Jerusalem Watch

On Sunday, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu met with the spiritual leader of the Shas party and warned him that Kadima intends to sell off parts of Jerusalem—“even to our worst enemies.” Shas, which plays an important role in keeping Kadima’s coalition together, is the ultra-Orthodox party that currently fills 12 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Without Shas, Kadima would lose its majority, increasing the possibility that Olmert’s September successor would not be able to form a coalition, which would force a general election sooner.

Whatever happens, the political soap opera is bound to attract intense media coverage, as John Gizzi points out at Human Events.com: “Syria was bombed by Israel last year to stop development of a nuclear facility allegedly built with North Korean help. The Gaza Strip bordering Israel is now ruled by the militant Palestinian faction [known] as Hamas. So the coming change in Israeli government takes on a new dimension. And if an election is to be held, it is likely to attract as much interest worldwide as that for president of the United States this fall.”

Headed in Wrong Direction, Survey Says

According to a recent survey, 60 percent of Israelis believe their nation is headed in the wrong direction. Last year, the figure was 74 percent.

The same survey found that Israelis believe their nation’s internal corruption is just as dangerous as the threat of terrorism from beyond its borders, particularly from Iran. “Israel’s leaders have been spending a lot of time speaking about the threat of Iran and about security issues like terror, but they seem to be missing a large part of the population,” the director of the survey said.

A large majority of Israelis believe they are on the wrong path and have lost confidence in their leadership to correct their course. With an Iranian bomb looming large on the horizon, could Israel’s internal corruption and division have come at a worse possible time?

Terrorism’s New Front

We linked to this story earlier this week because of how closely it mirrors what we have been saying in recent weeks here, here and here. According to Martin Sieff’s piece on Human Events.com, the U.S. government and the American media are blind to the new front that has opened up in the war against terrorism: Jerusalem. In the two bulldozer attacks this summer, only the barest of background facts were discussed in news reports, implying that the attackers were disturbed loners.

“The reality is very different,” Sieff writes. “Both attacks have to be seen in the context of a slow but steady escalation in terrorist violence against Israeli civilians and security forces over the past few months within Jerusalem itself.”

Sieff highlights several disturbing patterns that are beginning to emerge on the Jerusalem front, including this one: Instead of attacking much easier targets in East Jerusalem, all three major attacks this year have taken place on the more heavily secured and Jewish-populated western side. Why, if these are just random attacks?

He brings up several important points. Read the whole thing here.

Final Thought

In what amounts to a veiled threat, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has criticized Israel’s recent prisoner exchanges—not because he believes the terrorists should still be in jail—but because he says Israel only releases prisoners when pressured by terrorist groups.

Hoping to ease his peace partner’s “concern,” on Wednesday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to release 150 Palestinian prisoners as a “goodwill gesture to President Abbas.”