“It’s very sad tonight in Jerusalem. Many people were killed in the heart of Jerusalem.” Those were the words of Mayor Uri Lupolianski as he responded to news that a Palestinian gunman had entered the crowded library of a rabbinical school earlier that night and fired into a group of about 80 students going about their evening studies and preparing for a religious festival.

Recent events, including a new poll, indicate the average Palestinian feels much differently about the massacre.

Ala Abu Dhaim, 25, a resident of east Jerusalem, emptied clip after clip from a Kalashnikov automatic assault rifle and a pistol at the teenage students, wounding 11 and murdering eight. The homicidal spree lasted for around 10 minutes before Dhaim was killed by an Israeli soldier. The aftermath comprised walls riddled with bullet holes and floors littered with guns, bullet magazines, blood stains, bloody holy books and young corpses.

While Jews mourned, some sobbing uncontrollably, thousands of Palestinians throughout Gaza rushed into the streets, wildly cheering and celebrating the news in scenes reminiscent of the reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Some passed out sweets; some fired into the air with rifles and mortars; others waved flags.

Gazans’ macabre reaction to the gruesome news comes as a result of recent Israel Defense Forces operations in the area aimed at stopping relentless Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli population centers, which have soared since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Fighting targeted at Hamas rocket stashes and launching squads has killed 121 Palestinians and three Israelis since last Wednesday.

A survey taken last week by pollster Khalil Shikaki indicates that a huge majority of Palestinians applaud the school shooting. It also found “unprecedented support” for Gaza rocket attacks against Israeli towns, according to a report by the New York Times (March 19). The Times characterized Shikaki’s polls as “widely viewed as among the few independent and reliable gauges of Palestinian public opinion.” This survey comprised face-to-face interviews with 1,270 Palestinians, 84 percent of whom supported the school attack.

Shikaki said the results shocked him because they show more support for violence than any he had ever conducted over the past 15 years. “Never before, he said, had a majority favored an end to negotiations [75 percent] or the shooting of rockets at Israel [64 percent]” (ibid.).

The same poll shows that Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that bloodily took over Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in the middle of last year, is becoming more popular in the West Bank.

“Asked for whom they would vote for president, 46 percent chose Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, the current president, while 47 percent chose Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Three months ago, Mr. Abbas was ahead 56 percent to 37 percent” (ibid.).

“The anger that this poll is registering is about equal to that at the very height of the second intifada,” Shikaki said. “I am very worried about what is coming.”

This alarming degree of violent fury among Palestinians foreshadows a coming clash that will involve more than just Israel and one or two terrorist groups. The coming explosion will, in fact, cause a chain reaction of events leading to the worst crisis Jerusalem, Israel and the world has ever experienced. But this sequence also introduces the ultimate and happy solution to the hatred and murder occurring in Israel today.

To find out the coming bad news and the overwhelming good news attached to this tragic Jerusalem shooting, read “Jerusalem Is About to Be Cut in Half” and the booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy, by Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry.