Fight rocks with fire

With violence in Jerusalem unremitting, and more riots anticipated on the Temple Mount after Muslim prayers Friday, the Hebrew newspapers on Friday all set their sights on various ways to tackle stone-throwing attacks — which this week proved lethal — by Palestinians.

Israel Hayom spotlights Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledges to crack down on rock-throwers, and Yedioth Ahronoth outlines a bill by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to fine the parents of underage assailants. Haaretz, meanwhile, slams Netanyahu’s plan, but offers little by way of alternative.

According to Israel Hayom, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Thursday that “we will create new deterrence.” The paper added that, by Sunday, the PM is expected to receive professional feedback from officials in the Shin Bet, the Israel Police and the Attorney General’s Office relating to harsher penalties against stone-throwers and firebombers.

Columnist Nadav Shragai condemns Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for his accusations that Israel was changing the status quo at the site — the third-holiest in Islam, the holiest to Jews — and that Jews were defiling it with their “dirty feet.”

“Hearing Abu Mazen [Abbas’s comments] is unbelievable, reading his remarks [makes one] rub ones eyes [in disbelief]: We are the ones ‘defiling’ and ‘making filthy’ and ‘desecrating’ al-Aqsa? We, who in the weakness of our judgment and in a decision that created endless problems for generations, gave up the de facto control over the holiest of sites and the right to pray there, when it could have been different?

“We, who time and time again, close the compound to Jews due to the threats and violence of the Palestinians? We, who tiptoe when we’re there, sometimes out of the appropriate reverence, and sometimes out of cowardice?… There is no limit to the audacity, lies, and hypocrisy. Those ‘defiling’ and ‘making filthy’ and ‘desecrating,’ and destroying, and harming the sites holy to Jews for decades are Abu Mazen’s people,” adds the Israel Hayom columnist.

Over in Yedioth, Shaked’s bill — aimed at broadening the Israeli authorities’ ability to levy financial penalties on parents of stone-throwing minors — is front-and-center.

“The bill, which Shaked drafted along with Welfare Minister Haim Katz, will permit levying fines of tens of thousands of shekels on parents of children who were not convicted of stone-throwing — but who were indicted,” it reports.

The daily also draws attention to an attack on an Israeli bus on Thursday, and in an infographic details all attacks on Thursday around Jerusalem — eight stone-throwing attacks, and three firebombings.

Over in Haaretz, the editorial notes the severity of rock-throwing attacks, but takes issue with the prime minister’s plan to change the rules of engagement.

“Netanyahu, Erdan and company are trying to cover up their haplessness with demagoguery. The Palestinians’ popular protests have many causes, including the Netanyahu government’s stubborn insistence on blocking any progress in the peace process,” it writes. “Israel should not accept violence toward its citizens and soldiers, but rocks don’t kill people; the individuals who use them to stone passersby and harm them kill people.”

The editorial continues: “Even if Jerusalem were to wake up tomorrow and discover that, in a brilliant operation, every stone had been removed from the city overnight and checkpoints established at all the entrances to the capital, staffed by guards who assiduously prevented even the tiniest pebble from being brought in, the violence would not end. It would merely be channeled into different methods.

“The attorney general and the courts cannot bow to Netanyahu’s will. Taking action against those who endanger lives is already permitted, while retroactive measures and disproportionate punishment will remain forbidden,” it adds.

Amos Harel, who writes on military and defense issues for Haaretz, notes that the issue of violence in the capital is not new. He argues, however, that with the Iran deal approved, Netanyahu has adopted a new cause.

“The undermining of the sense of security among Jewish residents of East Jerusalem and seam-line neighborhoods — which has been going on for more than a year now — has barely made any waves in the media. Incidents of rock-throwing and firebombs and the shooting of fireworks (in addition to the worsening living conditions in Palestinian neighborhoods on both sides of the security barrier) rarely make it onto the radar of the major newspapers and television channels.

“Only when an attack ends in death, or if security cameras happen to catch footage of an incident as it is unfolding, is any media interest stirred. Not surprisingly, the same goes for the response from politicians,” he states.

“The security threats the prime minister is normally busy dealing with, like Iran’s nuclear program and the threat of IS along Israel’s borders, will have to wait a bit. Right now, Netanyahu has to be strong vis-à-vis the stone-throwers,” adds Harel.