The three stabbing attacks perpetrated at the gate to the Temple Mount, Gush Etzion Junction, and the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem in the past few days have ushered Israel into its yearly "holiday alert." The Hebrew month of Tishrei has been marked by unrest for years, but this time, the preparedness has to be different.
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For years, the possibility of Arab Israelis or some Arab Israelis joining their Palestinian brethren in terrorism has been deemed an "unlikely" scenario. After this past May, which saw Arabs rioting and attacking Jews in mixed cities, we can no longer say the same.
This is the first test for the sector since May of this year, both for Arab Israelis themselves and Israel's security forces. If Arab Israelis want to claim that their "intifada" – as Israel Police commissioner Kobi Shabtai rightly called it on Monday – was a one-time event, they need to prove it. The help some Arab citizens gave security forces in capturing terrorists who escaped Gilboa Prison last week was an encouraging sign, but there are plenty of less encouraging signals being received. Thousands of fans of the Bnei Sakhnin soccer club shouted "Through spirit and blood we will liberate Al-Aqsa" at a match at Sami Ofer Stadium on Saturday, and former MK Mohammad Barakeh published a letter he received from a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad's political leadership.
The letter rejects what it calls attempts by "Zionist propaganda" to present Arab Israelis as "collaborators." Barakeh himself made it clear that "Nazareth is loyal to the Palestinian struggle."
And last but not least, leader of the Joint Arab List MK Ayman Odeh declared, "if six prisoners managed to break out of the narrow and crowded prison, then millions of Palestinian people can stop the occupation, so people will be liberated and the prisoners will be liberated." Not a word about the murderers and their victims or terrorism.
Arab Israelis need to ignore these inciting voices from their leaders. The country's security forces should prepare themselves for the possibility that not everyone will. The two branches of the Islamic Movement in Israel, the northern one – which has been outlawed – and the southern one, which is now represented in the government, as well as supporters of Hamas among us and radical elements among Arab Israelis, comprise more potential to set things on fire. We can't fall asleep again. We can't tell ourselves again that it's "unlikely."
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