Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Varda's First Visit to the Temple Mount (Judean Rose)

Jews were coming to the Temple Mount, Har HaBayit, in larger numbers than ever before, if still a small number, a trickle. It was a miracle. Since the terror attack on July 14 that murdered two policemen and injured a third, Har HaBayit had become quiet and peaceful. The Arabs were boycotting the Mount.

There was no one to harass the Jews.

Some Jews figured it out and went to visit right away, before the opportunity to tour the Mount in peace evaporated. Others hesitated, afraid of tensions, not sure they trusted the quiet, not sure they believed that for the first time in a very long time, there was no Muslim presence on Har HaBayit.

For years I'd wanted to visit but held back out of respect for the Litvishe rabbis who tend to discourage the practice. I couldn't visit but I supported freedom of worship for Jews on the Mount. I befriended many people in the various Temple Mount movements. And I learned.

Long Lists of Rabbis

Yosef Rabin shared with me a pdf file of a long list of rabbis that support visits to Har HaBayit. Most of them were not rabbis from my faction. But one or two of them were. Probably not good enough, I thought to myself. I just couldn't take the liberty. It was important to me that I follow the rabbis.

But since the terror attack, I was seeing photos and clips of Jews visiting Har HaBayit and I could see that many of the visitors were Haredi, the faction with which I most closely associate religiously. Something was happening.

It was an awakening of the collective Jewish heart. There was an opportunity.

And no one wanted to miss out.

Proper Preparation

Thanks to dabbling in Jewish Temple Mount rights, I had also come to learn quite a bit about the controversy surrounding ascension. The rabbis were either not confident enough on the subject to permit ascension, or they were afraid that people would desecrate Har HaBayit by walking where forbidden, or by not preparing properly.

None of this would have been an issue for me. By now I knew what to do, how to prepare, how to comport myself. I knew there would be guides to help me navigate where it is and isn't okay to walk. Organizations affiliated with Har HaBayit have made sure there is always a guide to help people tour and learn.

As I witnessed those photos of the smiling faces of friends visiting the Mount, a yearning had grown so strong in me that something clicked in my heart and mind and decided the matter for me. I would go.

I had to go.

Yearning For Aliyah

It was reminiscent of how I'd felt about coming to Israel. I was a teenager and yearned to make Aliyah. I ate, slept, and dreamt Eretz HaKodesh. I had to be in Israel. My mother had her hands full, a widowed single mother, trying to persuade me to hold off long enough to at least graduate high school first.

It was that yearning again, but this time for Har HaBayit. I had to go now. I was only afraid I was too late. I was afraid that things would go back to the status quo. That I wouldn't be able to see this miraculous sight of a Har HaBayit that was peaceful and calm, beheld in reverence by visiting Jews.

My husband didn't want to go. I didn't want to go alone, so I posted to a Facebook group seeking a companion. One woman responded, tentatively at first, then more sure: JoAnn Goldberg. We knew each other but slightly. She had also never been to the Mount.

The End?

We discussed the visit sporadically throughout the day. The police closed the Mount to Jews after some guy made a provocation by praying loudly. We thought that was the end of our jaunt. Then the Mount was reopened.

Next it was announced they were closing off the Mount to visits early because there was to be a memorial service for the murdered policemen.

Then they canceled the memorial service.

It's like that with Har HaBayit. You never know what's going to be. The police are so afraid something is going to happen that they waffle back and forth constantly.

A Short Window

We decided we would go ahead. We would leave at 6:10 in the morning in order to make sure we made the 7:30 visiting time, as recommended by Jenni Heltay Menashe. There's only a short window for visits. If you're Jewish or otherwise non-Muslim, you can visit from 7:30-11:00 and from 1:30-2:30. Muslims, meantime, can visit any time they like.

That night I went to the mikvah to prepare for my visit. I felt like a kallah, a bride, getting ready for my beloved. I was absolutely gleeful in the water. On the way home I felt shiny somehow, crystalline and pure under the night sky, as if I had absorbed a portion of the light of the moon and the stars.

My heart was soaring.

I did not sleep all night. I tossed and turned, afraid I wouldn't be able to get up when the alarm went off so early. My heart was pounding so that I became fearful. It was just anticipation, but the sensation was so strong I worried a coronary event was imminent.

Cloth Slippers

I arose from my bed at 5:15, even before the alarm went off, and drank my coffee as I watched the sky lighten through the window. I got dressed, grabbed my frozen bottle of water from the freezer and bagged up my cloth slippers (we don't wear leather shoes on Har HaBayit).

I went to wait for JoAnn in the designated spot and watched as she drove right past me. Thank goodness, she called me soon after and came back for me. We were both sleep deprived. JoAnn had also not slept a wink the night before.

It was amazing being out in the early Judean morning, hazy and cool though we were in the midst of a fierce heatwave. It's one of the things I love best about where I live. No matter how hot it is, the nights and early mornings are cool, with the exception of sharav conditions, which occur only once or twice a year, thankfully.

We had decided to park on Mt. Zion and walk to the Western Wall plaza from there. We got to Mt. Zion around 7 and already, the large lot was filled. We circled and circled, hoping we wouldn't have to park farther away. Finally, someone looked to be leaving, and a spot opened up for us! We decided it was God wanting us to visit His holy place, and helping us make it happen.

We made our way down to the Western Wall through the Old City, excitement building in us, not really sure where the entrance was to Har HaBayit. When we went through security, we discovered we had to actually exit the area in order to get to the gate for Har HaBayit. Not a big deal. I wanted to change into my slippers anyway, so I sat on the ledge outside the Kotel plaza and changed out of my shoes. Then we left the plaza to make our way to the waiting area for the Temple Mount where I spotted this sign.

I feel Westren. Do you feel Westren?

We got to the gate where there were already people waiting, maybe 8 or 10. Some were praying the morning service. Others were standing around chatting. I worried that if we weren't at the front of the line, we wouldn't get in. I knew it was unlikely the policemen would allow in more than 10-15 Jews at a time. I grabbed JoAnn and we wound our way to the beginning of the line.

This was so not like me. I never assert myself or push. In fact, it took me about three years to make it onto an Israeli bus. I'd wait in line, and when the bus got there, everyone would push in front of me and before I knew it, the doors of the bus would close and the bus would take off. I'd be left in a cloud of exhaust, feeling like a very polite failure. I was so American. (Still am.)

But I wanted to be in that 7:30 group. I would not be put off.

I had a hunch that two of the women there at the front of the line were to be our guides that morning, so I asked them, "Are you with Nashim L'Maan HaMikdash?"

Sure enough, they were.

Second Security Check

The gates opened and we went through security. I had been warned not to bring any prayer books or religious items, but as he looked through my bag, the guard was freaking out about. . . my wallet. It was leather and had a snap on the front. Some prayer books have a similar look. I figured out his concern and told him it was a wallet.

They took everyone's ID cards as we passed through metal detectors, x-ray, and a manual bag check. After we'd all gone through the security check, a policemen read out the names in the stack of ID cards he was holding, one at a time, looking at us to make sure we matched our photos as he gave them back.

As we waited to ascend, Rivka Shimon, a guide, began to explain what was original to Temple times and what was built by Herod to widen the roads and walkways. She was able to point things out nicely from our vantage point.

I was so excited I breaking out in goose bumps.

Group Of Thirty

Security had decided to let all the people waiting with us ascend to Har HaBayit. This just doesn't happen. But since the terror attack, and since the Arabs had decided they were boycotting the Mount, the policemen were letting in all Jewish comers. We were 30, an unprecedented number, according to our guides.

Finally, they let us go ahead. The men began to sing lusty, joyful Hebrew songs, dancing their way across the wooden-slatted bridge, rickety under our feet. The Arabs had shut down an attempt to repair the bridge some years ago. This was Mughrabi Bridge and it leads to the Mughrabi Gate entrance to the Mount.

After the murder of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, the 13-year-old girl murdered in her bed by an Arab terrorist, her family had pushed to rename the gate Shaar Hallel, Hallel Gate, in her memory. I'm told that all the Temple Mount activists call it Shaar Hallel. I determined that I would do so, too.

The rest of the visit was kind of a blur. I wanted to stop and see things, touch things, but the policemen rushed us along. We were not allowed to linger. They had cameras on us, filming the entire time. There were at least 7 or more policemen following us. They were making sure we didn't pray.

So quiet and peaceful

Just us and the cops

Now I had thought about it and decided that if it looked like it were possible, I would pretend to quietly chat with JoAnn, but in actuality, say some prayers. I asked her on the way there if she was okay with this, how she'd feel if I got arrested, and etc. She said it was fine. That if I got arrested, she would be fine.

While we waited to ascend, I asked our two guides if I could do that, and one of them said, "Certainly. Just don't be provocative and it should be fine."

We got to one part of Har HaBayit which the guide explained was a place for quiet reflection. We stood there only moments before the policemen shooed us onward, but I managed to say the shema.

Next, we came to a ledge where we were told to sit and listen to words of Torah. Strangely, no one minded if we said Divrei Torah. We just couldn't pray!

Rivka Shimon made a beautiful Dvar Torah and made sure to thank the policemen for their dedication to guarding us so well and for taking care of us. I liked that she did that. I'd noticed as we waited to ascend that an Ethiopian policewoman had run up to her for a hug, her face alight. Rivka was the kind of person you had to love.

Rivka finished and a man began to give his Dvar Torah. A policeman tried to stop him. But the cop relented and let the man give his little sermon, though he cautioned him to keep it short. The man didn't keep it short, and eventually, the cops got a bit huffy and he wound it up.

We moved along. I was trying to take photos, but it was difficult what with the policemen rushing us through. If I moved to the side to take a photo, a cop would be right there next to me, filming me. It was creepy.

Why weren't we free to linger? Why weren't we free to pray? There were no Muslims to provoke or offend, so why were our own Israeli policemen keeping us from these freedoms?

It was painful.

The guides explained each thing we saw as best they could, filling things out with their encyclopedic knowledge of the place, its history, and the Torah. I asked if I could see the ancient beams that had been left to rot, out in the elements. A guide showed me where they were.

I'd seen photos and still, as I looked over the ledge, I was horrified. They'd been carbon tested. They were 3,000 year old beams made of cedars of Lebanon. They may very well have been part of the Temple. The Arabs had sold some of them off for firewood, and had carelessly abandoned the rest, barely covering them up with these makeshift tarps.

In spite of the difficulties of being rushed and watched, I felt all aglow. Rivka Shimon could see it on my face. She kept coming over to touch my arm or give me a squeeze, she was so happy for me. My first time. Rivka saw what I was feeling.

Rivka and the other guide, whose name we never got, had warned us that some people feel moved and others do not, and that both are okay. I had no doubt that I would feel moved. I feel moved every time I go to the Western Wall! And now I knew that the Western Wall was just something Herod built that really had nothing to do with the Temple.

We prayed there only because we couldn't get to the real deal.

Now we could.

Now I had.

The other thing we discussed before climbing that rickety bridge was where we could and couldn't walk, according to Jewish law. The guide whose name we didn't get said that some rabbis said you can walk anywhere on Har HaBayit because it is for the purpose of the mitzvah called Kibush Haaretz (conquering the land). She also said that going anywhere that annoys the goyim (non-Jews) qualifies as Kibush Haaretz.

Clearly she was more right wing than I! But Rivka Shimon interjected: "I don't go to Har HaBayit to annoy anyone. I go to Har HaBayit to be close to God."

That was more my style. I wasn't going there to provoke anyone. I was going there out of a yearning to be close to Hashem, to His holy presence, on His holy mountain. I was on fire with that.

It wasn't about politics. I wasn't going to prostrate myself to the ground to get arrested. I was there for LOVE.

All too soon, it was over. We were rushed out the gate and our guides disappeared. It was actually a little scary because we were two women and we had two roads to choose from and it was an Arab neighborhood. Thank God, we quickly figured out which way it was back to the Western Wall plaza. Funnily enough, we saw Rivka Shimon again and after we went through security (third time's the charm!) we asked her where she lived and how long she'd been doing this. Then she asked us where we come from and said that the ancient mikvaot in our area prove that people would stop there on the way to visit Har HaBayit.

Before we parted ways, Rivka said that when we leave Har HaBayit, we take some of the holiness with us and spread it around to wherever we go, for instance to our homes. "Imagine," she said, "How much greater that holiness will be when the Third Temple is built!"

With that we said goodbye and continued past the Western Wall. I noticed JoAnn looking at the Wall and I found that I didn't even care to look. I said to her, "After where we were? The Kotel feels like a nothing burger."

It was crazy to feel and say that. But there it was. The Western Wall was just a retaining wall that Herod had built, and as Rivka Shimon had mentioned to us, contrary to popular thought, it's not the only remaining remnant connected to the Temple. The northern, southern, and eastern retaining walls are all extant as well.

The Western Wall got built up in our collective Jewish mind and heart because it was the only bit we had access to, and then we didn't even have access to that.

But there is so much more than that. And there is Har HaBayit!

JoAnn and I slowly wound our way back through the Jewish Quarter to Mt. Zion and then to the car to drive home. Now, it was hot. Walking was difficult. We were glad to be in the air-conditioned car.

By the time JoAnn pulled up to the front of my home, we didn't really want to leave each other. We'd just bonded, both of us going to Har HaBayit for the first time together, leaving at the crack of dawn. We sat and talked some more and knew that we would be friends, good friends, from this point on.

We'd shared a most precious experience.

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Muslims Demand Dumbledore Remove Anti-Intruder Jinxes At Hogwarts (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Hogsmeade, July 26 - Flush with a sense of power and purpose after extracting concessions elsewhere, Muslims issued new demands today that the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry take away the hexes, jinxes, and other measures around the institution intended to protect the students, faculty, and staff.

The Islamic Waqf and the Islamic Movement issued an ultimatum to Albus Dumbledore, warning him that they would continue their protests until all access points to the school grounds are no longer bewitched. They further admonished their followers that spells cast by a Muslim who has passed through any such measures will not be accepted.

"The disgraceful anti-muggle enchantments are an affront to Islam," they declared. "The infidels must remove any such abominations before we will deign to enter the compound once more. We demand that the status quo be restored to before there were any such enchantments. Muslims everywhere are watching and waiting for compliance with this."

No reaction has come yet from the office of the headmaster, but several staff members have spoken off the record about the situation. "They may demand as they wish," sniffed a dark-haired professor with a prominent nose. "The day this institution trifles with such trivialities as what muggles want is the day I tender my resignation."

"Well, tha's a tricky bi' innit?" remarked another staff member, of unusual size. "I reckon they're harmless. Ca't be too careful, though, and whatever Dumbledore decides, well, tha'll be good 'nuff f' me."

"Oh, I would love to see them try getting in, even without the enchantments!" gushed a portly professor. "Some of the students here would make quick work of them. Why, there's one fifth-year redhead who does the most amazing bat-bogey hex. Almost a shame we can't let her loose on that lot. We also have a sixth-year with such a talent for potions that he must have inherited his mother's facility with the field. Say, the two would make quite a couple, now that I mention it. Wonder if anyone else has noticed that possibility. "

"This does not bode well, not at all," moaned a thin professor with flowing robes. "Everyone here is in grave danger! Just look at the alignment of the stars - it is an omen, I tell you! When you are gifted with Sight, as I am, you, too, might perceive the secrets the future has in store." She floated away, peering at her crystal ball.

Reports from the Ministry of Magic indicated that Minister Fudge was leaning toward accepting the Muslims' demands.

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07/26 Links Pt1: At the Temple Mount, it’s not about metal detectors, it’s about sovereignty; EU upholds Hamas terror listing

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The urgent need for the detection of mettle

This would seem to suggest that the Americans put pressure on Netanyahu to dismantle the metal detectors – two days after he declared they would stay put. If so, the Trump team has just forced Israel to hand its enemies yet another victory.
Israel further compounded this error by saying the metal detectors were a mistake – thus loudly proclaiming weakness, which in the Arab and Muslim world is always an incentive for further attack.
In any event, the problem is not at root the terrorist violence around Temple Mount, nor is its solution the metal detectors. The problem is the charade of Temple Mount itself: the fact that Jordan, which has no legitimate title on Temple Mount whatsoever, is allowed not only to administer it but to prevent Jews from free access to Judaism’s own holy of holies.
This ridiculous and unjust status quo has been allowed to continue for one reason only: fear that the Muslim world will ignite if it is altered in any way. This was first displayed 50 years ago by Moshe Dayan, the general who liberated Temple Mount from its illegal Jordanian occupiers – only to hand its administration back to Jordan for fear of Islamic holy war.
Temple Mount is a symbol therefore of the enduring timidity of Israel and its consequent belief that it can only ever seek to manage, make deals with and calm down its mortal enemies rather than defeat them. It is also a symbol of Israel’s refusal to acknowledge that the violence against it is not the result of a land boundary dispute, nor a clash of rival nationalisms. It is, far more terrifyingly, the product of Islamic holy war.
Displays of weakness such as the metal detector debacle encourage these jihadi enemies to screw the vice ever tighter. But the regional situation has now dramatically changed. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the other Gulf states (except rogue Qatar) all desperately need the support of Israel and America.
This is surely the time for the US to use that leverage to start addressing the real issues behind this flare-up. What’s needed is not metal detectors but the detection of long-absent mettle.

At the Temple Mount, it’s not about metal detectors, it’s about sovereignty

The Israeli government missed the point of Palestinian anger directed at metal detectors placed at entrances to the Temple Mount and, having misdiagnosed the situation, made a decision that failed to resolve the crisis and has only made it worse. At least, that’s what many of the Muslim protesters in the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City have been saying since the metal detectors were removed early Tuesday morning.
Israel thought it was making a concession by removing the detectors, which were installed after three Arab Israelis carried out a shooting attack at the Temple Mount, killing two policemen with weapons they had smuggled into Al-Aqsa Mosque. Instead, the security cabinet decided advanced monitoring equipment, at the cost of NIS 100 million (around $27 million), would eventually take their place. This would make physical access for Muslim worshipers to the mosque easier and quicker, and make the area outside the holy site look less like a military checkpoint.
However, on Tuesday and Wednesday, many protesters in the Old City repeated the same line: “The smart cameras are worse.” Worse, they explained, because such cameras represent a more sophisticated way of controlling the entrances to the Temple Mount.
And therein lies the real issue: The initial quarrel over metal detectors has evolved into a battle over sovereignty at what is possibly the world’s most sensitive holy site.
Complicating matters for Israel is the fact that the thousands of Palestinians heading to pray in the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem every day have no clear leader.

Stand With Us: Arab Leadership Lies on the Temple Mount: 75 Years of Incitement:

Last night I sat in a restaurant with my family. The singing from the table behind us signified that it was not just my birthday.

Grandparents were sitting at the center of a long table. The grandmother holding a newborn baby, her husband next to her, surrounded by their five married children, each with two kids. They were celebrating the grandmother’s birthday and that of the newest baby. Both had been born on the same day.

A family, gathered in joy.

Just like the Salomon family in Halamish (Neve Tzuf). A family gathered in joy, they had a double reason to celebrate. It was the eve of the Sabbath and they had invited their friends to come later that evening for a celebration to mark the birth of a grandson.

Daughter in law Michal didn’t understand why the man burst in to the Salomon home. When he shouted in Arabic, raising a knife, she realized what was happening. She grabbed her three children and raced with them up the stairs, passing right behind the terrorist.

Michal shut herself and the children in the room where her two smaller children were sleeping. She couldn’t find the key to lock the door so she braced it shut with her own body. She instructed the children to remain quiet while she struggled not to hear the voice of her mother in law shouting her husband’s name.

It was a neighbor, an IDF soldier, who ended the terror attack with a precision shot through the kitchen window. Seeing the terrorist drop to the ground, he ran inside and bound the wounds of the grandmother, enabling her to be taken to the hospital and saved.

It was too late for grandfather Yosef Salomon, his daughter Haya and son Elad (Michal’s husband).

The nightmare doesn’t end when the attack ends. 3 dead. So many sum up a terror attack with statistics, as if discussing the final score of a baseball game. Reuters (and numerous additional media channels that repeated their wording) went so far as to equate the three murdered Jews to the 3 Arabs who were killed rioting and attacking police.

The Salomon family members were not killed in “clashes”, they were butchered sitting down to dinner. Reuters did not find it necessary to point out that the additional three people mentioned were Arabs, violently rioting, attacking police. One died when the Molotov cocktail he was going to throw exploded on him but to Reuters, this is equal to the grandfather who wanted to celebrate the birth of a new grandson.

Statistics. Who bothers to see the people behind the numbers?

Who bothers to think about a grandmother who had to bury her husband and two children before she could even heal from her wounds?

Who bothers to think of a wife and mother of a newborn having to learn to live without her husband? How many times will her children ask “Where’s daddy? I want daddy!” before they stop asking? Who considers the haunting doubt, the guilt, the grief, that Michal couldn’t warn her husband in time. Maybe, if he had turned in time, realized even a split second earlier, he could have been saved too.

How many people consider how hard it is to live with maybes?

How many consider the witnesses to the attack? The survivors who were not physically hurt but saw and will never be able to forget?

Or the people who cleaned up afterwards? Each of them volunteers, willing to do this difficult task because they believe in the sanctity of life.

According to Jewish belief, life is sacred, thus when a person dies their remains must be buried with dignity and respect. When a person is violently murdered, it is the pieces of their body, including every drop of blood that must be cleaned up and brought to the best burial possible.

Will they ever forget what their hands touched? How many other scenes like this have they seen before? How many more will there be?

Life’s blood splashed across the floor, splattered on the refrigerator, the cabinets… Could you walk across these floors, use this kitchen, without seeing in your mind’s eye the blood that was spilled here?

Could you go on living in the home where the sanctity of your family had been violated?

If you lived in Halamish, what would you think of every time you walked past the Salomon home?

When the media considers a family butchered in their home equal to terrorists and bullies rioting violently, it is no surprise that others, even good, kind, decent people, have a difficulty seeing beyond the statistics.

When Renana Meir opened the newspaper, she thought she was looking at images of her mother’s blood pooled on the floor of their home. It took her a few moments to realize that the images she was seeing were not of the attack that stole her mother from her but a new attack that ripped apart a different family.

Hallel’s mother said she felt her daughter was murdered all over again.

The Fogel family were thrown back to the attack (in 2011) where terrorists massacred mother, father and three of their six children.

One of the survivors of the attack on the Shabo family (2002) said the images of his dead brothers next to him came washing back over him: “There are some things you never forget.”

No. The nightmare doesn’t end when the terror attack ends.

But it’s much easier not to think about what happens after the attack.

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Today, Muslims are insisting that they cannot visit the Al Aqsa mosque if Israel exercises any signs of sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

However, Israel has been the sovereign over the area since 1967. And the question of visiting the site has been asked many times before by Muslims of neighboring Arab states, with differing answers.

In Jordan, there is an organization called the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (RISSC), which is associated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought.

The latter institute is nominally independent but in reality it is a mouthpiece for the king of Jordan through his top adviser Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, King Abdullah's first cousin and its chairman.

Since 2000 CE, H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad—Chief Adviser to H.M. King Abdullah for Religious and Cultural Affairs and Personal Envoy of H.M.—has been the Institute’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees. The Institute comprises a Royal Academy with roughly 100 senior fellows who include many of the world’s leading Islamic scholars from over 40 countries.

Jordan is insisting today that Muslims must not worship at the Al Aqsa Mosque if Israel maintains security control. Yet a few years ago there was a similar controversy and Jordan's RISSC published a paper describing why it is so important for Arabs to visit the mosque: The paper is titled simply "Why Should Muslims Visit Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa?"

Some of the reasons given:

Opinions of Contemporary Muslim Scholars and Officials Regarding Visiting Jerusalem While it is Under Occupation

1. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas:

On 28th February, 2012, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called upon all Muslims to flock to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and support it and revitalize it by filling it with worshipers and pilgrims.

[A number of other Palestinian officials are quoted on the importance of going to Al Aqsa even while Israel holds onto it]

6. Statement issued by 16 of the Balkans’ scholars on visiting the Holy City of Jerusalem:

The undersigned scholars and muftis see no reason why such visits should not take place. Indeed they see that such visits cause benefit to the Muslim Ummah in terms of rallying around Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and supporting the Palestinian cause and keeping it alive in the hearts and minds of the youth of the Ummah; particularly in the face of accelerated Zionist efforts to obliterate the Islamic identity of Jerusalem and Judaize the Holy City. The undersigned also approve and celebrate the establishment of the Integral Chair for the Study of Imam Al-Ghazali’s Work which was established in Jerusalem at Al-Masjid AlAqsa under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein. This waqf will lend Islamic scholarly and spiritual support to the steadfast protectors of Jerusalem. —Issued in Sarajevo on the 2nd of April, 2012.

7. Al-Habib Ali Al-Jifri’s statement regarding his visit to AlMasjid Al-Aqsa:

In accordance with the Prophet Muhammad’s Hadith: “Do not set out for pilgrimage except to three mosques; Al-Masjid Al-Haram [in Mecca], Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa [in Jerusalem] and my Mosque [in Madinah]”, and due to longing for the first Qiblah (direction of prayer) and the place where the Prophet (pbuh) experienced his miraculous Isra’, and in response to the Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Sheikh Muhammad Hussein’s invitation to all Muslims to visit Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and rally around it and protect its cause and support the steadfast Jerusalemites who stand in the face of Zionist violations and plans to Judaize Jerusalem and obliterate its Islamic and Arab identity, I have consulted with distinguished scholars of the Ummah and asked the Almighty for guidance whether or not to set out for pilgrimage to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. My breast was expanded at the prospect and the pilgrimage was facilitated on Wednesday, the 4th of April, 2012. I ask the Almighty for a speedy liberation of Al-Masjid AlAqsa, our beleaguered holy sites and the land of beloved Palestine; and I ask the Almighty to awaken our Ummah from its slumber and to ease the burdens of all Muslims
....
8. Mufti of Syria Sheikh Muhammad Sa’eed Ramadan Al-Buti (in a Friday sermon on 20th April, 2012):

Muslims visited Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa while it was under the rule of the Crusaders and they never considered their pilgrimage to be recognition of the Crusaders or their assumed rights. Indeed those Muslims saw their visits to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa as a challenge to the Crusaders’ presence and a continuation and a renewal of their covenant with the Almighty to repel that aggression ... It is by God’s Grace that I searched and found no Imam in history and no Companion of the Prophet (pbuh) who severed ties or stopped visiting Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa while Jerusalem was under the Romans.

9. Egyptian Minister of Awqaf Dr. Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq (Asharq Alawsat Newspaper, 8th August, 2010):

Jerusalem is primarily an Islamic issue and concerns 1.5 billion Muslims the world over. We have sublimated it and dealt with it incorrectly as a Palestinian issue. The invitation to visit Jerusalem stems from concern to emphasize the rights of Muslims in Jerusalem and the necessity of opposing the Judaization of Jerusalem. It is not, as some have suggested, free normalization.

10. The late Sheikh of the Azhar His Eminence Sheikh Muhammad Sa’eed Al-Tantawi (Asharq Alawsat Newspaper, 17th January, 2001):

Our creed demands that we maintain contact and communion with our brethren the Arabs of Palestine and Jerusalem and to nourish ourselves spiritually through connection to Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and support of the steadfast Jerusalemites. We must also maintain our rights in these holy sites and not leave the matter only to the steadfast Palestinians.

All of these arguments show that not only can Muslims visit the site when it is under non-Muslim rule, but they should visit it in spite of Israeli actions.

Today, the Palestinian and Jordanians are arguing the exact opposite of what their scholars said in 2012. No one is publicly disagreeing even though Jordan's own Islamic think tank argues the exact opposite in its own paper.

The politics come first, the religion comes later.

(h/t Irene)

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So what are the details behind the supposedly "smart" security cameras that Israel plans to deploy outside the Temple Mount to replace the metal detectors?

Haaretz says that they are essentially sophisticated face recognition systems that can scan thousands of faces at a time to look for known suspects. As such, they quote police, these cameras would not help stop "lone wolf" attacks or anyone who is not on a list. It is unclear whether they would have caught the terrorists bringing in the guns that killed the two policemen.

But Palestinian Authority "experts" are sure that they know better.

The director of the Department of Energy and Radiological Monitoring in the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank, Ismail Hroub, explained that the "scanner" which Israel intends to install looks similar to the normal surveillance camera, and is installed in places where the authorities want to watch. It is indistinguishable from ordinary cameras.

He explained that the device emits high electromagnetic frequencies that penetrates objects and shows an image of a person like the ordinary camera but without clothes.

Hroub indicated that the monitors were filming the person naked and revealing the most accurate details of his body. It also reveals whether he is carrying metals, explosives or others things, pointing out that the anti-terrorist agencies in Europe refused to use the device because it would violate the privacy of citizens.

Hroub adds that these electromagnetic waves affect the human body due to exposure to external energy does not need, and affects people who have devices such as platinum in their bodies. In addition it is a danger to people who have irregular heart beats, where these waves disrupt their hearts, which may cause serious health problems.

It sounds like this "expert" is claiming that these cameras are giant X-ray machines of the type that Europe scrapped in airports after privacy concerns were raised.

This is not one random Arab dude who believes this. This is an actual PA "expert" who is claiming that a surveillance camera can, at perhaps 50 meters away, shoot X-ray type waves and do everything a one-at-a-time airport screening machine can do to hundreds of people at once.

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Reemed in Oakland (Mike Lumish)

Reemed in Oakland

Michael Lumish

"You're lucky that you are in that wheelchair, motherfucker!"

That is what a young, six-foot-plus, twenty-something supporter of Rasmea Odeh and Reem Assil of Reem's antisemitic restaurant in Oakland shouted at Robin Durbin at the recent pro-Israel / pro-Jewish rally put together by Faith Meltzer, Matthew Finkelstein, and Uncle Bernie supporter, Susan George, at the Fruitvale BART Station.

And so here the hostility comes again... even to a place as far away from Israel as the San Francisco Bay Area.

I have been aware of the rise of antisemitic anti-Zionism within the western-left for at least ten years - which makes me a late-comer, I know - but I honestly did not expect it see it banging on my door so closely and so quickly within my lifetime and certainly not here on the west coast of the United States.

Most of us who live in the Golden Land do not fathom that the swirling international whirlwind of manifold Muslim toxic bullshit can touch us.

Some of us looked up for a moment from our iPhones and double-tall non-fat foamy mocha lattes (extra-hot) to notice the Islamist rampage in San Bernardino but quickly shrugged it off like a case of fleas on the political landscape, quickly to be forgotten.

This is because we are smug and arrogant and think we are safe... and I am definitely not just talking about Jewish people.

The truth is that the hip and vapid coastal strip from San Diego up to San Francisco never really did grow out of Frankie and Annette at Bikini Beach in 1964.

Which is precisely why they don't care about, or understand, Reem's genocidal ambitions for the Jews of the Middle East:

What we are witnessing is nothing less than the process of the normalization of Jew Hatred in an organic and gradual fashion through normal day-to-day retail activity in northern California.

Reem's Restaurant at the Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland (510-852-9390) venerates genocidal Jew Hater, Rasmea Odeh with a mural smiling down upon their mostly unwitting customers gnawing at their Man’oushe.

Apparently, Reem Assil, the radical hard-left Linda Sarsour-loving proprietor of this joint may know how to cook... perhaps.

What she does, if her menu can be trusted, is top a little flatbread with olive oil and za'atar, seasoned with thyme, sumac, sesame seeds, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and mint.

It sounds pretty delicious to me, I have to tell you. In fact, I was hoping to eat there because initially, it seemed like a much better alternative to the crappy steam-table Chinese joint that was at that spot.

In fact, I am getting hungry just writing about it. Sadly, I will never know if Assil's food is good, bad, or indifferent because I would rather rip my left arm out of its socket and beat myself silly with it then spend a single dime in a place that normalizes and, thus, promotes racism and violence toward the Jewish people... particularly in my own neighborhood, for chrissake.

Rasmea Odeh was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organization most famous for the the Entebbe hijacking of 1976 and their desire to knock-out pro-Israel Jews as entirely as possible.

Her specific claim to chimpanzee-clapping glory is the murder of 21-year-old Leon Kanner of Netanya and 22-year-old Eddie Joffe of Tel Aviv in the Jerusalem SuperSol supermarket bombing in 1969, injuring nine others.

Therefore, Faith Meltzer, Matthew Finkelstein, Susan George, Robin Dubner and myself insisted upon another confrontation with the anti-Jewish / anti-Zionist racists associated with Reem Assil and her vile establishment as documented in the video above, despite the fact that we knew we were going to be outnumbered and out-muscled.

The obvious reason for our concern is that Oakland, California in 2017 should not resemble Berlin in, say, 1938.

The Larger Ideological Snapshot

What strikes me most about this whole situation, however - aside from the fact that it normalizes violence toward the Jewish people in my own city - is that it also reveals the remarkable hypocrisy that has crawled into the western-left.

Whether anyone likes it or not, the left is shedding liberalism and making a comfy cozy home of itself for antisemitic anti-Zionism.

Identity politics, multiculturalism, political correctness, and "intersectionality" have come together to shove Jewish people who care about Israel - which is to say, who care about one another - up against the wall.

That is to say, the progressive-left is happy to see diaspora Jewry surrounded by hatred and potential violence if it means that eventually, we will capitulate to the demands of the Palestinian-Arab murderers that they tend to sympathize with... as a matter of "social justice."

Unless we display the necessary degree of contempt for our brothers and sisters in Israel then we are considered beyond the scope of human decency within the western-left and much of the Democratic Party.

And what that, apparently, means is that Jewish people in California must pass-by the grinning face of Jew killer with equanimity if we wish to travel from Fruitvale BART into San Francisco or arrive at that station from anywhere on the line.

If we dare to object to this, however, we are spit upon with contempt by progressives, leftists, and more than a few Democrats as nothing less than "white supremacists."

The hard-left may not mind violent antisemites like Odeh, but they definitely despise Jews who dare to speak up for the well-being of the Jewish people, as a whole, or for the State of Israel as our national homeland.

The reason behind all of this, however, is not just about antisemitism.

It is far too easy to simply slap a label on people who - like Rasmea Odeh or her flatbread hawking, hatred-spreading devotee, Reem Assil - would see Jewish people robbed of self-determination and self-defense.

The real problem is that the western-left is unmooring itself from the tradition of Enlightenment liberalism, which is also, by the way, the reason that Europe is committing suicide as their own elites urinate upon the Euro working-class.

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Work accident!

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas announce with death of one of their heroic Mujahideen who died during "preparation and training. "

The Al-Qassam Brigades issued a military communique announcing the "martyrdom" of Muhammad Ahmad Al-Sharafi , killed yesterday.

"His testimony came after a great and honorable jihad, and after hard work and jihad and sacrifice, we count him as a martyr," said the terror group.

Virtual candies all around!

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07/25 Links Pt2: The Words They Won’t Say: ‘Arab Murders Israelis’; Betraying Rosa Parks

From Ian:

The Words They Won’t Say: ‘Arab Murders Israelis’

There are three words the headline-writers at The New York Times and Washington Post just can’t bring themselves to say:
“Arab Murders Israelis.”
Last Friday, three Arab terrorists murdered two Israeli policemen near the Temple Mount. The Washington Post used this headline: “2 Israeli Policemen are Killed Near Old City Gate.” Who killed them? A drunk driver? A bank robber? And why was it important to announce in the headline that the killing happened “near an Old City Gate?” How many of the Post’s readers could possible know where that is?
The New York Times’s headline was not much better: “In Attack at Jerusalem Holy Site, Israeli Police Officers and Assailants Are Killed.” Notice how the killers are “assailants” – not Arabs, not murderers, certainly not terrorists.
A headline writer with no bias would have simply stated the facts, something along the lines of: “Arab Terrorists Murder Two Israelis in Jerusalem.”
But the Times and the Post couldn’t do that. And there’s a reason.
The editors of the Times and the Post are strongly sympathetic to the Palestinian Arab cause. They want to see a Palestinian state established as soon as possible. Despite hard evidence to the contrary, they think Israel is the obstacle to Middle East peace. The Times and the Post believe that Israel’s polices are to blame for “provoking” Arab hostility and violence.

Truth and Deception: Calling Out Linda Sarsour on Al Aqsa

How many ways can Linda Sarsour misrepresent the volatile situation between Israel and the Palestinians? And why do we even care?
Sarsour, a Palestinian activist, is the darling of the left, the feminist movement and the BDS movement. Information she spreads is taken at face value; no one usually bothers to check the facts.
Because of this, her comments matter. One of her latest disingenuous Facebook posts shows Muslims in Israel praying on the street because, in Sarsour’s words, they have been (#1 deception) “denied access to pray at Al Aqsa Mosque in their own homeland.”
Sarsour then praises her Palestinian brothers for this act of “non-violent resistance,” where they are (#2 deception) “met with tear gas and rubber bullets” from Israeli police.
She then paints her people, the Palestinians, as victims, saying the world powers (#3 deception) “continue to turn a blind eye to the blatant injustice against and the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
Let us navigate through the minefield of these distorted remarks, which has become the common narrative of Islamists worldwide.
As for the “non-violent resistance” Sarsour so lauds, Sarsour failed to mention a major terrorist attack that directly resulted from Palestinian incitement over the issue of the metal detectors (their proof that Israel wants to take over Al Aqsa).
On Friday night, as a Jewish family sat down to eat their Sabbath meal, three members of the family were slaughtered in a knife attack by a 19-year old Palestinian who had just written on his Facebook page, “Take your weapons and resist…. I only have a knife and it will answer the call of Al-Aqsa…. I know I am going and will not return.”
Sarsour says her beloved, protesting Palestinians brothers “remain steadfast and teach us life, determination and patience.” Comments to which I only have three words: God save us.

As I read "The Lies They Tell," Tuvia Tenenbom's account of his visiting some 28 of the 50 United States over the course of about a year, I found myself thinking of two disparate classics of pop culture..

The first is Simon and Garfunkel's classic "America", a song about a road trip to find the real America.

The other is Columbo, the character played by the late Peter Falk, whose rumpled, seemingly distracted and always underestimated detective always gets to the bottom of the crime.

Tenenbom is Columbo, and he unearths a much more cynical take on Americans than Paul Simon's summary of them being "empty and aching."

As he did in his book "Catch the Jew" Tenenbom travels through a country - this time, the United States - and talks to everyone who catches his fancy to better understand what America is all about.

The results aren't pretty.

Tenenbom visits the "Red Zone" of Detroit, a neighborhood where black people shoot each other for little reason. Tenenbom notes, "There are countless Western humanitarian organizations, funded to the tune of billions, that send activists all over the world to improve the lot of the downtrodden. why aren't they here?" It turns out that Detroit has dozens of similar hopeless crime-riddled neighborhoods.

In a similar vein, Tenenbom visits the equally dismal Englewood district of Chicago that Barack Obama claims to have helped out so much while he was organizing communities. It is a hellhole where gangs rule and people are afraid. No one can name a single thing that improved since Obama claims he helped them so much. Police, heavily armed and armored, are aghast that Tenenbom is there, strongly urging him to leave as soon as possible.

But Tenenbom also visits vapid liberal intellectuals in Fargo, gun collectors and prisoners in Wisconsin, cowboys (or echoes of cowboys) in Montana, Seattle yuppies who pretend to care about the downtrodden but who ignore the huge number of homeless people on their streets, Native American reservations where no one knows anything about their own history as they spend their days in a drunken stupor, the Henry Ford Museum where even the helpful databases have been purged of the word "Jew" to whitewash his antisemitism, black churches where Tenenbom is transported by the music and beauty as he contrasts it to the black gangs who kill each other when they don't like how they are looked at.

Tuvia is, many times, taken by the beauty of the land even as he is frustrated, amused and angry at its citizens. He has poetic descriptions of glaciers in Alaska, canyons and mountains and geysers in the West and the prairie in Kansas.

Tenenbom also finds a lot of people with strong opinions on Jews and Israel, views that are not always in concert. A "Jewish Voice for Peace" member in Washington, DC calls him a "fucking filthy Jew" but won't repeat it on camera, claiming only to be pro-Palestinian. A Somalian in Seattle admires Hitler because he killed Jews. A Jewish mayor in Alaska admits, under Tenenbom's probing questions, that there is right-wing antisemitism in his state. Lots of people who say in the same breath that they care about climate change and Palestine. Very few who know the first thing about Palestine; complaining about "Jewish settlers in Gaza" or how "the State of Israel replaced the State of Palestine." American Jewish liberal synagogues more interested in demonizing Israel than supporting the Jewish state. Christian leaders who support Israel but say Jews will all go to hell.

He also finds many Jews who are against Israel and who are very, very concerned about black and racism, especially in the aftermath of the Dylann Roof murders. He cannot find any blacks who give a damn about antisemitism, though.

In the beginning of the book, Tenenbom speaks with outgoing ADL head Abe Foxman, who says that his own surveys find only 10-12% of Americans are antisemitic, but he knows that Tenenbom will find a higher percentage than that, because Tuvia knows how to make people lose their inhibitions. Not only is Foxman exactly correct, but the entire book shows how scared Americans are to say their real opinions on anything. The America that Tenenbom discovers is walking on eggshells, celebrating "freedom" and "liberty" but afraid to express themselves or to offend anyone.

Tenenbom makes a quick detour into Mexico where he sees many people who all look like they belong to the same tribe and who are comfortable in their own skin and their own land. The American melting pot, on the other hand, puts Americans on edge. As he puts it, "Through the process of forcibly dumping its citizens into a giant boiling pot of diversity and shaming them if they are not proud of it, America’s democracy succeeded in instilling fear in the minds of its citizens and effectively created a stench of segregation that reaches the highest heavens.....A telling effect of the forced melting pot is the majority of Americans who are afraid to share their political and religious views with strangers. In the Land of the Free, the Brave are quiet."

The book is filled with biting observations that do not discriminate between right and left, black and white. For example, he describes gentrification in Dallas:

The new residents, whites, are often self-described liberals or progressive liberals who tell anybody listening that they dedicate their lives to helping the poor blacks and Spanish of America. In reality, they are the very ones who drive the blacks and the Spanish into homelessness. To blind you, and themselves, to this reality, they frequent a local bar where a black guy plays the blues, and they feel really, really good and really, really liberal.

Or this description of American Judaism:

People who dedicate their resources to help others and to fight themselves are doomed to succeed on both fronts.

This book is well worth reading.

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Human Rights Watch suggests that maybe Jews are murdered because of their brutality

During a Twitter exchange yesterday, Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch responded to Ron Kampeas of JTA defending why HRW never condemns incitement by Palestinian leaders:

Can you imagine HRW ever suggesting that stabbing people to death while eating dinner might be a reasonable result of feeling rage at their government?

Can you imagine HRW ever suggesting that anyone but Palestinians are motivated to murder because of they've been treated "brutally."?

Can Sarah Leah Whitson point to a single moment in the murderer's life that would justify his murdering a family, or is the very idea of "occupation" by Israel so obviously a reason to murder that one doesn't need anything more specific?

This is HRW bias in a nutshell.

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07/25 Links Pt1: Glick: U.S. Support for Palestinian Terrorists Must End; Palestinians Burn Metal Detectors In Effigy

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: U.S. Support for Palestinian Terrorists Must End

The Solomon family was massacred Friday night as they celebrated Shabbat and the birth of their newest grandson in their home. They were massacred by a 19 year old jihadist who posted an explanation of his imminent act of barbarous murder against his Jewish neighbors on Facebook less that two hours before he stormed their home in Neve Tzuf.
The murderer used the same language as his"moderate" "pro-peace" "legitimate" leader, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas who said that Jews pollute the Temple Mount with our "filthy feet."
Ironically and appallingly, just last week the US State Department published a report blaming Israel for Palestinian terrorism and claiming that the PLO-led, and US-funded Palestinian Authority doesn't incite terrorism and violence and hatred.
The State Department also opposes the Taylor Force bill which if passed -- along the lines passed in the House of Representatives, (the Senate bill is an insult to our intelligence), would end US taxpayer subsidization of Palestinian terrorism to the tune of more than half a billion dollars a year.
The State Department -- Tillerson included, apparently, doesn't see anything wrong with the fact that the PA uses more than $300 million every year to pay people like the murderer who butchered the Solomons and their families.
Having murdered the Solomons in their home, this terrorist is guaranteed a lifetime salary and pension for his family that ensure them all an upper middle class economic status -- courtesy of US taxpayers via the "moderate" PA, PLO, Abbas, terror machine.

Ben-Dror Yemini: Muslim self-racism: The ‘low expectations syndrome’

There’s a problem with Muslims. They’re human beings. They’re equal. But sometimes, they insist on being treated like small children. Last time, it was the dispute over the call of the muezzin. Not that the “muezzin bill” was so smart, but it’s a fact that similar restrictions exist in Muslim countries too, and in Saudi Arabia there’s even a fatwa against excessive noise. Nevertheless, they used the motif of “an offense to our honor.”
When the person seen as their most important religious leader, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, called on Muslims to finish Hitler’s job, there were no protests in the West. And when anti-Semitic cartoons are regularly published in newspapers in the Muslim world, there are no angry reactions from Jews. Muslims haven’t been pelted with stones. We haven’t heard about “an offense to our honor.” But when the Muhammad cartoons were published in Denmark, they sparked a series of bloody protests around the world. Dozens were killed. Consulate buildings were set on fire. After all, there was “an offense to their honor.”
Now it’s about the metal detectors. It’s true that it’s a terror prevention measure. It’s true they’re the main victims of terror. It’s true the idea to place the metal detectors was raised after three jihadists entered the Temple Mount with weapons. It’s true it could happen again. But that doesn’t matter. The “offense to our honor” motif has reappeared.
In the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, there are similar concerns. There are 5,000 closed-circuit television cameras there. Every movement is recorded. Every suspicion is checked. Moreover, the company in charge of security, G4S, is a British company. One of the security measures is an electronic bracelet attached to each of the millions of pilgrims throughout their entire stay in the kingdom, allowing the authorities to monitor each and every one of them. The Brits control the information. That hasn’t stopped the pilgrimage. It’s possible that instead of metal detectors, Israel should make it clear any measure that is acceptable in the Muslims’ holiest site would be used in their third holiest site as well.

NY Post Ed: Palestinians’ latest excuse for rioting

The Palestinian Authority has provoked a new Temple Mount crisis, bringing riots and deadly attacks on Israelis.
The pretext: Israel just placed metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount, a holy site for Jews and Muslims alike. But Jerusalem has been responsible for security there for decades, and the new protection was a direct response to the recent killing of two Israeli police officers by three Israeli Arabs using weapons smuggled onto the sacred ground.
PA officials chose to paint it as a Jewish plot to seize more control of the Temple Mount, which Jordan has administered for decades.
“If Israel persists with these electric metal detectors, we will ask the Palestinian youth to step up their protests against them,” said Hatem Abdel Qader, head of Jerusalem affairs for the PA’s ruling Fatah party. “We will come en masse to put pressure on these detectors and we will pray outside the mosque and in the streets to prove that Israel isn’t respecting freedom of worship and faith.”
Funny: Saudi Arabia has 5,000 CCTV cameras watching over Mecca, with no impact on freedom of worship. And Jordan this year briefly proposed putting its own cameras on site.
Yet Palestinian leaders still got their desired “Day of Rage” outside the site on Friday, with protesters throwing rocks, fireworks and firebombs at security forces. Three rioters were killed in the clashes. That night, a Palestinian broke into a home in the West Bank settlement of Halamish and fatally stabbed three civilians.