Uneasy Quiet Returns To Yerushalayim

An uneasy quiet returned to Har Habayis on Wednesday after three days of clashes between Muslim rioters and Israeli forces.
Israeli armed forces deployed heavily at the entrance to the the site and adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Muslim demonstrators skirmished with police during Rosh Hashanah. Police appeared cautious not to inflame the situation by getting too close to the mosque.
Elsewhere in Yerushalayim, tensions have been high following the death of an Israel after Palestinians pelted his car with rocks. Several Israeli civilians and police have been injured in attacks by Palestinians this week.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting Tuesday night where he vowed tougher measures to curb the violence and on Wednesday he visited the scene where the 64-year-old Israeli motorist was killed.
“We are changing policy. The situation that exists is unacceptable and we plan to give soldiers and police officers tools to act forcefully against those who throw stones and firebombs,” Netanyahu said. “This rock was one rock too many. We declare war on the rock throwers, the firebomb throwers and the other outlaws.
“Here, in the heart of Yerushalayim, on a traffic island on a central road, a criminal stood and threw one rock after another into the windshield of Yerushalayim residents, until he he succeeded in causing death — it is murder,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister also visited another site that has seen similar violence recently — Road 443 to that leads from Modi’in to the capital.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told Israel’s Army radio Wednesday that “the approach will be that anyone who holds a rock or a firebomb will be considered someone who is holding a murder weapon.”
Meanwhile, a stabbing attack by an Arab terrorist was thwarted at the Tapuah Junction in Shomron, not far from the city of Ariel, Arutz Sheva reported.
The Israel Police and Border Police said that that a 20-year-old Arab resident of Shechem drew a knife from a bag at the Junction checkpoint when stopped for inspection by soldiers on duty there.
One of the soldiers prepared to fire, at which point the man threw away his knife and attempted to flee, but he was quickly apprehended.
Under investigation afterwards, he confessed to planning a stabbing attack.
Another Israeli was lightly wounded on Wednesday in a rock-thowing near early Wednesday afternoon just outside Betar Illit.
In the attack, Arabs threw a rock at an Israeli car, lightly wounding the driver and causing damage to the windshield.
Police were searching for the attackers.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the September 17th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.