On Thursday, Jan 26, the Palestinian Authority announced that it was suspending “security coordination” after Israel broke up a Jenin terror cell that had been planning a major attack.
On Friday, Jan 27, an Islamic terrorist opened fire outside a Jerusalem synagogue killing 7 Israelis, including Asher Natan, a 14-year-old boy, Eli and Natali Mizrahi, a married couple who rushed out to help the victims, and Shaul Hai, a 68-year-old synagogue sexton.
The shooter, despite being branded a “lone wolf” with no previous connection to terrorism, was described as having advanced shooting skills. And the death rate testifies to that. It seems highly likely that he was selected and secretly prepped to carry out this attack.
On Saturday, Jan 28, a second shooting in Jerusalem injured two other Israelis. Another armed terrorist was taken out by the town’s security team in Kedumim. That may not be the last of it.
There is nothing coincidental about the timing of this surge of violence: the deadliest in years.
CIA director Bill Burns arrived in Israel on Thursday. The same day the PLO announced the end of its security coordination. Secretary of State Blinken is expected to visit Israel this week. Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan came to Israel the week before. The PLO’s suspension of security coordination and the attacks that followed were put on for their benefit. 7 Israelis thus far were killed to help the Biden administration pressure Israel.
Had Israel not taken out the terror cell in Jenin, the numbers might be far higher.
The last time attacks on this scale took place was when 11 Israelis were killed in three attacks in late March 2022. Those attacks also came after the Palestinian Authority had suspended “security coordination” a month earlier and overlapped with the Negev Summit featuring Arab leaders and Secretary of State Blinken.
What is happening is not random terror, it’s carefully calculated terror, executed, as usual, through plausibly deniable attackers who will be rewarded by the PLO’s pay-to-slay fund.
The Palestinian Authority made a show of suspending its mostly worthless “security coordination” before launching terror attacks to show that it can turn the violence on and off.
But not all of the pressure is coming from the outside.
The attacks were launched less than a month after the new Israeli government was sworn in. The Netanyahu government has pledged to reform the leftist judiciary which enables terrorism.
While the Israeli police claim that they responded to the Jerusalem attack in 5 minutes, local residents claim that it took more like 20 minutes with the police initially refusing to come because they believed that the gunfire was actually celebrations from nearby Arab Muslim occupied areas in Jerusalem.
This conveniently undermines Itamar Ben Gvir, a key right-wing coalition figure and major target of the Left, who had assumed authority over the Israeli police and promised to create a strong and responsive force. When Ben Gvir arrived at the scene, angry crowds jeered and chanted, “death to the terrorists” and “death to the leftists”. Some berated a leftist reporter and the media is shrieking that the real threat isn’t coming from the Islamic terrorists who murdered Israelis, but from Israeli “right-wing extremists” who may attack Muslims and, worse still, the media.
This will serve as a pretext for expanding pressure on Netanyahu to push out Ben Gvir and collapse the coalition while also shutting down Ben Gvir’s proposals to make guns easier to obtain for Israeli civilians.
Did the Israeli police authorities delay their response time to undermine Ben Gvir and efforts at police reform while putting further pressure on overstressed Israelis in Jerusalem? There’s no way to know, but the attacks targeted the sorts of people who would generally be likely to vote for members of the Netanyahu government, rather than those who belong to the authorities.
Either way the attack shifts the focus away from judicial reform, which has the potential to break the Left’s grip on the country, and toward terrorism. And that is exactly what the Left wants.
The attack weakened the conservative government’s image with its base. Netanyahu will either launch an inadequate crackdown on the terrorists which will lead to more fighting and further pressure from the Biden administration or fail to do so and lose support from his base.
It’s a Catch 22 that will either sideline the domestic reform agenda or the support for it. Either way the Left wins.
A generation of Israelis has grown up in a state of siege because the terrorists waging war on the country enjoy extensive foreign support from Iran, the EU, and the State Department in the United States, as well as domestic support from the Israeli Left, which uses its official and activist arms to undermine the fight against terrorism in every possible way.
The Left was able to legitimize the PLO and give it control of sizable parts of Israel by crippling previous efforts by conservative governments to defeat the terrorists and expel them from Israel. Long after their terrorist deal fell apart into treachery and rocket attacks on Israeli cities, they still rely on using the terrorists as their “stick” to defeat conservatives and retain institutional power.
The Jerusalem shootings took place far from the stomping grounds of the Tel Aviv ruling class like Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who came out against the death penalty for terrorists enabled the previous government’s dirty Hezbollah deal, claimed that judicial reforms threaten “democracy”, and tried to stall action against the home of the latest terrorist.
The dead in Jerusalem were mainly Mizrahi, descendants of Middle Eastern Jewish refugees, often poorer and more likely to live near Muslim areas and become targets of violence.
They are representative of the ‘two Israels’: the one that seeks a deal with the terrorists and the one that seeks to defeat them. The new Netanyahu coalition was elected by those voters, Mizrahi, Orthodox Jews, people living in development towns and in Judea and Samaria, in Jerusalem and in the not so nice parts of Tel Aviv and Haifa, who want to beat the terrorists.
And they want to roll back the power of the leftists who have enabled a generation of massacres, who imported terrorists into the country, armed them and promised that it would lead to peace and improve Israel’s position in the world, when just the opposite has happened.
These are the real Israelis, the ones who confronted the reporters exploiting their deaths in Jerusalem, and who went to the polls to be heard above the lies of the elites. Their deaths are of far less interest to the elites than the media outrage over judicial reform, cuts in subsidies for Kan’s leftist public broadcasting and an end to an environmental tax on disposable utensils.
That is what is at stake here.
What is going on in Israel is not just warfare, but a culture war between the democratic majority and an entrenched leftist elite that will use any means to protect its power and privilege.
The terrorist massacre in Jerusalem did little to impede the terrorist supporters in Tel Aviv which protested judicial reform by waving PLO flags. That same media which gushes that the leftists in Marxist shirts waving terror flags are the “youth” campaigning for “democracy”, will paint every angry word by young Mizrahis protesting the terrorists as a grave threat to “democracy”.
If an Arab Muslim house is vandalized in a “price-tag” attack, the media will clamor that it is a badge of eternal shame for the entire country and requires a war against the “extremists”.
Anyone who follows Israeli politics has seen this cynical farce play out any number of times.
The new Israeli government was elected by desperate people in the hopes of finally breaking the cycle of appeasement and terror, of fake political scandals and third parties, of an unelected judiciary that claims supreme power in the name of “democracy” and of police and prosecutors who connive to remove any elected officials who defy their power. That is to say, of the Left.
These people, courageous and beleaguered, hanging on in bad neighborhoods and outposts in Judea and Samaria, are the real resistance. The terrorists in Jerusalem and around the country came for them. They killed innocent people on behalf of the Islamic terrorists inside the nation, and of the Biden administration and the Left, as part of their shared mission to destroy Israel.
A good way to start dealing with this wave of arab terrorism – – >
1-disarm all arabs
2-defund all arab terrorist entities
3-arm all Jews with guns and gun training & issue arab terrorist hunting permits to all Jews with guns. The new meaning of “gun control” means using both hands holding the gun when shooting at an arab terrorist.
That said, one needs to learn how to read what those far left hate Israel first alleged Israelis are saying. Its the dipsy doo flipperoo. When they say “democracy” they really mean fascism. When they say “fascism” they really mean democracy.
No, just get all of them outta Israel. Example – Joshua 23:5 – “And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.”
And ………. Numbers 33:55 – “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live.
King James Version (KJV)
Maybe expelling extended family better idea. Any terrorist’s family expelled to Jordan or Sinai. Distance of relationships first parents, siblings, later maybe uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces. Not one allowed to return until proof of loyalty to Israel given. Arming everyone a logistical nightmare. Just like everywhere, Israel has tons of people who shouldn’t have a weapon of any type.
And for that matter, consequences for the extended family, the clan, which is the real power
That’s what I call being culturally sensitive.
Whoever downvoted this must be a terrorist.
Probably dan, lol. He’s a jockstrap for terrorists.
Superb Article, sadly so very True.
Thank you, Dov
Daniel you are so right on this article, there is no way in the world terrorists would do anything like this in North Tel Aviv.
Many points deserving comment.
One of the big points in the Democrat program for USA is to Federalize law enforcement, if those are the right terms, at the expense of having local control over police departments. I think local control generally works better, in that the local police are generally more responsive to the concerns of local citizens.
I think Israel has a national police force, rather than local police forces. A local police force might have responded more quickly to the terrorist attack.
Police reform would be a serious priority. Israel is a really small country, you can walk its narrowest point in two hours, and the serious threats that police respond to tend to be external threats.
(Israel’s domestic crime rate perpetrated by its own people tends to be fairly low. Subtract the Muslim population and the various migrants and the crime rate would look like Japan.)
But the police system is fundamentally broken and varies from useless for crime to ineffective on terrorism.
Police reform would be some kind of priority if it was a priority,
Actually you have nothing wrapped in an enigma that would be nothing.
Police reform. What a joke. What are you going to police?
The populace?……………
As Dennis Prager says, “the left destroys everything it touches.” We (western civilization), are well on our way to being turned into a globalist socialist Blob. We will go down – or we will rise up.
I am not sure at this point if we can root this plague from our societies with out an armed rebellion of the peoples. It may already be too late for the ballot box.
“I think Israel has a national police force, rather than local police forces. A local police force might have responded more quickly to the terrorist attack.”
Considering the size of Israel two or three extra layers of law enforcement are not only not needed but counterproductive. The perfect counter example to this is Uvalde Texas where all levels of law enforcement exhibited incompetence and cowardice.
Alert the media, dan actually said something that wasn’t stupid or a lie.
You’re so immature you just can’t let something go without throwing a hissy fit.
Daniel, what you write is true. However, I have a more optimistic view of Israel’s situation. As Bibi said, prior to 1948, Jews were not only not able to defend themselves, but Jews were also not even aloud to complain about being mistreated. (Yes I know “mistreated” is a polite way of saying beaten, tortured, murdered, and exterminated.). Since 1948, Israel’s daily survival has been miraculous. In fact, since 2008, Bibi has helped Israel not only survive but even thrive despite 8 years of a hostile US President. (Yes, I know “hostile” is another relatively polite word for what actually occurred.) May Israel stay strong and get stronger. For as you know what is said in the Haggadah that occurs in every generation. Am Yisrael Chai, despite 4,000 years of brutal anti-Semitism and Democrats.
“aloud” should have been “allowed”
There’s no question that the state of things since 1948 was vastly and miraculously better than what had come before for thousands of years.
And we continue to hope and strive for more.
I think the writer underestimates the determination of the right wing members of the new government to fulfill their agenda. Rather than boot people like Ben Gvir and Smotrich, I think Netanyahu is more likely to give them more leeway. Netanyahu knows very well that if they bolt, which is unlikely as they want power, his government will fall . He didn’t stay in the fight to lose now, it will be a rocky path, but I think it’s very possible that this government will eventually bring about the changes we need, first and foremost being clipping the wings of an unelected and out of control Supreme Court. Of course, all this is predicated on the obviously urgent goal of shutting down illegal leftist NGOs and politely ignoring the waffling from the the US and the EU. THE US still seems to think we are a subject state. Netanyahu needs to disabuse them of that notion.
Netanyahu is playing a complicated game, which is what parliamentary politics is, and he’s balancing out all the various players to stay on top. I would hope that he’s learned something, that he actually needs to tackle these issues, rather than just play the game to stay in power.
And judicial reform is an urgent issue that should have been brought home to him in the recent court cases. The system needs to change.
You’re right BIG TIME on the topic of judicial reform.
The shallow charges (“fraud and breach of trust” for cigars & champagne) were pure bullshit . . . and the accusers knew it
Seriously!? When we have an idiot president in China’s pocket (several million dollars worth), cigars & wine seem, by contrast, like what it is – a desperate search to indict for much ado about nothing.
He needs to piss on Buzzard Biden’s bald head.
Daniel, It is not in Ishmael’s nature to dwell peacefully with Isaac. In Genesis 16:11 The Angel of the Lord says to Hagar the Egyptian, who is Sarai’s maid servant, who was pregnant with Abram’s child. “You are now with child and you will give birth to a son,. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. ( He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward his brothers.). It is the same now thousands of years later.
The United Nations, decided to partition what was left of Palestine between the Jews and Arabs. Israel received merely a narrow strip of land along the shore of the Mediterranean. Jerusalem was divided between Arabs and Jews. Practically all ancient Jerusalem went to the Arabs, and the Jews retained the new section of the city and Mount Zion.
“Since 1948, Israel’s daily survival has been miraculous.”
Heavy support from various super powers and nuclear weapons are not miraculous in any way.
What “heavy support from superpowers” did Israeli militias benefit from when they fought for their survival in 1948 against not only multiple Arab armies, but the British forces leading them?
I recall how much “heavy support from superpowers” the Vietnamese and the Afghans received. And how little good that did.
They too were stabbed in the back by the demorat-communist-party. When the VC violated the Paris Peace Accords by invading South Vietnam the democrat-communist-party refused to send in air power or even medical supplies to the South Vietnamese even though they promised to in order to get the accords approved by the South. Meanwhile the VC were still supplied by China and Russia. Same for Afghanistan. The Bejing-Biden adminstratation gave the Islamo-Nazis Baghram AFB and 85 billion in top shelf US military equipment and now they are trying to subvert the Bibi government while supporting the Palestinian Islamo-Nazis (as well as the Iranian Islamo-Nazis). . .
True. Not to mention what was done to the Nationalists in China.
Which makes it extraordinary that Israel was able to survive multiple betrayals by the British, the French, the Carter administration, and on and on
Israel has never depended on world power troops to do its fighting.
Most people don’t realize that South Vietnam fell to an invasion from an army with more tanks, other armored vehicles, artillery, trucks, aircraft, and troops than Patton commanded in his drive across France.
Little good is a specialist topic specialist forces learn from if you want to invest in those.
If you invest in this other stuff I think the outcome is pretty clear.
Are you quoting fortune cookies today?
And I quote:
“This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional Government thereof.
The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.
(sgn.) Harry Truman
Approved,
14 May 1948 ”
You were saying?
truman recognized israel. and so did the USSR, btw.
truman did Not authorize military aid to israel in ’48.
russia (stalin!) via czechslovakia did.
I think the writer underestimates the determination of the right wing members of the new government to fulfill their agenda. Rather than boot people like Ben Gvir and Smotrich, I think Netanyahu is more likely to give them more leeway. Netanyahu knows very well that if they bolt, which is unlikely as they want power, his government will fall . He didn’t stay in the fight to lose now, it will be a rocky path, but I think it’s very possible that this government will eventually bring about the changes we need, first and foremost being clipping the wings of an unelected and out of control Supreme Court. Of course, all this is predicated on the obviously urgent goal of shutting down illegal leftist NGOs and politely ignoring the waffling from the the US and the EU. THE US still seems to think we are a subject state. Netanyahu needs to disabuse them of that notion
Rachelle is right. If the PA terror cabal was hoping to divide Israelis with the latest terror attacks, they need to wake up and smell the cafe turki.
Two days after that bloodshed, a proposed law was brought to the Knesset: Any terrorist with Israeli citizenship – or permanent residency – who gets PA money as a reward for their crime (the ‘pay-to-slay’ program) will lose their residency rights while in prison, and upon their release will be deported to ‘Palestine’.
Believe it or not, until now the released terrorist just went back to his Israeli home and life, to enjoy his new wealth. His pay depends on how many people he’s killed or injured. And the PA pays an EXTRA BONUS to Israeli residents who do their dirty work. There’s usually a public celebration in the ‘hero’s’ village as well.
The bill passed its first reading 89 to 8 – supported by a lot of opposition MKs. The squawks of outrage from the usual ‘human rights’ groups had no effect this time.
Why now? I guess this is the first coalition to care more about its law-abiding citizens than its global reputation.
BTW – That same week the Knesset took some other sensible steps to make terrorism in Israel less attractive. Much of it you probably didn’t hear about… it wasn’t considered ‘newsworthy’ by any except JNS.
Examples of that support would be welcome, if you have any. My assessment is that you don’t. Because such “ heavy support”. did not exist.
To be fair, such support very much existed trou the years and continues now. Examples include billions of military aid and military training from Western democracies (including in the Six-Day War), the transfer of military technologies, sharing of advanced intelligence (including satellite data), and constant diplomatic cover in the UN (including not-so-much Israeli-friendly American administrations).
The transfer of advanced German submarines by the frau Merkel government is one of the most recent examples.
However, as Daniel correctly pointed out, Israel fought and won all its wars on their own, developed its military and military tech itself, and went to great lengths against all odds to define its own independent national and international policy.
As if the Israelis didn’t do anything themselves, you cretin.
God will never let Israel be completely destroyed. He chose Jerusalem as His Holy City, and he is coming back to see to it that Israel’s enemies are defeated in the Last Days, and that they know he is their true King and Messiah. THAT will be miraculous. The outcome will be Israel’s glorious redemption, not merely her physical enemies, but also from the power of sin.
Israel was still using tanks built in WW2 in the ’68 war, their third war against the armies of Arab League which was using the latest Warsaw Pact hardware. Israel didn’t start getting advanced US weapons or superpower support, heavy or otherwise, until the 70s, and when they did, Egypt got the same support. Israel designs and builds tanks, aircraft, missiles, small arms, and nukes.
The Israeli secular left has yet to B realize the election returns of 1977 when it’s vision was rejected at the polls
every election since has been a threat to democracy
Are you so far gone at this point you don’t realize how profoundly undemocratic you are? Your gibber jabber reads like a satire of fascism like the movie version of Star Ship Troopers.
You know something, Greenfield, I’ll bet you are stupid enough to think I wouldn’t look up the source of this video. The problem for the right is they are so bad at comedy.
It has come to my attention that when political scenarios do not play out in favor of the left, they scream that an entire election process is un democratic. When things go their way, that is in their view the epitome of democracy. The problem is, it isn’t.
Democracy to the Left is an outcome. If they win, it’s democracy, if they don’t, then democracy is threatened.
You kids are literally screaming into mirrors at this point.
We don’t care about your so-called democracy.
Democracy doesn’t exist, you dumb fuck.
Yup, just like your wife, the sex workers you visit or your heterosexuality.
I get sick of the lies that are told about the Arab state. Many people are unaware there has never been a sovereign Arab state anywhere in Palestine. They are also unaware that the West Bank happens to be the heartland of the Jewish civilization, with many of the Bible’s familiar events playing out there. The Arabs relentless hostility to the Zionist enterprise has proven self-defeating, ruinous, and even tragic for many Palestinian Arabs. The 1967 Six-Day War may have disabused Arab leaders of the notion that they could overwhelm Israel militarily. It has not..truth be told…opened many hearts to the prospect of genuine coexistence and comity.
Zionism is based on made up stories from a made up religion that was cribbed from the Babylonians.
“Why does Satan focus his efforts on Israel?” Because Jerusalem plays a vital role in God’s plan to make all things NEW. Satan and his demonic forces generate lies, hate, and cause the darkness, death, and war we observe in this world. They know God’s plan to redeem His creation and set His King, on His Holy Hill in Jerusalem. Satan invests his energy in attacking what God loves, and Jerusalem and God’s chosen people are prime targets.
NOTHING IS NEW UNDER THE SUN. This is not the first or last time nations will attempt to separate what GOD has knit together……which is the ugly narrative that tries to defraud the Jewish people of their unique historical connection to Jerusalem. PAST KINGDOMS AND EMPIRES ALSO TRIED TO SEVER JERUSALEM FROM THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND CLAIM GOD’S ETERNAL CITY AS THEIR OWN.
It is leftism that is the evil along with Islam terrorism. I may never understand them and their evil in Israel or in America.
The political Left is delusional and destructive everywhere and always.
I blame the PA, Fourth Reich and the TaliBiden terrorist regime
Time to shut down totally those places where the terrorists are trained financed and supplied cut off their funding and support
Those places unfortunately include the EU and the Biden administration.
I get sick of the lies that are told about the Arab state. Many people are unaware there has never been a sovereign Arab state anywhere in Palestine. They are also unaware that the West Bank happens to be the heartland of the Jewish civilization, with many of the Bible’s familiar events playing out there. The Arabs relentless hostility to the Zionist enterprise has proven self-defeating, ruinous, and even tragic for many Palestinian Arabs. The 1967 Six-Day War may have disabused Arab leaders of the notion that they could overwhelm Israel militarily. It has not..truth be told…opened many hearts to the prospect of genuine coexistence and comity.Isa
Please explain the following: “ If an Arab Muslim house is vandalized in a “price-tag” attack,”
This is not something I have heard much kf in the MSM ckverage.
Occasionally teens in beleagured areas strike back, usually carry out some sort of vandalism, and call it a ‘price tag’ attack, as in making the terrorists pay a price.
The media goes crazy and the politicians condemn it as a grave threat.
Some of these attacks turn out to be hoaxes.
Teens in beleagured areas strike back? Why don;t you strike back? Just guessing.
Why don’t you fight like you know you can? Because you don’t like fighting. You’d rather someone else did it for you.
Who’s that someone else?
Anyway, we already know why you aren’t fighting.
Who was really?
Who was really behind what you find too painful?
Why don’t you admit you have nothing beyond that Trump sub-zero Moron?
Because the fact of the matter is everyone wants to get away from this garbage outcome your party has outlined for them? Isn’t that right?
Even in garbage vax compliant to the max Israel?
Oh, we’re really on a roll today. Fortune cookies and random garbage from what? Upturned Scrabble boards?
I don’t think that’s the same Una Salus that used to post here. I think there’s an imitator, because it often seems like two different people.
Your wounded are something but we have plenty wounded just four you.
You and your garbage Trump who means nothiig to us.
Who was really? This implies you don’t know.
Una. Lay off the caffeine. Tea has it, you know. 15% compared to the 55% of coffee but caffeine is caffeine. You drink enough of it and you’re off the rails.
Man, Israel sounds as fucked up as America is. Fucking leftists. The only thing they’re good at is destroying their own cultures. I would say they shit where they live but they really shit on us peons. They don’t realize that they’re next.
Jews think they’re loved because they provide entertainment. They’re not loved at all. Nobody loves a mirror that shows you how ugly you are.
Do you ever look in a mirror? Ugly freak.
The ugliness comes from anti-semetism, hatred, and jealousy and belongs to the left who display their insanity daily, and everyone sees it.
People would much rather have the mundane boredom of a vegetable field. And they’ll get it in spades likely.