The Third Intifada is starting up again

[Ace Pace]

So for those of us living outside the middle east, Israel has once again flared up.

Quick recap of the prior thread before Protective Edge. There were large scale civil riots among Israeli Arabs and large demonstrations in Jerusalem.

During Protective Edge is calmed down, mostly because it's hard to protest or do anything when rockets are falling on your house, more so when it's your fellow Arabs doing so. But just a few weeks later it started up again.

It started out with rock throwing on Jerusalem public transportation (this is a recent article but it's been ongoing for months). The Light Rail system goes through Arab neighborhoods deliberately in order to integrate them into the Jewish side of the city and it's been pretty much stopped due to damage at multiple stations. This, coupled with generic rock throwing has been quietly going on for the last two months. Both the Israeli press and foreign press have been keeping it quiet.

Over the last two weeks, multiple incidents have been flaring up again. Multiple car terror attacks and for the first time, a stabbing in Tel Aviv. This has predictably led to further police crackdowns (no military involvement yet), with predictable results.

Of course, the Arabs aren't without cause for further violence. The coalitions deputy parlament speaker enjoys fanning the flames of religious violence, regardless of the validity of the claim, it's pure lunacy to just incite violence. Or recent political decisions to make Israeli laws apply to the West Bank instead of military rule, widely seen as a prelude to annexation. Thankfully this was blocked by saner government officials. Or the leaking of government plans for expanding settlements, which surprised no one. This combiend with other acts which basically remove the ability of Arabs to peacefully protest, is forcing them towards violent activities.



The current situation is we're pretty much a solitary incident away from another violent uprising. What remains to be seen is whether the Israeli Arabs join in, or will it be a Palestinian event.