Victim
VictimMarc Kahlberg

A group of U.S. law enforcement professionals witnessed from up close Monday what a security expert says is feebleness by Israeli security forces against Arab terror at the Mount of Olives Cemetery.

The security professionals were being shown around by Marc Kahlberg, a well-known counter-terror consultant and teacher.

Kahlberg told Arutz Sheva that the parking lot at the cemetery was almost completely empty – and that he saw this as unusual, and a possible sign that something was wrong. He took the guests to one of the balconies overlooking the valley, "and then I heard glass shattering behind me. Instinctively I went to the parking lot – and I saw that there is nobody there, no buses."

"Then I see two Jewish guys – one in his 70s, and the other in his 60s, and I see that their car has been smashed and one of them is bleeding. There were a couple of Russian tourists there and I told them to wait for the police to come."

Kahlberg said that the two men had been attacked by dozens of Arab youths when they were driving up to the cemetery. He added that he is certain that if the men had not kept on driving – they would have been lynched.

Kahlberg says the incident was an unfortunate way to end the visit to Israel by law enforcement professionals and that it put Israel's security forces in a bad light. Police were slow to respond to his call for them to come, he said, and the general atmosphere was one of feebleness. There is no permanent police presence at the holy site despite the almost routine attacks on Jews there.

"Attacks at the cemetery are ongoing and it doesn't matter how many cameras are there," he said. "There has to be something proactive over there. It needs to stop."

"When we went out there was a semi-formal police convoy escorting us," he recounted. "The Arab youths in the village were shouting at us and it was like driving through Gaza in the old days."

Kahlberg is a former Israeli police officer and spokesman.


Smashed car.
Smashed car.Marc Kahlberg


The victims.
The victims.Marc Kahlberg