Explaining the mess in Israel (update)

We've been getting dozens of questions from people about the political situation in Israel. Due to my position in Israel I have access to many news sources, information that is not reported internationally among other things. I will try to explain the situation as I see it and clear up some misinformation.<br><br>The last couple of days there have been rioting in mixed cities, lynches of both Jews and Arabs, burning of synagogues and homes. <br>The reasons for these riots are far more complicated than a simple Facebook post can explain but I'll try to give a short explanation. <br><br>The main reasons for the riots are many different factors that have all come together to cause the situation we're in today. <br><br>The first reason is the Stabbing intifada. For those who don't remember, it was a wave of terror that started about 5 years ago where Palestinians stabbed Jews with scissors, knives, and screw drivers, along with car ramming and shootings. This wave of terror has never really ended but rather calmed down over the years. <br><br>The second reason is a change in the attitude of Israeli Arabs. Over the years there has been a shift in the attitude of Israeli Arabs, they have become more extreme and openly radical. The parties representing them have also become more radicalized, Balad openly identifies as a nationalist movement that opposes the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. The joint list which is the parties representing the Israeli Arabs have been calling for riots since the beginning of the conflict a week ago. <br><br>The third reason is the hopeless situation in Gaza. Gaza is, for lack of a better word, a shit hole. The people of Gaza suffer from extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure, among other things. Israel controls Gaza's sea, land, and air, due to many years of suicide bombings, shootings, and other terror attacks from inside Gaza. Since we control the crossings, bringing people and goods in and out is a long process that requires background checks from both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, this delay in bringing goods and people in and out of Gaza is a major cause of their situation. <br><br>Until a few years ago these background checks went very smoothly, the Palestinian Authority coordinated with Israel and the crossings were run efficiently, recently however, the Palestinian Authority has stopped coordinating with Israel and the crossings have slowed down significantly. The reason for this is the Work accident in which the Palestinian Authority pays all the people arrested for terror attacks in Israel, they pay their families stipends and also pay their salaries if they are in prison or in hiding. Due to the PA not paying salaries of their employees since COVID started a few years ago, they could no longer afford to pay the terrorists and their families, Israel stepped in and agreed to take the tax money collected for the PA and give it to them if they agreed to stop paying the terrorists. The PA agreed, but then realized they don't make enough money to pay everyone and started a smear campaign worldwide claiming the money Israel collects doesn't belong to us and that we are robbing the Palestinians, they stopped coordinating the crossings and things got worse for the people of Gaza.<br><br>The fourth reason is the recent events on the Temple Mount (one of the holiest sites for Jews and the holiest site for Muslims). Every Ramadan tens of thousands of Muslims come to pray on the Temple Mount, due to the COVID restrictions the police closed off the area and didn't allow many to come and pray. On the last day of Ramadan the police opened up the area and thousands came to pray. The police then closed the area again, due to the fact that people didn't obey the COVID restrictions for some reason the Palestinians decided to blame this on the far right in Israel and started the riots. <br><br>The last reason and the one that caused the conflict to erupt is the eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem. This conflict also has a long and complicated history, the conclusion of it is that the Palestinian families have been living in the houses without paying rent for decades and the owner of the houses, a Jewish family, sued them in court. The court has decided to evict them and replace them with Jewish families, this decision was what caused the Palestinians to erupt into riots.<br><br>About 5 days ago, Hamas, the terror organization that rules Gaza and is also the largest party in the Palestinian parliement, decided to launch rockets at Israel. Israel as you may know has a very advanced missile defense system called the Iron Dome, it works very well and protects us from a lot of the rockets. However, some of the rockets have been getting through and killing innocent people. People have also been injured, some critically, homes have been destroyed and the situation is very bad. <br>The Israeli army has been conducting a large scale operation in Gaza, trying to destroy as much as the terror infrastructure as possible. We've been targeting high ranking officers in Hamas, rocket launching sites, and many other things. The military has also been preparing for a ground invasion into Gaza but so far it hasn't been carried out. <br>When the military started conducting the operation in Gaza, Israeli Arabs started rioting and lynching Jews, burning synagogues, and burning homes. <br>Arabs have also been launching fireworks and other homemade explosives at Jewish cities and neighborhoods. <br><br>Now the riots have spilled over into Jewish areas, radical right wing groups have also been attacking Arabs and there has been many reports of Arabs being beaten, stabbed, and lynched. <br><br>This is the situation as I see it. <br>Israel is currently dealing with a large scale attack from Gaza, riots from Israeli Arabs, and radical right wing groups lynching and attacking Arabs. <br>It's a very complicated and delicate situation and many times the international media doesn't really report the full story but only a small part of it.<br><br>Edit: I know that this has not been stated enough in the Chambers post, but I didn't write this, I copied it word for word and posted it here for discussion.