Brutal attacks on Jews on the streets of Israel continue unabated, and it’s long past time the world snaps out of its indifference and shouts “No more.”
A week ago, we wondered whether this spasm of Palestinian mayhem constituted a third intifada. At this point, with multiple attacks every day, most of them random knifings of innocent men, women and children, it does not matter how we label it. These attacks are nothing less than monstrous and must be quelled.
Let’s start with the obvious. The pretext for this murder spree, spread by Palestinian clerics, politicians, media and social media — that Israel is undermining Muslim control of the Temple Mount — is a lie so ridiculous it would be laughable if it weren’t so lethal.
As the body count rises, Israel has responded with lethal force as well, taking down terrorists in the act when possible, arresting members of known terror cells, beefing up police and Israel Defense Forces patrols, erecting checkpoints, and instituting curfews in and around Jerusalem’s Old City.
These measures may help. One thing that will not help is exhorting Israelis, as did Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, to arm themselves. We already saw an Israeli Jew stab a fellow Jew last week, mistaking him for an Arab. There are many ways for things to go wrong with vigilante justice. Security is best left to the experts.
More than anything, Palestinian incitement must stop. Glorifying the murder of innocent civilians must be extinguished from Palestinian culture. Israel should arrest knife-wielding sheikhs and imams who urge followers to cut Jewish throats. People who use social media sites to call for stabbings should have their pages and accounts shut down — and they should be arrested.
Israel should not have to act unilaterally. The United States, the European Union and the West should roundly condemn the savagery and warn the Palestinian Authority it had better do its utmost to stop the violence or risk losing aid.
While hopelessness should never be an option, it’s difficult to see a positive path forward, even when this latest violence ebbs.
Governments around the world consistently have urged Israel to be the one to take the greater risks for peace, being that Israel is the stronger nation. But as Times of Israel editor David Horovitz lamented, in light of the rise of Islamic extremism, a miscalculation by “strong Israel would quickly render it untenably weak and vulnerable. We might get better international media coverage, but we also might face destruction.”
The road to peace is rocky indeed, and we must support Israel’s efforts to keep its citizens safe along the way.