Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said Israel should be wiped off the map and described the Jewish state as a crime against Muslims.
Zawahri also accused President Barack Obama of conducting a policy on Israeli-Palestinian issues that was bound to end in failure for the Palestinians, and said Mr Obama wanted a Palestinian state that would serve as "an extension of the CIA."
"Israel is a crime that should be removed," Zawahri said in an interview with al-Qaeda's media arm As-sahab, posted on an Islamist website today.
Al-Qaeda leaders have often said that they would focus their holy war on Israel after the creation of an Islamic state in Iraq.
Al-Qaeda has no recognisable presence in Israel, or in the Palestinian Territories which are dominated by Hamas and the secular Fatah movement led by US-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.