14-Jun-18: In Jerusalem's Shuafat, an explosion reveals a secret bomb workshop

The source caption reads: "The Shuafat Refugee Camp from the
Jewish neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev, in northeast Jerusalem.
(Miriam Alster/Flash90 )" [Image Source]

As we write this, there has been very little media attention - and practically none outside Israel - but to us it seems a serious development. 

As reported this morning (Thursday) by the Jerusalem Post ["Police: Explosion in East Jerusalem Caused by Bomb-Making Attempt", June 14, 2018], an explosion last night in the Shuafat neighbourhood of north Jerusalem (it's not really east) was the result of a failed attempt to build an explosive device.

Israel Police investigators, arriving on the scene around 11:00 pm, found additional explosive material in the fourth-floor apartment where the explosion happened. Eight suspects are now under arrest and being interrogated. No names have been released so far, and none of their affiliations (affiliations are a big deal in reporting on terrorism). One individual suffered critical injuries in the explosion and was hospitalized. Another man is much less injured.

That part of Shuafat is usually termed "refugee camp" in media reports. In reality, it's a suburban neighborhood of Jerusalem which is served by the indispensable Jerusalem Light Rail's one and only line (in fact, the light rail system's eastern terminus is at Shuafat).

And while it's certainly not the most gorgeous part of town, it's not exactly a concentration camp as we showed in a post some years ago ["07-Nov-14: Hovels? Shanties? A Palestinian Arab refugee camp"]. It's separated from the rest of the city by the meandering West Bank security barrier and that has a negative impact on easy of access - not to their own communities but to ours - and on law and order. You can get a sense of the questions that arise, and the absence of answers, here: "Stuck between Israel and the PA, Shuafat refugee camp seethes"[ Avi Issacharoff in Times of Israel, June 7, 2015]. Can UNRWA help them? Can the PA? Hamas? It hardly matters because the mess that is Shuafat today seems to serve the needs of all of them.

In that 2014 post of ours, we wrote:

Paradise? No, not at all. But hardly a shanty town either, and very little like what people imagine when the term 'refugee camp' is deployed to describe the place.

As today's Jerusalem Post article points out, a substantial spike in terrorist activity was reported in Shuafat after the separation barrier was established, and that became even more pronounced once the “knife intifada” got going in 2015. Click here to see what we have reported about troubles emanating from Shuafat.

The Jerusalem Light Rail has come under frequent attack inside and
from Shuafat. This scene is from riots right on the tracks in Shuafat in
July 2014 [Getty Images]

The tensions in that part of Jerusalem are no secret. The police leaving the scene last night got involved in what are being called clashes with local residents - who were rioting - but a Jerusalem Police spokesman said no injuries were reported.

We're not aware of any Palestinian Arab sources who seem to see the connection among (a) the riots that meet Israeli service providers; (b) the steady stream of Arab-on-Israeli terrorist activities carried out by Shuafat residents; (c) the passion of those residents to be entirely disconnected from Israeli control; and (d) the low level of Israeli services being provided to the neighborhood.

26-Apr-18: Terrorist who was intercepted trying to bomb the Jerusalem Light Rail is convicted

Jerusalem Light Rail (illustrative)

Jerusalem's mass-transit Light Rail system is one of the many settings in which, in the most ordinary of ways, Israeli Jews and Arabs - secular, religious, Haredi - come into close and entirely unremarkable contact daily. The popular tram system provides cheap and efficient commuter transport for all parts of Jerusalem's varied society, including Jerusalem's Arab quarters.

Which we think is precisely why it's been such an inviting target for terrorists with anti-Israel mayhem on their minds.

A frustrated, and little-reported, terrorist attack on the Light Rail two summers ago resulted in a conviction in Jerusalem District Court today. (There's very little coverage, at least so far, in any news channels of today's conviction.)

A Palestinian Arab student from Beit Ila, near Hebron, was stopped on July 15, 2016 while equipped with lethal weapons, en route to carry out a cold-blooded revenge attack on commuters. Had he succeeded, there's no doubt there would have been many Arabs among the victims, perhaps even Arabs from his own town.

Ali Abu Hassan, 20 years old at the time of the crime, was convicted today of attempted murder.

Times of Israel says the court found that the accused “planned to carry out a mass terror attack”. He had approached the city via the Arab community of Sur Baher (often written Tsur Baher) on Jerusalem's south side, intending to wreak “revenge for visits by tourists and Israeli Jews to the Temple Mount”.

The three pipe bombs in his possession were tied together to form a single large and powerful explosive that, as an added feature, was covered with nails and screws that had been dipped in rat poison. He also had two knives and a cell-phone in his bag.

The Light Rail is a constant microcosm of Jerusalem's varied
demographics [Image Source: Sliman Khader | Flash90] 

A Ynet report published on August 2, 2016 shortly after his arrest says the civil engineering student at Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron made and tested the bombs himself, setting off explosives in open areas in and around Hebron.

Evidently appreciating the risk to his own life, he left a will with a friend before setting out to commit the planned murders:

On July 17, near 9am, Abu Hassan arrived at the Jaffa Center stop, where he was observing passersby. It was then that he was spotted by a vigilant security guard who asked Abu Hassan to open his bag for inspection. The terrorist ignored the request, which led the security guard to restrain him by force while another guard took the bag.

The Jerusalem Post reported at about the same time that

during Ramadan in the summer of 2016, after seeing news websites and Facebook posts showing Jews entering the Temple Mount complex, he made up his mind to attack, kill Jews and become a martyr. According to a joint police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) investigation, Abu Hassan entered Israeli territory the day before the attempted attack through nearby Wadi Sur Bahir, and then changed his clothes into sportswear “to blend into the population,” police said. “The next day, during the early morning, he prayed in a mosque nearby, boarded a bus in Talpiot reaching the city center, and began to walk along the railway tracks on Jaffa Road until reaching the intersection of Jaffa and King George streets,” police said. “When he arrived at the light rail stop at Jaffa station, he began to explore the surroundings in order to find a place for the attack.” The joint investigation determined that Abu Hassan then observed the station from a nearby restaurant, and decided to target it after seeing many people boarding and exiting the train. Noting the suspect’s suspicious behavior, security guards stationed nearby questioned him and discovered he had three pipe bombs in his bag. They immediately placed him under arrest, and cleared the area of civilians... The light rail was shut down for over an hour, until the bombs were neutralized and the area cleared.

We can't help noticing that the spot to which this homicidal zealot gravitated - Jaffa Road where it intersects with King George V Avenue - is precisely where Ahlam Tamimi brought her human bomb in August 2001 when she attacked and destroyed the Sbarro pizzeria which once stood at that corner (a Ne'eman bakery/cafe is there now.) Our daughter Malki and 14 other innocent victims were murdered in that attack; a sixteenth victim remains unconscious all these years later.

We owe great gratitude to the constant vigilance of Israel's security personnel.

17-Aug-17: A man with a knife is intercepted today en route to downtown Jerusalem

Israel National News is reporting the interception of a terror-minded, armed Palestinian Arab today on his way to the center of Jerusalem and an appointment with destiny:

Police captured an Arab suspect from Shuafat neighborhood in northeastern Jerusalem as he made his way to the center of town with a concealed knife, following a tip by an Arab woman who observed him with the weapon.
The woman, also a resident of Shuafat, reportedly witnessed the suspect placing a sharp object in his bag before boarding a bus towards downtown Jerusalem.
After witnessing this, the woman contacted police stationed near the entrance of Shuafat, informing them of the suspect’s concealed weapon.
Israel Police officers and a unit of Border Police officers tracked down the suspect’s bus based on the woman’s tip, and found a knife inside of a bag which had been concealed underneath the suspect’s bus seat.
The suspect, a man in his 20s, was arrested and taken for interrogation.

Though the report says the would-be attacker took a bus, the fact is that getting into the center of the capital from Shuafat on Jerusalem's north side which used to be a complicated task until the Jerusalem Light Rail - routinely pelted with rocks in and around Shuafat - began operating on August 19, 2011, six years ago almost to the day, is now a breeze. The large numbers of Arabs shopping and strolling in the center of Jerusalem testify to its positive impact.

If more details emerge of the thwarted attack we will report them here.

15-Apr-17: On the heart-breaking Good Friday murder of a decent young woman on a Jerusalem tram

Kay Wilson was hacked almost to death in an earlier vicious
Arab-on-Israeli attack [Source]

The victim of Friday afternoon's knifing attack on a Jerusalem tram ["14-Apr-17: The urge to stab erupts again: In Jerusalem, a young woman is knifed on a tram"] is a young British student, Hannah Bladon. 

Details of the circumstances around her violent, tragic death at the hands of a middle-aged Palestinian Arab man from the notorious Tamimi clan are captured in a Times of Israel report which we have extracted below. 

Those circumstances highlight the unbridgeable moral chasm between inspirational lives like Heather's and the profound amorality of the Palestinian Arab killer. And not only of him but also of the many who stand with him, urging attacks of the sort he perpetrated.

It's high time people recognized the need to be judgmental.

The moral blame for Hannah's death rests with the anonymous civil service officials and politicians in far-off European and North American government offices who routinely rubber-stamp foreign aid payments to the supremely corrupt Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas. Those payments, funded by ordinary and unwitting taxpayers, provided the means by which the PA continues the unspeakably evil Rewards for Terror scheme about which we have written with rising fury for years.

Hannah Bladon, 21, of
blessed memory [Image Source]

UK student was standing near killer because she gave up her seat for woman with baby | Times of Israel Staff | April 15, 2017, 8:52 pm  

Hannah Bladon, the British student who was stabbed to death on the Jerusalem light rail on Friday, was standing by the exit doors of the train, near to the murderous Palestinian assailant, because she had given up her seat to enable a woman who was holding a baby to sit down, Israeli TV reported Saturday. 

The Palestinian terrorist, Jamil Tamimi, 57, told investigators that he attacked her because he wanted to die and hoped the soldier who was standing next to her on the train would kill him, Channel 2 news further reported, describing the killing as “an attempted suicide attack.” 

Tamimi was on his way from a mental hospital in northern Israel when he carried out the fatal stabbing. He had telephoned his family when he reached Jerusalem, and spoken to one of his sons, who told him that the family wanted no contact with him, in part because he had previously been convicted of sexually abusing his daughter. 

He told investigators that he felt he had “nothing left to lose.” He purchased a knife in the Old City and boarded the light rail at Damascus Gate shortly before 1:00 p.m. Seeing an armed soldier on board, he decided to attack the young woman — Bladon — who was standing nearby. He took out the knife he had just purchased and stabbed her multiple times, critically wounding her. 

“I attacked her so that the soldier would shoot me,” the TV report quoted Tamimi as saying to investigators. Tamimi has been remanded in custody and is being sent for psychiatric tests. 

In a statement on Saturday, her family in the UK said Bladon “was the most caring, sensitive and compassionate daughter you could ever wish for.” Her “final act of kindness,” the TV report said, was to give up her seat on the train for the woman who was holding a baby. Bladon had previously been sitting further back in the carriage, but got up for the woman, and went to stand near the exit door. 

Bladon’s family said they were “devastated” by her death in a “senseless and tragic attack.” The statement noted that Hannah was “a talented student,” an “enthusiastic rugby player” and “a keen Derby County supporter. “She was driven and passionate and her death leaves so much promise unfulfilled.” 

Bladon had been studying religion, theology and archaeology at the University of Birmingham since 2015. As part of her studies she began a program in Jerusalem’s Hebrew University in January, which she was set to complete in September. 

Her family said she had been returning from an archaeological dig when she was killed.
The Hebrew University sent its condolences to the family, saying in a statement that it “condemns such acts of terror that harm innocent people, and especially a student who came to Jerusalem to study and widen her academic horizons.” 

In a Facebook post in January, Bladon wrote that she was doing okay in response to some concerns for her safety amid an ongoing wave of terror attacks that had largely subsided since beginning in October 2015. “Thanks guys. I’m ok thanks!” she posted. “Security is really tight on campus so no worries at mo[ment]! Managed to see a lot of sites before starting my classes today so defo (definitely) having a great time! Xx”.
The comment accompanied a picture of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

After Bladon was stabbed an off-duty police officer and a passerby wrestled Tamimi to the ground before he could harm anyone else...  

Tamimi, from the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood of East Jerusalem, apparently “suffers from mental problems,” a police spokesperson said Friday. Earlier this year, he tried to commit suicide by swallowing a razor blade, according to the Shin Bet. He was also found guilty of sexually abusing his daughter in 2011. 

“This is another case, out of many, where a Palestinian who is suffering from personal, mental or moral issues chooses to carry out a terror attack in order to find a way out of their problems,” the Shin Bet said in a statement...

It's evident from British news reports that it was not because of any personal Jewish connection that Hannah came to Israel. (The stabber almost certainly thought his victim was Jewish.) Will this aspect, along with the timing of the murderous stabbing - Good Friday - spark a few moments of soul-searching on the part of the highest-level officials at the World Council of Churches?

We have drawn attention to the disgraceful public statements they have issued, and their encouragement of terror, for more than three years. Three years of active contribution to the enraging lethal madness that now thoroughly infects every element in Palestinian Arab life.

In an earlier blog post ["17-Apr-14: Christian solidarity with unrepentant murderers: where's the outrage?"], we wrote about how

the World Council of Churches went public today with a statement of solidarity with what it calls "some 5000 Palestinian men, women and children, languishing in Israeli jails". The WCC's chief executive, Olav Fykse Tveit, a Norwegian Lutheran, is quoted in its press release saying that the members for whom he speaks "are called to pray for, visit, and tend to the needs of all prisoners, no matter the reason for their detention. For Israel and Palestine, prisoners have taken on even greater significance than in the past..."

The horrifying reality of the WCC's highly-publicized 2014 call is that they want their member churches to be praying for the depraved Jamil Tamimi and all those other murder-minded Palestinian Arab stabbers, shooters, bombers and vehicle-rammers for whom Hannah Bladon and other innocents will always be legitimate targets.

What kind of theology is that?

14-Apr-17: The urge to stab erupts again: In Jerusalem, a young woman is knifed on a tram

Paramedics at the scene [Image Source]

As busy, bustling and full of life as Israel's capital is today during the Passover festival, there is a serious incident to report.

The deep strategic reserves of explosive hatred, in evidence for generations in the form of Arab-on-Israeli terror, erupted again a short time ago, Friday a little after noon, in Jerusalem.

A young woman is reported (at about 1:40 pm Friday) to be in critical condition after becoming the latest victim of a stabbing attack, this time while on board the Jerusalem Light Rail. As we write this, the latest report says first-responder medics from the Magen David Adom ambulance service gave her emergency treatment at the scene of the attack. She was then rushed to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Mount Scopus hospital unconscious and in critical condition with multiple stab wounds to the upper body. Times of Israel is estimating she is in her mid-twenties.

There are additional victims. A pregnant woman suffered an injury to the stomach when the tram came to a sudden halt as a consequence of the terror attack. A man said to be in his 50s suffered an injured leg in trying to run from the scene. Both were brought to Shaarei Zedek Medical Center hospital for emergency treatment.

The scene of the stabbing is close to Zahal Square where Jerusalem's principal thoroughfare comes as close as it ever does to the Old City Walls and nearby Jaffa Gate. Damscus Gate of the Old City, a favored locale for Arab violence, is a couple of hundred meters further along the tram tracks. Officers of the Border Guard police sealed Damascus Gate as they often do when terrorist activity takes place in its vicinity.

At this stage, we have no information about the attacker other than he is reported to be alive and well.

UPDATE 1:55 pm: A Hebrew social media report quotes a senior police source saying the attacker is a male in his fifties, thought to be suffering from mental problems (vague and unspecified at this stage). Times of Israel reports that the victim is British, and the attacker is an East Jerusalem resident - probably meaning a Palestinian Arab.

UPDATE 2:15 pm Friday: Ynet says the stabbing victim, a young British woman of 22, a student, has died of her wounds. What a terrible tragedy.

UPDATE 2:40 pm Friday: The stabber is named by Ynet: Jamil Tamimi, 57, from the Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Ras al-Amud. That name Tamimi has strong resonances for us. The Arab Ma'an News Agency says he "has a prior criminal police record for domestic violence".

09-Oct-16: In Jerusalem, first reports of Arab-on-Israeli shootings this morning

Medics, police, victims: A Jerusalem tram stop this morning [Image Source]

The wailing sounds of ambulances and police vehicles are in the air this beautiful, early-autumn morning in Jerusalem. And the unmistakable chop-chop of a helicopter near our home. This has been going on for about 25 minutes. That's usually a sign of something worrying. It's now 10:50 am on Sunday.

From Times of Israel:

At least four people were injured in an apparent shooting attack near Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem Sunday, according to police and emergency medical officials. One woman, approximately 60 years old, was shot in the upper body and critically wounded in the attack, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service. The attacker had been shot, police said. It was not immediately clear what his condition was, though initial reports indicated that he had been killed. The assailant arrived at police headquarters on Haim Bar-Lev Street and opened fire, hitting a civilian, police said. He sped off towards the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Police officers on motorcycles saw the shooting and gave chase, police said. The assailant then opened fire at the officers, who shot and “neutralized him,” police said. The critically wounded vehicle was taken to the capital’s Hadassah Hospital Mt. Scopus, the hospital said.

As has happened so many times before, the armed attackers sought out innocent public-transport commuters standing at the open-air tram stop. It's what they and their backers call "resistance".

The Palestinian Arab news channel, Ma'an, is reporting that the assailant is dead:

At least six people have been injured in a drive-by shooting near the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah Sunday morning, while the gunman has been shot and killed by Israeli police. Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement that shots were fired near Israeli police headquarters in Jerusalem, and that Israeli police responded to the scene and shot the "terrorist" after a brief pursuit. The area, which is also known as Ammunition Hill and is near a light rail station, has since been closed of by Israeli police.

In its Arabic-language edition, though not in the English, the targets of the shooting - presumably all Israelis - are called "settlers". They're uncommonly clever people, these editors at Ma'an, with an astonishing ability to instantly discern between ordinary wounded Israelis and Israelis who have settled something. It's something worth noting when the matter of funding for Ma'an News Agency by its various European donors next comes up. (Ma'an cannot function without European charity.)

Israel National News says there have been two separate attacks, each at a different station on the Jerusalem Light Rail track:

A terrorist opened fire from a passing car at the Ammunition Hill and Shimon Hatzadik train stations. Six reported injured,two critically... Six people were injured at after a terrorist opened fire there Sunday morning, two of them are in critical condition, according to initial reports from MDA and police. The attack took place at two different places. A white car stopped and opened fire at the train station, injuring passengers. The driver then drove to the Shimon Hatzadik station and opened fire, wounding more passersby. He was then reportedly eliminated by a Special Patrol unit of motorized police. Four of the injured are described as in moderate to serious condition.Two of them, a man and woman are described as in critical condition.

Another source has said, with no confirmation at this stage, that shootings took place not at two but at three separate sites.

UPDATE Sunday October 09, 2016 at 12:30 pm
Two of the Israeli victims have died of their injuries. Times of Israel says

At least seven people were shot and two of them killed in a shooting attack near Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem Sunday morning, police and emergency medical officials said. Police described the incident, which saw an East Jerusalem gunman open fire at pedestrians and police over a several hundred meter swath of the capital, as a terror attack. One woman, approximately 60 years old, was shot in the upper body and critically wounded in the attack, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service. A police officer, approximately 30 years old, was also critically wounded in a shootout with the assailant, police said. Both were later declared dead, after being rushed to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, a spokesperson said. Three other victims, including a 68-year-old man, were moderately wounded, while another two were lightly injured in the attack, according to MDA. The attacker was shot and killed. He was identified as a 39-year-old resident of Silwan, in East Jerusalem, police said. He possessed an Israeli identification card, according to Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.

Ma'an News Agency identifies the shooter as Misbah Abu Sbeih, 39 from Silwan, a Jerusalem neighbourhood. No way of knowing for sure whether this is significant but if you Google that name, it produces plenty of hits. And though they don't know him, Israel National News says now that

The Jerusalem terrorist who was eliminated earlier was today supposed to have started a prison sentence of four months for incitement to violence and support of terror.

In our value system, he's a terrorist.

Over on the dark side by contrast, the Palestinian Arab world has rapidly (predictably) embraced him as a hero [Facebook]. Candies are being handed out - there are pictures of it in the social media today. In terms of their culture, the key term is, of course, "martyr". Click on this search link (we created it) and at this hour (2:30 pm) you will see almost two thousand Arabic-language web-links invoking the dead gunman's name and calling him "martyr". How long before they name table-tennis tournaments in his honour? He represents the values they are indoctrinating into every level of their society. In the Palestinian Arab value-system, there is no such thing as an innocent Israeli, All of us are "settlers" and legitimate targets for murder. If this ever changes, we can think about starting to prepare for peace. But not before.

15-Feb-16: Capping a long day of extreme violence, an Arab-on-Israeli shooting attack in Jerusalem

From the Israeli social media, a snapshot
of one of the automatic weapons used in
tonight's shooting attack at Damascus
Gate [Image Source]

Late Sunday night, after a day of seriously violent Arab-on-Israeli attacks [see "14-Feb-16: Sunday bloody Sunday"], a pair of Palestinian Arabs armed with automatic weapons opened fire on a cluster of police officers standing at a Jerusalem Light Rail station serving the Old City of Jerusalem.

The attack, first reported around 11:00 pm, was launched at the exact spot where an earlier Palestinian Arab shooting-and-knifing attack had taken place twelve days ago. In that February 3, 2016 assault, a Border Police trainee officer, Hadar Cohen, aged just 19, was killed. [See "Palestinians Kill Israeli Officer Before Being Shot Dead", Associated Press via ABC News, February 3, 2016]

Tonight's shooting attack was directed at a group of Border Guard police officers near Damascus Gate. The gunmen had what Haaretz calls home-made Carl Gustav-style rifles.

According to Times of Israel, the officers returned fired, hitting and killing one of the gunmen immediately. They chased after the second, who fled the scene while continuing to shoot. That second attacker was soon hit and killed by police fire. There are thankfully no injuries to Israeli officers or bystanders.

The escalation in the nature and volume of Palestinian Arab attacks is a worrying development. But not necessarily for consumers of CNN's brand of news. After hundreds of knifings, vehicle rammings and shootings directed at Israeli civilians and security personnel, tonight's attack is explained this way by CNN's editors:

Israel has experienced a spate of violence since October.

Great work, guys. Analytic depth to be proud of.

04-Jan-16: Knife attack in Jerusalem this evening; Arab assailant is taken alive and in custody

The attacker after being stopped
by police [Image Source]

On Sderot Haim Bar-Lev, a major Jerusalem thoroughfare along which the single route of the Jerusalem Light Rail runs, yet another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack occurred during this afternoon's rush hour. The assault happened close to the Light Rail stop where that road meets Shivtei Yisrael Street.

Israel National News says police officers stationed at the location noticed a male Arab who, for reasons unstated, aroused their suspicions. They approached him to ask some questions. He answered by pulling out a monstrous knife (photo here) and tried to stab them. This did not work, again for reasons not stated in the report. He fled, knife in hand, pursued by the police officers. At some point, they fired at his legs (possibly in contravention of current police orders instructing security personnel confronted by a terror act in progress to shoot to kill). Once he was wounded, they disarmed the attacker.

Along the way, a 15-year-old Israeli girl was lightly injured and a man of 29 suffered shock. (How and why is not clear.)

Magen David Adom paramedics at the scene provided first response treatment before the injured victims were taken to the nearby Hadassah Mt Scopus medical center. The shot terrorist is said to be alive at this hour and in serious condition in an unspecified hospital. At this stage, we know very little about him - other than that he is about to become a hero in Palestinian Arab society and with the blessings of the Mahmoud Abbas Fatah/PA regime.

UPDATE January 4, 2015 at 10:00 pm: Over at the Ma'an News Agency website, they describe the knife-wielding attacker ("allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli police officer") in the now-familiar doubt-casting, threat-minimizing way that is the hallmark of their brand of reportage. They say he was taken to Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in moderate condition: "A spokesperson for the hospital said that he had been shot three times and was unconscious but stable."

11-Nov-15: When child abuse is a national mission

The image above appeared in a blog post of ours called "18-Oct-15: Being aware of our neighbours' passion for terror is the first step" some weeks ago in response to the orchestrated campaign of face-to-face Arab-on-Israeli violence going on all around us. 

Since then, there have been dozens more stabbings, shootings and car-rammings. Yesterday, there were multiple such attacks. But one of them is in a class of its own. It's the subject of this post.

As we wrote yesterday ["10-Nov-15: Arab teens and their knives: today's latest Jerusalem stabbing attack"]:

The photo [in that post] indicates at least one of the attackers is young - to our eyes, 15 or even less. The second attacker is not shown; he was evidently shot and is probably not in good shape. We don't know names, or where they live, or the condition of the one shot... [T]he Light Rail security guard, who was moderately wounded in the attack, managed to fire his weapon toward the two attackers, wounding one according to the police. He received emergency treatment at at the scene and then rushed to Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center. He is about 25, and has stab wounds to the upper body.

A life changing experience for the guard who, thankfully, is said to be doing well today at Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. And the attackers? It may have changed their lives too. Or not.

What we know about them is mundane and not very revealing other than that, on any view, they are children and cousins. Times of Israel says both Moawiyah Alkam and Ali Alkam live in the northern part of Jerusalem, one in Beit Hanina, the other in the Shuafat neighborhood. The one who was shot (according to this source, the younger of the two) received emergency treatment at the scene from Israeli paramedics and was then rushed to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. The initial report had him in serious condition, unconscious and on a ventilator while the second child is evidently unhurt, and held by police after a court order today authorized seven days of detention. The boy who was shot is today described as being in moderate condition. Lucky for him, the medical treatment provided by the Zionists he has been raised to loath is helping to save his life.

The Arabic-language social media are, as we have come to expect, completely with the boys. The Hamas-aligned Shehab news agency, based in Gaza, posted an outraged Tweet yesterday [here] with an embedded video clip [here] showing Israeli security personnel vigorously checking one of the two boys for concealed weapons. "Brutal occupation" are the opening words. Another Arabic-language twit says the arrest of the knifers was "barbaric". The atmospherics could hardly be clearer: there was an act of evil, in the eyes of the Arab world, and it was done by the Israelis against the Palestinian Arab boys. No other approach is visible when you look at their news reports and social media.

What was on the minds of the young marauders? An Israel National News report says the younger of the attackers, Muawiyyeh Alkam, told police without evident shame that they set out to perform an act of vengeance following the death of another Alkam cousin "who was murdered at Damascus Gate" in their words. That's evidently a reference to Muhammad Saed Ali, 19, another resident of Shuafat, north Jerusalem, who viciously stabbed three Israelis at the entrance to Jerusalem's Old City on October 12, 2015, before being himself stopped and killed by armed security personnel. (We wrote about that here.) 

And why, it might be asked, does a failed act of attempted murder need to be avenged? Because those attacks are ritually turned on their heads in the Arabic media, with the attackers portrayed as victims, and the victims demonized and presented as usurpers and colonizers. It's a dangerous, immoral and expensive strategy - expensive in terms of Arab lives lost and wasted. 

The abuse of the Alkam children continues today. One of their uncles, according to Times of Israel, does not believe they were even involved in the attack. 

"...I will tell you the truth, we have no faith in the police. We have already seen in other cases, in Hebron and even in Jerusalem, they make up stories and even killed a Jew they suspected of being an Arab,” Sheikh Abdullah Alkam said Tuesday afternoon, referring to the shooting death of a yeshiva student during a confrontation with troops last month. “Maybe they planted a knife on them, I don’t know. We want to first check what happened. I’m their eldest uncle and I was to check everything carefully." 

Security camera video shows the children stabbing the security man on board the tram [Source]

But without actually pausing to check a single thing, or to view the video we embedded above, devoted uncle moves quickly into justification mode: as he understands it, the boys and their cohort

see how soldiers act at checkpoints, they see how nice it is in Pisgat Ze’ev and French Hill,” he said, referring to two Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. “And what do they have? There isn’t even a garbage truck. The streets look like hell. A hundred thousand people without normal services living in harsh conditions.”

Which is as good a case as any for sticking knives into security personnel on a fancy and fast tram that brings Palestinian Arabs from their version of hell into the heart of modern Jerusalem.

But it's clear the real hell for them and their uncles is in trying to make sense of modern, open, bustling, prosperous Jerusalem where Arabs are treated more or less like Jews, and where bullet wounds are treated by hospital staff - Jews, Christians, Moslems - who don't give a damn about the political craziness their patients carry around between their ears.

How they cope with this, given what's pumped into them by their social media and newspapers and uncles, is a puzzle.

What does life offer yesterday's child attackers? Very likely the unconditional support of family and community who will stand by them through thick and thin, through criminal charges of attempted murder and terrorism. What comes with that is constant exposure and reinforcement of the sort of message that the poster at the top of this article conveys: the higher purpose of young Arabs is to kill them some Israelis. What that will not include is religious, moral or ethical doubt. If they have encountered doubt so far, it's not evident in their lives or the lives of the other perpetrators of terrorism whose deeds we have examined from a distance.

All this makes for near-impossible relations. How do you make peace with people who hate the very notion?

We know. There are readers who believe there are sober, serious voices among the Palestinian Arabs calling for tolerance, compromise, an end to acts of violence and terror, a better life for their own sons and daughters. Trouble is, as much as we want to hear those voices, they are impossible to find [see "11-May-14: Still searching for outraged moderate Palestinian Arab voices"]. Instead, the length and breadth of their society is infected with messages of hatred, the fabrication of blood libels to ensure even more acts of hatred, a cacophony of perverse calls for more killing, more revenge, more "heroism" of the sort that yesterday's two boys with knives embody.

10-Nov-15: Arab teens and their knives: today's latest Jerusalem stabbing attack

Police and security personnel lead one of the two Pisgat
Ze'ev knifing attackers away. The second is seriously
injured. [Image: From an eye-witness]

The Jerusalem Light Rail is an easy target for the terror-minded Arabs of Jerusalem and the surrounding neighbourhoods. Rock-hurling attacks have created a constant stream of cracked windows, damaged carriages and shelters. There have been numerous vehicle-rammings aimed at passengers standing at Light Rail stops. Several innocent people have been killed in these attacks.

This afternoon (Tuesday), there are initial reports of a stabbing attack at the Yekutiel Adam station located near the eastern end of the route in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood. Israel National News says

A security guard for the Light Rail has reportedly suffered moderate injuries; Magen David Adom (MDA) medics and security forces are rushing to the scene. Two terrorists - apparently teenagers - carried out the attack; one has been arrested, the other injured after security forces opened fire. [Israel National News, just now]

The photo at right indicates at least one of the attackers is young - to our eyes, 15 or even less. The second attacker is not shown; he was evidently shot and is probably not in good shape. We don't know names, or where they live, or the condition of the one shot. A Reuters reporter tweeted that the two attackers are aged about 12-13. Ynet is reporting the same thing.

Another "victory" for Palestinian Arab education - and quite possibly for UNRWA as well.

Times of Israel says the Light Rail security guard, who was moderately wounded in the attack, managed to fire his weapon toward the two attackers, wounding one according to the police. He received emergency treatment at at the scene and then rushed to Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center. He is about 25, and has stab wounds to the upper body.

The face of children abused: the
Palestinian Arab boy who, with
a friend, launched a stabbing
attack this afternoon on a security
guard on a Jerusalem tram. We think
his name is Muawiya Alqam.

UPDATE November 10, 2015: This photo, spotted in the social media, is said to be one of the two attackers. Obviously just a child, and obviously ready to kill himself an Israeli because of ideas planted in his head by figures of authority in his society.

Who might they be? Specific individuals are hard to find or name, except for one: Mahmoud Abbas.

When, as he has done several times in the past two years, whom is Abbas addressing when he stands on some public rostrum and in his capacity as head of Fatah and president of the state of Palestine holds aloft the arms of terrorists, convicted in Israeli courts of acts of murder in the name of Islam or of Islamism or Palestinianism or Pan-Arabism or it hardly matters what, and calls them heroes? When he declares (as he did in December 2013 - source):

"This is the day the joy of all of us the joy of our people for our prisoner heroes who came out today to the light of freedom to live free, we congratulate you and congratulate ourselves with these heroes who arrived here and who arrived in Jerusalem, Gaza, and the rest will come, God willing..."

to whom is he speaking?

To this kid.

UPDATE November 11, 2015: The two weaponized Palestinian Arab children charged with today's stabbing are identified, according to the New York Times ["Violent Loop Engulfs Youths in Jerusalem"]:

Ali Alqam, 12, and Muawiya Alqam, 14, have been arrested, accused of a copycat stabbing that wounded an Israeli security guard on a light railway train in East Jerusalem, not far from their homes in the Shuafat refugee camp and the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina.

The aged, wealthy, failed, murder-minded leaders of the Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestinian Authority must be so proud.

04-May-15: At a Jerusalem tram stop today, a man with a knife and murder on his mind is the sole casualty

Security at the French Hill tram stop [Image Source]

Once more, a miracle in broad daylight. A Jerusalem Arab has given physical expression to his political (and perhaps religious) viewpoint by means of a knife and a brief visit to a tram-stop in the nation's capital on a bright sunny day. Thankfully, alert security personnel stopped him cold.

This comes from a Times of Israel report:

A Palestinian man tried to stab a security guard at a light rail train stop in Jerusalem on Monday, but was stopped by security personnel who shot and subdued him. The attacker, whom police identified as a 35-year-old Palestinian from the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, was lightly wounded, Israel Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement. A security guard told police the Palestinian had “attacked him from behind” before running toward people waiting at the station, Samri said. Several other security guards then opened fire at his legs before overpowering him. He was evacuated to Hadassah Hospital in the Ein Kerem neighborhood. There were no injuries to any of the passengers or the guards, and light rail services resumed shortly afterward. The area, near Jerusalem’s northeastern French Hill neighborhood, has seen numerous attacks on Israelis in recent months. ["Security guards thwart attempted stabbing in Jerusalem", Times of Israel, today]

There's a brief video clip about the attack on the Israel National News (via YouTube) here. And for readers interested in putting today's attempted murder into an appropriate context, here are some of our posts from the past few weeks:

• 29-Apr-15: Almost entirely unreported, violent Arab attacks in and on Jerusalem
• 17-Apr-15: In the aftermath of another lethal car-ramming in Jerusalem
• 16-Apr-15: At a bus stop stop in Jerusalem's French Hill on Holocaust Memorial Day, two lives upended
• 07-Mar-15: For some, but only some, Friday's Jerusalem ramming/slashing was yet another terror attack
• 06-Mar-15: Jerusalem, Purim and terror... once again
• 22-Feb-15: Stabbing attack in Jerusalem's City Hall Square; the terrorist is apprehended by the mayor and his bodyguard

Chances are that unless you live in the same country that we do, some or all of these reports will never have reached the mainstream media in your community. That means the debate over terrorism, its victims and what ought to be done with and to the perpetrators will probably make very little sense to the people living near you. That includes the trivial detail that today's attacker is now somewhere inside the best hospital within a thousand kilometers, getting the very best of medical care from people who will probably ride home when their shift ends via the same Jerusalem Light Rail that tantalizes the feverish passions of tomorrow's knife man, and next week's.

What motivates a person to try to carry out an act of murder among his or her neighbours, by trying to stab them to death, preferably from behind? Surprisingly, that's not a rhetorical question. It has an actual answer. And it's here: "28-Dec-14: You there with the knife. What are you waiting for?"

29-Apr-15: Almost entirely unreported, violent Arab attacks in and on Jerusalem

Jerusalem's Light Rail serves Arab neighbourhoods of the city but
is attacked almost daily by rock-hurling Palestinian Arabs [Image Source]

Traveling outside Israel (which is what we were doing for the past week) puts you in a position where news reports of the daily acts of violence in this ongoing war are liable to pass almost without being noticed.

Here are some notes (based on news items originally published by Israel National News and a handful of other sources) on events of the past week that, like us, you might not have picked up.

April 25, 2015 (Saturday)

• A 17-year-old Palestinian Arab attacked security personnel manning two checkpoints near Ma’ale Adumim. He was armed with a meat-cleaver and a knife. The attack was foiled when he was shot and killed.
• A Palestinian Arab, a resident of the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Shuafat, drove his car directly at four Israelis standing at the location known as the Kohanim Route in the village of A-Tur, part of Jerusalem, on Saturday night. A woman in her twenties suffered moderate injuries (though we see the Jerusalem Post said she is in critical condition. The injuries of three other people were defined as light. The vehicle was founded abandoned later the same night, and following an intensive police search, the driver was found and arrested.
• Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was driving to the scene of the attack the same evening when his vehicle came under a hail of rocks hurled by people from the roadside. The mayor's car was damaged, but there are fortunately no injuries to report. 
• Not far from Jerusalem, on Route 443, the road that connects north Jerusalem with the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and with the new city of Modi'in in-between, a Kavim commuter bus was firebombed on Saturday night. Fortunately there were no passengers on board and the drive was unhurt. One source reports that security forces located a second firebomb nearby, evidently prepared and about to be hurled at something in the vicinity.

April 26, 2015 (Sunday)

• A security guard was attacked during the evening while he was standing, evidently on duty, at a bus stop in the community of Eli. The purpose of the attack, carried out by a 19-year-old Palestinian Arab resident of Nablus, appears to have been to steal the security man's weapon. The attacker was replled, and handed over to the police.
• In a second weapons-related attack, an Arab prisoner serving time in Ketziot Prison on terror charges, and for being a member of Islamic Jihad, a prohibited terror organization, attempted to grab the gun of a security guard by coming at him armed with a can opener. The guard's face suffered lacerations, but he managed to subdue the prisoner. The Arab is now in solitary confinement, and will be charged with attacking a guard.
• Outside the ancient Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron around 6:15 pm, a serving member of the Border Police suffered stab wounds to the head and upper body, and left in moderate condition, after coming under knife attack by a Palestinian Arab, Assad al-Salayma, 20. The attacker was shot dead on the spot by other officers. 
• Arab rock-throwers attacked the Jerusalem Light Rail while it was passing through the Shuafat, Jerusalem, neighbourhood. There are no injuries but one of the tram cars was damaged. Attacks on the Light Rail's 23 vehicles have become an almost daily occurrence.
• Rioting continued in the A-Tur neighborhood, close to where the tram was attacked. Rocks and fire-bombs were hurled at police and security personnel.

And a postscript to an earlier report we posted here: "17-Apr-15: In the aftermath of another lethal car-ramming in Jerusalem". The driver of the vehicle in that attack, which resulted in the killing of a young man, Shalom Yohai Cherki, 25, and the injuring of the young woman who was standing at the French Hill bus stop with him, has now confessed:

Khaled Koutineh confessed to carrying out the vehicular terrorist attack last Wednesday, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day,” the authorities said in a statement. “Koutineh confessed to carrying out the attack with the intention of harming Jews, a decision he made just moments before the actual deed,” the statement read. The authorities said that Koutineh was driving along Route 1, searching for Jews on the side of the road to run over. Eventually, he came upon a junction in French Hill and targeted the bus stop. Koutineh initially told interrogators that he had suffered from mental imbalances, though authorities said he admitted to concocting the alibi in hopes of evading a stiff penalty. [Jerusalem Post, April 21, 2015]

Most people, even those who think of themselves as careful readers of news from the Middle East and well informed on the Arab/Israel conflict, have no idea any of these events happened.

27-Nov-14: When things are said about terror from both sides of one mouth, it pays to listen carefully

Even in an Internet-rich age, television continues to strongly influence what we know and think. And in places where access to a range of varying ideas and opinions is greatly limited, its role is even larger. The villages, towns and cities of the Palestinian Authority are a good example.

Here's a video clip (translated to English by the invaluable Palestinian Media Watch team) from their version of Good Morning, America (and Good Morning Australia, and Good Morning Tanganyika etc), the typical sort of light-hearted fare that people watch while grabbing some breakfast and heading out to face the day and its challenges. 

Only it's light-hearted in a very specific way that prevails in places where the values of terror and its attractions have become central to the way ordinary lives are lived.



The presenter in this show is Mai Abu Asab. Her program goes to air every Friday (weekend) morning under the name Good Morning Jerusalem. If we were fed a daily diet of this sort of messaging, we might not have the views about hatred, racism and terror that we do; many other rational and emotionally healthy people might react like us.

The channel is the one owned, operated and marketed by the government that runs the Palestinian Authority. The PA is the terror-friendly regime headed by Mahmoud Abbas, currently in the tenth year of his four-year presidential term. Abbas has our attention this week because of his gymnastic approach to juggling his public views on terror: unreservedly against it in English and strongly for it in Arabic.

Quoted (in Arabic) by Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. the PA's mouthpiece newspaper, on November 3, 2014, Mahmoud Abbas said

that Martyr Mutaz [who fired four bullets straight into the chest of Rabbi Yehuda Glick on a Jerusalem street in late October] from at point rose to Heaven while defending our people’s rights and holy places. In addition, he condemned this barbaric act, which is added to the occupation’s crimes against our people since the Nakba ("catastrophe", the preferred Palestinian Arabic term for the establishment of the State of Israel), as well as the continuation of the historic injustice being committed against it wherever it is present.” [source]

Quoted (in Arabic) again by Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on November 24, 2014,

It is a moral, national and religious right to defend Al-Aqsa and the places holy to Islam and Christianity. Our people oppose the thieving attackers who are supported by the government of Israel – the same [government] that has sabotaged the efforts to attain peace and is leading the wild campaign in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, seeking to strike any chance of obtaining security and peace between the two peoples on the basis of the two-state [solution]. I congratulate our people for their steadfastness in defending Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa. We are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for Al-Aqsa and for Jerusalem. [source]

Quoted in English by Haaretz on November 18, 2014, there's what appears to be a whole different approach:

Abbas' office said in a statement that "The presidency condemns the attack on Jewish worshippers in their place of prayer and condemns the killing of civilians no matter who is doing it" [but] "While we condemn this incident, we also condemn the aggression toward Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy places and torching of mosques and churches," Abbas said at the start of a meeting of the Palestinian security services in Ramallah. Such attacks, according to Abbas, "violate all religious principles and do not serve the common interest we are trying to promote – establishing a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel." [source]

It's worth noting, as Khaled Abu Toameh did the same day, the background:

Abbas was forced to condemn the Har Nof synagogue attack after facing pressure from US Secretary of State John Kerry, who had phoned the PA president twice over the past few days to demand that the Palestinians stop anti-Israel incitement. On Tuesday, Kerry issued a call to the PA leadership to condemn the Har Nof attack. Kerry’s pressure prompted Abbas to issue two condemnations of the incident. The first came in the form of a terse statement published by official PA news agency Wafa, in which the Palestinian leadership condemned the “killing of worshipers in a synagogue and all acts of violence regardless of their source.” The statement also called for an end to “incursions and provocations by settlers against the Aksa Mosque...” In both statements, the PA leader sought to establish a direct link between the recent spate of terrorist attacks and visits by Jewish groups to the Temple Mount. [source] 

The latest phase in this peekaboo now-you-see-it-now-you-don't performance by Abbas' government comes with a PA TV program on Tuesday that declares the axe men of the Har Nof synagogue killings as heroes for the cause, referring to "the death of 2 Palestinians as martyrs from occupation police fire", conveniently and despicably ignoring the knives, axes and guns in the hands of the two Abu Jamals as they launched a ferocious attack on unarmed men at prayer.

To their great credit, many ordinary people in today's Palestinian Arab society continue - against all the pressures from their religious and secular leaders - to hold somewhat-independent views and to remain rooted in values that give hope... to them and us.

Here are some of those, based on a little-noticed (outside Israel) public opinion poll carried out for Israel's Channel 10 television station by Statnet (motto: "Discovering things you never expected"), an Israel-based research center headed by Yousef Makladeh (there's a self-promoting business video here for Arabic and Hebrew speakers).

Statnet focuses its attention on Arabs in the PA and Israel and unfortunately seems to publish almost nothing in the English language which, given the insights they have, is a pity.

The Jerusalem Post and a small handful of other Israel-based sources reported in the last few days on the poll's findings. Selected highlights appear in a number of other Israel-focused publications but take the results way out of their context, in our view. The survey, conducted in Arabic by phone a week ago, polled 405 Israeli Arabs from all parts of Israel but not east Jerusalem. 39% of respondents are men; 61% are women:

• 68% of Israeli Arabs opposes the ongoing "recent wave of terrorist attacks". The language of the Jerusalem Post report on the following breakdown is not clear (and we have not seen the original findings), but we think they go on to say that 88% of Druse oppose the terror; 80% of Christian Arabs, and 64% of Muslim Arabs.
• 77% of Israeli Arabs when asked to choose between two options said they prefer to live under Israeli rule rather than Palestinian Arab. Again, the Jerusalem Port report's language is not well expressed, but it seems to be saying that support among Israeli Arabs for living in an Israeli state is at the 70% level among Druse, 57% among Christian Arabs, and 49% among Muslim Arabs. But if that's right, then we have a problem understanding how the overall percentage gets to 77%.
• (This finding meshes with another by Prof. Sammy Smooha Haifa University whose annual survey, the Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel showed in 2013 63.5% of Arabs said Israel is a good place to live, while 20.9% were "willing to move" to "a Palestinian state".)
• As for preferring to live under the Palestinian Authority: 2% of Druse held that view; 5% of Israeli Christian Arabs, and 18% of Israeli Muslim Arabs.
• 84% of Israeli Arabs "support Knesset members who condemned the attacks in Jerusalem" and "16% opposed the condemnation of the attacks by Arab MKs"
• 81% of them believe Israel "is trying to harm the status quo on the Temple Mount".
• Again the language of the report is problematic, but it seems to say something emphatic about the sense Israeli Arabs have of living in a racist society: 42% say they suffer from "strong racism"; 44% from "moderate racism"; 14% from "light racism". Since those numbers add up to exactly 100%, it means there is not a single Arab living in Israel, including the majority who says he/she prefers living in Israel compared with the PA alternative, feels there is no racism. That might be, but it sounds suspect to us, especially when we take into account their attitude to how the State (not clear exactly what that means beyond the obvious) treats them: 9% say it "treats them equally"; 52% "semi-equally"; 39% "not equally at all". That also comes to a neat 100%. So if 9% feel they are being treated equally, are they also among the 100% who suffer from racism? Perhaps yes, but on this, the JPost report's language and formulation bothers us.
• 65% of Israeli Arabs blamed the conflict on "the Jews"
• And finally, a clear sign of the positive effect living in Israel has on its citizens: 63% of Israeli Arabs "do not trust Arab leaders in Israel". Unfortunately the survey report does not say whether the respondents were asked if they don't trust Israel's Jewish leaders. Or non-Israel-based Arab leaders.

Image: "Real Jerusalem Streets"

Readers wanting to do their own polling might consider standing in the center of Jerusalem, say at the busy intersection of King George Avenue and Jaffa Road (we know the corner only too well). 

As Jerusalemites know, since the Jerusalem Light Rail began running from Jerusalem's eastern neighbourhoods into the center and out to Mt Herzl, the number of Arab shoppers and pedestrians walking around, enjoying the cafes and the pedestrian malls, has risen substantially to levels that might surprise people from far away.

The image at right (young Arab females wandering around in the center of town) from the excellent Real Jerusalem Streets photo blog [here] illustrates the story.

11-Oct-11: Living with neighbours - and they with their neighbours

Jerusalem: The Mamilla shopping mall

We've just noted ("11-Oct-11: Living with neighbours who want us all back to the stone age") the disturbing phenomenon of stoning attacks on public transportation in Jerusalem and the risks these pose to pretty much all of us.

Everyone living in this city knows first-hand the tensions and risks of living in an open city in which a large proportion of the people around us on the streets and highways and on the buses and trams belong to a population that, to a considerable extent, considers us Israelis as their enemies.

The nature of the internal communal tensions among the Arab residents of Jerusalem and its surrounding villages makes for some interesting analysis. A study published this week says a third of the Arabs living today in Jerusalem and the surrounding area "would rather hold Israeli citizenship than live in a new Palestinian state". This is based on a poll of a thousand Arabs carried out by David Pollock, who supervised US government studies of public opinion in the Middle East. Other points made in the survey:

• Asked to make a choice between living under Israeli jurisdiction or under Palestinian jurisdiction in a new Palestinian state, 35 per cent said they would prefer to live under Israeli law.
• 40 per cent ("at least") of those polled are ready to move to a different Jerusalem neighbourhood just in order to remain under Israeli rule.
• Living under Israeli jurisdiction is identified as the key to maintaining the levels of healthcare, education and economic standards they currently enjoy.
• But there is a significant minority - one-third - of Jerusalem-area Arabs who say they feel "discriminated against" by the Israeli government.
• And this: "Even if a peace settlement could be agreed, 41 per cent said violent resistance would continue".

It's a claim that arises again and again. The media and political analysts, especially within Israel, refer to the struggle for peace between Arabs and Israelis and frequently get stuck at what they perceive to be Israeli actions that prevent peace (actions which to a great extent are calculated, in our view, to safeguard the peace and protect the population here, Israeli and Arab, from terrorist attacks).

Yet whenever they are asked, the Arabs inside Israel and beyond its borders - substantial numbers of them - assert again and again that peace, whatever that means to them, will change nothing. What's really happening here, in their own terms, is a process of "violent resistance". And that violence, along with resistance to living in a state defined as Israeli or Jewish, is permanent. 

Whether or not this is a reflection of deeply held sentiments at the grass roots level, there is no doubt it's a central theme in the educational programming of the Palestinian Arab governments - both the PA version (click here, here, here and here for a small handful of examples from a very long list) and the Hamas (here and here and here and thousands of other published instances). 

How effective is all this? The surveys that are published from time to time confirm that there is a substantial and deeply worrying effect. But on the more positive side, living here and seeing how much of daily life is conducted in an atmosphere of live-and-let-live (visit any Israeli hospital for daily, unscripted living proof) gives hope for a better future, despite the best efforts of the merchants of hatred.

11-Oct-11: Living with neighbours who want us all back to the stone age

From today's Jerusalem Post:

Jerusalem: Stones hurled at Light Rail, bus  | Stones were hurled Monday at the Light Rail in Jerusalem's Shuafat neighborhood, near the Israel Police National Headquarters. A windowpane was smashed but no injuries were reported. The train drove on to a garage but all the passengers were dropped off at the nearest station, in the French Hill. An alternative train was sent in its place. The Light Rail has been installed with stone-proof windows and therefore despite the smashing of a windowpane a plastic shield managed to prevent any injuries. Almost at the same time, stones were hurled at a bus near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City. The bus driver lost control of the vehicle, hit a wall and consequently sustained light injuries. The passengers were not injured. Jerusalem police have launched a wide-scale search to trace the perpetrators.

It's timely to recall that the deaths of a young father and his year-old child in their vehicle was attributed by the police to a mere road accident two weeks ago (we wrote about it here: "25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead"). But some days later, two Palestinian Arabs were arrested and charged with hurling rocks in an attack that caused the car to crash, as a result of which Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan were killed near Kiryat Arba. Police, now under criticism for having originally missed the malicious stoning connection in the Palmer deaths, are investing 17 other cases of stoning attacks on Israeli vehicles involving the same suspects.

Sadly, there is no shortage of stonings (we wrote about this here: "6-Oct-11: Those rock throwing "youths" are proliferating"), or stones or suspects.