Israel has been gearing up for a two-week-long perfect storm: the convergence of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan (beginning April 2), the Palestinian observance of Land Day March 31, a day of protests over land expropriation, and the Jewish holiday of Passover, which falls this year on April 15.

Israeli security forces and political leaders have drawn up appropriate responses for the upcoming dates. Defense Minister Benny Gantz prepared an extensive package of incentives and benefits for the Palestinian Authority that includes construction permits for Palestinian homes in the West Bank, money transfers and additional Israeli work permits for Palestinian laborers. The military has been instructed to suspend all demolitions of illegally built Palestinian and Arab housing, avoid provocative actions and try to limit friction with residents to the extent possible. Similar guidelines were drawn up with regard to extremist groups of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

The blow came from an unexpected direction. In the afternoon of March 22, Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an set out from his home intent on murdering as many Jewish Israelis  as possible in the city of Beersheba. Armed with a car and a knife, he began his rampage by running over a bicycle rider, drove to a nearby gas station and stabbed a customer to death, proceeded to a nearby shopping center where he stabbed to death another man and woman and wounded two other people. He was shot to death by an armed bus driver, stopping the eight-minute killing spree. A bigger surprise awaited police and Shin Bet security agents: It turned out the killer was an Israeli citizen from the nearby Bedouin town of Hura — a former school teacher, no less. The second surprise was his affiliation: not Hamas nor Islamic Jihad, but the Islamic State organization.

The terror attack, one of Israel's worst in years, took security forces by complete surprise. The Shin Bet, police and army had been focused on preventing attacks from the Gaza Strip and Hamas' efforts to stir unrest in the West Bank and east Jerusalem ahead of Ramadan. No one thought of IS at all — Israel recently boasted of the clandestine role it played in defeating the Islamist organization. Former army chief Lt. Gen. (res.) Gadi Eizenkot told the Maariv newspaper in late January that the Israel Defense Forces had attacked IS targets throughout the Middle East, killing hundreds of its activists, wounding thousands and pulverizing much of the organization’s infrastructure. But it is now clear that while Israel helped bring down the radical organization throughout the region, it neglected to destroy its presence within Israel.