Many announce their ‘martyrdom’ plans on Facebook

freely. Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog has published a plan to separate some East Jerusalem neighbourhoods from the rest of the capital, but it has been widely criticised both by the government and in the Israeli media, and is unlikely to receive backing from the Palestinians. Two months ago, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot admitted that since last October, the

Israeli security forces have failed to predict any of the attacks. They have nearly all been carried out by either Palestinian individuals or, at most, groups of two or three, acting without any external assistance. In other words, there is no terror infrastructure that Israel can hit.

Meanwhile, there is deep disagreement within the security establishment over more drastic measures being demanded by the government, such as the demolition of houses of terrorists — which an IDF committee ruled in 2005 did not serve as deterrence — and the deportation of their families to Gaza, which has been ruled illegal by the Attorney General.

Many Israeli security experts believe that at least part of the motivation comes from social media; many assailants announced their “martyrdom” plans on their Facebook pages. Israeli programmers are trying to develop ways of detecting such statements in advance. So far, government demands that Facebook find ways to shut down “incitement” on its network have been rebuffed by the company.

While the stabbings were taking place in Jaffa on Tuesday, US Vice President Joe Biden was dining less than a mile away with former president Shimon Peres at the Peres Peace Centre.

On Wednesday morning, Mr Biden criticised the PA for not speaking out against the attacks. “In no uncertain terms,” he said, “the US condemns the failure to condemn them.”