Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas took the first opportunity possible Wednesday to call on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to “condemn the kidnapping and murder [of an Arab youth]… as we condemned those of the three Israelis.”

Except that Mahmoud Abbas took several days to get around to his condemnation, whereas Prime Minister Netanyahu had already condemned the murder of young Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, 17, by the time Abbas was demanding that he do so.

The entire Israeli leadership, in fact, rushed to unequivocally condemn the murder, from one end of the political spectrum to the other. That, despite the fact there were quiet indications by sources that requested anonymity the killing might be connected to a blood feud, a clan war or an “honor killing.”

Nor is Abbas doing anything on his own to discourage the violence of Jerusalem Arabs, who are rioting in every neighborhood in which they live.

The young Arab teen is believed to have been kidnapped from the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina overnight Tuesday. His parents called police to report him missing at about 4:00 a.m. and his body was allegedly found in the Jerusalem forest about an hour later, at 5:00 a.m., burnt and showing other signs of violence.

The efforts by Abbas to compare the murder to the kidnapping and subsequent murder by Hamas terrorists of three Israeli teens from Gush Etzion on June 12 was obvious, as was his attempt to place the blame for the killing at the doorstep of Israeli Jews, as a “revenge attack.”

Equally clear was his determination to seek a way to halt the IDF’s continued Operation Brother’s Keeper as soldiers proceed with the intensified search for the murderers of the boys, whose bodies were laid to rest Tuesday in the Modi’in cemetery.

Abbas blamed Israel for the death of the young Arab teen, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported. He said in his statement to the WAFA news service that Israel should “take real measures” to “stop all revenge attacks.”

But Netanyahu had already referred to the killing as a “despicable murder” in public statements at the start of the day. The prime minister also spoke with Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovich, urging him to get police moving to track down Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir’s killers.

The family of Naftali Frenkel, one of the murdered Israeli teens, meanwhile, told reporters Wednesday morning there was no difference between Arab and Jewish blood.

“If the Arab youth was murdered for nationalistic reasons then this is a horrible and horrendous thing. There is no difference between [Arab] blood and [Jewish] blood,” said Yishai Frenkel, uncle of the young terrror victim. “Murder is murder. There is no forgiveness and no justification for any form of murder,” he said.

However, there are many issues that are not yet clear.

It is still not known, for instance, whether in fact the two incidents are related, according to police officials. The prime minister called on security agencies to work swiftly to track down the perpetrators and identify their motives — but Abbas has obviously ignored his words.

Netanyahu also called on all sides not to take the law into their own hands, warning that Israel is “a nation of laws and everyone must act according to the law.”

Moreover, reports have surfaced of an Arab teen who was allegedly forced into a car in Shuafat late Tuesday night. It is not yet clear who was behind the kidnapping, nor whether the teen mentioned in the report is Muhammad, or someone else.

Nor has the body that was found in the Jerusalem forest definitely been identified as that of Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir. It may belong to someone else. All these issues have yet to be clarified.

Arab terrorists hurled pipe bombs at the Jerusalem Light Rail Wednesday morning. One of the bombs exploded, but failed to injure any of the passengers. A second bomb did not detonate and was deactivated by sappers summoned to the scene by Israel Police officers.

Arabs continued throughout the morning to riot in the northern Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods of Shuafat, with violence spilling over into nearby Beit Hanina as well in response the death of a young Arab teen who was kidnapped from an Arab neighborhood in northern Jerusalem. His body, found in the Jerusalem forest at about 5:00 a.m., was burnt and showed other signs of violence, according to sources quoted by the Hebrew-language Ynet website.

Arabs in Shuafat burned tires, hurled explosives and rocks at IDF soldiers and Israel Police. They vandalized three Light Rail stations, smashing the glass and destroying the security cameras.

Authorities subsequently announced on Wednesday morning that the Jerusalem Light Rail would operate only between the Mount Herzl and the Givat Tachmoshet stops. The Beit Hanina and Shuafat stops are to be skipped until further notice.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who dragged her heels interminably on issuing a condemnation when three Israeli teens were kidnapped by Arab terrorists 19 days ago in Gush Etzion, hurried to condemn their murders after their bodies were found together in a field located in Halhul, an Arab village smack in the middle of the Palestinian Authority.

The connection was inescapable – this crime was committed by Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists, with the cooperation and collaboration of PA Arab villagers.

“We learned with profound sorrow that the bodies of the three Israeli youths who were kidnapped on 12 June in the West Bank were found on 30 June near Hebron,” read the statement released by Ashton’s representative on Tuesday. “We condemn in the strongest terms their killing. We express our sincere condolences to their families and friends and share their grief. We trust the perpetrators of this barbaric act will swiftly be brought to justice.”

Nevertheless, Ashton could not stop herself from reminding Israel to exercise caution when dealing with the PA.

“We call for restraint of all parties concerned in order not to further aggravate the fragile situation on the ground,” the statement concluded.

Four rockets from Gaza fell near two southern Kibbutzim, just before 8 AM.

No injuries or damage are reported, other than a brush fire that is being put out.

This is in addition to the other rockets launched last night.

Jordan’s safety is an Israeli national priority, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told reporters at a briefing in Berlin on Monday.

The Israeli government will do everything possible to preserve Jordanian stability, Liberman said following his meeting with Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“Jordan’s stability is a vital interest for the State of Israel,” Liberman said. “Without going into details, we will do everything to maintain the stability of Jordan.”

It was the strongest public statement of commitment made to Jordanian security by a senior Israeli official to date.

The German foreign minister concurred, adding that the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant (ISIL) – also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams or Syria (ISIS) “constitutes a serious threat to the territorial integrity of Iraq and the entire region… “Steinmeier underlined it was essential to ensure that “ISIS cannot tighten its grip [on the region] and the caliphate it declared does not turn into a center for terror and violence… We have seen from clashes in the Golan Heights how events in the region can affect the security of Israel. We must ensure that a solution is found for the internal problems in Iraq, and establish a government that will represent proportionally all communities and factions to detract support for ISIS from the Sunni population.”

Hamas political bureau terrorist chief Khaled Mashaal spoke on Monday with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu about Israel’s air strikes on Gaza’s rocket launchers.

The two men exchanged greetings for a blessed Ramadan — the Islamic holiday in which Muslims fast each day for an entire month — and then Mashaal asked Davutoglu to find a way to block Israel from attacking Gaza terrorists.

The request came on the same morning that Gaza terrorists had launched a barrage of 15 rockets at southern Israel.

Two homes were damaged and at least two local residents were treated for shock on site. Others suffered from anxiety and trauma after a 24-hour period of having to run for their shelters and safe rooms on an average of every 90 minutes due to constant rocket attacks.

All this, barely 48 hours after the Israeli city of Sderot had gone up in flames from a missile attack that struck a paint factory. The chemicals in the factory had exploded upon impact from a Qassam rocket fired by Gaza terrorists. Four residents were wounded and the factory was burned to the ground.

Israel has retaliated with surgical air strikes. Over the weekend a dozen terrorist targets were hit, including two Al Qaeda-linked members of the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant (ISIL). Both terrorists were killed.

Two Gazan rockets were launched towards the Sadot Hanegev area.

Two people were treated for shock

Two homes were lightly damaged by rocket shrapnel.