In the past two weeks, a rash of terrorist attacks on Jews in Israel has left several seriously injured. The Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, has called upon his people to take to the streets, and has threatened to end security cooperation with Israel. Much like the wave of stabbings, car-rammings, and other low-grade attacks in 2015 and 2016, this outbreak of violence has led to speculation in the Israeli press that another intifada could be in the making. Moshe Elad argues that such a development is as unlikely as it was four years ago:

On August 9, 2001, Ahlam Tamimi and Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri traveled from the West Bank to Jerusalem, where Masri detonated himself in a Sbarro’s pizzeria, killing seven children and eight adults, and injuring scores. When the two passed through an Israeli checkpoint earlier that day, they appeared to be a young couple; had Masri been alone, police almost certainly would have stopped him and discovered the deadly bomb in his guitar case. Tamimi was arrested shortly thereafter and sentenced to life in prison. Ten years later, she was among the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners exchanged for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. She now resides in Jordan.