Israel Update for September 2010

David Dolan

Israel suffered its worth month of Palestinian terrorist violence and rocket attacks in nearly two years during September as the inauguration of American-sponsored direct peace negotiations apparently enflamed festering tensions in the region. Now, with the negotiations teetering on the verge of collapse in the wake of renewed Israeli construction in contested Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and in eastern Jerusalem, Israeli authorities and security services are preparing for the possibility of even more intense trouble ahead.

The worst unrest in Jerusalem in several years broke out near the walled Old City on the eve of the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration. Israeli riot forces stormed the Temple Mount after dozens of Palestinian men hurled stones and other objects at Jewish worshipers below. Buses and cars were set on fire and around 20 people were injured during the fierce clashes. The violence came exactly one week before the tenth anniversary of the start of the Al Aksa attrition war in September 2000.

The Jerusalem clashes broke out after the brutal slayings of four Israeli civilians at the beginning of the month, including a pregnant mother, as Hamas launched its expected violent campaign to scuttle the revived peace process. The attack was quickly followed by another drive by shooting the next day, which left two Israelis injured, and later in the month by a third assault which also targeted a pregnant woman.

A series of rocket and artillery attacks were launched upon Israeli cities and towns from the Gaza Strip. Powerful Iranian-supplied Grad missiles struck the strategic port city of Ashdod south of Tel Aviv, and the coastal city of Ashkelon. Miraculously no one was injured in those assaults. For the first time ever, some of the Palestinian mortar shells fired at other Israeli civilian targets contained deadly phosphorous agents.

The Hamas terrorist blitz did not stop Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from attending the ceremonial opening round of direct peace negotiations in Washington sponsored by the Obama administration, despite many calls inside Israel for him to immediately return home. The first substantive discussions between the Premier and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas followed two weeks later in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of El Arish-the same day the phosphorous shells were deployed.

Netanyahu was able to deflect some of the growing right-wing criticism against him by declaring that he would not alter plans to lift the ten month building moratorium in Judea and Samaria on September 26. However the move, backed by his cabinet, was strongly condemned by the PA which had been threatening all month to bolt the renewed negotiations if the decision was not overturned. American and EU leaders urged the Israeli government to keep the controversial freeze in place as well.

Tensions remained high in Lebanon where reports circulated that the Iranian-founded and funded Hizbullah militia may be planning to stage an imminent military coup to oust Maronite Christians and others from the government. This came soon after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a lightening visit to Syria to shore up his alliance with the subservient Arab state after a senior US diplomat visited Damascus. Days later, reports surfaced that Russia is planning a major weapons sale to Syria, including powerful anti-ship missiles. The radical Iranian leader's Syria visit came just a couple weeks before he is scheduled to head to Lebanon in a clear effort to bolster his country's puppet militia force operating there. Meanwhile a senior Israeli diplomat hinted in public that the Netanyahu government may have already decided to attack Iran's menacing nuclear programme.

Jewish Building Resumes

The ten month moratorium on all Jewish building in Judea and Samaria has expired, allowing some 2,000 construction projects, which received government permits to build before the freeze began last November, to move forward. However analysts said many of the projects will not be reactivated at this time, since bank loans are hard to acquire due to fears that the building halt will be renewed in the not too distant future.

Although Mahmoud Abbas had threatened to immediately bolt US sponsored peace talks if the ban was lifted, he decided to wait until the Arab League meets in early October to get the verdict of his fellow Arab leaders. PM Netanyahu called on him to stay at the negotiating table: "I hope President Abbas will remain in the talks and continue with me on the path of peace, on which we set out two weeks ago; with many across the world now convinced that my intention to secure peace is serious and honest and that I honor my obligations."

Political analysts said Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers decided to make the building issue the litmus test of PA intentions at this early stage in the renewed peace process. If the PA is serious about a final peace deal, it will have to allow the three large Jewish settlement blocks near Israel's pre-1967 borders to remain in place. It will also have to formally recognize Israel as a Jewish state, in other words, to drop demands that millions of Palestinians have a "right of return" to pre-1948 family homes inside of Israel. Israel in turn will have to dismantle dozens of more isolated Jewish communities and swap land with the PA in other locations. Believing that Abbas and his PLO Fatah party-with Hamas breathing down their necks-are unlikely to yield on these issues, Netanyahu chose to keep his coalition intact by lifting the building ban instead of bending to world demands to keep the moratorium in place at this time.

Worst Jerusalem Riots In Several Years

Sounds of border police stun grenade fire and ambulance sirens reverberated for many hours throughout the center of Jerusalem on September 22 as Israeli Jews put the finishing touches on their outdoor Succot booths which are central to the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration. To many local residents, it was a carbon copy of the days when the Palestinian uprising attrition war raged in the city from late 2000 until 2004.

The ferocious clashes erupted in the troubled Silwan neighborhood near the Temple Mount. Although founded by Yemenite Jews in the early 1900s, Silwan has mostly been populated by Arabs since Islamic mobs violently chased the Jewish residents out during the 1929 riots, which left dozens of Jews dead all over the land. However in recent years, Silwan, with around 50,000 residents, also contains a growing Jewish enclave because it is adjacent to the ancient City of David, which is revered by many religious Jews.