A year after the start of the terror wave and on the eve of the Jewish holidays, the attacks are back with a vengeance, exactly as predicted by military intelligence. If they continue, the already existing tension between the army and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman will increase. His conduct nowadays is reminiscent of his behavior just before Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.

While violence returned this week to the streets of East Jerusalem and the checkpoints of Hebron, the army’s general staff, regional commands and divisional headquarters were occupied with an extensive general staff war exercise. Last Thursday the exercise administrators, commanded by Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman, presented the core features of the scenario to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and other generals. The exercise consisted of a scenario in the occupied territories: a violent outbreak on the West Bank rapidly deteriorates into a confrontation with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and from there to another front, with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This time reality competed with the reports being transmitted by the administrators of the training exercise. The first stabbing occurred on Friday morning in Hebron. By Tuesday there were seven stabbings, one attempted stabbing and one car ramming, in Hebron, the Etzion Bloc and East Jerusalem. Five members of the security forces were wounded in these incidents and seven Palestinians were killed, all of them assailants.

Read the full article at Haaretz.