The United States stated that Tuesday’s barbaric murders of four Jews praying in a Jerusalem synagogue “differs from recent attacks, potentially demonstrating low-level coordination to attack a pre-identified soft target as opposed to an opportunistic random act of violence.”
A Druze policeman who helped kill the Arab murderers and prevent a worse tragedy also was killed.
A statement from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem added that it cannot confirm the claim of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) that it organized and carried out the brutal killings.
It also said there has been no information indicating that the Arab murderers intentionally targeted Americans. Three of the worshippers who were killed were native Americans, and the fourth man was originally from Britain.
The U.S, statement contradicted a claim Tuesday by Israel Police Commissioner Yochanan Danino said the attack appeared to be carried out “lone terrorists,” but he added the police have not completed their investigation.
“Lone wolves” have carried out several murderous attacks on Israelis the past two or three years, leaving Israelis in increasing panic that anyone can wake up one day and decide the time has come for him to kill Jews while shouting “Allahu Akba” on his way to the Land of 72 Virgins.
Israel’s establishment media, which for years has campaigned for the “Two-State” illusion and for releasing thousands of Palestinian Authority terrorists, now are scaring the wits out of everyone by screaming that the Netanyahu government is not providing citizens with security.
Israelis must not let the medias establishment, which partially caused the breakdown of Israeli security and now is pointing fingers elsewhere, get away with it.
For once, the United States has it right. The primitive murders in the Har Nof synagogue were not a spontaneous attack. The timing may have had something to do with the blood libel that Israeli “settlers” supposedly “executed” an eastern Jerusalem Arab bus driver who, according to pathology reports prepared by an Arab as well as by Jews, committed suicide.
Whether or not the attack itself was well-planned, as the Consulate said it was, the killers escaped Israel intelligence. The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) may have goofed by not following the cousins who carried out the attack and whose families have a record of involvement in terror, but count on officials to widen a dragnet over potential murderers.
The government is not going to abandon Jerusalem.
During the Oslo War days of suicide bombings, before the security fence reduced them to almost zero, Israelis bounced back immediately to populate the same areas where the murderers struck. Likewise, Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid Knesset Member Dov Lipman were among dozens of Jews who rushed on Wednesday to pray at the Kehillat Bnei Torah synagogue where the killers struck during prayer service yesterday.
“The terrorists accomplished nothing by their horrific murders” because although four Jews were murdered, the Jewish People live, said Lipman. “I was inspired by the intensity of this morning’s prayers and was touched deeply by the cries and tears of those who publicly gave thanks to God for surviving yesterday’s attack,” he said.
Israel obviously cannot defend citizens against every “lone terrorist,” but the death that Tuesday’s killers met and the government decision to deport to Judea and Samaria the wife of one of the terrorists are the first steps to strike fear back into the hearts of would-be murderers.
Israel must not show fear. It must make the enemy afraid.