In efforts to explain the Jerusalem synagogue massacre, left-leaning commentators refer to “Jewish provocation” and a so-called “cycle of violence” involving both sides. They cite the destruction in this summer’s Gaza War –a conflict that only began in response to incessant Hamas rocket attacks, and ended as soon as those attacks stopped.

Apologists also note struggles over “prayer rights” on the Temple Mount site that’s sacred to both Jews and Muslims, without acknowledgment that Muslims pray there freely while Christian and Jewish prayer remains strictly prohibited. Prime Minister Netanyahu recently reaffirmed that status quo, and never threatened to disrupt it.

Finally, those who justify terror denounce Israeli plans to build homes on contested land, never recognizing that Israel recently approved only expansion of long-existing communities and hasn’t authorized any dislocation of Palestinians. The complaints about Israel not only fail to justify suicidal mass-murder but in their particulars aren’t even vaguely true.