The Palestinian Violence is Not Spontaneous

There were widespread “predictions” that President Trump’s decision on Jerusalem would “lead to violence.” I use the quotation marks because many of those “predictions” were actually threats. When someone in a position to stop violence “predicts” violence, he is threatening or promising that violence will occur.

Today there has been violence in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. Is it a spontaneous protest by Palestinians, or has it been fomented by the Palestinian Authority? After all, once a leader has “predicted” violence, he has a good reason to ensure that it occurs. He wants to seem prescient, not out of touch.

Here is what Avi Issacharoff, a journalist in The Times of Israel, wrote about what happened today in an article entitled “Abbas must decide how far to let the demonstrations go:”

The Palestinian Authority and Fatah are organizing the rallies in the city centers, but a key question is whether the Palestinian security services will stop demonstrators from reaching the potential flashpoints. In light of the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim consensus against US President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem, PA security may receive orders not to step in to block protesters on their way to the checkpoints, except, perhaps, to prevent the use of firearms....A very large number of people are expected to participate in protests Friday , with calls in the mosques to protect Jerusalem and the Temple Mount (or, as Trump called it, Haram al-Sharif) and nonstop broadcasting on Palestinian TV of clips showing past violence around Jerusalem.