The Israeli right's hypocrisy on Jerusalem
Despite past promises by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to former coalition partners, the issue of Jerusalem is on the discussion table with the Palestinians.
While US Secretary of State John Kerry continues the efforts to promote the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, something is going on in the West Bank. Something bad. On the Palestinian side, acts of violence have become ever more frequent. It is no organized intifada. Yet, there has been a noticeable escalation in violent events of a certain type, labeled by the Shin Bet as “terror attacks set off by the mood in the Palestinian street” with no guiding hand behind. In fact, there has been a steep rise in Molotov cocktail-throwing and rock-hurling incidents, riots and random terror attacks by individual terrorists.
On the Israeli side, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet have stepped up their operations and incursions into the Palestinian Authority areas — typically, for the purpose of arresting wanted persons. Some of these incursions, such as the one on Dec. 18, deteriorate into a local flare-up — violence that leads to deaths and injuries. Two Palestinians were killed the week of Dec. 15 in an incident of this kind involving SWAT fighters and Israeli paratroopers.
