When Aharon Hershler was assassinated, the first casualty in the struggle for Israel, ISIS did not yet exist, nor did Hamas.
Even the Zionist movement, let alone the State of Israel, and no one has yet made claims about discrimination and occupation.
Hershler was murdered on January 5, 1873, almost 150 years ago, while smuggling rioters into his home in the Mishkenot Sha'ananim neighborhood, the first Jewish neighborhood to be established outside the walls of Jerusalem.
It turns out that even then someone saw this as an illegitimate settlement, since what do Jews have to look for outside the Jewish quarter in the city.
And even then someone claimed that the livelihoods of the Arabs of the village of Silwan had been harmed, hence their desire to repay and rob.
Since then, we have been accustomed to looking for signs of terrorist attacks and murders.
Each of these has its own time, season, day or date.
Once with the arrival of summer and once with the rain, when the peasants are no longer preoccupied with tillage.
Once when the month of Ramadan comes, and once when Eid al-Fitr arrives.
Once on the day of the establishment of the state, which the Palestinians call Nakba Day, and once to mark the Arab defeat in the Six Day War (Asset Day).
Every attack also has someone behind it.
Once a lone threat, once a local youth organization and once an organization such as ISIS or Islamic Jihad.
And for every attack a convincing explanation as to the immediate background in fact.
Once angry at the ascent of one Israeli leader or another to the Temple Mount, and once at Hamas' desire to put pressure on Israel to ease the blockade it imposes on the Gaza Strip, and once at a desire to earn points in the struggle against rival organizations.
In the discussion we have about the motives for the attacks, it is important in the effort to prepare to prevent the next attack.
But in all explanations there is no answer that goes to the root of the problem.
It is, quite simply, an ongoing struggle for the land for more than 150 years.
A struggle between Jews who seek to settle in the land and establish and maintain a state there, and those who deny this right and seek to destroy their enterprise.
Will you ever eat a sword?
In this generational struggle there are ups and downs, and there are also victories and achievements.
Thousands have fallen in the wars we have waged with Egypt, and here, since a peace agreement was signed with it over forty years ago, there has been complete silence along the border.
The vast majority of Israeli Arabs get up every morning for work, study and integration into the life of the country.
Finally, the IDF has repeatedly succeeded in preventing terrorist attacks from Judea and Samaria.
But the coals that fuel the bloody conflict are still whispering.
At its core is a deep unwillingness to recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist, to know significant sections of the Palestinian public - and unfortunately also among Israeli Arabs - "an entity born of sin," whose establishment involved "unjust atonement."
And so, even if above the surface life is drawn to those who rest, and everything comes to terms with reality and seeks to live their lives - then the same coals whisper again and ignite each time.
And there are, of course, those who make sure they do not stop whispering.
The 150 years of the Zionist struggle for the land are years of achievements and victories in which we can all feel satisfaction and pride.
But at the same time, one must recognize the simple fact that the struggle continues and is far from over.
Were we wrong?
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