Opposition parties blame PM for uptick in terror attacks

Herzog says Netanyahu ‘has lost control of the security situation’; Livni slams ‘political vacuum’; Liberman laments loss of Israeli deterrence

Politicians from Israeli opposition parties criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his alleged lack of leadership Saturday night following a terror attack in Jerusalem that killed two people.

Opposition leader and Zionist Union chairman Isaac Herzog charged that the Netanyahu government has demonstrated a “total failure in handling security and the national task of protecting Jerusalem’s security.”

“Netanyahu has lost control of the security of Israeli citizens,” he wrote on Facebook.

“The government has no [real] plan to fight terrorism, this is crystal clear to all Israelis,” he wrote.

While the “heinous terrorists” must be punished to the fullest extent of the law, Herzog said the government “must have polices and employ measures and not just make declarations and hollow slogans.”

Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni said the “current leadership vacuum” leaves Israeli citizens vulnerable to terror attacks.

“Netanyahu, who for years took credit for establishing security, is responsible for the deterioration of that security,” the former justice minister and chief negotiator with the Palestinians told Channel 2 Saturday.

“The reinforcement of security forces in the fight against terrorism is not in United Nations speeches or debates, but in the making of decisions that will minimize the tensions,” she said.

The leadership vacuum that exists is a ticking time bomb and leaves Israeli citizens exposed to terrorism which damages Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem,” she added.

Former foreign minister and chairman of the nationalist Yisrael Beytenu party Avigdor Liberman posted news of the attack on Facebook with the caption: “This is what losing control and deterrence looks like.”

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid said the Netanyahu government has “failed to provide security to Israeli citizens; it’s too busy with internal struggles.”

Lapid added that the Palestinian Authority shares the blame for its incitement surrounding recent tensions on the Temple Mount, where Palestinian rioters and Israeli security forces have been clashing for weeks.

Agriculture Minister and Jewish Home MK Uri Ariel condemned the recent wave of attacks against “Jews guilty of being Jewish.”

In a Facebook post, Ariel said the violence was the “result of incitement by the Palestinian Authority. I call on the prime minister to act with an iron fist against terrorism in one hand and halt the settlement freeze in Judea and Samaria in the other.”

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said the Palestinian Authority and local mosques were to blame for inciting for the recent terror attacks, and called on Netanyahu to adopt a harsher stance towards those guilty of inciting violence.

In an interview with Channel 2 at the scene of the attack, Barkat urged the government to “step up” its response to “inciters and those who encourage terrorism.”

Muhannad Shafeq Halabi, 19, was identified as the terrorist who killed two Israeli men in their 40s on October 3, 2015 in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City. (Israel Police) — Muhannad Shafeq Halabi, 19, was identified as the terrorist who killed two Israeli men in their 40s on October 3, 2015 in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City. (Israel Police)

Two Israeli men died of their wounds Saturday night after being stabbed in Jerusalem’s Old City in a terror attack. The wife of one of the men is in serious condition and their two-year-old baby was lightly wounded. The mother was taken to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and is undergoing surgery. The toddler was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment where he remains in stable condition.

The terrorist was identified as Muhanad Shafeq Halabi, 19, from al-Bireh, near Ramallah in the West Bank.

https://twitter.com/ILNewsFlash/status/650348304874782720

Baby among injured in stabbing attack by Arab terrorist moments ago in Jerusalem, being treated by medics. pic.twitter.com/k9MJhanKyi

— Israel Breaking (@IsraelBreaking) October 3, 2015

Saturday’s attack comes just two days after an Israeli couple was gunned down in front of their four young children while driving in the West Bank on Thursday evening.

Naama and Eitam Henkin were shot dead by two Palestinian attackers while driving between the settlements of Elon Moreh and Itamar, near the Palestinian village of Beit Furik, close to Nablus.

Their children — aged 9,7, 4 and 4 months — who were in the backseat of the vehicle, were unharmed.