Hamas terrorists attacked a synagogue in Jerusalem this morning and killed four people before they were stopped. Three of the four who were murdered by the terrorists were American. They were hacked to death with meat cleavers. That means that in one morning, Hamas murdered the same number of Americans as ISIS has.
The attacks took place in a Jerusalem area that is not contested. It has been part of Israel since the founding of that country in 1948. These are not "settlers" who were attacked. This was nothing but a pure terror attack.
There are pictures on the internet of Hamas celebrating the attacks in Gaza by handing out sweets. This makes clear that the attack was not the work of rogue actors; it was a sanctioned attack ordered by Hamas.
So what is the proper response by the Israelis? What can the Israeli government do to prevent further attacks like this? The perpetrators were Arabs who live in Jerusalem. It seems that they had Jerusalem resident status, but they were not Israeli citizens. (Arabs in Jerusalem got to choose whether or not to become Israeli citizens when the city was reunited. The majority chose not to become Israelis.) The Jerusalem Arab community seems to be the only group whose members can carry out the Hamas attacks within Israel. As a result, the government has to weed out the terrorists from this group. One solution would be to make affiliation with Hamas punishable by eviction from Jerusalem. In other words, those who join the terror group would be forced to leave the city and move to the Palestinian areas of the West Bank. This is an unwieldy and poor response to the new wave of terror attacks, so it is unlikely to be adopted.
The government will surely take action in the near future to reduce the risk of further attacks of this nature. Hopefully, the Israelis can come up with something that works.
The attacks took place in a Jerusalem area that is not contested. It has been part of Israel since the founding of that country in 1948. These are not "settlers" who were attacked. This was nothing but a pure terror attack.
There are pictures on the internet of Hamas celebrating the attacks in Gaza by handing out sweets. This makes clear that the attack was not the work of rogue actors; it was a sanctioned attack ordered by Hamas.
So what is the proper response by the Israelis? What can the Israeli government do to prevent further attacks like this? The perpetrators were Arabs who live in Jerusalem. It seems that they had Jerusalem resident status, but they were not Israeli citizens. (Arabs in Jerusalem got to choose whether or not to become Israeli citizens when the city was reunited. The majority chose not to become Israelis.) The Jerusalem Arab community seems to be the only group whose members can carry out the Hamas attacks within Israel. As a result, the government has to weed out the terrorists from this group. One solution would be to make affiliation with Hamas punishable by eviction from Jerusalem. In other words, those who join the terror group would be forced to leave the city and move to the Palestinian areas of the West Bank. This is an unwieldy and poor response to the new wave of terror attacks, so it is unlikely to be adopted.
The government will surely take action in the near future to reduce the risk of further attacks of this nature. Hopefully, the Israelis can come up with something that works.
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