November 18, 2014

Two men armed with a pistol and meat cleavers attacked Orthodox Jews in a synagogue in West Jerusalem this morning. Four rabbis were killed and eight others injured before police shot and killed the Palestinian attackers. Three of the four victims were United States citizens. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem are at a fever pitch. Six people–including a baby, a soldier and a border police officer–have been killed in recent weeks in violence connected to the revival of an ancient dispute over rights of worship at a site within the walls of the Old City.

The areas in Jerusalem under contention are in the Old City. (World Book map)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to lift restrictions on Jews praying at the Jerusalem site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. The site, which Muslims regard as sacred, includes the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the Dome of the Rock. Pushing back against right-wing Cabinet ministers and members of the Knesset, Netanyahu insisted that there will be no change in the status quo regarding the historic site of the ancient Jewish First and Second Temples. (The First Temple, built by Solomon, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 B.C.; the Second Temple, built by Herod the Great, was destroyed by the Roman Emperor Titus in A.D. 70.)

Under longstanding arrangements for the site’s administration, Jews and Christians are allowed to visit but not to pray. Demands by Jewish extremists for greater access to the site are blamed by both Israelis and Palestinians for the upswing in violent confrontations. As a security measure, Israeli police currently bar male Muslim worshipers under the age of 50 from entering the compound.

September 27, 2012

United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced yesterday that U.S. intelligence officials have uncovered an explicit link between al-Qa`ida terrorist groups in North Africa and the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. That attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the ambassador, Chris Stevens.

Secretary Clinton’s announcement was made at a special United Nations meeting on the current crisis in northern Mali, which has been overrun by Islamic extremists. According to the secretary, the extremists are allowing al-Qa’ida cells to operate out of Mali. “Now, with a larger safe haven and increased freedom to maneuver, terrorists are seeking to extend their reach and their networks in multiple directions,” she informed world leaders attending the meeting. “And they are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions under way in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi.” Intelligence officials have reported that al-Qa’ida cells are also operating in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and possibly Pakistan.

Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of state of the United States in 2009. Prior to taking the post, Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, had represented New York in the United States Senate. (U.S. Department of State)

Sept. 11, 2012, was the 11th anniversary of the al-Qa’ida terrorist attacks on the United States that resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. At that time,  al-Qa`ida was an Afghanistan-based terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden. After hijacking four commercial airliners, the terrorists flew two jets into the World Trade Center twin towers, which subsequently collapsed. Terrorists crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon, the U.S. armed services headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The attackers in the fourth airliner were overtaken by passengers, preventing them from crashing the plane into another Washington, D.C., landmark, possibly the White House or Capitol. The jet went down in an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard. The September 11 terrorist attacks prompted the administration of President George W. Bush to send forces into Afghanistan in October 2001 to clean out terrorist camps. That war continues in 2012.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan War
• Arab Spring
• National September 11 Memorial and Museum
• Afghanistan 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• New York City 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Washington, D.C. 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)
• Passport to Reform: The INS and Homeland Security (a special report)