Despite terror wave, Israel determined to keep Al-Aqsa open for Ramadan
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett decided to avoid collective punishment over the latest wave of terrorism, keeping Al-Aqsa Mosque open for Ramadan prayers and keeping the crossing points from Gaza and the West Bank operating as usual.
The current wave of terrorism sweeping Israel could easily spur violence along several other fronts.
But for now, Israel is handling the latest spate of attacks (four significant attacks in three weeks) the way it did six years ago with a similar wave of attacks perpetrated by lone attackers unaffiliated with major organizations. The state is avoiding collective punishment, differentiating between the terrorists and the general Palestinian population, allowing Palestinian laborers with valid permits to cross into Israel for work and avoiding actions that might send others into the pool of potential terrorists.
The goal is to avoid escalation, to contain violence, to prevent unrest on other fronts and, most importantly, to keep Jerusalem’s holy sites from blowing up during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and the upcoming Jewish Passover and Christian Easter celebrations.
Aside from ever-present threat of violence in east Jerusalem, and specifically the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound, the potential for conflagration is always high in the Gaza Strip. Tensions are simmering in the West Bank, particularly the Jenin region. Hezbollah in Lebanon remains a potential keg of dynamite, as do the mixed Jewish-Arab towns within Israel which were engulfed in violence last May.
