Netanyahu declares a ‘battle for Jerusalem’ (LIVE BLOG)

Signing off

This live blog is now closed.

A controversial policy

Here's a quick read on Israel's policy of destroying militants' homes: Can Israel really deter attackers by demolishing their homes?

From the piece:

As the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem reports, more than 650 Palestinian homes were either sealed or demolished from 2001 until 2005, leaving the families of attackers homeless. … As the Forward reported back in September, house demolitions "date back to a 1945 British Mandate emergency regulation in pre-state Palestine that allowed the British military to confiscate and destroy any home used to discharge a weapon, or any home used by a person who violated military law."

Read more here.

Intifada?

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP): Marxists with a history of global ties

GlobalPost's Laura Dean reports from Cairo:

While today much of the world associates Palestinian resistance with the Islamist group Hamas, this wasn't always the case. In the early days of the occupation, secular groups tended to hold sway. The PFLP was one of them. Founded by a Palestinian Christian, George Habash, in 1967, the group espouses a blend of Marxist-Leninist principles, coupled with Arab nationalism.

Islamist groups gained ground later in part as a result of the Israeli government allowing them to flourish in order to counter the influence of more powerful secular groups.

Over the past few decades the PFLP has fought for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has historically been skeptical of peace process negotiations.

The US, the EU and Canada have declared it a terrorist organization.

Read Dean's full story here.

A quick history of East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem

Israel approves 78 new settler homes in East Jerusalem

Reuters — Israel on Wednesday approved the construction of 78 new homes in two settlements onWest Bank land annexed to Jerusalem, likely to aggravate Palestinian anger at a time when violence has flared, including a deadly attack on a synagogue.

Jerusalem's municipal planning committee authorized 50 new housing units in Har Homa and 28 in Ramot, a municipal spokeswoman said. Israel describes those two urban settlements as Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Jerusalem has seen unrest in the past few weeks over access to the city's most sacred and politically sensitive site, holy to both Jews and Muslims. On Tuesday, two Palestinians killed four rabbis and a policeman at a Jerusalem synagogue, the worst attack in the city since 2008.

Israel revives its policy of demolishing militants' homes

Israeli forces started destroying the home of a Palestinian who drove into a crowd last month, killing two pedestrians, including a baby, Al Jazeera reports.

From the story:

"Four families who lived in the building — including that of the attacker Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, who was shot and killed shortly after the October assault — had to evacuate, said Al Jazeera's Dalia Hatuqa, reporting from East Jerusalem. The whole neighborhood was closed off by the Israeli police, she said.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from outside the demolished house in East Jerusalem, said that people in area say that this is a form of "collective punishment" even though the man responsible has been dealt with, and that it is being seen as "a wider way to punish … even the extended family."

Israeli leader declares a 'battle for Jerusalem'

Israeli Prime Minsiter has vowed to win the "battle for Jerusalem," adding that he will "settle the score" with every terrorist. It's not the kind of language one uses when wanting to difuse a very tense and potentially violent situation.

The phrase itself carries a great deal of significance, outside of its literal suggestion that the city is in the middle of some kind of war. There have been previous "battles for Jerusalem." Here's a look at them:

There was one all the way back in 1187, when the Franks, a confederation of Germanic tribes occupying Jerusalem, surrendered to Saladin, who led the Muslims against European crusaders. Those crusaders, in reaction to the fall of Jerusalem, launched the Third Crusade. So you can see things have been complicated for a long time. 

Then there was another "battle for Jerusalem" way later in 1917. During this one, the British empire took the city from the Ottoman Empire, a Sunni Islamic sultanate. The British prime minister at the time described the taking of Jerusalem as a "Christmas present for the British people." Nice.

Okay, one more and then this very cursory history lesson is done: There was also a "battle for Jerusalem" in 1948. Tensions in Palestine had been growing ever since the last "battle for Jerusalem" in 1917, during which the Balfour Declaration first came to be. It called for making Palestine "a national home" for the Jewish people. This idea was later worked into the peace treaty with the Ottomans. Tensions got worse with the introduction of a 1947 UN plan to divide Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state and some weird third status for Jerusalem. The First Arab-Israeli War was the result of it all, as was this edition of the "battle for Jerusalem." It ended in kind of a stalemate. Jordan controlled East Jerusalem and Israel — which also declared independence in 1948 — controlled the west.

In 1967 there was another big regional conflict called the Six-Day War, which Israel won by a long shot. By the end of it, Israel had taken control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. It has occupied East Jerusalem ever since.

It remains to be seen how Netanyahu's 2014 "battle for Jerusalem" will unfold.

The next morning

The city of Jerusalem is on edge the morning after two Palestinians attacked a synagogue, killing a total of five people and injuring others. Worshipers, however, managed to return to the synagogue to pray as the sides — Palestinians and Israelis — have largely withdrawn to their respective corners.

One Arab cab driver told TIME he was avoiding the west side of the city for now. "I’m 53 years old, it’s the first time I’m really worried," he said.

Others in Jerusalem looked for a possible motive. GlobalPost's Ruth Michaelson reported that some were blaming religion, while others blamed the tension still lingering after the Israeli bombing of Gaza over the summer. Many said the attack was in response to the apparent lynching on Monday of a Palestinian bus driver.

Still others were quick — quicker than many mainstream media outlets — to remind everyone of the context. Palestinians have endured Israeli occupation in East Jerusalem, as well as an oppressive lack of rights compared to their Israeli neighbors, since 1967. As the uncle of one of the attackers put it, "They were not terrorists, they just couldn't take it anymore." 

Everyone has warned their friends and family to stay out of the wrong side of the city, which ever side that may be. 

Signing off

This live blog has been closed for Tuesday. We'll be back Wednesday morning.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders can't control the new wave of violence in Jerusalem

Gregg Carlstrom reports from Jerusalem:

Today's attack was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks in Jerusalem over the past month, which both Israeli and Palestinian leaders seem largely powerless to control. The attackers have mostly been individuals, acting without the direction of any organized group. And their motives have been increasingly religious — driven by concerns over the status of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

… A key cause of the unrest has been a series of visits by right-wing activists to the mount. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he does not plan to change the status quo there, which allows Jews to visit the site but forbids them from praying.

But Palestinians fear those promises will be short-lived. The makeup of the Israeli government is becoming increasingly religious and right-wing, and activists fear it will cave to pressure to change the status quo and limit Muslim access to the site.

Read the full story here.

Who attacked the synagogue?

There are conflicting reports on which group carried out the attack. Earlier in the day, Reuters reported that a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said the group claims responsibility for the assault on the synagogue — though the group's spokesman reportedly said it's "premature" to talk about taking the blame.

Here's a closer look at the PFLP and what it stands for:

"It's not clear at present which, if any, Palestinian militant organization was behind Tuesday's attack at an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem. … But the two men who carried it out are now believed to have ties to the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group," The Washington Post's Ishaan Tharoor writes. "The group is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and other Western countries, but its ideology has very little in common with Hamas, whose jihad against Israel has blown hot and cold over the past two decades."

Read the rest of Tharoor's piece here.

The 'silent intifada' in Jerusalem grows louder by the day

Gregg Carlstrom reported this piece for GlobalPost from Jerusalem in October. It gives some background and context to today's attack.

The press here has been talking recently of a "silent intifada": the city has been convulsed by violence for months, but most of it happens at night, bottled up inside the Palestinian districts of occupied East Jerusalem.

By Thursday afternoon, though, after two shootings and a day of clashes, the situation in Jerusalem had become anything but quiet. Thursday’s riots were sparked by the killing of Mutaz Hijazi, a Palestinian man accused of shooting a right-wing Jewish activist on Wednesday night.

A pre-dawn raid by Israeli security forces to arrest him ended in gunfire, and for much of the day his neighborhood, Abu Tor, was blanketed in tear gas as security forces fought with local youths.

The activist, Yehuda Glick, remains in stable condition at Sha’are Tzedek hospital. Just a week earlier, a Palestinian man drove his car into a crowd of passengers disembarking from the city’s light rail, killing two people, including an infant. Police killed him during a raid later that night. Both attacks offer some insight into the grievances fueling the violence in the holy city.

But while they may have escalated the violence in Jerusalem, the truth is that tensions have been rising for months.

Read on here.

Obama condemns synagogue attack

Reuters — US President Barack Obama on Tuesday condemned the attack by two Palestinians on a synagogue in Jerusalem that killed four people, including three Americans, and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to lower tensions and seek peace.

"I strongly condemn today's terrorist attack on worshipers at a synagogue in Jerusalem," Obama said in a statement. "There is and can be no justification for such attacks against innocent civilians."

"At this sensitive moment in Jerusalem, it is all the more important for Israeli and Palestinian leaders and ordinary citizens to work cooperatively together to lower tensions, reject violence, and seek a path forward towards peace," he said. Three of the victims held dual US-Israeli citizenship.

Obama identified them as Aryeh Kupinsky, Cary William Levine and Mosheh Twersky. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Obama said US Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the attacks.

"Tragically this is not the first loss of life that we have seen in recent months. Too many Israelis have died, too many Palestinians have died. And at this difficult time I think it’s important for both Palestinians and Israelis to try to work together to lower tensions," he said.

Thousands of mourners attend funeral for rabbi killed in attack

ABC News foreign editor Jon Williams shared this photo:

Stabbing in East Jerusalem

A Palestinian national has reportedly been attacked in East Jerusalem. Buzzfeed's Sheera Frenkel has the details:

Israel to demolish homes of attackers

Ofir Gendelman, spokesperson for Arab media at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, tweeted this:

Freelance journalist Gregg Carlstrom reported that the roads leading to the attackers' homes were blocked earlier:

A Palestinian bus driver was found hanged yesterday

Tensions have steadily been building in Jerusalem before today's deadly attack. 

Here's the Reuters piece on the bus driver's death:

A Palestinian bus driver was found hanged inside his vehicle on Monday, an incident Israeli police described as a suicide but which the driver's family said they believed was an attack.

The driver, 32-year-old Youssef al-Ramouni, was found dead at the start of the route he was supposed to have driven late on Sunday, in an area of Jerusalem close to Jewish settlements and Palestinian neighborhoods.

Israeli police said the evidence suggested al-Ramouni had committed suicide, but rumors quickly spread in the Palestinian media that he had been killed by Jewish assailants, fuelling tension and violence in the divided city.

Read the full story here.

Here's what's going on in Jerusalem

Sheera Frenkel, Buzzfeed's Middle East correspondent, reports:

Frenkel offers more details about the attack and the mood on the ground in her interview on MSNBC:

A look back at events leading up to the attack

The Associated Press has put together a chronology of key events in Israel-Palestine violence this year.

Here are some events from this month.

View the full timeline here.

Nov. 5: A Hamas militant slams a minivan into crowd waiting for a train in Jerusalem, killing two.

Nov. 8: Israeli police shoot and kill an Arab Israeli protester at a demonstration in northern Israel. Video indicates the man was walking away from the officer when shot.

Nov. 10: Palestinian attackers kill two Israelis in Tel Aviv and the West Bank in separate stabbing attacks.

Nov. 13: US Secretary of State John Kerry meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman; the trio agrees on steps to defuse tensions at Jerusalem holy site.

Nov. 14: Israel lifts age restriction at holy site; Friday prayers go off without incident.

Nov. 16: Police say Israeli man stabbed in the back by an "Arab" attacker in Jerusalem and wounded. Assailant escapes.

Nov. 17: Israeli government says it will step up punitive demolitions, gives notices to families of Palestinian attackers.

Nov. 18: Two Palestinians storm Jerusalem synagogue, kill four and wound six.

The victims

Worshippers killed in Jerusalem synagogue

Reuters — Two Palestinians armed with a meat cleaver and a gun killed four people in a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday before being shot dead by police, the deadliest such incident in six years in the holy city amid a surge in religious conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to respond with a "heavy hand," and again accused Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of inciting violence in Jerusalem.

Abbas condemned the attack, which comes after a month of unrest fueled in part by a dispute over Jerusalem's holiest shrine.

A worshipper at the service in the Kehillat Bnei Torah synagogue in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of West Jerusalem said about 25 people were praying when shooting broke out.

"We are viewing this as a terrorist attack," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, who confirmed the four dead and that the two assailants, both from predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, had been shot dead by police.

Israel's ambulance service said at least eight people were seriously wounded.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said it carried out the attack, which it called a "heroic operation."

"We declare full responsibility of the PFLP for the execution of this heroic operation conducted by our heroes this morning in Jerusalem," said Hani Thawbta, a PFLP leader in Gaza.

Police identified one of the dead as Rabbi Moshe Twersky, who taught at a Jerusalem seminary. Twersky was from a Hassidic rabbinical dynasty and a grandson of Joseph Soloveitchik, a renowned Boston rabbi who died in 1993.

In a statement, Abbas said: "The presidency condemns the attack on Jewish worshippers in one of their places of prayer in West Jerusalem and condemns the killing of civilians no matter who is doing it."

US Secretary of State John Kerry described the attack as an act of "pure terror."