Acute, Persistent, Deadly

"We give them an aerial view of the streets and those people who are throwing stones, we can detect them even if they hide behind buildings or in gardens."
"When we see them and when we see their activity, we can direct the police forces to their location. And even if they escape we can follow them and make sure that police catch them."
Rami Shmueli, chief executive, RT LTA Systems Ltd., Israel

This undated photo provided by RT LTA Systems Ltd. shows a Skystar aerostat surveillance system. Israeli police started using the system recently in Jerusalem to track clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. (AP Photo/RT LTA System Ltd.)

"They want to discover everything that's going on. [They see] who is going, who is coming, who is that person."
Imad Muna, local bookstore employee, Jerusalem

"It is tremendously important and gives us a 360-degree view of what is going on."
"Our units can respond a lot quicker, a lot faster and much more effectively."
Mickey Rosenfeld, Jerusalem police spokesman

In this image made from undisclosed and undated video provided by RT LTA Systems Ltd. via AP video, a camera on a surveillance balloon flies over land.  (AP Photo/RT LTA Systems Ltd. via AP video)

There is always violence taking place, simmering below the surface and occasionally erupting, in Israel. Lately, however, the violence has become acute, persistent and deadly. Security and awareness is of the utmost importance in efforts to try to cope with that violence. Now, helium-filled balloons are being used, with high-definition cameras attached, to give security personnel a heads-up on brewing violence.

Those surveillance balloons floating above Jerusalem's eastern sector and Old City, where the most sensitive sacred religious sites and locus of most of the violence is occurring, are being used to monitor protests and to enable the police to move in expeditiously in response. Each of the puffy white balloons carries a rotating spherical camera pod.

They can be seen from below, and their purpose, evident enough, appears to be acting as another goad to Palestinian resentment. It's called the Skystar 180 aerostate system and the manufacturer assures that the balloons stay aloft for 72 hours at a time with their highly sensitive cameras sending down vital information which the police consider a "third dimension" in quelling tensions.

In this image made from video provided by RT LTA Systems Ltd. via AP video, surveillance video of masked protesters is shown on a screen in an office in Yavne, Israel, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014.  (AP Photo/RT LTA Systems Ltd. via AP video)

In the space of a month, eleven people have died as a result of Palestinian attacks against Jews; one of them a Druze Israeli policeman, trying to protect Israelis from the deadly attacks targeting them. Several attacks have taken place in Tel Aviv and the West Bank, but most target east Jerusalem, the site of the hilltop compound held in reverence by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

There is, of course, the fundamentally absurd aspect of the situation where Jews, living in a Jewish country, are refused access to their most sacred religious site by minority Muslims claiming the site to be their singular monopoly. Muslims wishing to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque and to visit the Dome of the Rock may do so, but Jews are restrained from praying at the most holy site in Judaism.