OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Two months into a wave of stabbings, shootings and vehicle attacks by Palestinians targeting Israelis, gaps are emerging between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the military and intelligence chiefs over what is driving the violence. The rifts raise questions about whether the right tactics are being used to quell the unrest, the most sustained that Israel, occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank have experienced since the last Palestinian uprising, or intifada, ended in 2005. While there is agreement between Netanyahu, the military and the Shin Bet security agency about broad aspects of the violence — that it is being carried out by "lone-wolves" active on social media and that tensions over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem have contributed — the deeper causes are disputed. Netanyahu has repeatedly accused 80-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of directly inciting the unrest. He also describes it as a manifestation of Palestinians' hatred of Jews and unwillingness to accept Israel's right to exist. "What is driving this terrorism is opposition to Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, within any borders," he said as he left for the climate talks in Paris on Sunday. In contrast, the military and Shin Bet have tended to point to a variety of economic and sociopolitical factors that they see fueling Palestinian anger and frustration, particularly among young men and women in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. While they have criticized Abbas and his Fatah party for tacitly condoning the violence, including praising "martyrs" who have carried out stabbings, they have avoided accusing the Palestinian leader of inciting it directly. "The motivation for action is based on feelings of national, economic and personal discrimination," the Shin Bet wrote in an analysis last month. "For some of the assailants an attack provides an escape from a desperate reality they believe cannot be changed." At a cabinet meeting in November, the head of the army's intelligence division gave a similar description, leading to a row with at least one minister who was angry that the general's briefing was not in line with the government's position. The details were leaked to Israeli media and confirmed to Reuters by a source who attended the meeting.
