The barbaric attack on a Jerusalem synagogue this week by two Palestinians wielding guns, knives and butcher’s cleavers was truly horrific. The terrorists entered a house of prayer and cut down unarmed worshippers while their terrified children scrambled for safety.
Four rabbis were murdered where they stood; the tallits they wore were later used to wrap their bodies for burial. A police officer who rushed in to protect the worshippers also was killed, and several wounded men remain hospitalized. Reports from Jerusalem describe a city in mourning as shocked residents try to come to grips with the attack, and what it portends.
What it portends, in fact, is a sobering new twist in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. While the first anti-Israeli intifada was launched in late 1987 from Gaza, and the second in 2000 from the West Bank, the current anti-Israeli violence — described in many corners as an incipient third intifada — is being led by Jerusalem Palestinians, a population that remained relatively quiescent during the first two periods of extended protest.
The pitched battles of the past few weeks in Jerusalem between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces have been centered on the Temple Mount, signaling a hardline standoff in the Old City as peace negotiations stumble toward that final, intractable question: the borders of Jerusalem. No one expected that question to be settled easily; this is just a reminder.
As horrifying as the early morning murders in that Jerusalem synagogue were, even more appalling were the Palestinian celebrations that ensued. It’s not enough that Hamas “congratulated” the attackers, according to numerous media reports, or that Palestinian radio stations called them “martyrs.” That’s business as usual. But according to the Jerusalem Post, Gazan revelers in Rafah handed out sweets and brandished axes and posters of the alleged attackers, while loudspeakers called out congratulations.
Congratulations? For murdering unarmed men in a house of worship?
The atrocious reaction of these Palestinian celebrants didn’t come in a vacuum. It takes place in an atmosphere of anti-Jewish hatred that is fomented from the very top of the Palestinian leadership. PA President Mahmoud Abbas denounced this particular attack, but he and other Palestinian leaders have done nothing to rein in the egregious anti-Jewish sentiment rampant in the Palestinian street. And sometimes, they encourage it.
If these are the values governing Palestinian society today, what can we expect from a future Palestinian state?