Terrorist Attack on Jerusalem Synagogue Leaves 7 Dead

Jerusalem’s worst terror attack since 2008 is the latest sign of a growing wave of violence and conflict sweeping across the globe.

“Are we headed toward a ‘polycrisis’?” asked the liberal media outlet Vox of its readers yesterday.

The word, we are told, was the “buzzword of the moment” in Davos this year — as if escalating military conflicts in multiple theaters around the world were this season’s hottest new fashion trend.

The word may be novel, but it hardly needs a lengthy explainer. Anyone with internet access and five minutes to spare can learn all they can stand to know about our current state of geopolitical “polycrisis”.

The February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin sent the world into a haze of shock from which we may not have yet emerged. It is still amazing to many news consumers that World War III, which wasn’t even a whisper on the wind two years ago, is looming as an all too real possibility in 2023.

As the Ukraine/Russia conflict nears the year mark, an increasingly desperate Vladimir Putin is looking in askance at Ukraine's allies like the United States and Germany.

From material support to advanced weapons defense systems to tanks; Ukraine wants fighter jets next. Germany has thus far said no. The U.S. is said to be considering the proposal.

How much support can Ukraine’s allies give the floundering nation without provoking Vladimir Putin into escalating the conflict? No one knows.

Meanwhile, tensions are rising in the South China Sea between the Chinese Communist Party and the sovereign government of Taiwan. The CCP considers Taiwan part of its “One China” directive. Taiwan’s democratically-elected officials feel differently.

CCP head Xi Jinping and members of his administration have long promised to “reunify” Taiwan with China, by force if necessary.

As Chinese fighter jets continue to test the limits of Taiwanese air space in 2023 — upping the ante all the time — and the People Liberation Army ramps up “training exercises” ever closer to Taiwan, foreign policy experts and military leaders are warning the U.S. to prepare for China to invade Taiwan.

The Chinese Communist Party has also been engaging in information warfare strategies against Taiwan in recent years, just as Russia did with Ukraine prior to launching a full-scale military invasion. Hacking, infrastructure attacks, propaganda campaigns, ideological capture, and election interference are only a few of the best-known methods by which the CCP has been undermining Taiwan’s sovereignty.

If the CCP achieves ultimate success through these methods, a full-scale invasion might never be necessary. As it did in Hong Kong, the CCP may be able to quash Taiwanese sovereignty proponents, by fair means or foul, and install a “One China”-friendly government.

It is illegal to even run as a pro-democracy candidate in Hong Kong today.

Of course, the CCP had Covid19 lockdowns to aid in its forcible annexing of Hong Kong. Lockdowns, ostensibly for the purposes of public safety, effectively destroyed the massive pro-democracy protests better than tanks might have done.

And with far less backlash from the international community.

The Chinese Communist Party, like Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, might not have as easy a time in Taiwan as it might expect. The political situations in Taiwan and Hong Kong are very different.

What will happen to the world economy, trade routes, and geopolitical tensions should China invade Taiwan?

The short answer seems to be, “nothing good.”

Companies from Apple and beyond are furiously working to diversify their manufacturing holdings but the reality of 2023 is undeniable and simple: The world is dependent on Chinese manufacturing.

Countries like the U.S. lost the ability to manufacture their own essentials at home decades ago. A glut of globalization without appropriate regulation saw to that eventuality.

Should Xi Jinping choose 2023, or 2024 to move against Taiwan, it’s unclear how much leverage Western nations would really have over China. As in the situation with Germany’s over-dependence on cheap Russian energy products, attempts to sanction China might have unintended, and disastrous, consequences.

In the Middle East, the “polycrisis” level is ratcheting up by the day.

Iran, unfettered from even the poor fetter of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, has been saber-rattling in the region worse than ever. Iran’s government continues to sponsor so much terrorism throughout the Middle East that more and more nations have been normalizing ties with Israel in recent years.

Willing to shelve the Palestinian conflict, Middle Eastern countries like Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco have — with the tacit approval of regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia — forged new alliances with Israel, banding together for mutual protection, trade, and regional security in the face of the growing threat posed by Iran and its proxies.

Some of Iran’s terror proxies, of course, reside in the West Bank.

Iran has a vested interest in keeping Middle Eastern nations as far as possible from Israel. With that goal in mind, Iran funds terrorist operations against Israel, hoping to provoke Israel into overreacting and alienating its new allies.

The terror attacks against Israel have certainly been increasing in recent days.

In the deadliest Palestinian terror attack since 2008, a gunman murdered 7 people near a Jerusalem synagogue on Friday.

“According to Channel 12 news, the terrorist first shot an elderly woman in the street, then encountered a motorcycle rider and shot him, before reaching the Ateret Avraham synagogue and opening fire at people outside,” reported the Times of Israel.

The terrorist attack coincided with the largest joint military exercise between Israeli and U.S. forces in history.

Days before, Israeli military forces conducted a raid on a terror cell being operated by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, killing 9 people and wounding 20.

After that action, the Palestinian Authority announced it would be cutting security ties with Israel, a move roundly condemned by the Biden Administration as, “not the right decision.”

“We don’t think this is the right step to take at this moment,” the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs told reporters on January 26, 2023. “Far from stepping back on security coordination, we believe it's quite important that the parties retain, and if anything, deepen security coordination.”

In the midst of this growing turmoil and escalating conflict, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has traveled to Israel to meet with leaders and discuss regional concerns about mounting violence.

Even as he did, Israel was the victim of yet another terror attack.

“A 13-year old Palestinian gunman opened fire in east Jerusalem on Saturday, wounding at least two people less than a day after another attacker killed seven outside a synagogue there in the deadliest attack in the city since 2008,” reported MSN.

Religious leaders have been calling for peace as the world mourns these latest innocent victims of violence.

Will 2023 see these regional flare-ups die away? Or will 2023 herald deepening conflicts, and more terror, across the globe?

(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)