WARNING: You may consider parts of the video in this story to be graphic.
This weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio will be in Israel. His visit comes during a spike of deadly Palestinian terrorism, with a response from Israeli police considered by some to be excessive. De Blasio will be forced to weave between the competing causes. NY1's Josh Robin filed the following report.
A knife attack foiled in Jerusalem. Israeli police kill the Palestinian assailant.
A day earlier, a car plows into a bus stop. The assailant, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, hacks at the crowd with a meat cleaver before he is shot dead.
The region always toggles between simmer and full boil.
Mayor Bill de Blasio arrives when no one knows whether the dial is turning up or down. That he's going amid such ambiguity cheers Israel boosters.
"It sends a message, and it sends a message loud and clear that New York City stands with Israel," said Jacob Kornbluh of Jewish Insider.
Stands with Israel, but some nuance could appear, too. For instance, de Blasio plans to attend a field trip of a school for Jewish and Arab kids, pointing to New York as a beacon of tolerance.
When asked here about Israeli politics, the mayor has opined, like when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out a two-state solution during his recent re-election campaign.
"On the question of Palestinian statehood, I think there’s many of us deeply, deeply disappointed," de Blasio said in March.
De Blasio also opposed Netanyahu's speech to Congress against President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.
At the same time, de Blasio is railing against anti-Semitism. Earlier this year, he visited the Paris kosher market where four were killed in a terrorist attack.
Locally, de Blasio has also stressed equality to Muslims, ordering school holidays on two holy days for the two religion. Still, activist Zead Ramadan says the city's 100,000 Palestinian Americans will look to de Blasio's trip for hints of unfairness.
"Palestinians have been oppressed and occupied for decades, and it's very important that our elected officials, who represent all New Yorkers, make sure that they come across, because our children are affected," Ramadan said.
The Palestinian cause wasn't part of Governor Andrew Cuomo's visit to Israel in August 2014, but City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito recently visited the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Safety concerns may curb the mayor's itinerary. One thing is for certain: the city will be watching every move, interpreting the nuances.