Most significant events in history can be traced back to a particular starting point only in hindsight. But as acts of Arab violence – both in rhetoric and in very brutal action – are beginning to accumulate, it may be time to face up to this bit of historic reality: a year after the emergence of the “Arab Spring,” we may be looking at the rise of the Third Intifada.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been treated to a growing number of news reports of a brewing Arab anti-Jewish campaign, culminating today in a story that could be plucked out of a town in the Pale of Settlement in Russia. The fact that the two Jewish victims of this pogrom are IDF soldiers brings home a disturbing sense of trepidation.

Around 2:00 a.m. Saturday, outside Rambam hospital in downtown Haifa, two IDF soldiers in civilian clothes were approached by a car full of Arab-Israeli men.

One of the soldiers told Channel 2 News: “Two cars stopped across the street, an Arab came out of one car with a crowbar and started shouting ‘Jews Jews,’ then they all started chasing us to beat us. Then everyone grabbed me on the floor and kicked me in the head, and then I fainted.

“I was half unconscious, one of them grabbed my head by the face, and was shouting, ‘Jew Jew,’ and I felt something being engraved on my head,” the soldier said, adding: “I felt engravings and then I fainted.”

The other soldier recounted: “We came to the ER, a car suddenly stopped with this Arab rushing out and coming towards us with a bat. I looked back and suddenly he started shouting ‘Jews Jews,’ I did not understand what was happening. I looked at my friend and he told me, ‘Run, run fast, run away.’ We began to run, but of course it didn’t help.”

According to the uncle of one of the soldiers, speaking to Ynet, the soldiers attempted to escape in different directions, at which point about 20 attackers ganged up on his nephew. “One of the attackers pounded my nephew’s head against the ground and engraved his head with a knife,” he described.

One of the soldiers told Channel 2 News: “I had the feeling of death. I said – this is the day I died.”

“I don’t know where they came from,” the soldier continued, “They started chasing us with the cars. More than a dozen Arabs went just after me, sitting right on me, beating me with sticks and stones, stones in the face. I protected my face with my hands, and they were swearing and spitting, “Stinking Jew, stinking Jew.”

Police detained four suspects on suspicion of taking part in the assault and expect to make more arrests.

WHO STARTED IT?

The current upheaval began with a speech by the Mufti of Jerusalem. Indeed, since 1921, so many Arab pogroms have started with some great Mufti of Jerusalem innocently citing the Holy Quran, we may want to reassess the job description for that exalted post.

In January, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, who was appointed by Mahmoud Abbas in 2006, said (we paraphrase, adding some historic context): “Forty-seven years ago the revolution started. Which revolution? The modern revolution of the Palestinian people’s history. In fact, Palestine in its entirety is a revolution, since Caliph Umar came to conquer Jerusalem in the year 637, and continuing today, and until the End of Days.”

And then, as Grand Muftis tend to do when they seek to launch a major pogrom, the great man quipped, carefully insisting that he is merely citing holy verses:

“The reliable Hadith, in the two reliable collections, Bukhari and Muslim, says: ‘The Hour of Resurrection will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: ‘O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’ Except the Wolfberry tree, which will keep silent.’ Therefore it is no wonder that you see Wolfberry trees surrounding the Israeli settlements and colonies.”

Palestine Today reported that Hussein then told Arabs and Muslims to protect Al-Aqsa before it is ruined by the Jews. According to Hussein, Israel is trying to destroy Al-Aqsa in a variety of ways and that all the violations “cannot be summed up in words.” As he has done in the past, Hussein accused Israel of attempting to eliminate the Islamic history and culture of Jerusalem.

For instance, the Mufti and other Palestinian men of the cloth alleged that Israel is using chemicals to corrode the foundation of the Al Aqsa Mosque and to build more tunnels under it. The chemicals are supposedly maximizing the speed at which Israel can drill those tunnels. And Israel is destroying the foundation to prepare for the mosque’s demolition and the building of the Temple. (© 2012 JewishPress. 02/26/12)