by Stephen Lendman

Violence begets violence. Israel willfully instigates it, brutally persecuting Palestinians daily. People take only so much before reacting - expressing justifiable anger and frustration.

Israel responds as expected - viciously unleashing indiscriminate state terror, collective punishment, war on defenseless civilians.

The latest after a Palestinian killed two Israelis and injured two others, including a two-year-old infant. The attack occurred in Jerusalem’s Old City. Police shot and killed the alleged perpetrator, 19-year-old Mohammad Shafiq Halabi, then went on a rampage - assaulting innocent Palestinian shop owners, forcing them to shut down, closing off East Jerusalem, restricting movement in and out of the city, setting up numerous checkpoint to harass and likely commit more violence, assuring more of it in return.

Recent incidents of Israeli security forces desecrating the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, justifiably enraged Palestinians - including prohibiting men under age 50 from entering the compound.

On Saturday, senior Hamas official Mahmud Zahar said “(t)he only solution to defend the Al-Aqsa mosque and to prevent Israelis from carrying out their plans there is for West Bank and Jerusalem residents to take up arms (and) defend” it.

Throughout the weekend, hundreds of Israeli soldiers raided West Bank neighborhoods, breaking into homes pre-dawn, ransacking them, making indiscriminate arrests, injuring innocent victims with live fire and beatings - continuing a search for the killer of two settlers Thursday night.

Free societies don’t operate this way. They conduct police investigations when murders or other crimes are committed. No soldiers involved. No terrorizing entire communities.

No indiscriminate use of live fire, beatings and mass arrests with no evidence. No declaring innocent suspects guilty by accusation. No brutalizing them in detention - to confess or provide information about others they likely don’t have.

No demolishing family homes on suspicion one of its members committed a crime. No persecuting an entire population for not being Jewish.

Israeli terror attacks continue. On Sunday, soldiers and Zionist zealots assaulted dozens of Palestinians viciously, destroying property, leaving many wounded, and making numerous arrests.

Medical workers trying to help injured Palestinians were attacked. The Silwan Wadi Hilweh Information Center (Silwanic) reported dozens of extremist settlers rampaging against Wadi Hilweh Palestinian homes.

Soldiers joined them, invading the neighborhood, indiscriminately firing tear gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades against defenseless Palestinians, injuring nearly 20 victims.

Wadi Hilweh was sealed off. Soldiers rampaged through the neighborhood, continuing indiscriminate violence, including use of live fire.

The same pattern repeated in numerous other Palestinian communities. East Jerusalem is a battleground - in response to two Thursday killings, automatically blaming Palestinians without evidence, and the latest Saturday incident, killing two more Israelis.

An entire city is on lockdown, its entire Arab population terrorized. Washington, other Western nations and rogue regional states are complicit through silence - failing to condemn Israel’s latest outrage, turning a blind eye to soldiers, militarized police and Zionist zealots brutalizing Palestinians indiscriminately.

State terror is longstanding Israeli policy, more vicious than ever under Netanyahu - a ruthless thug masquerading as a legitimate leader, heading a fascist police state.

The longer this continues, the more likely a Third Intifada will erupt. If anything like the last one, Israeli mass murder will follow.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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