An isolated fragment of news, a tragic story, or just another act of terrorism? What's necessary, however, is to fit events into a broader picture and so it is with the latest attack by Hamas, killing four Israelis driving near Hebron.

PART TWO

THE OTTOMAN PERIOD (1516 – 1918)

At the beginning of the Ottoman period Acre was a small and poor town. The Ottomans did not continue its reconstruction. Acre’s Jewish community was small, its members engaged in trade. At the middle of the 16th century they served as middlemen between the Galilean Jews and Europe, trading with Syria and Jerusalem. In his book, The Land of Israel and Its Settlement, Yitzhak ben Zvi brings the story of the Jewish merchant, Yeshayah HaCohen, who was harassed by the governor of Acre until he was forced to leave the city.

PART I

Jews lived in Acre continuously from the 3rd century BCE until massacred by the Byzantines in the 7th century CE. Jews returned to Acre in the 10th or 11th century, remaining there until its conquest and destruction by the Mamluk in the 13th century. Jews lived in Acre continuously from the 14th century until 1936. Jews returned to Acre since 1948.