Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 12, 2007

Gaza organization: all Muslims are crazy

GAZA, February 12, 2007 (WAFA) - Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) condemned Monday the diggings near Al-Aqsa mosque, warning of the ramifications of agitating Muslims' feelings.

In a press release, GCMHP expressed its full condemnation for this dangerous act that harms holy places and highly inflames Muslims feelings.

"The diggings and destruction to the Mosque is considered a clear provocation to Muslims worldwide and a blatant violation of the principles of the international law, particularly, the fourth Geneva Convention that prohibits the destruction of civilian properties - especially holy places," according to the press release.

"Such acts bring memories back to what Al-Aqsa was previously exposed to of incidents that violated its sacredness and led to eruption of violence in the region."

GCMHP stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque represents a significant part of Palestinian and all Muslims' identity all over the world. As a result, says GCMHP, any damage to the mosque is considered a direct harm to the identity of all Muslims, which may result in eruption of instability in many parts of the world.

GCMHP added it views this provocative act, politically supported and covered by the Israeli government yesterday, as a way of igniting feelings of anger and congestion of all Muslims, and lead to reactions that may convert the whole region and the international community into a vicious cycle of violence and counter-violence and clashes between religions and civilizations in a manner that endangers the world peace and stability.

It called upon the world governments, the UN agencies, and legal and cultural organizations to take their legal and humanitarian responsibilities and immediately intervene to stop such dangerous practices, warning of the negative repercussions of the continuation of exposure to the holy places.

There you have it. The pre-eminent mental health professionals in Gaza have said that Muslims worldwide have no ability to control themselves; that it is quite natural that they would react violently to any preceived slight, no matter what the reality is; and that Israel decided to do the construction purely to inflame Muslims' delicate and sensitive feelings.

The psychosis that says that Muslims are not responsible for their actions is apparently officially regarded as normal by this organization, and if any Muslim acts violently it is Israel's fault.

To put it another way: the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme cannot see any psychological distinction between Muslims and animals.

Looking at the GCMHP website one can see that they consistently condemn intra-Palestinian Arab violence as well as any attacks on European interests in Gaza. Not once can I find a condemnation of any attacks on Israeli civilians. Apparently, Israeli civilians are legitimate targets.

To their credit, they do recommend "non-violent" methods of protest. On the downside, they regard stone throwing as "non-violent" in the same way that Gandhi and MLK were non-violent. Their description of the first intifada reveals volumes about the mental health of these mental health "professionals:

Nonviolence has proven throughout history that it can achieve liberation against occupation, apartheid, and colonization. The first Palestinian Intifada is a good example in changing stereotypical images of Palestinian people from being terrorists to victims of occupation and suppression. It opened the eyes of the world that Palestinians are struggling for their basic human rights and freedom for their country in a peaceful manner. The images of children confronting Israeli soldiers and being killed won the hearts of the international community and justice loving world.

In the end, even the most liberal Palestinian Arab supporters cheer when their own children die. And that is the biggest psychosis of all.

Qassam rocket fire continues. Has Olmert given up?

It has been over a month since Olmert said that he was modifying the unilateral cease-fire in Gaza to allow shooting at Qassam rocket crews as they are setting up. Since then, as far as I can tell, Israel has not fired on anybody launching Qassam rockets, and the only attack I can recall in Gaza was towards a tunnel in late January. At that time, in the wake of the suicide attack in Eilat, Olmert said that he is still "upholding the truce."

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Arabs continue their rocket fire:
4 rockets this morning
At least one Sunday
At least one Friday
10 on Thursday
4 on Wednesday
6 on Tuesday

Multiple, daily attacks almost every day.

It appears that Olmert has pretty much conceded that the southern and western Negev will be under attack for at least a couple of years, until Israel manages to deploy an anti-missile system. True to form, he has no plan to defend his people, no clue on how he would if he wanted to, and he seems to believe that it is acceptable for residents of Sderot and other communities to be bombarded daily.

His incompetence seems to be increasing with time.

Where are the Muslims who can distinguish facts from fiction?

There are a number of parallels between the Danish cartoon riots and the Mughrabi Gate riots. Perhaps the most important one, and the one with the most relevance, is that the Muslim world seems completely incapable of distinguishing truth from lies and fact from opinion.

In both cases, in the topsy-turvy world of Islam, a completely unfounded and unsupportable opinion becomes the driving force behind irrational actions. In both cases, a paranoid worldview where the West is hellbent on destroying Islam is the only accepted "fact" and any shreds of "evidence" that support this absurd viewpoint are promoted beyond all rational belief.

Conversely, the 99% of things the West does that explicitly support Islam as a religion and its adherents as being worthy of respect and equal rights is given no weight whatsoever.

It is a world where, simply stated, paranoia is the basis for all actions and reactions, and facts are utterly ignored.

When viewed in this light, anything the West does to dissipate the paranoia is doomed. Israel can broadcast the Mughrabi Gate dig in high-def from 20 different angles and not one Arab or Muslim leader will be swayed to admit that their assertions of long-standing Jewish plans to destroy Al-Aqsa are inaccurate.

What causes such extreme paranoia among mainstream Muslims?

The answer can be summed up as Elder's First Rule of Muslim Projection: Muslims will project their own crimes and worldviews on everyone else.

It cannot be denied that Islam, along with many other religions, holds a supremacist worldview. This is natural - everyone believes that their belief system is superior to others. But what is little discussed in the West is how extreme Islam's brand of supremacy truly is.

I cannot claim to be an Islamic scholar but it is very hard to find Islamic leaders saying that they do not subscribe to the idea that Islam is meant to literally rule the world, by any means possible - by proselytizing, by demography, by war. The thinking is simple and explicit: dhimmis live as second-class citizens, infidels do not live.

When one grows up with this viewpoint, one assumes that his enemies also grow up with their own versions of the same viewpoint. So for Muslims to say that non-Muslims are determined to destroy Islam is a natural and foregone conclusion, and that is where fantasy becomes Muslim reality.

In other words, Muslims view the West - and Jews in particular - as if they think like Muslims do. Just as Jordan destroyed every synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City in a matter of days after gaining control in 1948, and this was considered natural, the Muslims assume that Jews have been planning the destruction of all mosques in Jerusalem since 1967 (the oft-repeated "Judaizing" meme.)

Every fact that supports their predetermined "truth" is promoted incessantly as evidence, every fact to the contrary is ignored or dismissed as being part of some much larger, nefarious Zionist plot to achieve the same goal. So you will find Muslim websites that prominently highlight and embellish supposed Zionist aggression against Al-Aqsa and none that mention that Israel itself voluntarily gave the Muslim Waqf control over the entire Temple Mount in 1967, nor that Israel has had the ability to destroy the mosque thousands of times over the past 30 years and has scrupulously protected the rights of Muslims to worship there as well as in many other Muslim sites that were themselves built on top of ancient Jewish holy places.

The next question then becomes, how can Israel or the West as a whole negotiate with a people who cannot distinguish between reality and their own paranoia?

UPDATE: Shrinkwrapped links here and has a much more detailed and frightening description of paranoia and projection.

Peaceful unity government scorecard

Here's what the new peaceful unified Palestinian Arab factions are up to in the past 24 hours:

A bus carrying Canadian tourists in east Jerusalem was pelted with stones Saturday in what police described as an organized protest spurred by Hamas.
The Al Aqsa Brigades and the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades announced responsibility for the launching of three mortars "at an Israeli military post" near the Gaza Strip on Friday.
A Palestinian Arab was injured in an explosion in his home in Khan Younis, in what appears to be a "work accident" as he was building a bomb.
A jewelry shop owned by a Hamas supporter in Nablus was shot up.
A Fatah offshoot called "Yasir Arafat's Group" shot two missiles at Sderot.
Israel arrested thirty stone throwers near Rachel's Tomb.
An explosion in the Gaza Strip injure 6 PalArabs - Israel says a Qassam blew up prematurely, the PalArabs say that Israel shot at them as they tried to plant an explosive device.
The IDF discovered two bombs that a PalArab tried to smuggle in through the Hawara checkpoint and destroyed them in a controlled explosion.

And, in case this isn't enough,

A Hamas leader called on PalArabs to end their "truce" with Israel.

Elie Wiesel attacked by Holocaust denier, media yawns

One would think that when a Nobel Peace Prize winner gets assaulted in a hotel that it would generate some headlines. Especially when someone brags about the attack on a Holocaust denying website.

But right now, it is only a local item in a San Francisco newspaper.

And it happened over a week ago.

Terror wins again

One of the key sticking points in the Fatah/Hamas agreement was that Abbas wanted Hamas to "adhere to international resolutions and the agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization" but Hamas only wanted to say that they "respect international resolutions and the agreements" signed by the PLO.

Hamas won.

Which means that the new PA government, which will be formed under Hamas' leadership, is not obligated to recognize Israel nor to keep any agreements made from Oslo through now. The word "respect" is legally meaningless and open to interpretation.

But that word does accomplish exactly what it was meant to accomplish. It allows idiotic world leaders to do what they've always wanted to do - resume funding the Hamas-led PA, talk to Hamas and allow the new PA to negotiate Israel's destruction with the fig leaf of this obvious but ignorable deception.

And it has already started:

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said inclusion of the term "respect" in reference to Israel "is a step in the right direction toward full adherence to the demands of the international community that we hold dear, including in particular the recognition of Israel."

This is, of course, from the AP, which deceptively makes it sound like the document says that Hamas "respects" Israel. In fact, the document doesn't mention Israel explicitly or implicitly.

And Douste-Blazy, by mentioning the word "respect," clearly knows that the words "adhere to" were rejected by Hamas - and yet he says "it is a step in the right direction toward full adherence" to the EU's demands. No, it's not: it is a clear rejection of international demands but it is ambiguous enough to allow EUdiots like Douste-Blazy to pretend that something meaningful and peaceful actually occurred.

In the end, Hamas seems to have won this battle without diluting its hate and terror goals one iota. And now it will have the EU on its side, as the aid to the PalArabs (which already is at record levels and increased by 10% in 2006 over 2005, even with the boycott) will snowball into yet more money that will be converted into Qassams, RPGs, Katyushas and bomb belts.

Media ignores Arab racism in Jerusalem

Why are the Arabs rioting against the Israel's shoring up the ramp to the Mughrabi gate?

From reading the wire service articles, one would conclude that the Arabs are worried about damage to the foundations of the Al-Aqsa mosque:

Israeli excavations near Jerusalem's most sensitive shrine have sparked fury among Muslims who fear such works endanger its foundations, but officials involved say they will not damage the holy site.

Yet the Arabs have been quite forthcoming about why they are upset, and worries about the foundations are clearly not what is uppermost in their minds. Look at the letter from the PA to the UN condemning the repair work:

Excellency,

In follow-up to our letter dated 24 January 2007, Israel, the occupying Power, has stepped up its illegal actions, especially in Occupied East Jerusalem, which aim to intensify expansionist policy for the colonization and Judaization of Arab Jerusalem, with the support of fanatic Jewish settler groups.

Israel, the occupying Power, is continuing its campaign to Judaize the city of Jerusalem and create a new demographic composition in the occupied city. Such actions demonstrate clearly the intransigence of the Israeli Government and its persistence in defying the will of the international community and in violating international law and United Nations resolutions. In this context, it is imperative for the international community to take measures in order to confront these Israeli policies and actions, to ensure respect for international law and to prevent further escalation of the situation in the region.

In line with this unchecked intransigence, Israeli occupying authorities have gone ahead with the condemnable plan to step up its aggression against Islamic Waqf sites in Occupied East Jerusalem. Most notably, Israeli occupying authorities have begun demolishing a historic road connecting Bab Al-Maghariba with the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in addition to two rooms adjacent to the Western Wall, thus exposing the Holy Compound and making it more vulnerable yet to future acts of aggression. Additionally, Israeli occupying authorities continue to carry out excavation works below the Holy Al-Aqsa Compound, undermining its foundations and threatening with its collapse.

There are also concerning reports that Israel, the occupying Power, plans to construct a tourist site below the Holy Al-Aqsa Compound, further raising fears about serious threats facing the Holy Compound. Additionally, Israeli occupying authorities have banned Palestinians below the age of 45 from entering the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in grave contravention of their basic right to access their holy sites and clear violation of Israel's obligations, as an occupying Power, to ensure and protect that right.

Even this letter does not say that the ramp work is excavating below the compound, but it says that there are other digs doing that (without specifying any details.)

Any look at the Arab press shows that "Judaization" is the real concern, not any pretense of worry about Al-Aqsa's integrity:

The statement also reaffirmed that the Islamic and western world will not simply watch what is happening to Jerusalem taking no action against the Israeli continual excavation, which aims to change the characteristic of Jerusalem and Judaization it as well as to obliterate its Arab, Islamic and Christianity landmark. (Petra - Jordan)
The Israeli government is continuing a large-scale demolition project of ancient Islam in East Jerusalem's Old City. Al Aqsa Mosque is under grave danger of destruction in the face of Israeli Judaization of Jerusalem. (Palestine News Network)
KUWAIT, Feb 7 (KUNA) -- Acting Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly Mohammad Al-Busiry asserted Wednesday the necessity of Islamic unity to face the Israeli hostile designs against the holy Aqsa mosque and other Islamic sanctities in the occupied Palestine.

"Concerted efforts must be made to put an end to the Jewish designs targeting judaization of Jerusalem and the removal of Islamic landmarks there, " Al-Busiry told reporters here.

Now, why would the media downplay the real reason that Arabs are upset?

Could it be that doing that would portray Arabs are being bigoted and intolerant, and that this dosn't fit the playbook that the MSM wants us to believe about them?

It is much easier to say that the Arabs are trying to defend their holy site than to say that they do not want any vestiges of Jewishness to remain in the entire city.

Polite requests from Fatah

Some interesting images from Maan News, the first three with identical hilarious captions:

Masked Palestinian militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades ask a shop keeper to close his store as part of a general strike to protest against Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the West Bank city of Hebron February 7, 2007.

Masked Palestinian militants of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades enforce a general strike to protest against Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the West Bank city of Hebron February 7, 2007.

So the terrorist thugs from Fatah "ask" shopkeepers to close their stores.

At gunpoint.

A few points are worth highlighting, even if they are obvious:

The only people being hurt by the forced strike are the PalArabs themselves.
Fatah is Mahmoud Abbas' party, and in the past many of the tens of thousands of PA policemen also moonlighted as masked "militants."
This is not in Gaza, but in the West Bank, showing that every Palestinian Arab area is at the mercy of armed terrorists rather than the benevolent PA security forces that the world insists is responsible for police work.

Hamas and Fatah can sign all the agreements they want, but in the end their people are so steeped in a culture of violence that no numbers of handshakes will make these areas civilized under Palestinian Arab rule.

How to solve the Temple Mount problem

The Arabs think that Israel is acting aggressively against the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They want Israel to stop.

The obvious solution is for them to tell the Waqf to give a part of the Temple Mount to Israel. Israel will appreciate this move so much that it will stop any digs for a while as a goodwill gesture. And to ensure the largest amount of goodwill, the Waqf should give the entire Temple Mount to the Jews.

I call this plan "land for peace."

Since the entire world from Israel's political center through the Europeans, US and Arabs know that "land for peace" is the only formula for real lasting peace in the region, it should work splendidly.

Irshad Manji: Modern Israel is a far cry from old South Africa It's absurd to apply the term apartheid to one of the most progressive states in the world, maintains Irshad Manji

IN the past year, a stream of thinkers across the West - from Australian writer Antony Loewenstein to US academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt - has punctured the usual parameters of debate about Israel. I, for one, welcome any effort to prevent ideas from calcifying into ideologies. As a Muslim refusenik, that's what I do by defying the conventional prejudices of my fellow Muslims. Why would I resent refuseniks of a different kind? It's precisely because I embrace intellectual pluralism that I respectfully challenge Jimmy Carter's recent critique of Israel as an apartheid state. To be sure, I've long admired the former US president. In my book The Trouble with Islam Today I cite him as an example of how religion can be invoked to tap the best of humanity. In no small measure, it was Carter's appreciation of spiritual values that brought together Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, compelling these former foes to clasp hands over a peace deal. Which is why Carter's new book disappoints so many of us who champion co-existence. Entitled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, the book argues that Israel's conduct towards Palestinians mimics South Africa's long-time demonisation of blacks. Of course, certain Israeli politicians have spewed venom at Palestinians, as have some Arab leaders towards Jews, but Israel is far more complex - and diverse - than slogans about the occupation would suggest. In a state practising apartheid, would Arab Muslim legislators wield veto power over anything? At only 20per cent of the population, would Arabs even be eligible for election if they squirmed under the thumb of apartheid? Would an apartheid state extend voting rights to women and thepoor in local elections, which Israel didfor the first time in the history of Palestinian Arabs? Would the vast majority of Arab Israeli citizens turn out to vote in national elections, as they've usually done? Would an apartheid state have several Arab political parties, as Israel does? In recent Israeli elections, two Arab parties found themselves disqualified for expressly supporting terrorism against the Jewish state. However, Israel's Supreme Court, exercising its independence, overturned both disqualifications. Under any system of apartheid, would the judiciary be free of political interference? Would an apartheid state award its top literary prize to an Arab? Israel honoured Emile Habibi in 1986, before the intifada might have made such a choice politically shrewd. Would an apartheid state encourage Hebrew-speaking schoolchildren to learn Arabic? Would road signs throughout the land appear in both languages? Even my country, the proudly bilingual Canada, doesn't meet that standard. Would an apartheid state be home to universities where Arabs and Jews mingle at will, or apartment blocks where they live side by side? Would an apartheid state bestow benefits and legal protections on Palestinians who live outside of Israel but work inside its borders? Would human rights organisations operate openly in an apartheid state? They do in Israel. For that matter, military officials go public with their criticisms of government policies. In October 2003, the Israel Defence Forces' chief of staff told the press that road closures in the West Bank and Gaza were feeding Palestinian anger. Two weeks later, four former heads of the Shin Bet security service blasted the occupation and called on Ariel Sharon to withdraw troops unilaterally, which later happened in Gaza. Would an apartheid state stomach so much dissent from those mandated to protect the state? Above all, would media debate the most basic building blocks of the nation? Would a Hebrew newspaper in an apartheid state run an article by an Arab Israeli about why the Zionist adventure has been a total failure? Would it run that article on Israel's independence day? Would an apartheid state ensure conditions for the freest Arabic press in the Middle East, a press so free that it can demonstrably abuse its liberties and keep on rolling? To this day, the East Jerusalem daily Al-Quds hasn't retracted an anti-Israel letter supposedly penned by Nelson Mandela but proven to have been written by an Arab living in The Netherlands. Even the eminence grise of Palestinian nationalism, the late Edward Said, stated flat out that "Israel is not South Africa". How could it be when an Israeli publisher translated Said's seminal work, Orientalism, into Hebrew? I'll cap this point with a question that Said himself asked of Arabs: "Why don't we fight harder for freedom of opinions in our own societies, a freedom, no one needs to be told, that scarcely exists?" I disagree: some people still need to be told that Arab "freedoms" don't compare to those of Israel. The people who need reminding are those who now push the South Africa analogy a step further by equating Israel with Nazi Germany. To them, Zionists are committing hate crimes under the totalitarian nightmare that they dub "Zio-Nazism" (like neo-Nazism). When it comes to granting citizenship, Israel discriminates in the same way as an affirmative action policy, giving the edge to a specific minority that has faced genocidal injustice. Does this amount to Nazism? Spare me. As a Muslim, I could become a citizen of Israel without having to convert. After all, Israel was one of the few countries anywhere to grant shelter, then citizenship, to the Vietnamese boatpeople who sought political asylum in the late 1970s. I don't have to wonder how Syria compares on that score. Now for the ultimate proof of Israel's flimsy credentials as a bunker of Hitlerian hate: It's the only country in the Middle East to which Arab Christians are voluntarily migrating. And they are also thriving there, notching much higher university attendance rates than the Arab Muslim citizens of Israel, and enjoying better overall health than Jews. The Holy Land is gut-wrenching and complicated. As much as I applaud Israel's efforts to foster pluralism, I condemn its illegal Jewish settlements and less visible crimes such as the diversion of water away from Palestinian towns. These contradictions of the Israeli state should be exposed, discussed, even pilloried. And they are: openly as well as often. So there's little point in deciding whose camp is the paragon of vice or virtue. The better question might be: who's willing to hear what they don't want to hear? That's the test of whether a country is more than black or white.

Temple Mount clarity

Seeing Israel's "defense minister" kowtow to the Muslim world in relation to the Temple Mount is just the latest time that Israel has given ammunition to the Arab world to destroy any Jewish claims to the site, and to change the status quo on the Har HaBayit.

The single dumbest thing Israel ever did was to give the Waqf complete control over the area in 1967.

Muslims do not hesitate to say, explicitly, that the Temple Mount is an exclusively Muslim area and that they do not want any non-Muslims to ever step foot upon it. The world's media accepts this is completely true and normal.

The Jewish narrative, which is far more accurate and far stronger, gets ignored.

The fact is that the Temple Mount is the single holiest spot on the planet according to Judaism. It was the site of both Temples and the Jewish claim predates the Muslim religion by some 1500 years.

Every single day, Judaism's holiest place gets desecrated by Muslims there.

I visited the Hulda Gates on the south side of the Temple Mount a couple of weeks ago:

Here was the site where countless Jews would enter and ascend to the Temple over 2000 years ago. Excavated Jewish ritual baths dot the surrounding area. One can go up to the now-blocked gate and recite Tehillim (Psalms) - only to be interrupted by the Muslim prayers that are amplified inside in the mosques that now occupy he southern Mount area, as they desecrate this undeniably Jewish sacred site.

If you are offended by my characterization of the Temple Mount as an exclusively Jewish site that is being desecrated and destroyed by Muslims, ask yourself why you are not offended by the routine descriptions of the area as being exclusively Muslim where Jews are not allowed to pray. Even without even going into the Muslim fantasy that Mohammed went to Jerusalem, it is obvious that the Jewish nature of the site is far stronger and far older than any Muslim claim.

It has been my experience that, without exception, every crime that Muslims routinely accuse Jews of perpetrating is a crime that the Muslims routinely do themselves in far greater degrees.

This is a classic example.

Zionism promotes Muslim unity

Iran's big-cheese ayatollah makes another statement that is completely and utterly wrong:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the spiritual leader of Iran, said Monday that the "Zionist regime" is the factor preventing Muslim unity. Khamenei said that Israel was established by “arrogant forces, which sought to create conflict between the Muslim peoples.”

This is Iranian comedy at its best. The only thing that unites Shiites and Sunnis, Hamas and Fatah, Jordanian and Syrian and Pakistani and British and Malaysian Muslims is their hatred for everything Zionist. Whenever there is a major rift in the 'ummah, one can count on some Muslim leader or another to denounce Zionism in an attempt to find common ground (or, if they are fighting, to accuse the other side of being a Zionist.)

Textbook case

A Saudi-funded Muslim school in Britain was found to have textbooks calling Jews "apes" and Christians "pigs," as well as calling Judaism "repugnant" and calling Judaism and Christianity "worthless."

The school's reaction is a textbook case of how Muslims often lie, deny, and claim victimhood when confronted with evidence such as this. First the lies:

King Fahad Academy director Dr Sumaya Aluyusuf ...admitted the textbooks - translated for BBC Two's Newsnight programme by two independent scholars - were kept at the school.

But the translations were "taken out of context" and had "lost some of their meaning", she said.

She said the controversy had arisen from the misinterpretation of the material which was based on the Koran.

Since the Koran itself makes the statements comparing Jews to apes and pigs, there is very little room for misinterpretation.

Then the denial:

"I would like to make it clear that the controversial pages within the books are not taught within the academy," she said.

"However, in view of the public interest I have decided to remove those chapters from the books.

"The school is currently moving towards an international curriculum and new books are being developed for that curriculum."

Will anyone follow up to see if they actually went through scores of books and ripped out the offensive passages? Will anyone check in a year or so the "international curriculum?" Would any teacher currently employed there admit if he or she had taught from these sections?

And finally, the victimhood:

She said pupils and parents had suffered discrimination and intimidation as a result of the controversy.

One local shop had put up a sign saying pupils from the school were not welcome and a passer-by had shouted abuse at a parent waiting outside the school gate.

"The local MP called me and said he was very concerned about the safety of the children and asked if we would like him to send extra police around the area.

Was any of this corroborated by the British media?

This is the classic response to untold numbers of similar cases over they years, and the Muslim reactions are so predictable that one can imagine that they have their own textbook on how to deflect criticism.

A little context on Temple Mount digs

There have been a number of stories in the news lately about how the PalArabs are upset that Jews are digging near the Temple Mount. The stories are silly for a number of reasons:

The purpose is to repair a ramp that leads up to the Temple Mount, not to touch the Mount itself.
The dig is open for everyone to see.
Every dig in Israel for any purpose is overseen by the Israel Antiquities Authority to make sure that nothing of historic interest gets damaged.
The Palestinian Arabs bring up scare stories about Jews trying to destroy Al Aqsa Mosque every few days. This is not an exaggeration; I see new accusations in the Arabic press literally every few days.
The Palestinian Arabs are especially pouncing on this story as a way to deflect world focus away from their internal civil war.
The Muslims have historically and systematically tried to destroy thousands of non-Muslim artifacts in holy sites - for them to complain about Jews doing the same thing is utterly hypocritical
What the Muslims are scared of is not that anything of theirs is going to be damaged - their real fear is that Jerusalem, the ancient holy city of Jews that predates Islam by many centuries, is going to be "Judaized:"
Gaza - Ma'an - The Al Aqsa Brigades have threatened to target Israeli synagogues if the Israeli authorities continue the Judaization of the holy city of Jerusalem and the demolition of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the brigades confirmed that all the synagogues will be targets for the brigades and are not more holy than the mosque of Al Aqsa.

The statement called on Palestinian people in and out Palestine, to go into the streets in protest against Israeli actions in the holy city.

Let's look at where the Israelis are repairing the ramp that leads up to the Temple Mount and where the Al Aqsa mosque is, to see who it telling the truth.

Here is a panorama shot of the southern half of the western wall of the Temple Mount that I took last week (click on it to see it enlarged):

The golden dome on the left is the Dome of the Rock. The smaller grey dome on the right next to the trees is the Al Aqsa Mosque. The blue-tarped ramp in the middle is the temporary wooden bridge that is being repaired that is causing such a pretense of anguish. As you can see, it is pretty far away from the mosque. In fact, the Al Aqsa mosque is on the southern wall of the Mount as this view of the southwest corner shows (click on image for more detail):

The Israel Antiquities Authority website has details on exactly what they are doing and why.

It is not hard for news services to be able to provide context in their sensationalistic stories of the protests.

But it is hard to find any news articles that bother to try.