Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 10, 2014

11/10 Links Pt2: Kosher Restaurant in Paris Firebombed; Why was the Myth of al-Aqsa Created?

From Ian:

A firebomb was thrown at a kosher Jewish restaurant in the 17th district of Paris at week's end.
Several minutes earlier, some young Muslims who walked by the restaurant threatened the diners inside and called them “dirty Jews.” The diners did not react.
A few minutes passed, and a loud smash was heard when a firebomb hit the restaurant's door. The diners managed to see a group of Muslims running away as the firebomb ignited, starting a fire, which the restaurant's employees succeeded in putting out. None of the restaurant-goers was hurt.
The restaurant door was reportedly made of tempered glass, a factor which may have saved the clients inside the eatery from harm.

Jewish teen attacked in Paris after arson attempt at kosher eatery

The assault happened Thursday in the 3rd arrondissement, or district, 500 yards north of Bastille, in front of the private high school Progress, which has a large number of Jewish students.
The victim, who was wearing a kippah, was standing in front of the school with some friends when a group of approximately 15 youths of African descent ages 16-19 assaulted him, according to a report of the incident by the National Bureau for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA.
They beat the victim, who was not named, with their fists and elbows before fleeing the scene. He received medical attention and was given two days sick leave to recover from the assault, BNVCA reported.

Mordechai Kedar: Why and When was the Myth of al-Aqsa Created?

Arafat, himself a secular person (ask the Hamas!), did exactly what the Caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty did 1300 years ago: he marshaled the holiness of Jerusalem to serve his political ends. He could not give control of Jerusalem over to the Jews since according to Islam they are impure and the wrath of Allah is upon them ("al-maghdhoub 'alayhim"; Koran 1,7, see al-Jalalayn and other commentaries; note that verse numbers may differ slightly in the various editions of the Koran). The Jews are the sons of monkeys and pigs (5,60). (For the idea that Jews are related to pigs and monkeys see, for instance, Musnad al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, (Beirut 1969) vol. 3, p. 241. See also pages 348, 395, 397, 421, and vol. 6, p. 135.) The Jews are those who distorted the holy writings which were revealed to them (2,73; 3,72) and denied God's signs (3,63). Since they violated the covenant with their God (4,154), He cursed them (5,16) and they are forever the inheritors of hell (3,112). So how could Arafat abandon Jerusalem to the Jews?
The Palestinian Arab media these days are full of messages of Jihad, calling to broaden the national-political war between Israel and the Palestinians into a religious-Islamic war between the Jews and the Muslims. READ THEIR LIPS: for them Christianity is no better than Judaism, since both "forfeited" their right to rule over Jerusalem. Only Islam - Din al-Haqq ("the Religion of Truth") - has this right, and forever. This was and still is the leitmotiv in Friday sermons in Palestinian mosques and official media. (Note: photo acccompanying this article is a keffiya showing the hoped-for taking Jerusalem from Israel and the destruction of Israel on the scarf. On the right side it says "Jerusalem is ours" and the left: "Palestine" with no Israel on the map.)
Since the holiness of Jerusalem to Islam has always been, and still is no more than a politically motivated holiness, any Palestinian Arab politician would be putting his political head on the block should he give it up. Must Judaism and Christianity defer to myths related in Islamic texts or allegedly envisioned in Muhammad's dreams, long after Jerusalem was established as the ancient, real center of these two religions which preceded Islam?
Should the world reshape the Middle East map just because Muslims decided to recycle the political problems of the Umayyads 1250 years after the curtain came down on their role in history?

The Economist is against civil rights for Jews (if Arabs object violently) UPDATE

The Economist describes why Jews should not be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount:

Rabbis and activists have been preparing for the restoration of the temple and challenging the ban on Jews praying on the esplanade on top of the mount, the Haram al-Sharif, site of two venerable Muslim shrines, the golden Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque.

This would be esoteric if it were not so dangerous. A minority obsession with the temple is entering the mainstream and creating a vicious cycle. More temple activists, among them politicians and ministers, are visiting the Haram to demand the right to pray. To some, this is the first step to sweeping away the mosques. In turn, Palestinian rioters vow to “defend al-Aqsa”, the third-holiest site in Islam. The attempted murder of a prominent temple activist, Yehuda Glick, on October 29th has redoubled calls for Jewish prayers and more restrictions on Muslims. As Palestinians adopt a new tactic of driving into Jewish pedestrians, there is talk of a new uprising, even of war.

Here was my response:

The right for Jews to pray on the Temple Mount is enshrined in numerous UN resolutions like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. It is a basic civil and human right for Jews to be allowed to peacefully visit and pray on their holiest spot.

It is curious that The Economist is coming out against civil rights for Jews.

Why is that? Because the Muslims there threaten violence - and now they are murdering Jews in the name of Islam!

Civil rights are not dependent on the veto power of extremists to threaten violence. There are numerous videos of Jews visiting the Temple Mount, and not one of them shows any of them doing anything the least bit provocative. On the other hand, their quiet strolls are greeted with screams, threats and occasional violence.

Yet The Economist seems determined to label the Jews who want equal rights as the agitators and the Muslim rioters as the victims of Israeli aggression.

The Economist's idea of the "status quo" is completely wrong. Before 2000, Jews were able to visit the Mount and no one objected if visitors quietly prayed. Before 1967, of course, Jews were forbidden altogether. Perhaps that is the "status quo" that The Economist prefers to see.

Modern liberals are supposed to defend civil rights, to stand up for those being threatened by bigots. One must wonder why The Economist believes that in this case those making the threats are in the right and civil rights for Jews are not important.

When you pick and choose which human rights you are in favor of, you can no longer call yourself an advocate for human rights.

(h/t Ron)

UPDATE: After my comment was up on the site for several hours and received over 50 "recommends," The Economist removed it.

Their comments policy is here. I didn't violate it, except possibly if they are claiming that I am impersonating the "real" Elders of Zion.'

Apparently, The Economist's interest in freedom of expression is exactly as strong as its support for human rights.

UNRWA student counselor defends Hitler (UPDATE)

Meet "Storm." (He doesn't use his real name on Facebook.)

He is a happy fellow, comfortable in a Hebrew T-shirt.

He's equally comfortable with a gun:

He likes posting photos of children with weapons, too.

He posted that Hitler was innocent; "no Jews were burned in the Holocaust and Hitler is being libeled by them, when the real Holocaust is in Gaza."

Here's his picture of his hero.

"Storm" is a school counselor for UNRWA.

I wonder what he "counsels" the kids in his school?

UPDATE: By sheer coincidence, I'm sure, his page has been taken down.

11/10 Links Pt1: Two Stabbed to Death in Separate Knife Attacks; Israeli group sues Abbas at ICC for rockets

From Ian:

Young woman killed in West Bank stabbing attack

A young woman was killed and two people were injured in a stabbing attack at the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut Monday afternoon, in the second terrorist attack of its kind in a day.
Police said the attack occurred at a bus stop at the entrance to the settlement, in the Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem.
The victim was stabbed in her neck, and declared dead at the site. Media gave conflicting reports about her age, ranging from 14 to 25 years old.
A 26-year-old man suffered light-moderate injuries, and a man in his 50s was lightly hurt.

Man stabbed in Tel Aviv in possible terror attack

An IDF soldier, about 20 years of age, was critically wounded after being stabbed multiple times in a terror attack at Tel Aviv’s Hahagana train station on Monday afternoon.
Police confirmed the attack was a politically motivated terrorist attack.
A 50-year-old man who confronted the terrorist was lightly injured in the scuffle, and received medical treatment at the scene, Channel 2 reported.
The attacker was in police custody, Israel Radio reported. Initial reports identified the suspect as an 18-year-old Palestinian man from Nablus who had illegally entered Israeli territory. Channel 2 named the stabber as Nur al-Din Abu Hashiyeh.
Police were interrogating the man and had forwarded his identity to the Shin Bet security agency.

Israeli group sues Abbas at ICC for Fatah rocket fire

An Israeli legal group filed suit against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the International Criminal Court on Monday, arguing that the Fatah head was responsible for rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israeli cities during the summer conflict which were claimed by members of his faction.
While neither Israel nor the PA are members of the international body and therefore do not fall under its jurisdiction, the Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center maintained that “Abbas is a Jordanian citizen and Jordan is a current member of the ICC. The ICC is empowered to exercise its jurisdiction over all acts committed by the citizen of a member, wherever those acts are committed.”
The lawsuit maintains that Abbas should be tried for the various rocket attacks on Israel claimed by Fatah during the 50-day conflict in Gaza — on July 10, 25 and 27, and August 8 — as “he is their responsible superior exercising effective command and control of them.” Rocket fire on civilians is a war crime under international law, it notes.
“Abbas should be immediately investigated and prosecuted for these rocket attacks against Israel,” Shurat HaDin chairwoman Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said in a statement.
“Shurat HaDin will not allow Fatah to carry out rocket attacks on Israeli population centers, while hypocritically advocating Palestinian membership in the ICC. Abbas falsely believes that alleged crimes against Arabs are the only ones that should be prosecuted,” she wrote.

Al Quds University makes an exhibit praising shooting and running over Jews

The Shehab News Agency has this photo of a new exhibit set up by the Islamic bloc at Al Quds University dramatizing the shooting of Yehuda Glick as well as the recent car terror attacks and praise for the murderers and terrorists:

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

Arab sneaks into Tel Aviv to kill while Israel-haters call for dismantling security barrier (update)

From TOI:

An IDF soldier, about 20 years of age, was critically wounded after being stabbed multiple times in a terror attack at Tel Aviv’s Hahagana train station on Monday afternoon.

Police confirmed the attack was a politically motivated terrorist attack.

A 50-year-old man who confronted the terrorist was lightly injured in the scuffle, and received medical treatment at the scene, Channel 2 reported.

The attacker was in police custody, Israel Radio reported. Initial reports identified the suspect as an 18-year-old Palestinian man from Nablus who had illegally entered Israeli territory. Channel 2 named the stabber as Nur al-Din Abu Khashiyeh.

Meanwhile, the pro-terror ISM says:

Yesterday, to mark the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall today, a direct action took place in Beit Hanina, a neighbourhood in Jerusalem. ISM and international volunteers supported the Palestinian-led action, which involved demolishing a section of the Apartheid wall using a sledge hammer and a pick-axe.

The comparison between a barrier that is meant to save lives and the Berlin Wall is, of course, odious.

But the real purpose of wanting to demolish the security barrier can be seen by complete absence of denouncing terror attacks by the ISM and their ideological cousins. The Israel haters cheer terror attacks like those of today, while they pretend to maintain "liberal" standards.

(h/t Joel)

UPDATE: It seems unlikely that the ISM photos were really of the security barrier; they are probably an acoustic wall adjacent to a highway. The barrier in Beit Hanina that has bricks has barbed wire on top, this other angle of the ISM action does not seem to show that. (h/t Ian)

Video of rock attack on car in Jerusalem (update)

This video surfaced last week, I don't know if it happened during the current riots in Jerusalem or not. It is chilling nonetheless to see how Jews are targeted in the holy city.

UPDATE: The video is from 2008 (h/t Miguel)

Yasir Arafat's legacy of terror

On Sunday, at a memorial for the tenth anniversary of Yasir Arafat's timely death at his shrine in Ramallah, Mahmoud Abbas said that the tomb is only in a temporary location, and it will be relocated as soon as possible to Jerusalem.

I cannot imagine any Israeli leader ever allowing the master mass-murdering terrorist to be buried in the city of David and Solomon.

Arafat was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians in dozens of terror attacks - even after he signed the Oslo accords.

If you want to talk about desecrating the holy city, burying him there would be the ultimate desecration.

Here is a list, prepared by CAMERA 10 years ago, detailing the major terrorist activities of Yasir Arafat.

– Aug 4, 1929: Born in Cairo. Arafat, then named Muhammad Abdel Rahman Abdel Rauf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, is fifth child of prosperous merchant, Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini.

– 1933: Arafat's mother dies. He and his infant brother are sent to live with uncle in Jerusalem.

– Late 1950's: Arafat co-founds Fatah, the “Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine.”

– Jan. 1, 1965: Fatah fails in its first attempted attack within Israel — the bombing of the National Water Carrier.

– July 5, 1965: A Fatah cell plants explosives at Mitzpe Massua, near Beit Guvrin; and on the railroad tracks to Jerusalem near Kafr Battir.

– 1965-1967: Numerous Fatah bomb attacks target Israeli villages, water pipes, railroads. Homes are destroyed and Israelis are killed.

– July 1968: Fatah joins and becomes the dominant member of the PLO, an umbrella organization of Palestinian terrorist groups.

– Feb. 4, 1969: Arafat is appointed Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO

– Feb. 21, 1970: SwissAir flight 330, bound for Tel Aviv, is bombed in mid-flight by PFLP, a PLO member group. 47 people are killed.

– May 8, 1970: PLO terrorists attack an Israeli schoolbus with bazooka fire, killing nine pupils and three teachers from Moshav Avivim

– Sept. 6, 1970: TWA, Pan-Am, and BOAC airplanes are hijacked by PLO terrorists.

– September 1970: Jordanian forces battle the PLO terrorist organization, driving its members out of Jordan after the group's violent activity threatens to destabilize the kingdom. The terrorists flee to Lebanon. This period in PLO history is called “Black September.”

– May 1972: PFLP, part of the PLO, dispatches members of the Japanese Red Army to attack Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, killing 27 people.

– Sept. 5, 1972: Munich Massacre —11 Israeli athletes are murdered at the Munich Olympics by a group calling themselves “Black September,”said to be an arm of Fatah, operating under Arafat's direct command.

– March 1, 1973: Palestinian terrorists take over Saudi embassy in Khartoum. The next day, two Americans, including United States ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel, and a Belgian were shot and killed. James J. Welsh, an analyst for the National Security Agency from 1969 through 1974, charged Arafat with direct complicity in these murders.

– April 11, 1974: 11 people are killed by Palestinian terrorists who attack apartment building in Kiryat Shmona.

– May 15, 1974: PLO terrorists infiltrating from Lebanon hold children hostage in Ma'alot school. 26 people, 21 of them children, are killed.

– June 9, 1974: Palestinian National Council adopts “Phased Plan,” which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state on any territory evacuated by Israel, to be used as a base of operations for destroying the whole of Israel. The PLO reaffirms its rejection of United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for a “just and lasting peace” and the “right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”

– November 1974: PLO takes responsibility for the PDFLP's Beit She'an murders in which 4 Israelis are killed.

– Nov. 13, 1974: Arafat, wearing a holster (he had to leave his gun at the entrance), addresses the U.N. General Assembly.

– March 1975: Members of Fatah attack the Tel Aviv seafront and take hostages in the Savoy hotel. Three soldiers, three civilians and seven terrorists are killed.

– March 1978: Coastal Road Massacre —Fatah terrorists take over a bus on the Haifa-Tel Aviv highway and kill 21 Israelis.

– 1982: Having created a terrorist mini-state in Lebanon destabilizing that nation, PLO is expelled as a result of Israel's response to incessant PLO missile attacks against northern Israeli communities. Arafat relocates to Tunis.

– Oct. 7, 1985: Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro is hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Wheelchair-bound elderly man, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot and thrown overboard. Intelligence reports note that instructions originated from Arafat's headquarters in Tunis.

– Dec. 12, 1988: Arafat claims to accept Israel's right to exist.

– September 1993: Arafat shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, inaugurating the Oslo Accords. Arafat pledges to stop incitement and terror, and to foster co-existence with Israel, but fails to comply. Throughout the years of negotiations, aside from passing, token efforts, Arafat does nothing to stop Hamas, PFLP, and Islamic Jihad from carrying out thousands of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. With Arafat's encouragement and financial support, groups directly under Arafat's command, such as the Tanzim and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, also carry out terror attacks.

– Oct. 21, 1996: Speaking at a rally near Bethlehem, Arafat said "We know only one word - jihad. jihad, jihad, jihad. Whoever does not like it can drink from the Dead Sea or from the Sea of Gaza." (Yediot Ahronot, October 23, 1996)

– April 16, 1998: In a statement published in the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, Arafat is quoted: "O my dear ones on the occupied lands, relatives and friends throughout Palestine and the diaspora, my colleagues in struggle and in arms, my colleagues in struggle and in jihad...Intensify the revolution and the blessed intifada...We must burn the ground under the feet of the invaders."

– July 2000: Arafat rejects peace settlement offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, which would have led to a Palestinian state.

– September 2000: New "intifada" is launched. Arafat continues to incite, support and fund terrorism.

– Jan. 3, 2002: Israelis intercept the Karine-A, a ship loaded with 50 tons of mortars, rocket launchers, anti-tank mines and other weapons intended for the Palestinian war against the Israelis. The captain admits he was under the command of the Palestinian Authority.

– September 2003: IMF report titled "Economic Performance and Reforms under Conflict Conditions," states that Arafat has diverted $900 million of public PA funds into his own accounts from 1995 - 2000.

Below are some of the attacks since Sept 2000 perpetrated by groups under Arafat's command:

– May 29, 2001: Gilad Zar, an Itamar resident, was shot dead in a terrorist ambush by Fatah Tanzim.

– May 29, 2001: Sara Blaustein, 53, and Esther Alvan, 20, of Efrat, were killed in a drive-by shooting south of Jerusalem. The Fatah Tanzim claimed responsibility for the attack.

– June 18, 2001: Doron Zisserman, 38, shot and killed in his car by Fatah sniper fire.

– Aug 26, 2001: Dov Rosman, 58, killed in a shooting attack by Fatah terrorist.

– Sept 6, 2001: Erez Merhavi, 23, killed in a Fatah Tanzim ambush shooting near Hadera while driving to a wedding.

– Sept 20, 2001: Sarit Amrani, 26, killed by Fatah terrorist snipers as she was traveling in a car with her husband and 3 children.

– Oct 4, 2001: 3 killed, 13 wounded, when a Fatah terrorist, dressed as an Israeli paratrooper, opened fire on Israeli civilians waiting at the central bus station in Afula.

– Nov 27, 2001 - 2 killed 50 injured when two Palestinian terrorists opened fire with Kalashnikov assault rifles on a crowd of people near the central bus station in Afula. Fatah and the Islamic Jihad claimed joint responsibility.

– Nov 29, 2001: 3 killed and 9 wounded in a suicide bombing on an Egged 823 bus en route from Nazereth to Tel Aviv near the city of Hadera. The Islamic Jihad and Fatah claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Dec 12, 2001 - 11 killed and 30 wounded when three terrorists attacked a bus and several passenger cars with a roadside bomb, anti-tank grenades, and light arms fire near the entrance to Emmanuel in Samaria . Both Fatah and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Jan 15, 2002: Avi Boaz, 71, an American citizen, was kidnapped at a PA security checkpoint in Beit Jala. His bullet-riddled body was found in a car near Bethlehem. The Fatah's Al-Aksa Brigade claimed responsibility for the murder.

– Jan 15, 2002: Yoela Chen, 45, was shot dead by an Al Aqsa Brigade terrorist

– Jan 17, 2002: 6 killed, 35 wounded when a Fatah terrorist burst into a bat mitzva reception in a banquet hall in Hadera opening fire with an M-16 assault rifle.

– Jan 22, 2002: 2 killed, 40 injured when a Fatah terrorist opened fire with an M-16 assault rifle near a bus stop in downtown Jerusalem.

– Jan. 27, 2002: One person was killed and more than 150 were wounded by a female Fatah suicide bomber in the center of Jerusalem.

– Feb 6, 2002 - A mother and her 11 year old daughter were murdered in their home by a Palestinian terrorist disguised in an IDF uniform. Both Fatah and Hamas claimed responsibility.

– Feb 18, 2002 : - Ahuva Amergi, 30, was killed and a 60-year old man was injured when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire on her car. Maj. Mor Elraz, 25, and St.-Sgt. Amir Mansouri, 21, who came to their assistance, were killed while trying to intercept the terrorist. The terrorist was killed when the explosives he was carrying were detonated. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Feb 22, 2002: Valery Ahmir, 59, was killed by terrorists in a Fatah drive-by shooting north of Jerusalem as he returned home from work.

– Feb 25, 2002: Avraham Fish, 65, and Aharon Gorov, 46, were killed in a Fatah terrorist shooting attack south of Bethlehem. Fish's daughter, 9 months pregnant, was seriously injured but delivered a baby girl.

– Feb 25, 2002: Police officer 1st Sgt. Galit Arbiv, 21, died after being fatally shot, when a Fatah terrorist opened fire at a bus stop in the Neve Ya'akov residential neighbhorhood in northern Jerusalem. Eight others were injured.

– Feb 27, 2002: Gad Rejwan, 34, of Jerusalem, was shot and killed by one of his Palestinian employees in a factory north of Jerusalem. Two Fatah groups issued a joint statement taking responsibility for the murder.

– March 2, 2002: A suicide bombing by Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem killed 11 people and injured more than 50.

– Mar 5, 2002: 3 were killed and over 30 people were wounded in Tel-Aviv when a Fatah terrorist opened fire on two adjacent restaurants shortly after 2:00 AM.

– Mar 5, 2002: Devorah Friedman, 45, of Efrat, was killed and her husband injured in a Fatah shooting attack on the Bethlehem bypass "tunnel road", south of Jerusalem.

– Mar 9, 2002: Avia Malka, 9 months, and Israel Yihye, 27, were killed and about 50 people were injured when two Fatah terrorists opened fire and threw grenades at cars and pedestrians in the coastal city of Netanya on Saturday evening, close to the city's boardwalk and hotels.

–March 21, 2002: An Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade suicide bomber exploded himself in a crowd of shoppers in Jerusalem, killing 3 and injuring 86.

– March 29, 2002: Two killed and 28 injured when a female Fatah suicide bomber blew herself up in a Jerusalem supermarket.

– March 30, 2002: One killed and 30 injured in an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

– April 12, 2002: Six killed and 104 wounded when a female Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade suicide bomber blew herself up at a bus stop on Jaffa road at the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market.

– May 27, 2002: Ruth Peled, 56, of Herzliya and her infant granddaughter, aged 14 months, were killed and 37 people were injured when a Fatah suicide bomber detonated himself near an ice cream parlor outside a shopping mall in Petah Tikva.

– May 28, 2002 - Albert Maloul, 50, of Jerusalem, was killed when shots were fired by Fatah terrorists at the car in which he was traveling south on the Ramallah bypass road.

– May 28, 2002 - Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terrorists killed Netanel Riachi, 17, Gilad Stiglitz, 14, and Avraham Siton, 17, three yeshiva high school students playing basketball.

– June 19, 2002: Seven people were killed and 37 injured when a Fatah suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem.

– June 20, 2002: Rachel Shabo, 40, and three of her sons - Neria, 16, Zvika, 12, and Avishai, 5 - as well as a neighbor, Yosef Twito, 31, who came to their aid, were murdered when a terrorist entered their home in Itamar, south of Nablus, and opened fire. Two other children were injured, as well as two soldiers. The PFLP and the Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

– July 25, 2002: Rabbi Elimelech Shapira, 43, was killed in a Fatah shooting attack near the West Bank community of Alei Zahav.

– July 26, 2002: St.-Sgt. Elazar Lebovitch, 21, of Hebron; Rabbi Yosef Dikstein, 45, of Psagot, his wife Hannah, 42, and their 9-year-old son Shuv'el Zion were killed in a Fatah Al Aqsa Brigade shooting attack south of Hebron. Two other of their children were injured. – July 30, 2002: Shlomo Odesser, 60, and his brother Mordechai, 52, both of Tapuach in Samaria, were shot and killed when their truck came under Fatah fire in the West Bank village of Jama'in.

– Aug 4, 2002: 2 killed and 17 wounded when a Fatah terrorist opened fire with a pistol near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City.

– Aug 5, 2002: Avi Wolanski (29) and his wife Avital (27), of Eli, were killed and one of their children, aged 3, was injured when terrorists opened fire on their car as they were traveling on the Ramallah-Nablus road in Samaria. The Martyrs of the Palestinian Popular Army, a splinter group associated with Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Aug 10, 2002: Yafit Herenstein, 31, of Moshav Mechora in the Jordan Valley, was killed and her husband, Arno, seriously wounded when a Fatah terrorist infiltrated the moshav and opened fire outside their home.

– Sept 18, 2002: Yosef Ajami, 36, was killed when Fatah terrorists opened fire on his car near Mevo Dotan, north of Jenin in the West Bank.

– Oct 29, 2002: Three people, including 2 fourteen year olds, were shot to death by a Fatah terrorist.

-- Nov 10, 2002: Revital Ohayon, 34, and her two sons, Matan, 5, and Noam, 4, as well as Yitzhak Dori, 44 - all of Kibbutz Metzer - and Tirza Damari, 42, were killed when a Fatah terrorist infiltrated the kibbutz, located east of Hadera near the Green Line, and opened fire.

– Nov 28, 2002: 5 killed and 40 wounded when two Fatah terrorists opened fire and threw grenades at the Likud polling station in Beit She'an, near the central bus station, where party members were casting their votes in the Likud primary.

– Apr 24, 2003 - 1 was killed and 13 were wounded in a suicide bombing outside the train station in Kfar Sava. Groups related to the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the PFLP clamied joint responsibility for the attack.

– May 5, 2003 - Gideon Lichterman, 27, was killed and two other passengers, his six-year-old daughter Moriah and a reserve soldier, were seriously wounded when Fatah terrorists fired shots at their vehicle in Samaria.

– May 19, 2003: 3 were killed and 70 were wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Amakim Mall in Afula. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades both claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Aug 29, 2003: Shalom Har-Melekh, 25, was killed in a Fatah shooting attack while driving northeast of Ramallah. His wife, Limor, who was seven months pregnant, sustained moderate injuries, and gave birth to a baby girl by Caesarean section.

– Jan 29, 2004: 11 people were killed and over 50 wounded in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus no. 19 at the corner of Gaza and Arlozorov streets in Jerusalem. Both the Fatah-related Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

– Mar 14, 2004: 10 were killed and 16 wounded in a double suicide bombing at Ashdod Port. Hamas and Fatah claimed responsibility for the attack.

– May 2, 2004: Tali Hatuel, 34, and her daughters - Hila, 11, Hadar, 9, Roni, 7, and Merav, 2 - of Katif in the Gaza Strip were killed when two Palestinian terrorists fired on an Israeli car at the entrance to the Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif. Fatah and Islamic Jihad claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

But there is more. Because Arafat also coordinated attacks with Hamas and Islamic Jihad since at least 1997:

During March 9-13, 1997 (and perhaps earlier), Arafat met personally in Gaza with the leaders of Hamas and other militant groups, and gave them the "green light" to resume terrorist attacks. Following those meetings, Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak told Israel Radio on March 23, 1997: "Organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad have an understanding from the Palestinian Authority to carry out attacks." After the outbreak of the violence in September 2000, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah coordinated together under the umbrella of the "Nationalist and Islamic Forces," led by Fatah.

In a memorandum captured in Operation Defensive Shield, the Secretary-General of the Fatah office in Tulkarm requested that Arafat provide $2,000 to each of 15 specifically named "Fighting Brethren" of the Tanzim military wing of Fatah. According to Israeli military sources, each of the "fighters" was involved in the planning or execution of suicide attacks. With his own signature in Arabic, Arafat authorized the payment of $800 to each of the "fighters" on April 5, 2001.

On September 19, 2001, Arafat personally approved a request for payment of $600 to three people including Ra'ad Karmi, commander of the Tanzim in Tulkarm, who was personally involved in at least 25 shooting attacks against Israelis. Arafat funded Karmi even though Israel had placed Karmi on its "most-wanted" list just three months earlier.5 On the same day, Arafat approved payment to Amar Qadan, a member of his own Force-17 "Presidential Guard," who was involved in terrorist operations.

A second request was faxed to Arafat to fund 12 more terrorists. According to Colonel Miri Eisin of the IDF Intelligence Branch, "Every single one of them was on our wanted list...these are Tanzim members, which is Arafat's own party."6 Arafat knew well that these individuals were involved in terrorism. Nevertheless, on January 7, 2002, "Arafat himself - in his handwriting, with his signature...agreed to pay the money."

On January 17, 2002, two and a half weeks later, a Palestinian killed six Israelis and wounded twenty-six at a bat-mitzvah party in Hadera, initiated and planned by one of those on Arafat's list Mansur Saleh Sharim, who was already responsible for the deaths of at least three Israelis. Senior Fatah figures in Israeli custody, like Marwan Barghouti, admitted subsequently that Arafat approved funding for Fatah operatives with the knowledge that it would be used to finance terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

Arafat is the architect of modern terror. The fact that there is no one within Palestinian Arab society willing to call him a terrorist is in itself proof that Israel has no peace partner.

Some details on how Gaza terrorists get weapons, training from Iran

The pro-Hezbollah Al Akhbar published on October 30 a detailed article on how Islamic Jihad terrorists get their weapons and training from Iran. Much of the article rings true.

Excerpts:

Before 2012, when resistance fighters used to travel via Syria, the authorities in Damascus allocated special conduits for Gazan resistance fighters.

Cars would wait for them on the tarmac and then take them to the factions to which they were affiliated. A prominent Palestinian leader says, “If their trips were scheduled on the same day, they would change planes without being asked about visas or passports.”

In Tehran, the resistance fighters attended intensive training sessions. Over the many months they spent there, they gained invaluable skills, starting with on-hands application of theories, to testing weapons and tactics in environments simulating the geography in Gaza. For instance, they were taken on board Iranian HESA Shahed helicopters to inspect the sites where the rockets fell, to examine their accuracy and effectiveness, according to Abu Jihad.

The resistance fighters transferred their experience to Gaza, where they helped manufacture and develop rockets, and provide training on how to emplace and camouflage them to avoid the occupation’s eyes in the sky and on the ground. Yet the training did not come only from Iran, as fighters also underwent the same kind of training in Syria. There were also the occasional incidents. In one such incident, during training on hitting targets in the Syrian Desert, a rocket fell near a dormitory and wounded a number of soldiers.

...Since 2005, following the withdrawal of the Israeli enemy from the Philadelphia Corridor, the resistance breathed a sigh of relief. The southern border with Egypt was now open to the resistance fighters, creating better conditions for smuggling in weapons and raw materials through tunnels to manufacture rockets. Since that year and until 2012, Iran and Hezbollah sought to help develop the rockets of the Palestinian resistance to reach longer ranges. A new stage began in which fighters from Gaza flocked to Lebanon, and collaborated with the resistance there to bring in more weapons and military equipment.

The common belief that boats snuck to the shore is inaccurate. Rather, weapons would be dropped in certain points in the sea very far from the shore. Water currents washed them off on the shore, to be retrieved by divers at night. Another notable smuggling route went through Sudan, Egypt, the Sinai, and then Gaza via tunnels, according to one prominent Hamas official.

...After the war in 2012, the enemy learned the smuggling routes into Gaza, and targeted weapons convoys and rocket caches. In late 2012, the Israeli air force bombed a weapons convoy in Sudan, said to be on its way to Gaza. At that point, the Iranians realized that the best option to supply rockets to the Palestinian resistance was to help manufacture them locally instead of smuggling them.

...In the recent war, the Palestinian resistance continued to manufacture rockets, but the problem it faced was how to transport them from the plants to their launching platforms. Resistance sources in Gaza said, “The location of the rocket manufacturing plants is unknown to most fighters. Some factions even bar the manufacturers of the rockets themselves to know the location of the places they work in.”

Despite the local manufacturing of rockets, smuggling has not come to a complete halt. What is successfully smuggled, whether via the sea or the Sinai desert, is not usually disclosed. Sources in Islamic Jihad say that currently, the reliance is on local manufacturing, “thanks to the presence of excellent raw materials at a good price in the markets.”

Certainly, the recent war is being assessed carefully by Iran, Hezbollah, and even Syria to learn what needs to be done, amid a large influx of financial support for the armed wings of the resistance after the war.

We see that:

The Assad regime's existence has been instrumental in allowing Iran to arm terrorists in Gaza
The Sisi closure of Gaza has had a major effect in forcing terror groups to change tactics
There is still smuggling going on from the sea to Gaza (the idea that they rely only on currents to bring the weapons ashore seem far fetched, though - they are using boats from Egypt)
Iran is proud of training and arming terrorists

Which means that Iran's Supreme Leader's latest social media campaign is worth taking seriously:

If he says it, chances are he is already working on doing it.

(h/t Bob K)

"Pro-Palestinian" website says WW2 a Jewish plot

It continues to amaze me how Westerners refuse to believe that Palestinian Arabs are antisemitic, and claim that they are only anti-Zionist.

A website called "Intifada-Palestine" has an article by loony far-left writer Brandon Martinez which includes these gems:

Brandon Martinez, a shining scholar for the "Palestinian cause"

Like Americans and Britons, most Canadians believe that World War I and II were quintessential “good wars” fought to secure “freedom and democracy” and other such flimsy fantasies. Most people reared in Canada’s degraded education system foolishly believe that this country’s participation in WWI and WWII was “the right thing to do” and that the outbreak of such wars was “inevitable.” Without doing one scintilla of actual research, the gullible masses can tell you why these fratricidal wars that caused the deaths of untold millions of people were “necessary” and “just.”

Do any of these ignorant zombies stop for a moment to think about what they are promoting? The “necessity” of an enormous bloodbath that plunged much of the world into pandemonium? Following WWII, Canadian society has evidently devolved into a brain-damaged loony-bin filled to the brim with parrots and yes-men incapable of independent thought or critical analysis.

...The brainwashed masses will say that “Nazism” was a grave and pressing danger and had to be stopped. But only if one is viewing the world through British or Jewish spectacles does that suggestion have any merit. As far as much of the global East and South were concerned, British imperialism was a far greater threat than anything posed by Hitler’s regional ambitions. From the perspective of the Arabs of Palestine and the Middle East, Jewish Zionism and its British imperial patrons was a worse adversary than Hitler’s Germany by a long shot.

... Neither WWI nor WWII were “good” or “just” wars by any stretch of the imagination. On the contrary, they were both catastrophic blunders that set the whole of Europe and Asia as well as parts of the Middle East and North Africa ablaze. The Second World War in particular delivered the world into the hands of the Anglo-American-Zionist Empire, thereby sealing the eternal fate of humanity as drone-like economic cogs and geopolitical cannon fodder for American, British and Jewish interests.

As long as people write against Israel and Jews, their lunatic writings can be featured in slick "pro-Palestinian" publications.

Not surprisingly, other authors that happily contribute to this website that features such antisemitism include Ali Abunimah, Ramzy Baroud, Jonathan Cook, Juan Cole, Richard Falk and Ben White,

11/09 Links: Anti-semitism in the guise of ‘Palestinianism’; Kristallnacht’s lessons for today

From Ian:

Anti-semitism in the guise of ‘Palestinianism’

Bernard-Henri Lévy, the French philosopher, recently argued that anti-Semitism has been changing for centuries. “It was Christian during the centuries of the crusades, the Inquisition, the Medieval pogroms,” and it was anti-Christian after the Enlightenment threw a shadow over Christianity. It was anti-capitalist and pro-worker during the rise of socialism. Levy believes “the world’s longest-running form of hate has never stopped searching for the right formula.”
The latest version seems to have developed in response to new forms of leftist opinion. Where the left once considered class warfare its main issue, in recent times it has transferred its attention to colonialism and the rights of disadvantaged ethnic groups. It’s now almost automatic for liberals and socialists to see Israel as a colonial power imposed on a comparatively helpless people. And dislike of Israel easily turns into dislike of diaspora Jews who support Israel.
Ben Cohen, a much-published author on this subject, commented recently that anti-Semitism has become less a political phenomenon, more a social movement, with what he calls “Palestinianism” as its key ideology.
“Palestinian Arabs have assumed the status of iconic, transcendental victims, as the Jews did for a brief period after World War II, and as Israel did until 1967,” he says. The new anti-Semitism brings together leftists, neo-fascists, Islamists and liberals. Its aim is to persuade the mass of Europeans to shun Israel reflexively. The movement was greatly cheered by the decision of the British parliament to recommend recognition of “the state of Palestine.”
This is what Joshua Muravchik identifies as the “new paradigm of progressive thought.” It involves seeing world politics as “the Rest against the West,” or the people of colour against the white man. If that’s the great moral drama of the age, then Israel comes across as the Western white side and Palestinians are the anti-colonial people of colour. In the universities this attitudes owes much to Edward Said and his most famous book, Orientalism . Said announced that in dealing with the Middle East and other regions dominated by colonialism, every European is a racist, an ethno-centric imperialist.

Abraham Foxman: Kristallnacht’s lessons for today

Each year on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, we recall the opening salvo of the violent assault on Jews that foreshadowed the Holocaust and ask ourselves what should have been done at that moment.
In thinking about Kristallnacht, we should also consider the outpouring of violence against Jewish communities in Europe this summer and draw the right lessons for today. It is rightly said that the Holocaust began not with gas chambers but with words. The significance of Kristallnacht in the history of the Holocaust is the passage from anti-Jewish legislation and anti-Semitic rhetoric to violence against Jews. And therein lies the lesson for today.
To be clear, in today’s democratic Europe, there is no risk of a new Holocaust. Invoking such a possibility obscures rather than illuminates the serious situation of European Jewry. Comparisons to Kristallnacht, however, are apt.

German Left-Wing Parliamentarians Lead Renewed Charge Against Anti-Semitic Son of Clinton Adviser

Two of Germany’s most well-known left-wing members of parliament have urged a leading Berlin theater to “reconsider” the hosting of a November 9 discussion on the Middle East featuring Max Blumenthal, an American anti-Semitic writer of Jewish origin, and the son of Sidney Blumenthal, a close adviser to potential Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
In a letter to Frank Castorf and Thomas Walter – the directors of the famed Volksbühne theater, the leading German center for avant-garde and experimental performances – Volker Beck of the Green Party and Petra Pau of Die Linke (“The Left”) pointed to Blumenthal’s frequent “anti-Semitic” comparisons between Nazi Germany and Israel.
The letter, also signed by Reinhold Robbe, a prominent pro-Israel advocate in Germany, explicitly linked the commemoration of the Holocaust with contemporary anti-Semitism, observing that the date of the meeting scheduled for this Sunday, November 9, will mark the 76th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom in Nazi Germany, during which over 30,000 Jews were rounded up and deported.

For many years I advocated for the two-state solution because I believed that Israel could be a democratic state, a Jewish state, or a single state from the river to the sea, but not all three at once.

This is, of course, the common analysis and it is a perfectly reasonable and logical analysis.

Throughout the Clinton years, I believed that the Palestinian-Arabs wanted a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish one, but this was before I freed myself from the so-called "Palestinian narrative" or what I have called The Palestinian Colonization of the Jewish Mind.

The obvious problem is that in annexing Judea and Samaria Israel would introduce a large and hostile enemy population as citizens into the country and thereby undermine its ability to maintain itself as the national home of the Jewish people.

So long, therefore, that I understood that the Palestinian-Arabs wanted a state for themselves distinct from their Palestinian-Jewish neighbors, I supported the two-state solution. Once it became clear to me that this is emphatically not what the Arabs want then I gradually came to the conclusion that president Barack Obama was correct. After the failure of the first round of non-negotiations Obama said that the sides needed to want peace.

The problem is both sides do not want peace. The Jewish side mainly wants be left the hell alone to write computer software, litigate against one another, and send Natalie Portman's out into the world.

The Arab side, on the other hand, wants to see Jews either dead or gone from the land that we come from.

Thus there can be no conclusion of hostilities through the implementation of a peaceful, but separate, negotiated coexistence.

The Palestinian-Arabs, unlike the Palestinian-Jews (i.e., Jewish-Israelis), will not accept a two-state solution because that has never been their goal. If they honestly wanted a state for themselves in peace next to the Jews then the local Arab leadership would have accepted the Peel Commission Report of 1937 which called for two states, but they did not.

The map on the right represents what the Jews reluctantly accepted and what the Arab majority emphatically rejected right before the Holocaust.

Even a tiny indefensible strip of land between Tel Aviv and Haifa to be reserved for Jewish autonomy in the face of genocide was too much for Arab-Muslim pride. How dare those dhimmitudenous Jews think that they can rule themselves? How dare they think that they even have any such right?

So, the Arabs turned down Palestinian-Arab autonomy in 1937 and 1947 and 1967 and 2000 and 2008, and I am probably missing a few. In 2000, of course, Arafat rejected Ehud Barak's offer of pretty much everything as Abbas rejected Olmert's offer of pretty much everything eight years later. Both Barack and Olmert offered the Palestinian-Arabs the entirety of Gaza, almost the entirety of Judea and Samaria with land swaps, and much of the eastern section of Jerusalem as a capital.

They turned the Jews down flat, but there is no more than we can possibly offer them.

There comes a point wherein one must take "no" for an answer.

Since it is clearly the case that the Palestinian-Arabs - and the rest of the larger Arab and Muslim worlds - have, decade upon decade, rejected the two-state solution, it now becomes incumbent upon Israel to declare its final borders and remove the IDF to behind those borders. In previous months and years, I have argued that the borders of Israel should be determined by Israeli leadership and it should be, but in previous months and years I stated no preference.

I have now come to the conclusion that the annexation of Judea and Samaria by the state of Israel is probably the best way to go forward.

What has convinced me, aside from persistent Arab rejection of the two-state solution, is the revelation that the numbers of Arabs in Judea and Samaria is significantly lower than the Palestinian Authority reported.

Furthermore, after annexing Judea and Samaria, there is no reason for Israel to give local Arabs automatic full rights to citizenship. A path to citizenship should be available however and any non-Jew in the area should be afforded rights to citizenship once they have demonstrated an inclination toward peaceful co-existence. Given the millennia of hostility toward the Jewish people, such a precondition for non-Jewish citizenship is more than reasonable.

I would offer all resident non-citizens of Israel the opportunity of two to three years of national service and those who complete that national service with a good record should be free to apply for, and receive, full citizenship.

It also must be understood that an Arab state in the small Jewish heartland would, in fact, represent a dagger at the heart of Jewish sovereignty, if not Jewish lives, with the full weight of the Arab and Muslim worlds behind that dagger.

In other words, an Arab state superimposed upon the Jewish highlands will not bring peace. It will merely represent a new phase in the Long Arab War against the Jews. It will represent a phase characterized by Arab advantage and gain at the expense of Jewish possibilities for survival. It will also represent a phase wherein the same malicious voices who disparage and demean the Jews of Israel now will continue to do so by claiming that while the Jews used to persecute the Palestinian-Arabs, now they persecute the Palestinian state, as well. Or such is my prediction.

It is unfortunate, but true, that the Oslo Peace Process has failed.

Barack Obama helped kill it through his dogmatic, racist, and counterproductive insistence on forcing Jews out of our traditional heartland. By insisting upon "total settlement freeze" - and thereby effectively denying Jewish rights to live on traditionally Jewish land - he enforced a policy that was doomed from the start and that gave the Palestinian-Arabs all the excuse that they needed to avoid a peaceful conclusion of hostilities within the two-state paradigm.

Obama, however, only deserves a certain percentage of the blame for the failure of the two-state solution, although it should be noted that if he did not absolutely kill it, he helped and it was done on his watch.

The reason that two-states failed is not primarily because of the Americans or the Europeans or the United Nations or, even, the Israelis. The main reason that two-states failed is because the Arabs never wanted it to begin with. They walked out of the United Nations in November of 1948 in order to tell us that Jewish sovereignty on that land is entirely unacceptable to Arab sensibilities.

Such it was then and so it is now.

If they simply will not accept a Palestinian-Arab state in peace next to Israel, then that is what they will not get. It is not up to us. It is up to them.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

Bragging in Arabic about how violent the "non-violent" 1936 protests were

In the past few years, a meme has developed that the 1936 Arab revolt was a shining example of "non-violent resistance."

The lie is easy to debunk (I did it here and here.)

But it is notable that, in Arabic, Palestinians are quite proud of their violence in 1936!

I found this article in the Lebanese Palestinian Teachers website (where most teachers are, surprise, UNRWA teachers) where they claim to reveal "exclusive" photos of the revolt. And they are clearly not showing off any non-violence.

Here are some of their photos, with their captions:

Palestinian resistance attacks a train 1936

British army evacuate Jews from the city of Jerusalem during the outbreak of the revolution in 1936

(The first refugees of the conflict were Jews)

Palestinian fighters during the 1936-1939 Revolution

Palestinian revolution in Jaffa in 1936

Palestinian resistance led by Commander Arif Abdul Razzaq for the years 1936-1939

Palestinian resistance attack Zionism bus in Haifa in July 1936

By the way, their claim that these photos are "exclusive" is a lie -most came from the Library of Congress photo collection online.

Are Muslim women smuggling weapons under their clothing when visiting Temple Mount?

The official PA news agency Wafa has a weekly feature of supposed "incitement and racism in Israeli media."

The latest edition quotes Nadav Shragai of Israel Hayom, October 24, as saying that money from Islamic organizations around the world are funding the northern wing of the Islamist movement, headed by Sheikh Raed Salah. The movement is paid thousands of shekels to hundreds of women and men, specifically to stay on the Temple Mount and stir up trouble. The Al Aqsa Mosque has turned into a storehouse for light weapons, stones, Molotov cocktails and iron bars. The most prevalent weapon in Jerusalem is the fireworks, which Muslims launch directly toward the police, Jews and visitors. Fireworks are purchased with funding from the Fatah and Hamas, and smuggled into the sanctuary through the Muslim women's clothing, since they aren't inspected.

The strange thing is that Shragai didn't say most of that, unless his October 24 article was heavily edited since its original publication. Here is what he really wrote:

An intifada is breaking out in Jerusalem. Wednesday was its 112th day. It may be a (semi) popular movement but it has long not been spontaneous. The disturbances and continuous attacks on Jews in Jerusalem's periphery is organized and funded by elements identified with Fatah and Hamas.

Many of the 900 arrested in this intifada enjoy legal defense funded by the Palestinian Authority. The huge number of incidents, more than 10,000, their wide distribution over Jerusalem's periphery, their nature, the use of "cold weaponry," such as stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks -- are all reminiscent of the First Intifada.

This time there are no popular resistance committees, but many small organizations that operate on the neighborhood level. They all carry the slogans of a "popular resistance," preached to them by the Palestinian Authority its president, Mahmoud Abbas.

There is of course nothing racist about making such an accusation.

There is no doubt that stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks are stored somewhere in the Temple Mount, probably in the mosque that Israeli police generally don't enter. We've seen videos of all of these.

The easiest way to get these weapons there is indeed under the clothing of the women, whose mass presence there are also a relatively new phenomenon, usually to harass Jews who are visiting. And it is certainly logical that the northern branch of the Islamic movement gets funding from external sources.

So while all of this makes sense, Shragai didn't say it.

Which brings up the question: could Wafa have written this because it is so well known by insiders to be the truth? By casting them as "racist" could this be an attempt to pre-emptively stop anyone reporting these accusations?

Seems weird, but I can't figure out why else Wafa would make it up.

The REAL status quo on the Temple Mount

Full version of a letter to the editor of the Jerusalem Post:

Everyone is talking about the 'status quo on the Temple Mount', but no one really knows to what status quo they are referring. Logically, the status quo to which we should all be referring is the one which existed between 1967 and 2000.

During those thirty three years, apart from modest clothing, not only were there no limits as to who could visit the Temple Mount, everyone who did visit, after paying an entrance fee to the Wakf and removing shoes, was able to visit the interior of the Dome of the Rock and of the El Aqsa Mosque, excluding during prayer time. Guides were not hindered when giving brief or lengthy explanations while inside.

No one objected if a Christian minister or priest conducted a quiet prayer session or read from the New Testament in a remote corner of the Temple Mount. Nor did anyone object if a guide held up a picture depicting the Jewish Temple, the first or the second, which stood on the Temple Mount before being destroyed by the Babylonians or the Romans.

The Palestinian Wakf changed the status to what it is today – limited visiting hours; no entry to the Dome of the Rock or El Aqsa; a ban, enforced by the Israeli police, on even carrying a bible in one's bag on to the Temple Mount; absolutely no prayers, which includes moving one's lips and, in some instances, insisting that the women in the group cover their heads.

Every Israeli guide who worked during the afore-mentioned period can confirm that that was the status quo and, if they are still working, can attest to the changes.

We should all be aspiring, nay demanding, a return to those halcyon days.

Beryl Ratzer
The writer is a registered guide and author of A Historical Tour of the Holy Land

I honestly didn't know that so many of the restrictions on the Temple Mount today are from 2000; they are not the "status quo."

It only takes a few years of consistent lies by the Palestinian Muslims to convince the entire world to believe complete fiction.