Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Har haBayit

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Wednesday, April 05, 2023

Palestinians using prayer as a weapon

This video of Israeli police pushing worshipers away from the front of Al Aqsa Mosque this morning makes Israel look really bad, doesn't it?

The worshippers aren't acting aggressively. What could possibly justify this?

Here's why.

Have you ever seen Muslims worship at that place before? The mosque has been reopened since the events of this morning, there are people inside. So why are they worshipping and setting up their prayer rugs outside at that specific spot?

Because they aren't interested in prayer. They want to be human roadblocks.

Religious Jews who visit the Temple Mount must circumnavigate the entire area. They can only walk in areas where they are certain that the holiest parts of the Temple could not have been, according to Jewish law.

There is no way for them to visit the site without passing in front of the Al Aqsa mosque. And if there are people in the way, they cannot walk around them without coming unacceptably close to the place of the actual Temples.

These aren't worshippers. They are "Mourabitoun," meaning "sentinels," whose entire job is to stop Jews from visiting the site. They are paid by Islamist groups, including Hamas, to do what they can to frustrate any Jewish visitors.

In the past they would scream at and try to intimidate Jewish tourists that they saw. Now they are trying to physically block the Jews from being able to visit the site.

The Israel police are not violating the status quo - they are trying to enforce it, to allow all people to have access to the holy site, not only Muslims.

But the Mourabitoun know that videos create reality, so they positioned themselves where they knew that they would be forcibly removed, and they had the cameras ready.

To them, prayer is not an act of worship but ammunition in a weapon to remove human rights from Jews.

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The @NYTimes twists the facts about Al Aqsa this morning - and omits the most important one

This morning's New York Times article about the clashes at Al Aqsa mosque, written by Raja Abdulrahim and Patrick Kingsley, is filled with anti-Israel bias.

And it does not mention the single most important fact that would change the entire complexion of the article.

The Israeli police raided the most prominent holy site in Jerusalem early on Wednesday to detain scores of Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside, prompting armed groups in Gaza to fire rockets into Israeli airspace and the Israeli Air Force to respond with strikes on military sites in Gaza.

The phrase "prompting armed groups in Gaza to fire rockets into Israeli airspace" is incredible.

Israel doesn't "prompt" deadly rocket fire. That decision is made solely by terror groups, and they will always have an excuse. But the "Newspaper of Record" shares the logic of terror groups that shooting rockets into the south of Israel is a "natural response" to events in Jerusalem.

And note the wording, "into Israeli airspace." Were they firing balloons? While some of the rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome, others hit the ground (a factory was damaged and others fell harmlessly in unpopulated areas.)

Why couldn't the NYT say that rockets were fired into Israel or towards Israeli residential areas - phrases which would be far more straightforward and accurate? Because that might make readers a little sympathetic to the victims of the rockets! Rockets that are fired into "airspace" aren't dangerous. If it wasn't for gravity, they wouldn't have hit anything at all!

The police forced their way into one of the two main prayer halls at the contested holy site, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. In the ensuing confrontations, police officers struck Palestinians with batons and Palestinians fired fireworks. Palestinian news outlets said the police had fired tear gas and sponge-tipped bullets.

Now, which came first - the batons or the fireworks? The Times implies that the fireworks were shot to defend against batons, which is clearly the opposite of the truth..

Here are some of the spent fireworks casings.

Clashes often occur at the Aqsa Mosque compound, which Jews call the Temple Mount, during periods of tension in the region. Officials and diplomats have been warning that the overlap of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins on Wednesday evening, could make such clashes more likely.

The police said the Palestinians had locked the doors of the prayer hall, the Qibli Mosque, from the inside and barricaded the entrances, hours after the taraweeh prayers, which are held nightly during Ramadan. The police said they had raided the mosque after prolonged attempts to persuade the worshipers to leave.

...Some Palestinians had called for worshipers to go to Aqsa for itikaf, a tradition of staying overnight in a mosque for worship, which is practiced especially during Ramadan. They expressed concern that with Passover beginning, more Jewish worshipers would come to the site.

This is a gross perversion of the truth. And there is no doubt that Raja Abdulrahim is knowingly deceiving the readers.

Israel made an agreement with the Jordanian government, which controls the Waqf at Al Aqsa, that there would be no i'tikaaf at Al Aqsa on weeknights. The reason is because Palestinian and Islamist groups have urged Muslim youth to stay overnight in order to attack Jewish visitors the next morning.

Israel arranged that other nearby Jerusalem mosques would be able to accommodate any Muslims who want to adhere to the custom. In previous years, Al Aqsa did not allow i'tikaaf either.

The Waqf issued a memo confirming that no one was to stay overnight outside of Thursday and Friday nights, and the last ten days of Ramadan.

Israeli forces have been enforcing the agreement. Up until this morning, the worshipers have left peacefully. This frustrated the Islamists who have been trying to incite violence since Ramadan started. There were plenty of articles in Arabic claiming Israeli forces violently removed the worshippers, but there was no video that could incite the public.

The Islamists needed that video.

So last night, Palestinian youth barricaded themselves in the prayer hall hours after the last prayer of the night. They had already stockpiled fireworks and stones. And when they refused to leave, Israeli forces entered to enforce the Waqf agreement.

Now they had the video they wanted, as they shot fireworks and threw stones from within the holy site.

The New York Times purposefully omits anything about the agreement with the Waqf, and gives credence to the idea that Jews are the ones who are the aggressors here and Muslims have the right to block Jews from quietly praying on Judaism's holiest site:

For decades after capturing the site from Jordan in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, Israel prevented Jews from praying at the compound. But they have been tacitly allowed to do so in recent years, which has angered many Palestinians and Muslim states in the region.

And the Times further justifies the violence:

Some Jewish activists recently called for sacrificing a goat at the compound to observe Passover, something that the Israeli police have repeatedly said they would prevent.

The NYT desire to hide the fact about the agreement with Jordan to avoid events like that of this morning is clear here:

Since Ramadan began two weeks ago, the police have been forcing Muslims to leave the Aqsa compound after the nightly taraweeh prayers to ensure that they do not stay overnight. The police have also prevented many young Palestinian men from entering the mosque compound for morning prayers, according to Palestinian news outlets.

Without mentioning the Waqf memo, the reader is left with the impression that Israeli police want to disrupt an important and sacred Muslim tradition for no discernible reason.

This article may adhere to the New York Times' objectivity guidelines, but it is not objective. Every phrase is slanted to damn Israel, and the most crucial information that exonerates Israeli police actions is simply missing.

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Official Palestinian propaganda, edited to reflect the truth

The official Wafa news agency published this report in its English edition today.

I have shown how the story would be marked up by any editor who was more interested in truth rather than anti-Israel propaganda.

JERUSALEM, Tuesday, April 4, 2023 (WAFA) – Israeli police this morning and since last night restricted entry of Muslim worshippers into Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, a site Muslims seek to hold all day and night prayer vigils during the holy fast month of Ramadan, in order to secure entry of Jewish fanatics into the Muslim holy compound. The Jordanian Muslim Waqf authorities had already agreed to restrict the all-night vigils, and those who are trying to spend the night are violating that agreement.
Local sources said the police checked the ID cards of people trying to hold the dawn prayers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and turned back the young ones potential troublemakers at its gates.
Extremist Muslim groups like Hamas have encouraged Muslims to stay overnight to be in position to harass Jewish visitors the next morning.
At the same time, the police forcefully peacefully removed all worshippers from the Mosque following the late-night prayers and prevented worshippers from keeping an all-night vigil as per Israel’s agreement with Jordan, which the Waqf has publicized.
Meanwhile, dozens of Jewish fanatics stormed Jews visited the holy compound since today’s early hours, walking around its yards and some holding religious rituals in violation of the decades-old status quo that specifically ban non-Muslims from performing any kind of religious ritual inside the walled, 144-dunum holy compound that includes Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock along with several other prayer buildings. praying quietly and respectfully as Jews have been doing for years at their most sacred spot without incident.

Under international law, Jews have the right to worship in their holy spaces.

Muslim officials expressed concern that Jewish fanatics Jews intend to bring in animals to sacrifice inside the compound tomorrow as an offering with the start of the Jewish Passover holiday, a step they warned could spark serious trouble.
The fanatic These groups, encouraged by the presence of a far-right Israeli government that includes extremists ministers in key posts, have advertised rewards for anyone who can bring in animal offerings inside the compound to sacrifice for the religious holiday.
Israeli police have instructions to block any such attempt, and they have done so in previous years under other governments, so the stated fears of Muslim officials are baseless. Their statements of concern appear to be designed more to incite violence than to tamp it down.

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For the past week, Palestinian Arabic media have been filled with stories about how a Jewish extremist group planned to offer a Passover sacrifice on the Temple Mount.

Most of them never mention that the same group has made the same or similar plans in previous years, and they were always stopped well before any potential scary lamb would be brought anywhere close to the Al Aqsa Mosque or any other Muslim site on the esplanade.

Then, on Monday:

The head of the Returning to the Mount movement, Rafael Morris, was detained on Monday on suspicion that he was going to try and sacrifice the Paschal sacrifice on the Temple Mount, as police completed their preparations ahead of the Passover holiday, which will begin on Wednesday evening.

Two activists from the movement were arrested last month after putting up notices in Arabic in the Old City of Jerusalem offering payment to anyone willing to store lambs near the Temple Mount for the Paschal sacrifice.

As of this writing, a day after the arrest, I do not see a single Palestinian news site mention this - even as they continue to write extensively about the "threat" of an animal sacrifice at Al Aqsa.

In fact, Hamas announced today that the stabbing of two Israeli soldiers in Israel are a "response" to the planned sacrifice that will never happen as well as to Jews visiting the Temple Mount normally.

If they really were so frightened of the worldwide repercussions of a lamb appearing on the site, wouldn't they consider this arrest to be good news, or at least newsworthy?

But one would not expect to see any coverage of Israeli arrests and Israeli forces physically blocking any Jews from breaking the law if the point of the coverage is to incite violence against Jews on Ramadan.

They want anger and hate towards Israel and Jews, and any news stories that blunt their accusations must be censored.

They are trying to provoke the very religious war that they love to warn the West that Israel is provoking.

And then, when Passover comes and goes with no sacrifice, they will claim that it was their steadfastness that blocked the Jews from their attempts to slaughter the lamb, and not Israeli policy.

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A short lesson in Hamas propaganda

This cartoon was in Hamas' Felesteen:

The caption is "Occupation violations of Al Aqsa." It shows the Arab world smoking a hookah, eyes closed, while the Dome of the Rock burns.

There is a huge difference in the quality of propaganda between saying that Jews are determined to destroy the mosques on the Temple Mount - and saying that Arabs are ignoring that destruction.

After all, if the entire cartoon was the left side of the cartoon, and the main point was that Jews were destroying the structure, casual readers would consciously realize that this is the message that the cartoonist is trying to convey, and they could evaluate the message on its merits. The claim that the Jews are hellbent on destroying Al Aqsa have been rampant for over a hundred years, and nothing has happened in that century, so the reader might be resistant to that message.

But when the message is that the Arab world is ignoring Israel's destruction of the site, then the reader's attention is no longer directed towards what the Jews are doing but what the Arabs are. The message that Jews are destroying Al Aqsa is almost subliminal - it must be accepted as a given before the viewer can evaluate the claim of about the foreground of the picture.

By only saying indirectly that Jews are destroying Al Aqsa, that message is that much stronger.

There is another layer here, though: the image of the Dome of the Rock burning would cause a visceral reaction of anger to Palestinian Muslims. It is like an image of a burning Quran. In that sense, it is incitement. But, again, the message is magnified by not being the main focus of the cartoon, but the artist wants a twofold reaction: one of anger towards Arab leaders, but also to inspire Palestinian Muslims to "defend Al Aqsa" themselves - which practically means attacking Jews.

I cannot tell how effective this is. But it is a model for effective propaganda that is meant to rile up people.

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More Muslims visit Al Aqsa under Israeli rule - EVERY WEEK - than EVER did under 1000 years of Muslim rule

Last Friday, some 100,000 Muslims visited and prayed in the courtyards of the Temple Mount.

That's not even close to a record - in previous Ramadans, some crowds were estimated at 250,000.

From all accounts, these numbers are far, far higher than the number of Muslims who visited the Temple Mount on any day from the dawn of Islam to 1967.

I cannot find any news articles about more than several thousand Muslims going to the Haram al Sharif on any occasion before 1967. None I can find any that say "tens of thousands," certainly none say "hundreds of thousands" of Muslims making a pilgrimage there.

It seems that more Muslims visit the site every week under the supposedly draconian Israeli limitations - between 40,000 and 70,000 - than ever did under Jordanian, British or Ottoman rule

That has only happened under Jewish rule.

Before Jews returned to the Land, Muslims really didn't make a big deal over the Al Aqsa Mosque. There were certainly some pilgrims, and to many Muslims in Jerusalem it was important, but it wasn't a major symbol. Only once the Mufti started baseless rumors that the Jews planned to take over Al Aqsa did the Muslim masses start to pay attention.

And even today, when we see Palestinian leaders exhorting the faithful to visit Al Aqsa, they are calling on them to "defend" it from a few dozen Jews taking strolls there and the police who are there to avoid the Jews getting lynched. The Palestinians don't say to visit it for its inherent importance.

The huge crowds that visit under Jewish rule - especially considering that according to Jewish law, every one of them is desecrating the holy site - proves beyond a doubt that if one cares about freedom of access of holy sites to all, Israel must maintain control over where those sites are.

It is only one example of hundreds that prove that all the accusations hurled against Israel are not just lies, but the exact opposite of the truth.

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Palestinian site Qastal posted footage from the outside of the Al Aqsa mosque this morning during the time that non-Muslims can visit - 70 minutes of live coverage.

The fact that it it boring is the news.

I was surprised to see that there were not too many Muslims there. There are enough to know that Israeli forces haven't cleared them out. (I've seen other Ramadan footage showing fairly sparse crowds when it is not prayer time.)

There are far more Christians than Jews shown here. When the Jews come, that's when the videographer decides to zoom in.

The headline from Al Qastal is "On the morning of the fifth of Ramadan, Numbers of settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque."

This is not the Al Aqsa you see on the news. When Muslim complain about Jews "storming" they are talking about only a few visiting when there are hardly any Muslims around the site anyway. They, and the Christian tourists,. don't disturb anyone.

Unless the very existence of Jews disturbs you to begin with.

Based on the comments, that is exactly the case. Most commenters resignedly say that Allah knows best, but some are angry that there are no protests, no stones being thrown, no fighting to stop the Jews from walking quietly on the mostly empty site. (And if you think that the front of Al Aqsa is mostly empty, I can assure you that most of the areas on the perimeter that the Jews walk around have very few Muslims who ever go there.)

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According to Arab interpretations of international law in 1930, Jews have the sole right to the Temple Mount today!

Kotel, circa 1920

According to Palestinian media, the League of Arab States declared that the 1930 international commission that declared that Muslims had legal ownership of the Western Wall is still true, and the Western Wall - as well as the plaza in front of it - is all Muslim Waqf land where Jews have no legal rights.

While US and European leaders have fallen over themselves to condemn Bezalel Smotrich for saying that the Palestinian people are a recent invention, saying that statements like that are inflammatory, there is silence in both diplomatic circles and the media about the Arabs denying any rights of Jews to the very place that they have prayed towards for thousands of years.

Selective outrage is the norm, of course. Arabs are expected to say inflammatory, inciting and false statements - they do this every day - but only Jews are expected to speak in measured tones and not to plainly state the truth if it might upset the touchy Arabs.

But there is a very interesting angle to the newfound Palestinian love of the 1930 Western Wall Commission report. (They made it clear at the time that they do not accept that the Commission has any legal right to rule on the issue.)

If you look closer at the specific Muslim claims in 1930 quoted in the Commission report, you find out that according to their logic at the time, Israel is the legal owner today not only of the Kotel but of all of Jerusalem.

The Muslim side, represented by Ahmed Zaki Pasha, declared the Muslim legal case to the Commission:

History shows that after having acquired Palestine by the right of conquest, the Jews were definitely driven out of the country by the Romans after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. The Christians then ruled the country until the Arab conquest under Omar. With the exception of 90 years during the epoch of the Crusades the effective possession of the country has been in the hands of the Arabs from generation to generation. The Jews who came to Palestine were not interfered with by the Arabs and were fairly well treated by the Moslem rulers of the country. During this long period there were no incidents at the Buraq. The Jews never claimed any rights to the Wall and were content to go now and them to lament at that place, contented in the assurance that the tolerant Arabs would not interfere with them. It is the Balfour Declaration, reiterated in the Terms of the Mandate, that has been the cause of the discussion which finally brought bloodshed over Palestine and incited the Jews to urge claims which they had never thought of before. The creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, an Arab country, lost for ever by the Jews hundreds and hundreds of years ago, can only give rise to perpetual troubles and dissensions. The country which the Jews had taken over by right of conquest was again lost, and the Arabs in their turn conquered it, not from the Jews, who had been driven out of Palestine several centuries before, but from the Byzantines. It was not a Jewish kingdom that the Arabs occupied in the 7th century, but a country to which the Jews had no right whatever.

It is here a question about property which has belonged to the Moslems for many centuries.

The Arab side is saying explicitly that the way that land in Palestine changes legal ownership is by the right of conquest. They admit that Jews owned the land before any Arabs did, legally, by conquering it. Then the Romans, Byzantines and finally Muslims had legal ownership because of their subsequent conquests. And even the Muslim ownership of the Temple Mount and Western Wall had only been for "many centuries" because of the Muslim conquest of the land.

Since then, of course, the Jews re-conquered the land of Israel. And therefore, according to the Muslim's own testimony to this commission that they now say has legal weight, Jews have complete ownership of all of Jerusalem today, having conquered the city in 1967.

This is not the only part of the Muslim claims from 1930 that undermine their claim today.

One is that the 1930 claims admitted that the original holiness of the Temple Mount came from the Temples themselves, which today's Palestinian deny ever existed:

It ought to be observed that when Mohammed came to Jerusalem, the site of the ancient Temple, which was already an object of veneration for the Moslems, was called Masdjed Al Aqsa (i.e., remote oratory) in contrast to the Mosque of Mecca or Masdjed Al Haram (i.e., oratory, sanctuary). At that time Mecca was hostile to Mohammed. Owing to that, Jerusalem and especially the Temple area, for a certain period, became the first Kibla (direction) for the Moslems, i.e., during that period they turned their faces in the direction of Jerusalem when praying and it was not till later on that Mecca became definitely the Kibla.

Another most interesting section notes that according to Sharia law, once land is declared sacred Waqf land, it cannot lose that status - except for one case:

A Waqf property cannot be acquired by usucaption unless the usucaptor has enjoyed a peaceful and uninterrupted possession ab antique, i.e., for at least 33 years.

Israel has certainly had unquestioned possession of the Kotel since 1967, and arguably all of Jerusalem. (This is probably a very weak argument under Sharia; I imagine any dispute by the previous owner would make usucaption invalid, but it is a fun argument.)

Perhaps the Palestinians shouldn't be so quick to embrace the 1930 international commission report. It shows that the same Muslim legal reasonings that sounded good to them in 1930 can now be used against them.

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Palestinians defending the right to play soccer on the Temple Mount

This video from Palestine Times is upset at an Israeli Knesset member suggested that playing soccer on the Temple Mount be prohibited, and defends the right of Muslims to desecrate the holiest place in Judaism.

It is remarkable that the very people who insist that everyone else respect their customs to the extent that all must follow their own laws (e.g., no one can draw cartoons of Mohammed) and who threaten those who don't adhere to their standards, have so little respect for the feelings of others.

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Palestinian Muslims upset by English-language tours of the Temple Mount

The Palestinian Safa news agency is alarmed.

In conjunction with the escalation of the Israeli attacks on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, an extremist Jewish organization affiliated with the alleged "Temple groups" launched tourist "guided tours" for English-speaking intruders, in order to introduce them to the mosque, as the "Temple", in a dangerous precedent that is the first of its kind.

The "Beyadenu" organization, or what is known as "The Temple Mount in Our Hands", launched its first guided tour inside Al-Aqsa, in cooperation with the "Return to the Temple Mount" organization, which announced that this tour will be organized monthly for the English-speaking community in order to "connect with the Temple Mount." .

The occupation seeks, behind these "tourist tours", to perpetuate the Jewish presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque, falsify and Judaize Arab and Islamic history in it, as well as impose spatial and temporal division.

The Waqf categorically rejects these dangerous measures, which affect the sanctity of Al-Aqsa, saying: "Extremists are waging a new war on Al-Aqsa, with the aim of brainwashing its visitors, inciting against Muslims and Palestinians, and promoting the Talmudic narrative that contradicts our Quranic narrative, which leads to an imbalance in the mosque."

They warn of the danger of such tours and guidance programs, which are among the most dangerous Judaization programs, which will lead to an attempt to create a new reality in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The tourist guidance is a prerogative of the Waqf Department, and the occupation has no right to encroach and interfere in its affairs and management of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Whew! Jews telling the truth about the Temple Mount really gets these Palestinian Muslims upset!

You can see the Beyadenu website here, to help arrange your own English language tour of the most sacred spot in Judaism.

It has been ten years since I had my own personal English-language tour of the Temple Mount, provided by Yisrael Medad, and it still holds up:

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Israel allows a lot more Palestinians to visit the Temple Mount than you would know from the media

This morning's article at the official Palestinian Wafa news agency is pretty much identical to articles written every Friday for months:

Tens of thousands performed Friday prayers at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite the strict military measures imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities at the gates of the mosque and the entrances to the Old City in occupied Jerusalem .

The Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem estimated that about 60,000 worshipers performed Friday prayers in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, from Jerusalem and the West Bank, and within the lands of 1948 [how Palestinians refer to Israel.]

Our correspondent reported that the occupation forces deployed in the streets of the city and the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and stationed at its gates, and stopped the worshipers and checked their identity cards .

I read these every week, with the only difference being the number of estimated worshippers - 70,000 last week, 75,000 two weeks ago, 55,000 three weeks ago.

But what I hadn't noticed is that the worshippers are coming from the West Bank as well as Jerusalem and Israel.

I thought that Israel didn't allow West Bank Palestinians to enter the compound. That's how things used to be, except for Ramadan.

Apparently, Israel eased the restrictions last Ramadan - and continued easing them. From AP, April 5:

Israel will allow women, children and men over 40 from the West Bank to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday in an apparent bid to help calm tensions during the holy month of Ramadan.

The government said in a statement that it could further relax restrictions if things stay quiet.

I cannot find any articles since then on whether Israeli officials further loosened restrictions since then, but it appears that they have, even after Ramadan. In previous years articles would complain that "occupation forces prevented the entry of hundreds of citizens from the West Bank to Jerusalem to perform the Friday prayer at Al-Aqsa." That verbiage is gone. Now I'm only seeing that Israeli police are checking identity cards and not allowing a few people to enter, probably based on their inciting disturbances in the past.

If younger men from the West Bank were being restricted from coming, I think that Palestinian media would be reporting it. Probably young men need entry permits to worship, but that's it.

If this conjecture is true, that means that Israel quietly, without fanfare, allows thousands of Palestinians to enter Jerusalem every week to pray, very possibly including young men.

And no one has reported this change in policy!

This is yet another proof that there is no "apartheid." Israel is concerned about the security of its citizens. The level of restrictions against non-citizen Palestinians has nothing to do with their being Arabs or Muslims or non-Jews; it is entirely based on their potential threat to Israeli citizens and whether they are inciting violence.

The media, keenly interested in Israeli restrictions on Palestinians, loses interest when those restrictions are eased. After all, no one is rioting so why inform readers that things have changed?

If anything, Jews in Jerusalem should be concerned that there are so many more potentially violent West Bank Palestinians coming every Friday.

What are the rules? How is security done? What is done to ensure that the visitors don't stay in Jerusalem after prayers? These are the sorts of questions that Israeli media should be researching.

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Cartoon of the Day: News from the very near future

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Jordan trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount

There was a brief international incident at the Temple Mount on Tuesday:

Jordan’s ambassador to Israel visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Tuesday after earlier leaving the holy site in protest at being held up by police at the entrance, prompting a diplomatic protest from Amman.

The Jordanian foreign ministry said it summoned Israel’s envoy Eitan Surkis after Ghassan Majali was allegedly “refused entry” to the Temple Mount. A statement from the ministry said Surkis was handed a letter of condemnation.

But Israeli police — and also Jordanian reports — indicated that rather than refusing him entry, cops briefly held him up since he hadn’t coordinated the visit with them.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry issued a statement rejecting that visits of Jordanians to the site need to be coordinated with Israel:

The political advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ambassador Ahmed Al-Deek, considered the statements of the Israeli spokesman a flagrant violation of the existing historical, political and legal situation in the mosque.

He noted that the attempt to justify the Jordanian Ambassador Ghassan Majali's objection to the reason for the absence of "prior coordination" is also a change in the legal status of the mosque.

Ambassador Al-Deek confirmed that the Islamic Endowments Department is exclusively responsible for organizing entry and exit to the mosque, and is also responsible for all mosque affairs and its courtyards, and that Muslims do not need any prior coordination or permission from the occupation police to enter the mosque.

So Jordan claims that Israeli demands for prior coordination is a new demand, and a violation of the status quo on the holy site.

Is that true? Of course not.

In 2012, Director of the Jordanian Public Security Lieutenant General Hussein Majali visited the site "under strict Israeli guard," Arab media reported. No one complained about that - the controversy about that visit is that one of the Israeli police was a woman whose hair was uncovered.

In 2013, Prince Hashem bin Al-Hussein, King Abdullah's brother, visited the Temple Mount, also "under the escort of Israeli security and police," entering through the Mughrabi Gate that visitors use. No one said a word about any violation of the status quo.

Because it was, and is, the status quo.

In 2021, however, Jordan started signaling they wanted to change the status quo. Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah canceled his planned visit to the Mount at the last minute because Israeli police were going to accompany him as he entered, and he felt that this was an insult.

They didn't say at the time that Israel was violating the status quo, but that the existing status quo was unacceptable to them. (You may recall that Jordan briefly blocked Bibi Netanyahu from visiting the UAE by not giving his flight permission to cross their airspace, in a diplomatic temper tantrum.)

This week's incident must be seen in that context. Jordan wants to change the status quo, and how better to do that than to insist that Israel is violating the status quo?

That's how gaslighting works, after all.

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By calling the Temple Mount "Al Aqsa," Palestinians actually diminish its sanctity in Islam

What is the Arabic name for the Temple Mount?

The answer is political.

I was somewhat surprised to find out that calling the entire esplanade "Al Aqsa Mosque" (al-Masjid al-'Aqṣā) is not a new phenomenon. Some noted Muslim geographers and scholars used that term as early as the tenth century, as the word "masjid" is not a direct translation of "mosque."

E. H. Palmer noted this in an 1871 article for the Palestine Exploration Quarterly:

However, during the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, some people decided to elevate the sanctity of the esplanade even more.

"Haram" means "forbidden" in Arabic, meaning a place of the highest sanctity where certain activities like cutting down trees or killing animals are forbidden. Up until the Crusades the term referred exclusively to the mosques in Mecca and Medina. But after the Muslims regained Jerusalem from the Crusaders, there were some who wanted to elevate the area's sanctity even more to counter Christian claims on the site, and over time, they renamed the area the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

Not all Muslim scholars agreed. Yitzhak Reiter writes in Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity:

Although, as noted before, Ibn-Taymiyya refuted the haram status of the Jerusalem mosque, al-Aqsa's upgrading to haram status was successful and has prevailed. It became a commonly accepted idea and one referred to in international forums and documents.

It was, therefore, surprising that during the 1980s the Palestinians gradually abandoned the name that had been given to the Haram/Temple Mount compound in apparent honor of Jerusalem's status as third in sanctity - al-Haram al-Sharif - in favor of its more traditional name-al-Aqsa. An examination of relevant religious texts clarifies the situation: since the name al-Aqsa appears in the Quran, all Muslims around the world should be familiar with it; thus it is easier to market the al-Aqsa brand-name.

The increased use of the name al-Aqsa is particularly striking against the background of what is written on the Web site of the Jerusalem Waqf, under the leadership of (former) Palestinian mufti Sheikh Ikrima Sabri. There it is asserted that "al Masjid al-Aqsa was erroneously called by the name al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif," and that the site's correct name is al-Aqsa. ... Sabri quotes Ibn-Taymiyya, who denied the existence of haram in Jerusalem, a claim that actually serves those seeking to undermine the city's sacred status. Sabri also states that Arab historians such as Mujir al-Din al-Hanbali, author of the famed fifteenth-century work on Jerusalem, do not make use of the term "haram" in connection with the al-Aqsa site.

Both Ibn-Taymiyya and Mujir al-Din were affiliated with the Hanbali School of law-the relatively more puritan stream in Islam that prevailed in Saudi Arabia. The Hanbalies rejected innovations, such as the idea of a third haram. One cannot exclude the possibility that the Saudis, who during the 1980s and 1990s donated significant funds to Islamic institutions in Jerusalem, exerted pressure on Palestinian-Muslim figures to abandon the term "haram" in favor of "al-Aqsa".

The entire claim that Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam is based on the idea that the Temple Mount is the third haram. By changing the name back to Al Aqsa, the Palestinians are diminishing its sanctity in Islam!

But they do it for marketing purposes - Al Aqsa is mentioned in the Quran (although almost certainly not referring to Jerusalem) and the Palestinian position is that the Quranic association with the name is a better means to incite Muslims against Jewish claims than the designation "haram."

It is all political.

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The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that a delegation from the EU visited the Temple Mount this morning, where they politely listened to anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda spouted by the head of the Waqf, Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib.

The delegation included 35 representatives and consuls from the European Union.

Al-Khatib "stressed the importance of their visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque as an Islamic mosque under the tutelage of King Abdullah II, the guardian of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Al-Quds Al-Sharif."

Al-Khatib accompanied the 35 representatives and consuls on a tour where he described "the occupation’s attempt to change the status quo" on the site.

He then told them that the only ones that should be changing the status quo were the Muslims, claiming that there were many Hashemite construction projects there that Israel prevents from being completed.

In a sane world, new construction projects on the Temple Mount would be considered a violation of the status quo.

Al Khatib then described his description of the status quo: he called for a "return to the historic status quo of the mosque as an Islamic mosque for Muslims alone, with its 144 dunams, with all its prayer corners, courtyards and complexes, below the ground and above it."

According to Jordan News, the delegation aimed to "confirm European support for the legal and historical status quo of the holy site and its Hashemite Custodianship."

No one seemed to disagree with the Waqf's definition of that status quo as not allowing any Jews to ascend.

The signed agreement between Jordan and Israel does not give the Hashemites custodianship over the Temple Mount. It says "Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines."

Which means that Israel makes the decisions, while respecting and giving priority to Jordanian wishes. But the language makes it clear that the ultimate decisions are up to Israel.

Notice also that the agreement says nothing about Jordanian influence on Christian sites, which al-Khatib claimed are under Waqf custodianship as well.

I doubt that anyone from this delegation has ever read the actual agreement, which is the only document that matters under international law - an agreement that explicitly gives Jews "freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance."

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

01/11 Links Pt2: Col Kemp: Jew-Hate at American Universities; Caroline Glick: The ‘woke’ West is assaulting Jews for embracing their heritage with Richard Landes

From Ian:

Col Kemp: Jew-Hate at American Universities

[The Amcha] report paints a stark picture of an increasing, intensifying and carefully coordinated campaign of attacks on Jewish identity at over 60% of the colleges and universities that are popular with Jews, including 2,000 incidents intended to harm Jewish students since 2015.

[T]hese activists demand an end to Zionism, which... means just one thing: an end to the democratic State of Israel. This itself is antisemitism in any book and is spelt out as such in the US State Department definition of antisemitism.

Despite expending so much energy against their fellow students, German Gentiles had plenty left for their Jewish professors. Unsatisfied with Nazi race regulations restricting Jewish faculty, students boycotted the classes of those who were exempt under the race laws and pressured university authorities to dismiss them. The result was that every Jewish professor who was still legally allowed to teach had resigned by 1935.

The Amcha report characterises the situation on US campuses today as a crisis for American Jews. It is much more than that. It is a crisis for us all that one section of our student body is bullied, abused, intimidated and cast down by their fellow students and often abandoned by their professors and faculty authorities.

It is high time for the federal government, under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, to withdraw its funding from all universities that participate in bigotry such as that.

Jonathan Tobin: Ilhan Omar is the Democrats’ problem, not Kevin McCarthy’s

By standing with Omar, Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have effectively normalized antisemitism. And McCarthy’s effort to punish her will again test whether they mean what they say when they speak of their opposition to hate.

As was the case with Greene and Gosar last year, it will take a vote by the majority of the House to remove Omar from her perch on the Foreign Relations Committee. Given the GOP’s narrow majority, the fate of Schiff (who repeatedly lied about the hoax he helped promote that former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election) and Swalwell (who had an intimate relationship with a Chinese spy) will also be part of the same debate.

Democrats will also answer the list of Omar’s antisemitic statements and actions with their own brand of “whataboutism,” which will involve McCarthy’s recent embrace of Greene, who was an ally during his fight for the speaker’s chair. They’ll bring up other Republicans for censure, as well. One is Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who lied about just about everything during his campaign for election, including whether he was Jewish.

If every member of Congress or the executive branch had to be censured for lying, however, Washington would soon be emptied of politicians, including Biden, who takes second place to no one when it comes to being a serial fabulist. Moreover, there is an argument to be made that neither party should be engaging in this kind of tit-for-tat punishment.

If the voters think they deserve nothing better than to be represented by such scoundrels, perhaps it’s best if we leave it to them to decide at the ballot box who should sit in Congress or on committees. As the great cynic, journalist H.L. Mencken wrote, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

Nevertheless, if the Democrats are going to play this game, then McCarthy can hardly be blamed for answering in kind. And if House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) isn’t prepared to agree to remove Omar, then the speaker is justified in seeking to oust her.

At stake here is not the broader question of how much extremism or bad behavior Congress should be willing to tolerate in its members. Rather, it is specifically one that will force Democrats to decide what is more important to them.

Is it the fight against antisemitism at a time when Jew-hatred is on the rise throughout the globe? Or is their true allegiance to identity politics and the toxic intersectional myths that allow Omar to paint herself as an oppressed victim, rather than a hatemonger, simply because of the color of her skin?

Caroline Glick: The ‘woke’ West is assaulting Jews for embracing their heritage

As Israel is being pilloried at the U.N. Security Council by friend and foe alike for daring to allow Jews to visit the Temple Mount, professor Richard Landes joins Caroline Glick on this week’s episode of the “Caroline Glick Show” to discuss the contemporary roots of the demonization of Jews and the Jewish state.

Landes recently published “Can the Whole World Be Wrong: Lethal Journalism, Anti-Semitism and the Global Jihad,” the product of 22 years of work.

He began his study of the subject in the aftermath of the first modern blood libel, the alleged killing of Muhammed al-Dura, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, by IDF forces in Gaza on Sept. 30, 2000.

The false allegation that the boy was killed by IDF forces that day, and that they murdered him deliberately, formed the basis of a massive propaganda effort. Its product has been the legitimization of the mass murder of Jews in Israel and worldwide by Palestinians and other jihadists.

Landes argues that the West’s embrace of the al-Dura blood libel was the foundation not only of the antisemitism assaulting the Jewish people worldwide today, but also of the West’s inability to acknowledge, let alone defeat, the forces of global jihad, whether in the United States or Europe or in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and beyond.

Glick and Landes examine the current pathologies of the “woke” West—including the assault on Jews for embracing their heritage, by among other things, visiting the Temple Mount—through the prism of the al-Dura incident. Their conversation traverses space and time and ends with vital insights into what needs to happen for the West to survive the ravages of the Red-Green alliance which was born with the al-Dura blood libel.