Anshel Pfeffer: Synagogue attack sets deadly precedent

Haaretz journalist, Anshel Pfeffer wrote in a column today:

"Israelis visiting synagogues in Western Europe for the first time are often astonished by the level of security [...] In Israel, however, the scene of a plethora of attacks and suicide bombings over the decades, synagogues have not been protected to the same extent as, say, shopping malls and schools [...]

"Incredible as it may sound, Tuesday morning's terror attack [...] was the first of its kind in living memory on a local synagogue. There was of course the 2008 attack on the Merkaz Harav yeshiva, which technically also served as a synagogue, not far from today's murder scene. In that attack, eight students were murdered.

"In Tuesday morning's attack, one of the terrorists was apparently acquainted with the targeted synagogue as he worked at an adjacent grocery shop. He would have known that at 7 am the synagogue would be crowded, allowing him and his accomplice to quickly move between congregants, hacking away at the worshippers.

"The suicide bombers who attacked Israelis relentlessly during the Second Intifada came from towns and refugee camps in the West Bank, and in many cases had not previously visited the locations they targeted. In light of this, the masterminds behind these attacks instructed the suicide bombers to blow themselves up at easily accessible targets in central locations such as on buses and in restaurants and shops.

"Recent attacks in Jerusalem, including the spate of vehicular attacks and the shooting of Yehuda Glick, have all been perpetrated by residents of Jerusalem's Palestinian neighborhoods. They were all young men with blue Israeli ID cards who worked near their chosen targets and knew the areas well."