JERUSALEM — Israelis in Jerusalem were going about their daily lives with a sense of trepidation on Thursday.
The synagogue attack which killed four rabbis and a policeman on Tuesday has shaken the sense of security in Jewish West Jerusalem.
People feel there are no more red lines, and that no place is immune from the violence.
Even through the bloody bombings of the Second Palestinian Intifada (Uprising) from 2000-2004, synagogues were never attacked. Palestinian militants may not be able to get explosives now, but anyone can buy a butcher knife or a meat cleaver.
Or a car can become a lethal weapon. Palestinians have rammed their vehicles into Israeli pedestrians in several deadly attacks over the past few weeks.
Police admit the “lone-wolf” attacks are a hard nut to crack. If a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, who has full freedom of movement about the city, decides to get up one morning and kill Jews, it’s almost impossible to prevent. There is no organized terror cell to bust and no ring leaders to arrest.
Israeli parents are now demanding security guards at kindergartens because if synagogues are not immune from attack, neither are children. There are hundreds of synagogues in Jerusalem and very few of them have any security presence at all.
All of this comes amid religious tensions over access to the Temple Mount, a holy site to both religions in the heart of Jerusalem that the Arabs call the Mosque of Al-Aqsa.
Calls by right-wing Israeli parliamentarians for Jewish prayers at the disputed holy site have sparked riots there, and Israel’s ongoing plans to build new Jewish homes in Palestinian areas of the capital are also fueling the anger.
The violence has spread to Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Palestinian officials accuse Israel of igniting a “religious war.”
Israeli leaders proclaim Jerusalem as the eternal and undivided capital of the State of Israel and the Jewish people forever. But these days, the Holy City is more divided than ever.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jerusalem-tense-as-jews-fear-terror-attacks-palestinian-anger-mounts/