This week President Trump can stand before the world community, next to one of America’s greatest allies, and provide concrete evidence of terror attacks that have been widely ignored by mass media.
President Trump will host Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at The White House for the first time on Wednesday. This is an opportunity to bring evidence to life, to honor the victims that have lost their lives too soon or whom have been terrorized by radical Islam in the Jewish Democratic State — including American victims.
By continuing to ignore the "Wave of Terror," as Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) calls the last seventeen months, the media and political influencers in the U.S. do a disservice to western society’s shared fight against radicalism, extremism, and terror writ-large. The Palestinian’s usage of "popular uprisings" and terror as a political tool needs to end on February 15.
The faces and names of Israelis, Americans, and Israeli-Americans lost to terror should be shared on the day Trump and Netanyahu meet in Washington.
The story of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a 13 year old Jewish girl and an American citizen who was murdered in her sleep, in her own bed, by a Palestinian terrorist stabbing attack in June 2016 should be shared and her name should never be forgotten. Vanderbilt University student and U.S. Army veteran Taylor Force, visiting Israel on a school trip in March 2016 — during the same time that Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel — was murdered by a stabbing attack by a Palestinian in Jaffa. His name should never be forgotten.
President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu can make sure that these Americans’ names are never forgotten and that Israel is empowered to protect her citizens and visitors to the country against future acts of terror. They can make sure that the world knows about the "Wave of Terror" and that some of Israel’s counterterrorism policies are in response to and not a cause of this terror.
Official Israeli government data over the last six months, let alone that of the last seventeen, highlights hundreds of terror attacks that went underreported or unreported in America, including:
January 2017: three stabbings or attempted stabbings, nine shootings, two vehicle ramming attacks, nine roadside bombs/grenades, 293 stone-throwing attacks, 44 Molotov cocktail attacks.
December 2016: 258 total attacks including six stabbings or attempted stabbings, eight shootings, one vehicle ramming attack, five roadside bombs/grenades, 199 stone-throwing attacks, 27 Molotov cocktail attacks.
November 2016: 423 total attacks including five stabbings or attempted stabbings, two shootings, 12 roadside bombs/grenades, 346 stone-throwing attacks, 41 Molotov cocktail attacks.
October 2016: 410 total attacks including six stabbings or attempted stabbings, 10 shootings, one vehicle ramming attack, 10 roadside bombs/grenades; 265 stone-throwing attacks, 71 Molotov cocktail attacks.
September 2016: 480 total attacks including 14 stabbings or attempted stabbings, three shootings; one vehicle ramming attack, 11 roadside bombs/grenades, 365 stone-throwing attacks, 63 Molotov cocktail attacks.
August 2016: 414 total attacks including five stabbings and attempted stabbings, three shootings, nine pipe/roadside bombs, 339 stone-throwing attacks, 34 Molotov cocktail attacks.
These attacks were not done because of disputed territories and settlement building. They were done because of incitement by Palestinian leaders and the child abuse that occurs in Palestinian society that teaches their kids to hate Jews and Israelis at a young age, rather than coexistence.
In an abstract way, Americans have heard of the "Stabifada."
In a direct way, we watched the horrendous scenes from Jerusalem last month on our TVs and we read it in our newspapers where a terrorist turned a truck into a weapon — killing four young Israelis and injuring 11 more.
We recall seeing the aftermath and security footage from the Palestinian cousins who ordered dessert at Max Brenner in the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv before taking out their guns to murder four people and scar many others physically and emotionally in June 2016.
These are just some examples of the hundreds of terror attacks in Israel that did get coverage in American media, but so many others come with a deafening silence in our nightly news broadcast.
Jason Langsner is an active member of the American Jewish professional community. Langsner formerly ran the digital strategy for B'nai B'rith International, the Global Voice of the Jewish Community, and participated in the Israel Diplomatic Fellowship program at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. He has been featured in The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, the Israel Video Network, Washington Jewish Week, eJewishPhilanthropy.com, and other publications. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.