The British-accented jihadist who beheaded two American journalists in a pair of sickening videos has forfeited any claim to divine mercy or understanding with his barbaric acts, author and commentator Rabbi Shmuley Boteach told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
The same holds true not just for "Jihadi John" — as the hooded executioner is reportedly called by his compatriots — but for anyone fighting and killing under the banner of the Islamic State (ISIS), Boteach told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.
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A television personality and author of numerous books on Judaism, the religious leader known as "America's Rabbi" said that nothing in scripture forbids retaliation against the
murderer of journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley.
"God's enemies are this 'Jihadi John' who chopped off one of God's children's heads in front of a camera," said the rabbi. "He's an animal, he's a monster. The idea that he should live is an affront and an abomination to all civilized rules of living. It's an abomination and an affront to God.
"The only thing he deserves is a drone strike quickly that erases every last vestige of his existence here on Earth," said Boteach. "I'm sorry, when you are a monster of that caliber, you have erased the countenance of God from your image. There is no longer a human likeness. And for us to equivocate about that is to have no values, is to have contempt for human life."
Boteach said that President Barack Obama also needs to give more voice to the outrage felt at the sight of American captives being murdered and mutilated, and start talking more forcefully and emotionally about ISIS and other brutal anti-Western jihadists.
"We need to see some hatred from the president toward these groups," in part to show "how civilized people react when they see something that's truly barbaric and brutal," he said.
"We need President Obama to just start speaking in emotional terms about how evil and wicked these people are because that is what will motivate us to fight them," said Boteach.
Boteach, an advocate for the state of Israel, said it's reasonable to conclude that the Islamic State wants to strike someday at America's strongest ally in the Middle East.
He said Israel's greatest enemy, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, already has more in common than not with ISIS.
"Hamas is a gay-hating, women-suppressing, free-speech-suppressing, bloodthirsty death cult, and that's what ISIS is," said Boteach.
"Now, Hamas' war against Israel is a war of values," he said. "They hate Israel for its values. They hate its openness. They hate its democratic values. They hate its freedom."
"ISIS, of course, hates the United States more right now because they're facing the wrath of the United States — a tiny little bit of it, nowhere near enough," he said. "But Israel is seen [by its enemies] as the client state of the United States. Israel is that free democratic society that ISIS so hates."
"All these radical Islamist organizations want to take control of people's lives, bring them back to the stone ages and chop their heads off if they're not in step with their radical agenda," he said.
Boteach described the fights against ISIS and Hamas as civilizational struggles comparable to World War II.
"If it takes killing people to stop the spread of evil, that's a terrible price we have to pay," he said. "But it must be paid."
"We must stop the enemy even if it involves killing them before they kill us," he said.