State of Israel, but within the state itself,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin warned Monday at the ninth annual conference of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

Rivlin noted that “research studies, arrests, testimonies, and overt and covert analyses — many conducted by the INSS — clearly indicate that there is increasing support for the Islamic State group among Israeli Arabs, and some are actually joining up.”

“Anyone familiar with Arab society knows that in recent years there has been considerable radicalization in some Bedouin settlements in the south, and in Arab towns and villages in the north, on the issue of implementation of Sharia law (Islamic law). We are even seeing the influence of extremist ideas in areas and groups identifying as secular,” added Rivlin.