Responding to weekend violence and attacks coupled with intelligence information pointing to planned Islamic violence, Defense Minister Ehud Barak has extended the weekend closure on PA residents until Tuesday, extending it for three additional days.

Islamic violence continues to spread in the frequency and intensity of attacks, this time, blaming it on Israel’s announcement that the Machpelah and Kever Rachel were added to the national list of heritage sites, coupled by last week’s announced plans to continue building in Ramat Shlomo and other Jerusalem areas.

Pathetically, Israel responds to the announced so-called reasons for the increase in attacks as if they merit a response, for in essence, the attacks are compelled by the very existence of the State of Israel and the presence of the Jews in the region.

Rioting took place over the weekend in the Old City of the capital in the area of the Damascus Gate (Shar Shechem) and as a result, police are remaining on heightened operational status in and around the Old City and restrictions apply regarding the age of male Muslims permitted on Hay HaBayis. Only males over 50 with a blue Israeli ID card are permitted on the Temple Mount. There are no restrictions for females. There was also violence on Har HaBayis following Friday afternoon Islamic prayers.

Near Modi’in, a motorist and a small child were injured lightly in a motzei shabbos firebomb attack, on Highway 443, calling for increased calls to annex the highway into pre-1967 Israel. Such a move would permit the government to ban PA motorists, thereby circumventing a recent High Court of Justice ruling compelling the military to lift its ban of PA motorists on the major vehicular route, connecting Jerusalem to the Modi’in region. This latest attack on the highway was preceded by a shooting attack in which some 20 bullets were fired at vehicles. Miraculously, there were no fatalities in that attack.

Elsewhere in Israel, Kassam rockets fell in the south over the weekend, and the Third Intifada is well underway; including rocket attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza, which are increasing in frequency, but lawmakers and government leaders are for the most part ignoring the severity of the current situation, which usually includes dozens of attacks daily.

Officials seem to follow the same pattern since the 1993 signing of the Oslo Agreement, addressing the severity of an attack by its outcome, if there are injuries or fatalities rather than addressing the severity of an attack, such as firing a rocket into a civilian population center, hurling a Molotov cocktail (firebomb) at a vehicle, or throwing rocks at vehicles traveling at highway speeds.

Each of these is a potentially deadly act, yet they are played down because in most cases, we see Chasdei Hashem and there are no injuries.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)