A New Wave of Terror - Dr. Steve Elwart - http://www.khouse.org/enews_article/2015/2444/print/
Pray for peace for Jerusalem: "May those who love you be at peace! May peace be within your ramparts, and prosperity within your fortresses." For the sake of my relatives and friends I will now say, "May there be peace within you." For the sake of the Temple of the LORD our God, I will seek your welfare.
- Psalm 122:6-9 (ISV)
A new wave of violence erupted across Israel in recent weeks. Violence ramped up in Jerusalem this week after two Israelis were stabbed to death by a Palestinian; that spurred further violence and other stabbings. In the past month, eight Israelis died in 30 attacks involving knives and other weapons, with many more being wounded. Palestinian officials have said more than 30 Palestinians have been killed in the past month. More than 1,100 have been injured, mostly in fighting with Israeli forces.
Why Now?
What happened? Why did the violence erupt now?
What happened was nothing happened. For almost 10 years, Judea and Samaria were amazingly quiet. For over four years the Arab chaos did not penetrate the Promised Land. Israel experienced unprecedented prosperity. The West Bank experienced relative prosperity.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not launch a bold plan to divide the land. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas did not adopt the Barak plan or the Olmert plan or the Clinton plan.
Some observers are tying the recent spate of violence with the 10 year anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. Where Israel was trying to trade land for peace, some jihadists want more land and less peace.
Others believe that the recent attacks can be traced back to one issue - a controversy over a small but important area in Jerusalem's Old City: the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the third-holiest site in Islam. The mosque sits near the Dome of the Rock where Muslims believe Muhammad rose to heaven.
Both landmarks sit on the Temple Mount in the Muslim quarter of the Old City; however, the Temple Mount is also the holiest place in Judaism. Control of the site is ultimately up to the government of Israel, a non-Muslim state, and so Palestinians fear that Israel might limit their access to it, or even destroy it.
Their fear culminated Oct. 4, when two Palestinians stabbed to death five Israelis near the site, leaving two Israelis dead. This incident was followed by a series of stabbings and other attacks. Because of those later attacks, Israel restricted access to the Old City for 48 hours.
Increasingly in recent years, Jewish activists have demanded greater access to the Temple Mount and others have called for rights of Jews to pray there.
This has sparked widespread concerns among Palestinians that the status quo is being violated, and will end in the division of the Temple Mount.
Over the past few years, tensions have coincided with the Jewish High Holy Days in the autumn. This year, the holiday coincided with the Muslim's Eid-al-Adha holiday and tensions rose even higher.
IDF Response
Six companies of Israeli soldiers were deployed in Jerusalem Oct. 14 to help police secure the city in light of a recent escalation in violence. Seven Israelis and at least 30 Palestinians have died in two weeks of street attacks and subsequent crackdowns, raising regional concerns of a third Palestinian intifada. The Israeli Cabinet passed a series of measures overnight Oct. 13 aiming to prevent further street attacks, including giving police authority to seal off Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and demolish the homes of those carrying out the attacks. The Knesset also approved a call-up of 1,400 reservists in the Border Police. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Oct. 13 that he plans to travel to the Middle East to calm the violence.
Fire at Joseph's Tomb
Palestinians set fire to a Jewish holy shrine in the West Bank Friday morning, and clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli military flared throughout the day after the militant Islamist group Hamas called for a "day of rage."
The blaze at the Tomb of the Prophet Joseph, on the outskirts of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, was brought under control by Palestinian Âforces, who also dispersed hundreds of protesters. There were no reports of injuries, but the Israeli military said the structure was seriously damaged.
The incident underscored the runaway tensions across Israel and the West Bank amid a series of attacks and clashes that have claimed lives on both sides and brought the Israeli army into residential areas in Israel for the first time in more than a decade.
In an unusual move, Mahmoud Abbas denounced the attack as "irresponsible." He said he would appoint a committee to investigate the incident, local media reported.
Palestinians Set Fire to a Jewish Holy Shrine
Israeli leaders have accused Abbas of failing to intervene in the latest unrest - which was triggered by confrontations at another holy site, Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The site is considered holy by Muslims, who refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, and by Jews, who call it the Temple Mount.
The tomb, which has been the site of clashes in the past, is often visited by Jewish pilgrims escorted by the Israeli military. The site is patrolled by Palestinian security services, but some Israelis are now calling for Israeli soldiers to be present, too.
"The burning and desecration of Joseph's Tomb last night is a blatant violation and contradiction of the basic value of freedom of worship. The IDF will take all measures to bring the perpetrators of this despicable act to justice, restore the site to its earlier condition and make sure that the freedom of worship returns to Joseph's Tomb," IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said in a statement Friday morning.
White House Calls for Order
At a White House news conference, President Obama said his administration was "concerned about the outbreak of violence" and said people in Israel should have a basic expectation of law and order. But he also pointed a finger at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
We also believe that it's important for both, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli elected officials and President Abbas and other people in positions of power, to try to tamp down rhetoric that may feed violence or anger or misunderstanding and try to get all people in Israel and in the West Bank to recognize that this kind of random violence is not going to result in anything other than more hardship and more insecurity.
(It is interesting that despite the calls for jihad and the images of rioters waving Palestinian and jihadi flags, the Obama administration is branding what is going on in Israel as "random violence." It is strangely reminiscent of President Obama calling the jihad at Fort Hood that resulted in the deaths of 13 Americans in Texas "workplace violence.")
Israel has bolstered its troop presence in Jerusalem and the West Bank in the wake of the violence. As in previous weeks, only women, of all ages, and men over the age of 40 may enter the Temple Mount for Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
No End in Sight
Senior Israeli defense officials admit that even if a way is found to stop the knife attacks or if they stop of their own accord, there isn't much hope that the security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which had held up well over the past seven to eight years, will ever return to what it was. The current outburst is taking place because the PA's restraining mechanisms have eroded, and now the violence is eroding what's left of them.
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