Monday, October 26, 2015
Jerusalem mufti denies Temple Mount ever housed Jewish shrine
The grand mufti of Jerusalem, the Muslim cleric in charge of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, said Sunday that there has never been a Jewish temple atop the Temple Mount, and that the site has been home to a mosque “since the creation of the world.”PMW: PA street named after murderer who stabbed 2 Israeli civilians to death
Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein said in an Arabic interview with Israel’s Channel 2 that the site, considered the third holiest in Islam and the holiest to Jews, was a mosque “3,000 years ago, and 30,000 years ago” and has been “since the creation of the world.”
“This is the Al-Aqsa Mosque that Adam, peace be upon him, or during his time, the angels built,” the mufti said of the 8th-century structure commissioned by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.
Hussein has held the post of mufti since 2006; he was appointed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He has previously endorsed suicide bombings against Israelis.
He vehemently denied that there has ever been a Jewish shrine atop the Temple Mount, despite rich archaeological and textual evidence to the contrary, including from Muslim sources. The 10th-century Muslim historian Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Shams al-Din al-Muqaddasi wrote in his description of Syria and Palestine that “in Jerusalem is the oratory of David and his gate; here are the wonders of Solomon and his cities,” and that the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque “were laid by David.”
Terrorist Muhannad Halabi stabbed and murdered 2 Israelis, Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Bennett, and injured Bennett's wife, Adele, and their 2-year-old son in the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Palestinian Media Watch has reported that Abbas' advisor honored him for these murders, that Abbas' Fatah movement even brought holy soil from the Al-Aqsa Mosque to his grave and that the PA Bar Association chose to honor Halabi by posthumously awarding him an honorary law degree.Gregg Roman on the 'Inextricable Connection' between Islamists and Hitler
As an additional honor, the municipality where the murderer lived has decided to name a street after him. "This is in order to honor Halabi, who carried out a stabbing and shooting operation (i.e., terror attack) against settlers in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem," the independent Palestinian news agency Donia Al-Watan reported. [Oct. 14, 2015]
"This is the least we can do for Martyr Halabi," Mayor Muhammad Hussein stated about the glorification of the killer, and went on to say that naming the street after him is "intended to emphasize the national role played by municipalities."
Wanting to honor the murderer further, the municipality of Surda-Abu Qash suggested that the mourning "take place in a municipality building, as Halabi is a pride and badge of honor for the whole village."
Middle East Forum director Gregg Roman appeared alongside Mouin Rabbani, a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, and Sakarya University professor Norman Finkelstein on Al-Jazeera English on October 22 to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial statement that Palestinian Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini contributed to Nazi planning of the Holocaust.10 Things to Know About the Latest Wave of Palestinian Terror
Moderator: Gregg, do you think Netanyahu expected such a backlash?
Gregg Roman: No, but I also think there were several points in Netanyahu's speech that were not factually accurate, like Mr. Finkelstein said. For instance, he said the mufti died in Cairo in 1974 from cancer. He actually died in Beirut. But I think the real element of what we have to look at here regarding the mufti's involvement, not just with the Holocaust but [with] Palestinian and Arab incitement against Jews, is the history of the mufti's meetings with Hitler.
In February 1941, an invitation was extended from Hitler to the mufti in Jerusalem [to come to] Berlin. The meeting didn't take place until November 28, 1941. This is all available in the German foreign record ... The mufti and Hitler met in Berlin. There were four agreements that came to be. And of those agreements, one would be the use of the mufti's propaganda trying to rally Arabs in coming for a Middle Eastern Holocaust that was going to be planned. And this is also part of the historical record.
The current state of affairs in Israel is full of lessons and truths. The sooner we learn them, the sooner we can stop the attacks.
1. We can stop feeling guilty.
A few good things have come out of the recent wave of terror in the streets of Israel. The first is that the facade that jihadis are somehow struggling for self-determination, social justice, or any other noble idea has been unmasked. It is clear to us now that, unlike what we’ve been urged to believe for the last 30 years, jihadis don’t want peace. They want to annihilate Jews, Judaism, and the State of Israel. This is great news. Because once the pretense is dropped, we stop falling for it and begin unloading the guilty feeling that we are at fault for everything. We drop the idea, for example, that building in Jerusalem or Judea is causing this war. Those few voices who still try to blame the victims sound delusional and their ideas are being debunked. At the same time, there is a realization that within Israel is a hostile minority that simply does not accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state. Clarity is forming, and it will lead to victory.
2. The Jewish fighting spirit is back.
The second good thing is that the Jewish fighting spirit is back on the streets. Men and women, old and young, are responding to terror with defiance. Pepper spray, rolling pins, umbrellas, selfie sticks, kicks, fists, running, and especially shooting — Israelis are shooting bad guys (and gals). Yes, there have been some horrific videos of Jews being gouged as though we’re back in a medieval Polish countryside. But even in those videos, soon enough, a gun-toting Jew vanquishes the jihadi zombie. We don’t cower and shriek as they wish we would, and it demoralizes them. Our people’s healthy fighting instincts have (amazingly) not been corrupted by the media, or by the ideology of weakness. Remember: Fighting back is good, so stay tactical out there, folks!
Murderous religious intolerance in the Middle East
On October 22, 2015, Secretary of State John Kerry, in the context of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and the Israeli response to them, spoke of the need to end the incitement to violence and to lower the level of tension so that calm could be restored in the area.JCPA: The Hidden Hand behind the Palestinian Terror Wave
Speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he asserted that both Israel and the Palestinians are interested in bringing an end to escalation of violence.
It is arguable whether Palestinian leaders are so interested. German chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking on October 21, 2015, must have doubted the Palestinian interest when she said she expected Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas “to condemn everything that constitutes an act of terrorism. One cannot open talks with Israel if this does not happen.” So far, President Abbas has not done so in any serious fashion.
This indeed will not happen if the Palestinian leaders not only remain unwilling or unable to control young Palestinians from stabbing Jewish civilians, but also concoct stories that it is Israel that is fabricating reports of the stabbings, and even planting knives as fake evidence.
Gaza has in effect become an independent Palestinian state, and this Hamas-ruled state is making a pitch, by means of the “Al-Quds Intifada,” to annex the West Bank as well. For Hamas, this is only one phase in the phased plan to implement an ethnic cleansing of the Jews from the Land of Israel.Palestinian Terrorism: Institutional or Random?
By unleashing Palestinian terror PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas hopes to bring about greater international intervention in the conflict, and, thereby, to give greater heft to UN General Assembly Resolution 67/19 of December 4, 2012, which recognizes “Palestine” as a nonmember observer state of the UN.
Hamas, which in the past was a bitter foe of the PLO, has made it a supreme goal to take over the organization. It thereby seeks to gain the status of sole representative of the Palestinian people.
Despite his declared support for a national reconciliation, Abbas is in no hurry to incorporate Hamas in the PLO institutions and is making this conditional on gaining real control of Gaza.
In recent years the Hamas leadership has been trying to spark an intifada in the West Bank that will lead to the PA’s collapse.
Palestinian terrorism is adrenalized by the immoral moral equivalence (between Israeli counter-terrorism and Palestinian terrorism), misrepresenting Middle East reality. It is fueled by foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority, which funds hate-education. It is rewarded by calls to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, while Mahmoud Abbas conducts hate-education. It is emboldened by Western pressure for further Israeli concessions and Western denial of Israel’s moral high ground in the topographic high ground of Judea and Samaria.Palestinian shot trying to stab IDF soldier in Hebron
In order to defeat Palestinian terrorism, it is necessary to defy political correctness, shifting gears from chasing individual terroristic mosquitoes to draining the terroristic swamp: to launch a large-scale, disproportional, preemptive military operation throughout Judea and Samaria and Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem; to precondition any (US and Israeli) direct and indirect contact with – and assistance to – the Palestinian Authority upon an end to hate-education; and to severely punish families and communities of terrorists for failing to exercise communal responsibility.
In order to frustrate Palestinian terrorism, which aims to set Israel on a path of retreat, Israel should proclaim a constructive response, expanding Jewish construction in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. While it would trigger short-term international pressure, it would yield long-term strategic respect, as documented by the legacy of Prime Ministers Ben Gurion, Eshkol, Golda Meir, Begin and Shamir, who defied much more severe international pressure with slimmer military and commercial resources at their disposal.
Israeli security forces on Monday shot a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Hebron as he attempted to stab an IDF soldier near the Tomb of the Patriarchs.IDF soldier seriously wounded in stabbing attack near Kiryat Arba
The attacker died of his wounds on the way to hospital, the IDF said.
The attacker’s knife didn’t penetrate the soldier’s ceramic vest, Walla news reported. The soldier wasn’t injured in the attack.
According to reports, the soldiers were members of the Givati infantry brigade.
A Palestinian stabbed a 19-year old IDF soldier in the neck on Monday morning near the Beit Einun junction by the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.Palestinian stabs Israeli at West Bank’s Ariel Junction
The young man was seriously injured in the upper part of his body. Magen David Adom evacuated him to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
As of Monday afternoon, the army said the soldier continues to be listed as being in serious condition by hospital doctors.
Security forces shot and killed the terrorist.
A MDA paramedic said that when they arrived at the scene the victim had multiple stab wounds and was conscious. “We gave him life saving treatment so he could be moved quickly into surgery upon arrival at the hospital. On the way [to the hospital], we worked to stop his bleeding.”
A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli Sunday afternoon at a bus stop on the side of a West Bank highway near the settlement of Ariel.Officer wounded by pipe bomb in Jerusalem
The incident took place on Route 5, just east of Ariel, in the northern West Bank.
The 25-year-old victim was moderately hurt with stab wounds to his upper body. He was taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah for treatment.
According to Channel 2, the suspect approached the bus stop wearing a Jewish skullcap and attacked the victim.
The suspect initially fled the scene, prompting IDF troops to block the entrances to several nearby Palestinian villages in order to help search for the perpetrator of the attack.
After a manhunt by police and the IDF, Israeli soldiers apprehended a suspect in the nearby village of Marda.
A police officer was wounded by a pipe bomb hurled at him by Arab terrorists on Sunday night, in the northeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiya, which is located near Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus.Victim of Rock and Stabbing Attack Describes Chilling Confrontation With Terrorists
The explosive was thrown at the officer as he took part in a joint police and Border Police mission arresting terror suspects in the neighborhood.
Due to the blast, the officer was lightly wounded, and evacuated for medical treatment at Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem.
The unrest continued on Monday morning, as riots were recorded in the ancient city of Hevron in Judea.
There, Arab rioters threw rocks at the road connecting the adjacent city of Kiryat Arba with Hevron's Cave of Machpelah, where the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs other than Rachel are buried.
The Israeli wounded in a rock-throwing and stabbing attack in Gush Etzion on Sunday morning recounted his ordeal to reporters from his Jerusalem hospital bed several hours later, the Israeli news website NRG reported.Thousands pay last respects to rabbi murdered in Har Nof synagogue
Israel Ben-Aharon, 58, was brought to the Hadassah Medical Center/Ein Karem in moderate condition, after being treated on the scene by Magen David Adom paramedics for stab wounds to his upper body and blows to his head and face.
Shedding light on partially mistaken details reported earlier in the day by the Hebrew press, Ben-Aharon gave a literal and figurative blow-by-blow of the two-pronged attack, which took place in Gush Etzion, near the settlement of Metzad. Just before 10 a.m., Ben-Aharon was driving towards Metzad, when a tow-truck purposely blocked his way. “Suddenly I saw this terrorist running towards me,” he said, describing the event as best as he could under the circumstances.
Rabbi Haim (Howie) Yehiel Rothman, who died Saturday of injuries he sustained during a deadly terror attack at a Jerusalem synagogue almost a year ago, was laid to rest in the evening in an emotional ceremony at the capital’s Givat Shaul cemetery.PM said to consider revoking East Jerusalemites’ residency status
Thousands of friends, family and other members of the ultra-Orthodox community paid their respects to Rothman, who had been in a coma ever since two East Jerusalem terrorists armed with a gun, axes and meat cleavers stormed the Bnei Torah Synagogue in Har Nof last November and attacked worshipers.
Rothman suffered a number of blows to his head from an axe when he tried to fight off the terrorists, his family said. Five others were killed in the attack — four worshipers and one policeman. The attackers were eventually killed in a shootout with police.
Mourners recited passages from the Book of Psalms before Bnei Torah’s Rabbi Mordechai Hacohen Rubin eulogized the 55-year-old Rothman.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering revoking the permanent residency status of East Jerusalemite Arabs in a measure aimed at halting an ongoing spate of terror attacks, many of which have emanated from Arab neighborhoods of the city.Jewish Press Guide for Drivers Faced with Arab Rock-Throwers
Netanyahu raised the idea in a security cabinet meeting two weeks ago, according to a Sunday report from Channel 2 news.
The proposal came as the security cabinet passed a slew of measures designed to prevent further Palestinian attacks in the current wave of unrest.
“We need to examine the possibility of canceling their residency. There needs to be a discussion about it,” Netanyahu reportedly said.
The proposal would affect some 80,000 people, according to the report.
The idea was met with surprise by some in the cabinet who saw the move as a step toward dividing Jerusalem through ceding control over Arab neighborhoods.
What do you do when you are driving on an Israeli road and a rock hits your car?Pro-Israel Article by French Philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy Disappears From Facebook
It has become a common event. Rock-throwing began in the first intifada in the late 1980s throughout Gaza, Judea and Samaria.
Israel now is becoming energy self-sufficient. It always has been and always will be rock self-sufficient, especially in Judea and Samaria, where Arabs have plenty of free ammunition.
Rock-throwing periodically returns to popularity, and it has become one of the favorite pastimes of Arab youth who have been educated for a generation by the Palestinian Authority to hate Jews, Israel and Zionism.
Amid a flurry of criticism directed at social networking giant Facebook over its policing, or lack thereof, of anti-Israel and antisemitic hate, a staunchly pro-Israel article by a renowned personality has mysteriously been wiped from the network’s pages.The NIF Funds Groups That Incite Palestinian Terror
The article, entitled Things We Need to Stop Hearing About the ‘Stabbing Intifada,’ was penned by famed French philosopher and activist Bernard-Henri Lévy and published exclusively by The Algemeiner on Wednesday.
In it, Lévy refers in passing to the popular use of Facebook as a tool for Islamists to build support for their cause, and highlights a slew of injustices surrounding the latest wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israeli Jews sweeping the Holy Land.
Among the items Lévy decries are phrases “used to explain — or excuse — criminal acts” against Israelis, the “tepid” condemnations of the terror from the international community, and that “most of the major media have paid the grieving Israeli families only a fraction of the attention they have paid the families of the perpetrators.”
The disappearance of the article from Facebook was first brought to The Algemeiner‘s attention by watchdog group The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) which noted that their constituents had noticed the article’s absence. The post was also removed from The Algemeiner‘s own Facebook page where it had amassed some 40,000 views. Other readers of The Algemeiner also noted that it had been removed from their own Facebook pages, and a Facebook search for the article came up empty.
In recent weeks, Israeli and Palestinian Arabs have been carrying out terror attacks and arbitrarily murdering innocent Israeli civilians. Instead of categorically denouncing this terror, an extremist American Jewish organization, the New Israel Fund (NIF) blames the Israeli government and Israeli citizens for this violence.Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian activist Barghouti claims Israeli 'agents' attempted his assassination
The NIF disagrees with our claim. In response to our attacks on them, the organization recently declared, “Whoever tries to sully the NIF and say that we act against the State of Israel… this is a fallacy that lacks even a shred of truth.”
The facts tell a different story.
The New Israel Fund supports a boycott of Israel, and uses tax-exempt dollars in both the United States and Israel to fund groups that support and justify terrorism against Israel.
To wit:
Social Television has received $239,480 in the past five years from the NIF (“Syncopa Community” in the NIF annual report.)
Last weekend, the organization published an item about a “victim” of Palestinian terrorism, without noting that the deceased was a terrorist who stabbed a 15-year-old boy and was shot fleeing the scene. They have published many similar stories over the past few weeks.
Adalah has received $1,874,656 from the NIF in the past six years. It has been telling the world that, “the Israeli police, backed by the courts, have been trying to prevent the legitimate protest of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel against the government’s policies by means of brutal and illegal acts.”
Mustafa Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian activist and former presidential candidate, claimed on Sunday that unidentified assailants tried to assassinate him outside his home in Ramallah.Muslim cleric to Jewish reporter: Go build your temple in Yemen!
Barghouti, who heads the Palestinian National Initiative, also known as al-Mubadara, said that the attack took place on Saturday night.
Barghouti was wounded in the face after being stabbed with a sharp instrument. His two attackers fled the scene and the motive remained unclear as of Sunday.
Barghouti said the assailants shouted at him “let the intifada benefit you” before they fled the scene.
At a press conference in Ramallah, Barghouti claimed that the attack was an “assassination attempt” on his life. He hinted that the attackers were Israeli “agents.”
Sansur is the former head of the southern faction of the Islamic Movement, an Israeli Arab Islamist organization whose more radical northern branch stands accused of playing a central role in instigating the current Palestinian "wave of terror" in Israel.Mother of Killed Palestinian Terrorist Pulls Out Knife in Interview, Threatens to Carry Out Attack
Sansur, an Israeli Arab, also served as a member of Israel's Knesset.
He made the statements during a sometimes heated debate with U.S. talk radio host Aaron Klein, who broadcasts from Tel Aviv and who repeatedly challenged Sansur to explain why Jews can't pray on their holiest site, the Temple Mount.
Klein, an American Jew who also serves as WND's senior reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief, asked, "Jews simply want to go up to their holiest site. ... What's the problem with that?"
"They cannot go," Sansur replied.
"If a Jew goes to the Al Aqsa Mosque, what happens to the Muslims? Why is it so terrible?" asked Klein.
"They can build their temple in Yemen from my point of view," Sansur shot back.
Umm Muhammad Shamasne, whose son Muhammad was killed while perpetrating a terror attack on a bus in Jerusalem on October 12, was recently interviewed in her home by the Lebanese Al-Quds TV channel. Offering the interviewer candy to celebrate her son's martyrdom, Umm Muhammad Shamasne said that she hoped her other sons would follow in his footsteps, and pulled out a knife, threatening: "My deeds will speak louder than words." The interview aired on October 22, 2015.
Demonstrators 'execute' fake ultra-Orthodox Jews at pro-Palestinian protest in Morocco
A pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Moroccan city of Casablanca featured men dressed as Orthodox Jews who were being led at gunpoint by masked men wearing keffiyehs.PreOccupiedTerritory: If We Palestinians Aren’t The Victims, We Have No Identity By Saeb Erekat (satire)
The demonstration was held Sunday with permission from local police, according to a report which appeared Sunday on the news website alyaexpress-news.com. It also featured a video of the event, which drew many thousands of participants.
In the video, two men wearing keffiyehs, or Arab headdresses that are popular with Palestinian rioters and militants, are seen toting what appear to be toy rifles behind two bearded men wearing black robes and top hats during a march that also featured Palestinian flags, including a very large one carried by dozens of people, and a model of al-Aksa mosque located on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Expressions of anti-Semitism are relatively rare in Morocco, whose king and government have invested millions of dollars in recent years in restoring Jewish heritage sites. In February, the restoration project was honored at an event in Paris attended by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
Thus, any Jew who sets foot in the Al Aqsa compound is “storming” the place. Any target of an attack – if such an attack is ever admitted – is automatically a “settler.” Jaffa, Afula, Beersheva, and Haifa are in “Occupied Palestine.” To admit that a Jewish state has any right to exist on this land, even on the smallest sliver, is to cede total victimhood, and not to know who we are.JPost Ediorial: Mounting tension
For that reason, our reflex when a Palestinian is shot for trying to attack a Jew is to deny any such attack, even to the point of ludicrousness. Video footage? Doctored. Eyewitnesses? Liars. Physical evidence? Planted. Yes, we Palestinians fervently believe Jews are so thoroughly evil they will stab one another just to be able to frame an Arab for the crime. Not to believe that would be to admit that we Palestinians are less than perfect, that our cause is less than completely just.
Does that attitude condemn us to perpetual poverty, dependence, and underachievement? Perhaps. But it’s the Jews’ fault, not ours. We, after all, possess no fault, and can therefore never be expected to change our behavior. If the world ever voiced an expectation that we do something constructive – something a mite more ambitious than not trying to kill people all the time – we would not know what to do with ourselves. Are they talking to us? Couldn’t be. We’re the victims. It would be existentially confusing.
So please stop trying to get us not to be violent thugs. We’re victims. It’s who we are. Let us stab Jews and blame them for it.
Why can’t Muslims be asked to control themselves? Limiting freedom of religious expression on the Temple Mount out of deference to Muslim extremists’ sensitivities is akin to other cases in which Western values have been compromised or curtailed to appease zealotry. Some in the West were willing to accept, for instance, that the murderous attack on Charlie Hebdo’s offices was in some sense a result of France’s failure to assimilate two generations of Muslim immigrants from its former colonies; or that it could be tied to French military action against Islamic State; or that the murders should be “understood” as reactions to disrespect for religion on the part of irresponsible cartoonists.Netanyahu welcomes Temple Mount video surveillance
Similarly, the ongoing knifing, stoning and shooting of innocent civilians in the streets of Jerusalem, Beersheba, Tel Aviv, Itamar, Gush Etzion and other locations are condoned by some by positioning it as a reaction to certain Israeli policies, such as “occupation” or alleged Israeli attempts to “Judaize” the Temple Mount.
Should Palestinians’ legitimate fears and concerns about their third most holy site being compromised be addressed through dialogue and mutual respect and without incitement, lies and distortion? Of course they should. Should Israel reassure Muslims that they have no intention of infringing upon Muslim freedom of religious expression on Haram al-Sharif? Yes again.
While we understand and accept the need to publicly reaffirm the status quo on the Temple Mount, restricting non-Muslims’ religious rights there is an intrinsic affront to liberal values that will likely fail to assuage Muslim extremists.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended a US-brokered plan to install video surveillance at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount holy site, saying it could help refute claims that Israel is trying to expand the Jewish presence there, while Palestinians said they feared the cameras would be used to spy on and arrest people.UN chief praises Netanyahu’s status quo commitment
The conflicting statements reflected the tough path ahead for the US as it seeks to quell a monthlong wave of violence. The surveillance system is the centerpiece of a series of steps announced by US Secretary of State John Kerry over the weekend.
The violence has been fueled by Palestinian allegations that Israel is trying to alter a delicate arrangement at the holy site — a charge that Israel denies. The site is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and home to the biblical Jewish Temples. Today, it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam.
Speaking to the cabinet, Netanyahu said Israel has no plans to change the longstanding status quo at the site, where Jews are allowed to visit but not pray.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has endorsed Israeli pledges to uphold the status quo on the Temple Mount.Waqf blocked from installing own Temple Mount cameras
A statement released Sunday said the UN head “welcomes the statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterating Israel’s commitment to uphold the status quo at the Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount in Jerusalem in word and in practice.”
Ban said he hoped strengthened security arrangements between Israel and the Jordanian Waqf would bring calm to the contentious site and allow the sides to return to the negotiating table
“Only by restoring calm will all parties be able to refocus their efforts on renewing confidence and creating conditions on the ground, in the region and internationally for meaningful negotiations towards a two-state solution and to put an end to the occupation that began in 1967,” the statement said.
The Muslim authority administering the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City said it tried to install its own cameras on the Temple Mount, but was blocked by Israeli police Monday.AFP Photo Captions Holy Wrong
The installation of surveillance cameras is a key provision of a deal reached over the weekend between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to defuse tensions over the holy site.
The Jordanian-run Waqf said a team was “working on the installation of cameras belonging to the Islamic Waqf… but the Israeli police interfered directly and stopped the work.”
“We severely condemn the Israeli interference into the working affairs of the Waqf, and we consider the matter evidence that Israel wants to install cameras that only serve its own interests, not cameras that show truth and justice,” it said in a statement.
The caption states:Analysis: Looking to Abdullah, because Abbas won’t douse the flames
A general view shows Jerusalem's Old City's Al-Aqsa mosque compound with the Dome of the Rock (C), Islam's holiest site, and the Western Wall (front), Judaism's holiest site, on October 25, 2015. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that an agreement to put 24-hour security cameras around Jerusalem's sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound was in Israel's interest. Tensions raised over clashes at the mosque compound, known as Temple Mount to Jews, have spiraled into a wave of daily knife attacks and shootings on Israelis as well as deadly protests.
The "Al-Aqsa mosque compound," or Temple Mount, is not Islam's holiest site. Islam's foremost sacred sites are in Mecca, not Jerusalem, as previously reported by AFP. (See, for example, "Muslim pilgrims gather pebbles in last major hajj rite," Sept. 23, 2015). The Al-Aqsa mosque is Islam's third most holy site.
In a second factual error which requires correction, the above caption falsely reports that the Western Wall is Judaism's holiest site. In fact, is it the Temple Mount, the site of the first and second Jewish Temples where the Holy of Holies once stood, which is the most sacred site in Judaism. The Western Wall is the holiest site where Jews are permitted to pray, and its holiness derives from its proximity to the Temple Mount.
While the current crisis serves Abbas’s efforts to provoke the world to impose a solution on Israel, it does not serve Jordan’s interest of trying to maintain stability inside the kingdom during very tough times.What happens if you type 'Death to Jews' into Google Maps?
Second, the US – which provides Jordan with a billion dollars in military and economic aid a year and has some 2,200 military personnel stationed there – has a degree of leverage in Amman that it does not have in Ramallah.
It was natural, therefore, that Kerry’s efforts to deescalate the situation would focus on Abdullah rather than Abbas.
And, indeed, it was Abdullah who suggested the idea – swiftly approved by Israel – of placing 24-hour surveillance cameras on the Temple Mount.
If the impetus to the current wave of terrorism is the claim that Israel is endangering, threatening or planning to divide the Temple Mount, what better way to debunk that claim than have cameras constantly scanning that site? The surveillance cameras – a telltale sign that Jordan is interested in dousing the flames – were an idea that Kerry characterized as a potential game-changer, and that Amman also welcomed as a “step in the right direction,” as were Netanyahu’s comments about Israel’s commitment to the status quo.
Users of Google Maps noticed Saturday night that upon typing "Death to the Jews" into the search bar on Google Maps, the program instantly redirected them to "The Temple Mount" in Jerusalem.PreOccupiedTerritory: Waqf To Open Temple Mount To All Non-Non-Muslims (satire)
Despite the shocking result, many other users have said that this Temple Mount result was caused by the word "Jews" and not by the controversial words preceding it.
The desktop web mapping service allows users to get directions on foot, by car, by public transportation, by bike and by air to destinations world wide. Users can also view the location they are searching for before traveling to the location itself using the street view option.
This discovery comes after several weeks of increased terror attacks spread across the country that Israel believes were were sparked by clashes between security forces and Palestinian rioters on the Temple Mount that began during the Rosh Hashanah Holiday in September. [apparently Google has now fixed this, h/t ]
Citing the principle of religious freedom, the Jordanian religious institution that governs the internal affairs of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) facilities announced today that it would open the Mount to visitors from all religious faiths that are not not Islam.Killing Israelis – Music to the ears of NYT and CNN
Violence and incitement over the presence of Jews in the environs of the Mount – the holiest site in Judaism and the location of the Al Aqsa Mosque, an important Islamic shrine – has characterized the last several months, with the escalation in recent weeks to include stabbing and shooting attacks on Israelis all over the country. International attention has focused on the holy site, with US Secertary of State John Kerry brokering an agreement among Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian authority aimed at reducing tensions. To contribute to the desired atmosphere of religious tolerance, Jordanian authorities said that in the interest of freedom of worship, the compound would now be open, even for prayer, to members of any faith who are not non-Muslim.
Waqf officials told PreOccupied Territory they hoped the measure would help bring calm. “We are going out of our way to accommodate members of all non-non-Muslim communities, despite the siege atmosphere under which everyone feels threatened that Israel will change the status quo,” said Waqf secretary Ayama Bigt. “But this is a step we are willing to take to reduce tension and to demonstrate that it is not the non-non-Muslim community standing in the way of a peaceful resolution.”
It keeps getting better for The New York Times and for killers everywhere.BBC Hardtalk for Israel, Softchat for Palestinians
This morning’s paper offers a cheerful report about Palestinians who’ve put their “anger” to music – soundtracks to harmonize their knifing spree.
The Times, always in tune with the Palestinians and their “anger,” sings along with what it calls “political songs as a way to make the Palestinian people get up and resist.” Plainly, killing Jews is music to the ears of Palestinian “teenagers” and to the reporters and editors of The New York Times.
A group of these Palestinian “teenagers” – burly men of rock-throwing age – have compiled a list of their top 10 knifings accompanied by bloodcurdling lyrics, so let’s dance, says the Times…let’s rock, says the Times, let’s roll, says the Times, let’s glorify the knifing, the stabbing, the firebombing of any and all Israelis, says the Times.
Clap hands with Times’ reporters Jodi Rudoren and Rami Nazzal who call it “inspirational,” namely, say, such hits as “Stab, Stab,” not to mention the ever popular “Stab the Zionist and say god is great.” Not quite Gershwin.
An objective analysis will show that Yair Lapid is totally correct – Israeli guests on the show face a tough grilling whereas Palestinians and their supporters get basically a free pass.BBC News tells audiences Israeli fears of terror attacks are ‘paranoia’
Here is the introduction Steven Sackur gave Yair Lapid last week:
“The latest paroxysm of violence between Israelis and Palestinians has conjured up a wave of horrifying images. Israelis stabbed in random street attacks, Palestinian suspects shot dead by Israeli police when seemingly no longer a threat, an innocent bystander beaten to death by an incensed Israeli crowd. Well, my guest is Yair Lapid, former finance minister, and leader of the Yesh Atid party. He has called on Israelis to”shoot to kill” at the first sign of danger. Will that kind of language enhance anyone’s security?”
This is a genuinely harsh introduction – and considering that Sackur draws no distinction between the Israeli victims of terror attacks and Palestinian attackers killed by policemen, it maybe is too harsh. But let us compare this with the opening Hardtalk laid out for Saeb Erekat during an interview in February 2014.
“What does the new right-wing Israeli coalition government under Benjamin Netanyahu mean for the Palestinians? The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has made moves recently to win international backing for his cause, particularly through the United Nations. Will this strategy help or hinder their aspirations for statehood? My guest today is the Palestinian veteran chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat. Can they isolate Israel, and achieve recognition of a Palestinian state through international diplomatic channels?”
This is not the opening to a difficult interview in which Palestinian intransigence, rejectionism, incitement, corruption and human rights violations will truly be open for discussion. The question on the table is how best can the Palestinians isolate Israel: instead of asking hard-hitting questions, the BBC is merely asking whether the Palestinians can achieve their goals.
Kevin Connolly apparently believes the narrative of equivalence he promotes in these two reports. He is obviously comfortable with promoting the idea that a pensioner murdered in a shooting attack on a city bus, a 59 year-old deliberately run over and then hacked to death with a meat-cleaver and a young father stabbed to death whilst walking with his family are just the same as the people who decided to carry out those attacks and were shot by security forces rushing to the scene.Palestinians Complain Their Journalists Are Targeted
He is also clearly at ease with promoting the myth that attacks on Jews for no other reason than the fact that they are Jews which are praised and glorified by Hamas and PA officials alike are “spontaneous” and “random”. And, as we see in these two reports, he has no qualms about promoting the narrative that the emotions of people who are experiencing “not a very nice feeling” and traffic inconveniences are the same as those of people who fear that they may be targeted by a terrorist simply because of who they are after seeing over 50 such terror attacks in a matter of a few weeks.
Whilst Connolly’s adopted narrative may serve to provide space-filling material for assorted BBC platforms and advance a political agenda, it certainly does nothing to contribute to meeting the BBC’s obligation to enhance audience understanding of this particular “international issue”.
Palestinian journalists have complained Israel is “deliberately targeting” them.Andrew Bolt: Meet the sweet jihadists
Who knows what happened. What we do know is only last week, a palestinian terrorist wearing a jacket with ‘PRESS’ marked clearly on it, stabbed an Israeli soldier.
So there’s that. For all we know, some of these journalists were engaging in violence against IDF soldiers. After all, we know where they stand on terrorism. Take Palestine TV, mentioned in the story.
The palestinians cannot have it both ways. If they exploit the special status of journalists in a conflict zone, they can’t complain that others do not respect this status.
Rowan Dean is astonished by the whitewash of the latest Palestinian jihadism by the ABC’s 7.30:Danby on The Bolt Report 25 October 2015
Even the segment’s title – “Meet the young generation of Palestinians behind the third intifada” – was a disgrace, sounding like some hip, funky show. How would 7.30 have portrayed the Holocaust? “Meet the blond, blue-eyed generation behind Germany’s third and final solution” perhaps?
“So far dozens of Israelis and Palestinians have been killed on buses, at bus stops and at checkpoints. Just hours ago, Israeli security forces shot two more Palestinians after they tried to board a school bus south of Jerusalem,” the presenter said.
To the uninformed viewer, this surely sounds like whatever is happening, the Palestinians are clearly victims and the Israeli soldiers are doing all the killing. Worse, the statement gives the impression that there is a moral equivalence to the actions of the murderers and the security forces protecting lives.
Throughout eight turgid minutes, the show failed to point the finger of blame where it belongs: at those political and religious predators in the West Bank and Gaza who for a generation have tutored and groomed young Palestinians to desire to murder Jews. Muslim clerics in Palestinian mosques have been urging their followers in recent weeks to go out and hack Jews to death in the name of Allah. For the Islamist, the “cause” of “liberating” Palestine is just another facet of jihadist terrorism, the goal being the genocide of all nonbelievers, particularly Jews.
The Israeli success that is Lucy Aharish, Israeli Arab talk show host
From the domain of her current affairs show Israeli journalist Lucy Aharish voiced publicly what many Israelis have been thinking for a long time. Namely that Arab Israeli politicians are selling out their country and their Arab constituency by fanning the flames of discontent among Israeli Arabs at precisely the moment when any responsible politician would be doing the exact opposite.
Watch her below, it’s quite something. This is just a couple of minutes from a show that lasted longer than an hour.
This was a pretty big moment for Israel and a courageous one for Lucy. She was voicing the concerns of an Israeli public who consistently watch the actions of Israeli Arab members of the Knesset with their mouths open in shock as to vitriol spewing from them against the state of Israel. Regardless of whether she is Jew or Arab Lucy was giving voice to the feelings of Israelis when she made her challenge.
It is beautiful to watch.
But not all Israelis think so. Writing in Haaretz Roger Alpher accuses Lucy of being a token Arab reading from a preprepared script not of her own making;
“On Channel 2 she has no choice but to be the Arab woman who has been neutralized. If she wants a career in Israeli television, she doesn’t have the luxury of being anything else.”
It appears that for Alpher an Israeli Arab journalist with an opinion that doesn’t accept unyielding the criticisms and tirades of abuse hurled at the state by the various attention seeking MKs of the Arab List is a liar. For Alpher the journalist isn’t Lucy Aharish, an individual with her own opinions, thoughts and feelings but “just” a traitorous Arab journalist either bribed into towing the line by the prospects of success or bullied into it by those who hired her not because of her individual talents but simply to be an Arab with a Jewish voice on Israeli television.
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