Fresh Tensions In Jerusalem

With Guest Host Jessica Yellin.

New violence in Jerusalem. The building battle for the Holy City.

The bloody massacre of five Israelis - four of them rabbis - inside a Jerusalem synagogue is raising tensions there to a fever pitch.  Israel's prime minister accused Palestinian leaders of inciting the violence and ordered a crackdown and demolition of the attackers’ homes. The head of the Palestinian Authority denounced the slaying, but the militant group Hamas praised it and promised more of what they called revenge operations. All this comes as Jews and Muslims battle over access to a holy site in the heart of the Old City. This hour, On Point, rising violence, diminishing hopes, and the future of a two state solution.
-- Jessica Yellin

William Booth, Jerusalem bureau chief for the Washington Post. (@boothwilliam)

Ambassador Martin Indyk, former US special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations. Former US Ambassador to Israel. Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. Author of "Innocents Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East." (@martin_indyk)

Schlomo Brom, visiting fellow at the Center for American Progress. Former deputy to Israel's National Security Adviser.

Beshara Doumani, professor of modern Middle East History and director of Middle East Studies at Brown University.

Washington Post: Jerusalem unrest propelled by Palestinian teens -- "More than 1,000 Palestinians have been detained in East Jerusalem riots since the end of the Gaza war in August, almost all of them youths, according to Israeli police. Of the more than 300 who have been charged with throwing rocks, fireworks or gasoline bottles at police, 188, or more than 60 percent, are under age 18."

Christian Science Monitor: Rabbis killed at synagogue: Religious tinge of Jerusalem crisis deepens — "Israeli officials blamed Palestinian incitement for fueling the passions with incendiary and even anti-Semitic rhetoric. Palestinian leaders, for their part, underscored the desperation of Arab Jerusalemites and frustration over Israeli policies – particularly on the Al Aqsa compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount."

New Yorker: The One-State Reality — "Rivlin is careful to point out enmity among Arabs as well as among Jews. Hamas, he says, is a nightmare for the people of Gaza above all. But in his speech at the Jerusalem conference he made it plain that he was talking mainly about his own tribe. He despairs of hate speech on the Internet, of politicians and prominent rabbis condoning anti-Arab violence and rhetoric. 'I’m not asking if we’ve forgotten how to be Jewish,' he said, 'but if we’ve forgotten how to be human.'"