Solutions?
Even if it could be outlawed, its closure would do nothing to reduce online incitement. Facebook and Twitter cannot be censored and calls to close down inflammatory websites are equally ineffective.
Likewise, calls to shoot-to-kill those carrying out stab attacks, and then punish their families by demolishing their homes, have not proven effective in the past.
At least half the Palestinians trying to stab Israelis have been shot dead with no apparent reduction in the subsequent willingness of others to carry out copycat attacks.
An IDF committee which examined house demolitions of murderers ruled them ineffective, partly because there was no lack of foreign Arab donors prepared to buy the families new, bigger homes.
Calls for the closure of the West Bank, a method often used in the past, have also been turned down so far. One reason is that security officials believe the fact that 47,000 Palestinians are currently allowed to enter Israel to work every day has created a powerful financial incentive against more widespread violence. That incentive would disappear if a closure was imposed.
Nearly all the perpetrators so far have been from East Jerusalem, an area that would not be affected by a closure.
On Tuesday, following the bus attack in south-east Jerusalem, Mayor Nir Barkat called for a lockdown on the city’s Palestinian neighbourhood. Such a drastic step is operationally next to impossible, owing to the proximity of the Jewish and Arab neighbourhoods — in some cases they are on adjacent streets. It would also officially split the “unified city” into two, a political taboo.
For now most police and Shin Bet officers say there is little to do but increase the number of police on the streets and civilian vigilance — and hope things will finally die down soon.