Amid growing tensions in east Jerusalem, senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahar leveled scathing criticism, replete with anti-Semitic rhetoric, over the rededication of the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City's Jewish Quarter.The Arabic Hamas article about Zahar's talk also includes his accusation that Jews have ruined every country in which they have lived.
"You who are opening Hurva are heading towards ruin. Wherever you have been you've been sent to your destruction [a pun on the name Hurva - EoZ]. You've killed and murdered your prophets and you have always dealt in loan-sharking and destruction," he said Monday, during a conference of Palestinian groups in Gaza.
"You're destined to be destroyed. You've made a deal with the devil and with destruction itself – just like your synagogue," al-Zahar said.
Al-Zahar urged the Arab world to respond to "Israel's crimes and protect the sites that are holy to Muslims and Christians from the Zionists' racist onslaught".
(Reluctant, unofficial co-blogger) Zvi comments:
Al-Zahar is not talking about settlers. He is not talking about Israelis. He is talking about Jews - all of us, everywhere. He repeats with relish the standard blood libels, the standard claims that Jews are simply and irretrievably evil and must therefore be destroyed. This is a clear and straightforward admission of Hamas's real program. The fact that Hamas is currently not strong enough to carry out that program is beside the point. Only a suicidal Israeli government would allow such a crazed enemy to become strong enough. And only people for whom the murder of Jews is unimportant - or even greatly desirable - can possibly support the strengthening of that crazed enemy.And don't forget that the front page of Islamic Jihad's Saraya.ps online paper still has a link to an article about how Jews are historically evil.
The mask that Palestinian Arabs try to put on claiming that they are not anti-semitic, but only anti-Zionist, has fallen yet again.