- JERUSALEM: Arsonists torched a Jerusalem mosque early Wednesday, provoking calls in Israel for a more effective crackdown on Jewish extremists suspected in a string of increasingly brazen acts of violence.
The Israeli government has vowed to root out and punish the assailants, who in recent months have expanded their actions from the West Bank into Israel proper. Their acts now include arson and vandalism against Israeli military bases as well as mosques, Muslim cemeteries, farmlands and cars, and occasional assaults on Palestinian civilians.
But the increasing frequency of the attacks, the few arrests and absence of indictments have also generated allegations that the Israeli government isn't acting forcefully enough against extremists after two years of violence.
An attack on a Muslim site in Jerusalem — the contested holy city at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — raises the stakes further.
The mosque has not been used as a prayer site for some time, police said, and is outside the especially sensitive Old City district. But any attack on a Muslim place of worship is seen as an exceptional provocation.
The words "price tag" were spray-painted at the mosque — a reference to Jewish extremists' practice of exacting retribution for government action against settlements. Anti-Muslim graffiti was also scrawled at the scene.