The “new Palestinian,” or “neo-Palestinian,” is the name the Israeli security establishment has coined to refer to the generation of young Palestinians leading the current terror wave that Israel continues to find difficult to define, characterize and restrain some two and a half months after it began. Israeli security officials have compared the struggle against this brand of violence to jousting with windmills. There is no infrastructure, no planning, no hierarchy, no leaders, no organizations and no intelligence.
“This is something else entirely, something we have not completely identified,” admitted a higher-up in Israeli security speaking on condition of anonymity. “It is a social phenomenon, maybe even a mental one. It is the outcome of circumstances and deep processes that have come to fruition. At this stage, we don’t have a clue where this is going and how long it will last,” he said.