“If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you.” (Isaiah 54:15)
Israel is here to stay and will overcome terrorism, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday at the opening of the winter session of the Knesset.
“We have experienced attacks before the foundation of the state and we have experienced them after the foundation of the state,” said Netanyahu during the speech.
“We experienced them before and after the Six Day War, before and after the peace process,” he continued.
“Terror is not born of frustration but of a desire to destroy us,” he said.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (GPO photo by Kobi Gideon)
Netanyahu attributed the wave of terror to libels about the Temple Mount designed to provoke Islamic incitement and violence against Jews as he discussed the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Movement operating in Israel.
“There are some who still say today that Jews have no connection to the Temple Mount. … They say that Jews make the Mount dirty and impure. They repeat the lie over and over again that we want to destroy the Al-Aksa Mosque or change the status quo in the place.
“That is a total lie,” he told the Knesset, emphasizing that Israel seeks to maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount and the security of all holy places, Jewish and otherwise.
On Sunday, Netanyahu told the weekly Cabinet meeting, “We are in the midst of a wave of terrorism originating from systematic and mendacious incitement regarding the Temple Mount — incitement by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Movement in Israel.
“This weekend I ordered the mobilization of 16 Border Police companies in order to restore security and order. It is better to mobilize massive forces to deal with possible developments, rather than do so after the fact, and we will call up more forces as necessary.”
Also on Sunday, Netanyahu called for a criminal investigation for the “wild and false incitement” of Arab Member of the Knesset Haneen Zoabi, who stated previously, “Hundreds of thousands of worshipers should be ascending to Al-Aqsa in order to fend off an Israeli plot to spill their blood. Lone terror must be turned into a real intifada.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a security briefing at the Jerusalem Police Headquarters. (GPO photo by Amos Ben Gershom)
On Thursday Netanyahu told a press conference, “We live in the Middle East and … the flames of radical Islam, which are burning the entire region, are also reaching us.”
“We will take aggressive measures against the Islamic Movement in Israel and against other inciters. Nobody will be immune,” Netanyahu said. “With persistence, thoroughness and determination, we will prove that terrorism does not pay — and we will defeat it.”
In the face of this current crisis, Netanyahu has tried to reassure Israeli citizens of an eventual return to security, commending civilians and security forces alike for courage and initiative in subduing attackers and coming to the defense of those being attacked.
“Israelis are acting with bravery, composure and determination to neutralize and eliminate the terrorists,” Netanyahu said at a Thursday press conference. “This requires extraordinary courage and resourcefulness, and we are proud to be part of a country that has such citizens.”
The body of victim is removed from scene of terror attack on bus in Jerusalem on October 13, 2015. (GPO photo by Kobi Gideon)
Netanyahu and his wife Sarah also have reached out to the families of those who have been murdered in the wave of attacks.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas continues to condone the attacks on Israelis and Jews, and an Arabic social-media campaign has glorified knife and rock attacks against Jews, pushing anti-Israeli assailants to acts of “martyrdom.”
Netanyahu has publicly condemned incitement by the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas, “several countries in the region and — no less and frequently much more – the Islamic Movement in Israel, which is igniting the ground with lies.” He also asked Abbas this past Friday to stop releasing messages of incitement.
Also on Friday, Netanyahu spoke with United States Secretary of State John Kerry to convey his expectations that Abbas and other PA leaders cease their “wild and mendacious incitement, which is causing the current wave of terrorism.”
While Palestinian leaders hail lone wolf terrorist attacks against Israeli Jews, Netanyahu condemned the stabbing a Bedouin and three Palestinian Arabs perpetrated by a Jewish teenager on Friday in Dimona. The assailant said that “all Arabs are terrorists.”
Armed Israelis nearby subdued the stabber, and Netanyahu rebuked him, stating, “Israel is a country of law and order. Those who use violence and break the law — from whatever side — will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.”
According to the prime minister, Israel’s security body, including the military, the police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) intelligence service “are working on all fronts” to defuse the terror wave, using “stakeouts, undercover, arrests, presence on the roads, guarding communities, operational entries into Palestinian towns, in-depth entries into neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem and the demolition of terrorists’ homes.”
Last Wednesday, Netanyahu also ordered both Arab and Jewish politicians not to ascend the Temple Mount, stating, “We do not need more matches to set the ground afire.”
Meanwhile some parties, including Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh have pitched the terror wave striking Israel as the “third intifada.”
The Zionist dream has longed for a Jewish home in which they need not fear expulsion, persecution or discrimination for being Jews.
“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” (1 Timothy 2:1–2)
