Tally of the damned

After two weeks of stabbings and other near-daily terror attacks, it’s hard to keep using the words “wave” or “spate,” and continue to avoid the harsh reality that this might just be the new normal, though it’s hard to employ the word normal when describing a situation in which anybody can be knifed in the back at any time.

And while the press has yet to wean itself off the word “wave” to describe the uptick in attacks, there seems little new in the news beyond tallying and recounting the various stabbings and attempted stabbings, like some sort of timeline of the damned.

Headlines like Yedioth Ahronoth’s “7 attacks in 48 hours” and Israel Hayom’s “Weekend: 7 attacks – 4 in Hebron” speak volumes over the fact that it’s mostly the quantity that’s remarkable, and not the story of the glimmering end of a blade slicing through the air toward a victim, which is old hat by now.

In Haaretz, commentator Amos Harel comes right out and calls it “The new situation,” which can both be taken literally, and as a sly dig at Israelis’ euphemistic use of “the situation” to describe the Second Intifada over a decade ago.

“The five stabbing attacks by terrorists on Saturday, one in Jerusalem and four in the West Bank, support the conclusion that had been reached over recent days: In the third week of the current wave of violence, the end doesn’t appear to be on the horizon,” Harel writes.

“There have been increases and decreases in the daily number of incidents (although Thursday was the only day without a stabbing attack over the past 11 days). The size of the crowds at Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank and on the Gaza Strip border has been on the decline for a number of days. And yet there are no signs that the escalation has been halted, or that it will happen in the near future.”

He adds that the seeming appearance of Hebron as the new center of attacks is less than surprising, as the city is, like Jerusalem, home to Arabs and Jews in close proximity, and historically, “the city stirs itself belatedly to action reacting to developments in the field, but then does so with greater force than in other cities.”

The fighting may have moved to Hebron, but passion behind the clashes still has its roots squarely in the esplanade in Jerusalem’s Old City known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims.

If you ask Israel Hayom, though, there’s nothing noble about Paris’s suggestion to place international observers there as a way of cooling tempers, which the paper says is “giving France a prize for terror,” bastardizing a quote from Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.

Commentator Boaz Bismuth takes it one step further, writing that the French suggestion will actually increase terror while failing to protect Israel, as other international observers have failed to do.

“The Palestinian lie regarding the broken status quo has caught on. Lies don’t have legs but they have customers. The French proposal is only harmful. Why? Because it once again attempts to internationalize the conflict. It is essentially a speech telling Abbas not to enter into direct negotiations with us. The French proposal interferes in that it even encourages and goads the continuation of terror,” he writes.

While Bismuth has little love for the international community, US President Barack Obama included (“one should hope Obama still doesn’t understand the reality of our Middle East, because otherwise we would have to conclude unfortunately that Obama simply doesn’t like us.”) but Yedioth calls Obama’s recent statement that Israel has the right to defend itself an “American hug.”

The paper lauds American diplomatic efforts to bring the bloodshed to an end, and while noting the going is slow, surmises that Foggy Bottom is actually making some headway.

“Despite American efforts to convene a summit between the sides, as of yesterday, Palestinian Authority President [Mahmoud Abbas] was still refusing to meet Netanyahu, and therefore the American efforts right now are limited to trust-building steps. [US Secretary of State John] Kerry, who also called Abbas on Friday and demanded he end the incitement and condemn stabbing attacks against Israelis, has seemingly convinced him to pull back a bit from his position. Over the weekend, Abbas condemned the burning of Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, and today he is expected to grant interviews to Israeli television stations.”

In Haaretz, US correspondent Chemi Shalev takes readers on a journey inside Obama’s head, which apparently he has access to, writing that the president wants anything but to be embroiled in yet another Israeli-Palestinian flare-up.

“Barack Obama needs an Israeli-Palestinian flare-up like a hole in the head. Trapped in Afghanistan, mired in Syria, stumped by Putin, confounded by Iran, worried about Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and whatnot, the last thing the US president needs right now is a war over the Temple Mount that could serve as a recruitment poster for Islamic State and inflame the Middle East as a whole. Never mind the very thought that he was going to have to deal once again with nebbish Mahmoud Abbas and nemesis Benjamin Netanyahu,” he writes. “Among people close to the administration there are those who are toying with the idea of using the crisis as leverage to re-launch some kind of peace process: For now such offers are being greeted with amused sighs of despair. For Obama, one assumes, the thought of having to spend hours on hours with Abbas and Netanyahu in a closed room in pursuit of an elusive breakthrough is enough to send him to the nearest calendar to pray that what remains of his time at the White House will go by quickly.”