Police closed the Temple Mount for a short time Sunday morning after dozens of Arabs hurled stones at Israeli police, injuring two of them, but the rest of the city is relatively calm.

Media reported that Arabs hurled firebombs and rocks at police in predominantly Arba neighborhoods Saturday night, but there has been no repeat of the larger scale chaos that followed the kidnap-murder of a Jerusalem Arab by six Israeli hoodlums two weeks ago.

The violence and vandalism closed down the Jerusalem Light Rail system used by Jews and Arabs in northern Jerusalem, but service now has been restored, much earlier than previous estimates. Damages amounted to several million dollars.

However, the rioting Arabs managed to inflict “collective punishment” on Arab neighborhoods, where the light rail does not stop. That mean that the large majority of Jerusalem Arabs, like most in Judea and Samaria, who simply want to work and raise a family in peace, without the shenanigans of a corrupt Palestinian Authority regime, have another reason to blame fellow Arabs and not Israel for their woes.

There are approximately 250,000 Arabs in Jerusalem and about 249,000 don’t riot. This a big problem for the media establishment, which wants to promote the myth that Israel is “occupying” Jerusalem and that the Arab citizens of Israel really would prefer to give up all of their benefits from the Israeli government and medical service for the right to be subjected to the corrupt regime ruin by Mahmoud Abbas.

Twenty years of Palestinian Authority incitement against Israel and American and European Union promotion of the idea of “occupation” have educated a large part of the younger generation to hate Israel, but not enough are buying the lie to support a rebellion.

There is not much Arab love for Israel, but when they see that the propaganda has made lives even more miserable for their friends in Judea, Gaza and Samaria, there is even less fondness for the alternative.

Hamas terrorists launched a blanket of missile fire at central and southern Israel Thursday evening in an effort to penetrate the protective shield provided by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system.

The IDF meantime warned Gaza residents living near the border that it was in their best interest to evacuate the area. Operation Protective Edge is about to heat up.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spent the day on the phone with world leaders, warning that this time Israel would not end its operation until Hamas stops firing rockets at Israeli civilians. The prime minister said at a security cabinet meeting Thursday afternoon that Israel would ramp up Operation Protective Shield by nightfall.

IDF Southern Commander Sami Turgeman told journalists at a news conference Thursday the IDF would “intensify the action.” The enemy has more rockets and more of them, Turgeman explained. “More of the terrorist structure will be hit. We are preparing all the capabilities, and will utilize them as they are needed….The results Hamas finds when it comes out of hiding will surprise it.”

Meanwhile, barrages of domestic produced M75s and Syrian-made M302s were fired at the metro Jerusalem area. One landing near a Bedouin community on the outskirts of the northern Jerusalem suburb of Ma’ale Adumim.

Another barrage was aimed at the Dan region, including the cities of Bat Yam, Holon and Rishon LeZion. The Iron Dome system intercepted at least one missile fired in that direction.

Color Red rocket alert sirens wailed through the southern Hebron Hills — including the communities of Kiryat Arba, Pnei Hever, Carmel, Maon, Avigail, Susya, Yatir, Otniel, Shani, and Machane Yatir.

Missiles went flying towards the Negev cities of Be’er Sheva, Mitzpe Ramon, Dimona, Yerucham and for the first time, Arad residents headed to the shelters as well.

The Iron Dome anti-missile system activated to intercept at least one missile heading for Dimona, sources said.

The Hamas terrorist organization claimed in a statement that it had fired 10 new Iranian-made Sajl missiles in Thursday’s attacks on Israel.

The Color Red rocket alert siren activated as far east as the Ein Bokek and Tamar Regional Council district, which includes the hotel strip at the southern end of the Dead Sea, several moshavim and kibbutzim near the Jordanian border, Masada, and Kibbutz Ein Gedi.

One missile struck a home in Be’er Sheva, but the residents were safely waiting out the attack in their fortified shelter within the house and were not harmed. Another missile landed near a sports center in the city; several people were injured in that attack, according to a report broadcast on Channel 2.

A house was also hit in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council district. In Sderot, one rocket landed between two parked cars. Another struck a home in the city, which is located barely a mile from the Gaza border.

Nine rockets were fired simultaneously at targets in the Eshkol Regional Council district, close to the southern border. No one was injured in that attack.

Altogether, more than 20 missiles were fired simultaneously in the evening barrage at targets around the country.

In a separate attack, a group of 10 cows were killed and many others were hurt after a missile struck a cowshed in a moshav near Ashdod.

It’s hard to overstate the centrality of Jerusalem: Center of spirituality, the historic and spiritual capital of the Jewish people, the apple of God’s eye, the physical center of the world on ancient maps, etc.

But even more: That which occurs in and around Jerusalem directly affects the rest of the world. This was possibly never more evident than in this month’s decision by the organizers of World Expo 2015 – and the international response to it.

The decision was this: If we have to, we will erase Israel’s capital from the official Expo site – and consequently, that of all 147 participating countries as well.”

The decision was the result of a demand by anti-Israel BDS divestment campaigners who thought they could show up Israel by insisting on having its capital erased from the website. Little did they realize their efforts would boomerang against them, bringing Jerusalem’s uniqueness to the fore and showing its ability to influence world events on a comprehensive international scale.

The BDSers proudly announced that following its press release maligning Israel and Jerusalem, “the designation of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has been removed from the website for the World Expo 2015 that will take place in Milan next year.” But to their consternation, the designation of every single capital in the world would be similarly removed.

One could say, in the spirit of King Solomon and the two women who claimed the same baby, that the consent of the nations, even if begrudging, to have their own capitals removed from the Expo website indicates their deep-down realization that their own national legitimacies are bereft of meaning as long as Jerusalem is not recognized as the capital of the Jewish people.

The BDS demand that Expo2015 not specify Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was issued in a long, rambling e-mail condemning Israel for, it seemed, most of the world’s ills. Most of its points can be easily refuted. But let us first note one of the points that cannot be refuted – to the world’s disgrace: “Israel is the only country in the world that recognizes Jerusalem as its capital.”

Sadly, this is true. Even the United States has never recognized Yerushalayim as Israel’s capital – not even the city’s western parts, which have been in Israel-proper since 1949.

The U.S. Congress passed a law back in 1995 stating that “Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel,” and also that the U.S. Embassy in Israel “should be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999.” However, the law also allows the president to waive its implementation for six months if he deems it necessary for “national security” – and so far, interestingly, every U.S. president since then has deemed it necessary, every six months on the button.

The fact that the United States, of all countries, refuses to recognize Israel’s capital is more than peculiar. As the above law states, “Each sovereign nation, under international law and custom, may designate its own capital.” So why should Israel be any different?

But even more than that: The American people pride themselves on being a God-believing nation. Their founding fathers made this quite clear in their Declaration of Independence from Great Britain 240 years ago in phrases such as “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal… endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

How, then, do they continue to ignore the above law, which further states, “Jerusalem is the spiritual center of Judaism, and is also considered a holy city by the members of other religious faiths.”

The law even noted that in 1996 the state of Israel was to “celebrate the 3,000th anniversary of the Jewish presence in Jerusalem since King David’s entry.”

Arabs and Jews are spray painting respective war zone graffiti in areas of the capital this week.

In most Arab neighborhoods, one can find ‘Death to the Jews’ and a few swastikas spray-painted in Arabic and sometimes in Hebrew – even occasionally in English – on various walls and other sites.

Early Wednesday, two lines – ‘Death to Arabs’ and ‘price tag’ – were spray-painted in the center of Jerusalem as well. These lines may have been scrawled by Jews who are fed up with Arab violence and the wanton destruction throughout the capital.

Arabs have totally destroyed multiple stops of the new Jerusalem Light Rail, whose infrastructure has been demolished along the track serving neighborhoods in the periphery.

On Monday night, police were called into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Nof Tzion after numerous residents reported hearing shooting.

The neighborhood’s security chief was on duty at the time and went out with another resident to check.

They were fired on by Arabs in a passing car.

Initially, there were questions as to whether they were attacked by fireworks or bullets. But the building now how multiple bullet holes in them.

The neighborhood’s security chief fired in the air, as they believed (correctly) their lives were in danger. The Arabs drove off.

20 minutes later the police finally showed up, and instead of going after the Arab shooters, the police detained the security chief, who is a married man with children, a former special forces soldier, and has no criminal record.

The security chief was informed by the police they are detaining him for questioning for firing in a populated area.

He was taken to the police station and arrested.

In the morning, the police tried to keep him detained for 6 more days, but the Honeinu lawyer assigned to him, got the judge to conditionally release him.

The Arabs who shot at the neighborhood got away.

As Gaza terrorists rev up the missile machine and target cities in central Israel, and Israel ramps up its response in Operation Protective Edge, some residents were forced on Monday to make the run to their bomb shelters for the first time.

In Rehovot, Michal J. had already put their small children to bed and was beginning to wind down when the Color Red incoming rocket alert siren activated at 8:20 p.m.

It’s an incredibly loud sound, a rising wail, and it can be really frightening for someone who has never heard it before.

“Michal quickly rushed all the kids out of bed and down to the shelter, baby Chaya in one arm and Shloime in the other,” her husband Eli said. “They heard some distant thuds and booms and came back upstairs safe and sound,” with the two older children initially excited by the exercise, but 2-year-old Shloime “rather shaken and clingy.”

Eli arrived home from work a few minutes later, and went to relieve a friend’s babysitter who was “ordered home by her mother. What a mess!” he wrote on his Facebook page. He later added that his own older son could not fall asleep following the experience, and both older children came to their parents in the middle of the night, saying they were scared.

“This morning Shloime kept saying, over and over, ‘When we hear the noise, we go to the Miklat (shelter) and then we’re safe,” he added.

“To think that this is our family’s trauma from just one siren, when there are kids in Sderot and the surrounding area that have grown up with this their whole lives… What kind of normal country would allow her citizens to live in such terror without doing anything about it?? Is there any precedent for such a thing in world history?”

Across the country, in a Jerusalem suburb, small children in another family slept through the entire experience, but woke briefly to express annoyance at being moved from their beds. For their parents, however, it wasn’t as simple of course.

“I was out walking with the wife and we luckily stopped to talk with a neighbor a few houses away,” related Steve L. “The siren went off and we ran for our lives. As soon as we reached our house, we grabbed each kid out of various beds – we have four, ranging in age from a year to 9 – and carried them to the bomb shelter in our home.”

Steve said that he realized his children were “heavier than I remember.” As did Eli, he hit the social media when the incident was over to post about his experience.

His children, however, were “annoyed the siren woke them and that we made them switch beds. They went back to sleep.” He added that the bomb shelter “gets very hot when the window and door are closed. I was annoyed that I didn’t grab my computer too. I felt stuck there, that I couldn’t go out. But it’s not our first missile run.”

In the Gaza Belt community of Sderot, sadly, residents have endured so many rocket attacks that a fortified playground was donated to the city, where children can play safely in what is essentially a mammoth bomb shelter.

The murder of Mohammad Abu-Khdeir has shocked the Jewish nation because this is something Jews do not do.

Yes, some critics have repeatedly named the same handful of Jewish terrorists from over the past 20 years as examples of brutal acts of Jewish murder, but it’s always the same handful of names and no more, because simply put, we aren’t a nation of terrorists and murderers.

Our leaders, our rabbis, and our citizens instinctively, without coercion or outside pressure, and without waiting, condemned the murder, as we hoped and believed it could not be one of our own.

These weren’t empty words that ring hollow as some pundits claim.

These are the words of a people, that despite suffering through horrible terror attacks, and the strong, very natural desire for revenge it creates, almost always maintains the moral high ground that our society has ingrained into us through our Torah and value system.

We face an enemy that does horrible things. It’s an enemy that blows up its own children to kill us, that brainwashes its children into hating us, that publicly supports and celebrates the kidnapping and murder of innocent Jewish children.

We face an enemy that forces us to fight them to protect ourselves.

Our nation searched for the killers of the Arab boy, expending and redirecting resources we needed in the search for the terrorists who killed our own children and for fighting Hamas who continued to launch rockets on us throughout the entire ordeal.

Our nation unanimously condemned the murder, without qualifications or hesitation.

We didn’t destroy trains and infrastructure, we didn’t hand out candies in celebration, we didn’t post photos of praise on Twitter and Facebook, we didn’t provide support and succor to the killers. We won’t be giving them salaries in jail, we won’t be naming streets and schools after them, we won’t be demanding their release for peace. Our mother’s won’t be saying they are proud of them, our leaders won’t have photo-ops with them, we won’t parade them through the streets as heroes, they won’t be portrayed as role models for our children, and we won’t be painting murals of them on the walls of our schools.

The fires we lit were for memorial candles, and not firebombs.

Why?

Because, we are not the same.

We are a moral and righteous nation that has ingrained in itself the differences between right and wrong and good and evil, and we act on those moral impulses.

I look back on these past few day, and past few weeks, and despite this incomprehensible, sick hate crime committed by a few people, whom I don’t even know how to categorize, I see the Jewish nation – a moral nation, devoted to peace, to goodness, and to doing right.

And I am proud.

I believe in the Jewish People, if for no other reason than that it has consistently proved itself through the most difficult of trials.