Ahmed Manasra, the 13-year-old Palestinian terrorist who was declared dead by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Photo: Twitter.

Fifteen-year old Helena Rapp woke up to another sunny day in her hometown of the Israeli city of Bat-Yam. It was 7:30 am when she was walking to the bus stop by her home, traveling to school, as she did every morning. But on that morning, she did not make it to school. An 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist, Fouad Abd El Hani, got to her first and stabbed her to death with a knife. This murder took place on May 24, 1992. The attack shocked the Israeli public, and was a prominent one — in a series of such attacks — at the time.

And here we are again, 23 years later.

In recent weeks, Palestinian terrorists — many below the age of 25 — have taken to the streets of Israel to commit a series of attacks against innocent civilians, using knives, cars, axes and other means of extreme cruelty. These attacks have claimed the lives of nine Israelis so far and injured almost 100. One such incident included two young Palestinians, aged 13(!) and 15(!), who stabbed a 13 year-old Jewish boy 15(!!) times, as he made his way out of a local grocery store, riding his bicycle home.

Are we doomed to live our lives between one cycle of violence and the next?!

On the political front, Israelis are hearing the same old tune coming from some members of the international community and the media, blaming Israeli “settlement activity” for this unacceptable violence (as if there ever is any justification to murder another human being just because you happen to disagree with them). It’s time to say with a clear voice: enough is enough. For too long, the specter of “settlements” ruled the dome, thus preventing — yes, preventing — any serious discussion on matters that actually matter.

Looking at Israel’s history over the last few decades, its clear that settlements are far from being the real bone of contention between Israelis and Palestinians. Whenever Israel’s leadership saw a chance for peace, Israel seized it and tried to make the most out of it, even if it meant evacuating territory. This is what happened when Menachem Begin signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, which included an Israeli agreement for a full withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and the evacuation of more than 7,000 Israelis living there at the time.

In 2005, Israel — on its own initiative — decided to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza and from several settlements in the northern West Bank, removing thousands of Israelis in the hope that Palestinians would fill the void with a viable, legitimate state that could be at peace with Israel. This, unfortunately, did not happen. It was actually the exact opposite. Instead of using this opportunity to launch peace, Gaza has become a launch pad for missiles and tunnels targeting innocent civilians. The lesson to Israelis was clear: Palestinians are not ready for peace. Not just yet.

The international fixation on settlements has seriously damaged the prospects of real peace between Israel and the Palestinians, first and foremost because it has allowed the world to overlook the core issues of education and incitement. We have lost more than 20 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords by ignoring the horrible incitement and hatred taught to many Palestinian children over those years. The methods are diverse: poems, TV shows, extensive social media brainwashing, theatre plays, and even children’s TV shows and cartoons, all used to foster more and more generations of hatred, which brings us exactly to where we are today: young Palestinians who were brought up to view Jews as subhumans, and hence find themselves able — without any moral dilemma or conscience — to axe a 60 year old Jew to death at a bus stop, simply because he was Jewish.

It is time to re-shift the focus, but I realize this is not an easy task. It is much easier for a politician to speak of “settlements” –a “consensus issue” whose solution could come about in the course of a term or two — thus allowing the leaders to reap the benefits of “peace” while still in office. But the harsh truth is that this is a mirage. A delusion. A distraction. Education, on the other hand, might take much more effort, and, yes, it might even take more than a politician’s term to solve, but it is the heart and soul of the problem; avoiding dealing with it is tantamount to treating cancer by taking Tylenol. If we truly want to put an end to violence, it’s time we get serious and put our efforts and attention where it is truly needed.

Lets put an end to incitement. We can do it.

There is really no more time to waste.

This article was originally published by The Huffington Post.