Israel, Palestinian Authority -- Partners for Peace

"It is the responsibility of everyone to take steps to calm tensions rather than inflame them."

"[Friday's rampage] was more than an attack on individuals. It was also an attack on the universal act of practising one's faith. We condemn it in the strongest terms."

"And we condemn all those who celebrate these and any other acts of terrorism that take innocent lives, no matter who the victim is or what they believe."

"Calls for vengeance against more innocent victims are not the answer."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jerusalem

Security forces at the scene of a deadly terror shooting attack in Neve Yaakov, Jerusalem, January 27, 2023 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

 

It is not yet another intifada,but the rise in lethal violence against Jews by Palestinians rivals that of the worst times in the past when it was open season on Israeli Jewish civilians and the staggering death toll wrought havoc in an already overheated part of the Middle East. Since that time, a separation 'fence' was built leaving the Palestinian Territories on one side, Israel on the other to ensure the former easy access to Israel was closed. Now, border check-points help to protect the lives of Israeli citizens.

The two major Palestinian groups, the PLO/Fatah and Hamas in  he West Bank and Gaza Strip have quite a number of smaller terrorist groups springing up now and again to commit atrocities that make Hamas and Fatah proud enough to issue effusive congratulations and hand out sweets, while fireworks in celebration of more Jewish-Israeli deaths succeeded in bloody confrontations. There were celebratory fireworks as per usual for the latest synagogue attack killing Jews.

The wild gun attack outside a synagogue at a time when Israel was on high alert following a succession of IDF sweeps of the West Bank's Jenin, a swarming hive of wannabe young Palestinian terrorists and ensuing shoot-outs where Palestinians groomed from an early age to pledge themselves to martyrdom attacks seeking the glory of a large kill of Jews was recognized by Israeli authorities as a spur to further violence.

Just as Israel is forced by the level of hatred and violence to protect its citizens with the presence of security and the IDF, it is also pressed into action to forestall incipient deadly attacks preparing to be launched, in an effort to preempt the deaths of innocent people. When intelligence warns of impending attacks there is no option for a security force but to act in opposition to the plans of terrorist entities. 

The Palestinian Authority makes a great show to the international community of portraying itself as a responsible partner-for-peace, while in reality, it incites Palestinians to engage in violence against Jews using any method available, from guns and knives to motor vehicles. Palestinian youth taught from childhood forward to value the opportunity to become a martyr, their lives in exchange for the deaths of as many people their deadly methods can dispatch.

A police vehicle is seen outside the Ateret Avraham synagogue after a deadly terror shooting in Jerusalem's Neve Yaakov neighborhood, January 27, 2023. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP)

 

When a harvest of seven people killed and many wounded took place when a young Palestinian, inspired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad's murderous exploits took place, a day later a 13-year-old indulged his passion for martyrdom and death-dealing by shooting another two Israelis. The synagogue attack was timed to coincide with the Sabbath and with the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, symbols of joy at the memory of genocide.

"As I said to the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu), anything that would move us away from that vision (Israel's destruction) is, in our judgement, detrimental to Israel's long-term security and long-term identity as a Jewish and democratic state", said Antony Blnken to the press. But the United States does not live with constant lethal attacks against its citizens from an outside source. The deadly mass murders that take place on American soil are internal matters, and no U.S. administration has been able to solve that.

Israel, however, is expected to tolerate these constant attacks and to get on with making concessions to the Palestinian Authority, to persuade its president, Mahmoud Abbas, to return to the bargaining table, a man who oversees school curricula and media geared toward patterning children, teaching them that Jews are their enemy and their obligation is to commit violence against them. A PA that insists nothing will stop it from paying handsome sums of money to the families of Palestinian martyrs, celebrating murders as acts of courage.

Security and rescue forces at the scene of a deadly terror shooting attack in Neve Yaakov, Jerusalem, January 27, 2023. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)