Whoever heads Israel’s next government will preside over a new Middle East far more dangerous than the one we know and have coped with
In the first week of May, both Binyamin Netanyahu and those endeavoring to unseat him vied mightily for the allegiance of Ra’am MK Mansour Abbas, who wears two hats: He heads the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and he leads an Arab party that holds four Knesset seats.
In the second week of May, any aspirations of formulating a domestic Abraham Accord between Jewish and Arab Israelis had vanished like a desert mirage. Israel and Hamas were mired in their sixth major military conflagration since the August 2005 disengagement from Gaza. This time, Hamas upped the ante by firing rockets on an array of cities in central Israel and fomenting violence in Jerusalem. Arab thugs joined the disturbances by desecrating synagogues in Lod.
Whoever heads Israel’s next government, with whatever coalition they can contrive, will preside over a new Middle East far more dangerous than the one we know and have coped with.
Many reasons have been advanced to explain the sudden eruptions. The month of Ramadan, when Muslims flock to the Temple Mount every day, coincided with Jerusalem Day — when Israelis of all stripes commemorate the capture of Jerusalem’s Old City during the 1967 Six Day War — leading to friction and clashes.
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