Just moments after the Jan. 8 terror attack in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was already able to state categorically, “We know the identity of the attacker, and according to all the signs he is a supporter of Islamic State [IS].” The blood of the four dead and 17 wounded had not even dried when he declared with certitude, “This is part of the same pattern inspired by Islamic State, by ISIS, that we saw first in France, then in Germany and now in Jerusalem.”

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman also knew right away, stating, “What we have before us is a terror attack purely at the instigation of IS. … We saw it in France, we saw it in Berlin and unfortunately we saw it today in Jerusalem.” The defense minister asserted with total confidence, “It’s clear that there was only one reason for this cruel terror attack — because we are Jews and we’re living here in the State of Israel.”

With a barely disguised dig at Israel’s political left wing — where would we be without them? — Liberman said there is no point in seeking the motive of the truck driver, Fadi al-Qanbar, in 50 years of Israeli occupation or, as he put it, “in the settlement of Jews.” The defense minister knew already with certainty that such attacks are in no way linked to an absence of diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. That is exactly the point of instantly attributing the terror attack to IS: Liberman and Netanyahu wish to sever any link between Palestinian terrorism and Israel’s occupation and settlements and instead plant terrorism in the Israeli consciousness as a type of global “natural disaster” unrelated to Israeli policy.

Police Chief Roni Alsheich backed up the two senior politicians. In his diagnosis, he offered, “It’s safe to assume that waves of international Islamist terrorism are continuing.” The commissioner, tasked with solving crime, not with geopolitical analysis, nonetheless appeared to have noticed that the prime minister had skipped an important part of his instinctive Pavlovian reaction to terror attacks and was quick to fill in the blanks, stating, “Once again, incitement is everywhere, especially in the Palestinian media.”