Every day now, I am waking up to news of more murders around Jerusalem.
Outside my window, I hear screaming, and as my stomach twists in fright, I have to wonder whether I am hearing yet another Arab attack against Jews in my area.
This violence is personal. Four Arabs and their pit bull chased my ulpan friend down the street the other day.
Over the Jewish holidays, five Jews were killed in terror attacks in and near Jerusalem. And other than the Israeli media, the world is silent. I am sorry that I have to take up my weekly post this way, but I feel it is necessary.
Here is a timeline of just some of the events, to put what is happening in perspective:
September 13, the night of Rosh Hashanah
• Alexander Levovich died from trauma after Palestinians threw stones at his car, which crashed into an electric pole.
September 14, Rosh Hashanah day
• After security forces found a pipe bomb smuggled into the Temple Mount, suspects are arrested and Palestinians clash with Israeli police. Muslims throw rocks and fireworks at police from inside the mosque.
September 17
• Mahmoud Abbas, President of the PA states “Every drop of blood that has been spilled in Jerusalem is holy blood as long as it was for Allah.”
September 28, first day of Sukkot
• Arabs harass Jewish passersby in Old City.
September 30
• Abbas declares Palestinians are no longer bound by the Oslo agreements and the Palestinian flag is raised at the UN headquarters.
October 1, fourth day of Sukkot
• Palestinian terrorist shoots and kills young Israeli couple, in front of their four children, between Itamar and Elon Moreh. They were pronounced dead at the scene. As these parents of four now orphaned children were laid to rest, their oldest child, Matan, at just nine years of age, had to say Kaddish for his parents at an emotional burial ceremony attended by thousands.
• Palestinians celebrate the murder with fireworks and flag waving.
• Hamas has pronounced this attack “heroic” and “brave resistance,” calling for more attacks against Israelis.
• 13-year-old Arab throws explosives at the Western Wall, injuring a 4-year-old.
October 2, fifth day of Sukkot
Arabs shoot a 5-year-old boy in the head in his sukkah, as well as a girl north of Jerusalem, also in a sukkah.
October 3, sixth day of Sukkot and Shabbat
• A 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist stabs and kills two Jewish men and wounds three others (including a toddler) in the Old City, as they were on their way to the Western Wall. The terrorist, who posted on his Facebook page earlier that the Third Intifada has already begun, is killed in the act by the police.
• Al Jazeera reports the terrorist attack as “Palestinian shot dead after fatal stabbing in Jerusalem; 2 Israeli victims also killed.”
• 15-year-old Israeli was stabbed in his chest and near the Damascus Gate by Palestinian terrorist.
October 4, seventh day of Sukkot and the night of Simchat Torah
• The Palestinian Authority condemns Israel for killing Palestinian terrorists as they stabbed two to death and injured three.
• An Israeli teenager was stabbed in a gas station near the Old City. The terrorist was shot while he was still holding his knife.
• Israeli Security Service releases the details of an advanced-stage plan to blow up and kill holiday shoppers at the Mamilla Mall, kidnap and murder an Israeli soldier, and manufacture rockets to fire against Jewish communities near Ramallah.
• Islamic Jihad announces official beginning of Third Intifada.
• Stabbing at Independence Park in Jerusalem.
There are many good things happening in my aliyah experience and over the rest of Sukkot that I could write about right now; but somehow, given what is happening in Jerusalem, I cannot get myself to talk about any of them.
Right after the screams that I heard outside my window, I heard the Muslim call to prayer blasted on nearby loud speakers. But today, it sounds different. The first couple of months that I lived in Jerusalem, it sounded harmonious, religious and holy. Now, in the context of the rising Jewish death toll in the name of Islam, it is more than challenging to continue to view it as such.
Eliana Rudee is a fellow with the Salomon Center for American Jewish Thought and the author of the new “Aliyah Annotated” column for JNS.org. She is a graduate of Scripps College, where she studied International Relations and Jewish Studies. She was published in USA Today and Forbes after writing about her experiences in Israel last summer. Follow her aliyah column on JNS.org, Facebook, and Instagram.
By Eliana Rudee/JNS.org
