Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

“The Faith of Mohamad Has Risen With The Sword! We Want No Jews in Arab Palestine!” (Daphne Anson))

Last week, the Israeli prime minister’s spokesman Mark Regev spoke feelingly to American broadcaster Greta Van Susteren (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkMPVOx4wyw) of “These mendacious allegations that somehow Israel is threatening the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem when nothing can be further from the truth … Israel has meticulously always protected the holy sites of all faiths, but nevertheless the Islamic extremists were putting out these accusations, these conspiracy theories, about so-called Israeli intentions, and unfortunately they were echoed by the Palestinian Authority, by President Abbas and his people, and this created a crisis which fed the violence…”

These present events invoke the anti-Jewish rioting by Arabs that broke out in Eretz Israel in August 1929: Jerusalem on the 23^rd, Hebron on the 24^th, and Safed on the 29th. I once blogged about one woman’s reminiscences of the Hebron riots here, and gruesome reading they make (http://daphneanson.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/they-stuck-sword-down-his-wifes-throat.html). A video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3tMvGgCEx0) contains further testimony from survivors, and for the terrible details see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Hebron_massacre.

The [London] Times (14 September 1929) contained a report by its Jerusalem-based “special correspondent” examining “The Outbreak and its Causes” of the riots, which happened, incidentally, when many senior members of the Mandate administration were on leave. “To understand the explosion in Palestine, it is necessary to review the immediate causes of the outbreak,” he began. “For convenience, the point of departure may be taken as Thursday, August 15, when the younger Zionists asked leave to celebrate the feast of Ab [Av], which commemorates the destruction of the Temple, by marching in procession to the Wailing [sic; Western] Wall and holding a service there. Previous requests had been refused. This year, though the Wailing Wall had become a bone of contention between Moslem and Jew, the request was granted, under certain restrictive conditions.”

He went on:

‘So on August 15 the Jews marched out escorted by the police, and in the Old City all went well. But at the Wall they broke the agreement, unfurled the Zionist flag, and sang the anthem “Hatikvah”. The Moslems were indignant and arranged a counter-demonstration for the morrow, which was the eve of the Prophet’s Birthday. After prayer in the Aksa Mosque they swarmed through the Bab-el-Magharba (Moorgate) to the Wailing Wall and marched along the Wall. They did no damage worth mention, and satisfied with this reprisal for what they deemed an encroachment on their rights, withdrew in good order into the sacred area about their chief mosques (the Haram esh Sherif [Temple Mount]).

On Saturday, the 17^th, at a Jewish football match, the ball was kicked into a beetroot patch belonging to a Moslem. It could not even be returned without a brawl. A Jew was stabbed, but the police prevented serious fighting. On the Saturday and Monday there was considerable effervescence in the city, but nothing occurred beyond some attacks on Arabs passing through the Jewish quarters to and from their villages. On Tuesday, the 20^th, the victim [Avraham Mizrachi] of the “football scrimmage” died in hospital, and the question of his funeral added a new complication. To avoid a collision efforts were made to get the Jews to bury him at dawn. The younger Jews refused, and demanded a processional funeral to the Wailing Wall. The authorities objected. Their view prevailed, and the Jews agreed to adhere to the traditional route past the Damascus Gate out to the cemetery at the foot of Mount Scopus, and to hold the funeral at 6 a.m. It was not until 10 a.m. that it started. All went well until the procession reached the Post Office where the street bifurcates. Here the younger Zionists tried to break the police cordon. The police resisted and several Jews were struck with batons. Eventually the procession was forced back on to the agreed route and the funeral ended quietly.

Thursday was outwardly calm, but there was electricity in the air. Towards evening groups of armed Moslems drifted in from Nablus and Bethlehem, and their convergence towards the Old City continued throughout the night and the next morning. It was known that trouble was brewing. The authorities, scenting danger, took the customary precautions, and brought in the armoured cars of the Royal Air Force from Amman to Ramleh.

As soon as the midday prayer was over the unprecedentedly large congregation tumbled out of the Haram into the Old City. The main body went towards the Jaffa Gate. All were armed. Many carried a miniature arsenal round their bodies; most had knives, and as they passed they brandished bludgeons and shouted excitedly. A group went to Herod’s Gate, where they murdered the Jewish lawyer Mr Wiener [London-born Harold Marcus Wiener, who in addition to being a lawyer was a biblical scholar and archaeologist], who had spent all his time and money in trying to reconcile Jew and Arab. At the Damascus Gate a Jewish family of four persons was brutally murdered by another group.

On reaching the Jaffa Gate the main body split up into two. One went towards the station, crossed the bridge and entered the old Montefiore quarter, where an orgy of crime ensued. Some seem to have returned to their villages after these exploits. But the rest, with the parties from the other gates, attacked Sheikh Badr and Mea Sh[e]arim, north of the New City, where they split again into bands which roamed over the quarter, leaving death and destruction in their wake. The situation was quite out of hand …’

So as well as summoning armoured cars from Ramleh and declaring a curfew, the authorities requested all British residents to enrol as special constables, and by 4 p.m. they had 100, including students and their principal from the Anglican theological college Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, who were visiting the Holy Land.

The Times correspondent continued:

‘By now bands of armed Arabs were roaming everywhere, attacking everyone who looked like a Jew. The Old City, however, was quiet. Towards evening the bands withdrew to the outskirts and “sniped” from the hills around the city. This continued all night – in fact, for several nights. The handful of British police and special constables had an exacting time. But what they lacked in numbers they certainly made up for in energy and influence, for no sooner did any of them appear than the looters made off.’

Reinforcements were rushed in from Egypt, and on Sunday a battalion of the South Wales Borderers arrived under Brigadier (later Lieutenant-General Sir) William Dobbie, who would subsequently play a key role in restoring order to Jaffa.

‘By this time Jerusalem was not the only storm centre,’ the correspondent reported. ‘Saturday morning saw riot and violence at Hebron, Ramleh, Lydda, Nablus, and Beisan. The worst excesses were at Hebron, where Jews were murdered with almost inconceivable brutality, and Kolonia, near Jerusalem, where the Jews were butchered and their farms set on fire. Into the flames were cast the bodies of two Jewish children who had already been killed. But once the troops arrived they averted fresh calamities.’ Had it not been evident by Friday, 30 August, that there were enough troops in Palestine equal to any eventuality, ‘the Friday prayer would have again been followed by rioting. That the day passed without any serious outbreak save at Safed showed that the crest of the outburst had passed.’

The correspondent stressed that he did not mean to usurp the role of the Commission of Inquiry, but nevertheless could not avoid making certain observations, which included:

‘That there has been Zionist provocation is certain, but nothing the Jews could have said or done could justify the utter brutality with which they were attacked. In the light, moreover, of one’s knowledge of what took place in Egypt in 1919, the way in which the Jerusalem affair was speedily followed by trouble in other places, and the infiltration of armed Moslems into the city on the eve of the outbreak, arouses more than a suspicion that there was some preconcerted plan. The activities of some of the more prominent Moslems, and notably by one of the Ulema [Islamic religious scholars], tend to confirm this impression…’

The Times later reported (11 November 1929) that, testifying before the Commission of Inquiry, Captain John Alexander Mulloy Faraday, assistant commissioner of police at Safed, where Arab violence towards Jews had broken out on 29 August, noted that although Safed was not “a Zionist town” and Jews had been living there for many years alongside Arabs, cries of “The faith of Mohamed has risen with the sword!” and “We want no Jews in Arab Palestine!” were among the sentiments hurled.

10/20 Links Pt1: Responding constructively to terrorism- the more they kill, the more we build

From Ian:

David Horovitz: Not an uprising against occupation. An uprising against Israel

They say that this is the latest uprising against the occupation. It isn’t. It’s the latest uprising against Israel.
Most Israelis don’t want to rule over the Palestinians. Most Israelis want to separate from the Palestinians. If the Palestinians want a state based on the 1967 lines, they have to convince a majority of Israelis that their independence would not threaten our existence. You’d think this would be obvious. Evidently it isn’t.
This latest phase of terrorism and violence — like the conventional wars, and the suicide bomber onslaught, and the relentless campaign of misrepresentation and demonization and denial of Jewish history in the holy land — sends the opposite message to Israel. Much of the rest of the world — so short-sighted in viewing Israel as the Goliath when it’s a tiny, loathed sliver in a region seething with Islamist extremism — refuses to see it. But in bloody, unmistakable capital letters, the perpetrators of this new round of evil mayhem proclaim to Israelis: We don’t want to live alongside you. We want to kill you and force you out of here.

Farfour’s Curse: Palestinian children learn to hate with their ABC’s and hate they do

Palestinians have been stabbing random Israelis daily for weeks, and on cue myriad foreign commentators have been trotting out the usual “root causes” arguments to explain their actions: Israeli settlements, Palestinians’ collective despair, the Netanyahu government’s policies.
Then again, we could just as well blame Farfour.
A bellicose and excitable Mickey Mouse clone with a whiny voice, Farfour was a costumed character on a popular Palestinian children’s educational program, “Tomorrow’s Pioneers,” on the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV. Not for Farfour some innocent horseplay to entertain the kiddos and teach them their ABC’s. Instead, the creepy rodent taught Palestinian children about the glories of jihad. In one episode he exhorted “tomorrow’s pioneers” (i.e. future jihadists) to liberate “all of Palestine” (i.e. the land of Israel) from the Jewish usurpers. “Beloved Palestine taught us to be soldiers of Allah,” a young boy sang as Farhoud cheered. “Oh Jerusalem it’s the time of death and we will fight a war.”
During a subsequent episode, Farfour, who liked to rhapsodize about the AK-47 assault rifle to Palestinian children, came to an untimely death “at the hands of the criminals, the murderers of innocent children” — Israelis, yes. Farfour was replaced by equally spiteful characters who carried on demonizing Israelis in his stead: Nahoul the bee and Assoud the rabbit. Assoud threatened to “finish off the Jews and eat them” before he, too, wound up murdered by the Jews. On his deathbed he urged Palestinian children to avenge him by “liberating” Haifa and Tel Aviv.

WATCH: ‘I want to stab a Jew,’ young girl tells her teacher father

A video posted by a Jordanian-Palestinian teacher on Facebook shows his young daughter holding a large knife and declaring, “I want to stab a Jew,” the watchdog group MEMRI reported, amid an ongoing surge of stabbings and other terror attacks by Palestinians on Israelis.
Abdulhaleem Abuesha, a teacher in the Madaba refugee camp in Jordan, posted the clip on Friday. MEMRI translated and highlighted it on Tuesday.
After his daughter Rahf, standing in front of the refrigerator in the kitchen, declares her desire to stab a Jew, Abuesha asks, “Why do you want to stab the Jew?”
“Because he stole our land,” she replies.
Her father confirms approvingly: “They stole our land.” He then asks, “With what do you want to stab them?”
“With a knife,” she says.
Abuesha is then heard encouraging her, saying, “Oh, you’re so strong! Allah willing, my dear.”

Palestinian-Jordanian Preschool Girl Holds Knife, Says: "I Want to Stab a Jew"

A video recently posted on Facebook shows a little girl, called Rahf, holding a large knife and declaring: "I want to stab a Jew." Her father, Abdulhaleem Abuesha, a teacher in the Madaba refugee camp in Jordan, encourages her, saying: "Oh, you're so strong!" The video was posted on Abuesha's Facebook account on October 16. His account also features a picture of a little boy – presumably his son - holding a large knife and smiling at the camera.

Using Jerusalem's holy sites to incite for murders of Jews is nothing new.

In 1929, first Palestinian leader, Jerusalem Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, called on the Arabs to fight the infidels and declared a holy war on the Jews. Al-Husseini, who years later was a decorated, high ranking Nazi collaborator, declared that the Jews are planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount.
In a series of sermons, al-Husseini declared that Jews are dishonoring Islam and its holy sites and that whoever kill Jews will have a place in paradise. These calls against Jews helped trigger the 1929 Palestine riots, in which dozens of Jewish families were slaughtered throughout the land of Israel. The atrocities included slaughtering children in front of their parents, amputation, burning people alive and rape.
This was almost two decades before the State of Israel was created.
Almost four decades before the 1967 "occupation."
Inciting a religious war, by lying that the Temple Mount is endangered by Jews, was always a way for Palestinian leaders to unite their people against the Jewish population in the land of Israel.
The use of Allah to incite murder is, unfortunately, nothing new.

.@UNRWA teacher wants her kids to die for Allah

From UNRWA teacher Hiba Yassin's Facebook page:

Caption: "Dying for the sake of Allah is our loftiest hope."

The one-finger salute is associated with Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.

I believe that this is her daughter; she has other photos of her with jihadist slogans.

What do you think she teaches her students?

Also:

"The #intifada of Ramadan" (meaning July 2014. Yes, UNRWA teachers were calling for a new intifada last year too,)

And she recently changed her cover photo to this peaceful image:

"Strike (i.e. throw) and from your hand the rain will pour down"

#the intifada_has_begun

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Lessons from Gershon Baskin's message to Palestinians

Here's how you can tell the differences between real liberal peace activists and the posers at B'Tselem, J-Street, Gisha, Amnesty, HRW and other similar groups.

From Gershon Baskin:

SOME VERY HARSH WORDS TO A PALESTINIAN LEADER AND TO THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE FROM ME:

A well known Palestinian political leader from Fatah in a very recent interview praised the Palestinian youth who take their knives to the enemy. He called them heroes and shaheeds (shuhada). I called him out on this and challenged him in a very direct and harsh sms. He immediately called me and said that I didn't understand his message. He also supported the two states solution in the interview and said he was against violence - he supported a popular peaceful uprising. He said that Palestinian leaders had to speak this way if they wanted to be seen as leaders. And that, in a nutshell is the Palestinian problem and explains why, until now, there is no Palestinian state (in addition to the extra added Israeli stubbornness, fanaticism and unwillingness to get to a solution). He told me to listen to the interview. I did and this is what I just wrote back to him:

"I cannot understand how trying to kill a 70 year old woman, or a 13 year old boy, or a religious couple coming home from praying is heroism worthy of praise. In my mind, no violence is worthy of praise, especially against civilians. No, they are not heroes and they are not shuhada. It is time to stop dying for Palestine and instead to live for Palestine. Someone who praises this is not a good leader of his people. I thought you were better than that".

I add to everyone, those young people who have "died for Palestine" have died in vain. They did not help Palestine. They did not go to heaven and they are not martyrs. They died as fools for nothing. They achieved nothing. They only added more suffering to their families and to us all.

It is time for Palestinian leaders to understand that this culture of death is the death of their own dreams and their own society.

Baskin may be misguided but he at least has the intellectual honesty to understand that peace requires both sides to act, unlike the Peter Beinarts of the world who at best pay lip service to the idea of Palestinian responsibility.

The excuse used by the unnamed "Palestinian leader," assuming that he is telling the truth (he could easily have adopted a peaceful persona for Baskin) shows a fundamental problem with the Arab side: After decades of inciting hate, they now must be seen as leaders in continuing the incitement or else they will not be seen as leaders at all.

The mob that they created now rules and they meekly follow. Any inkling that a Palestinian is against terror makes him a "collaborator." Any public appearance with an Israeli Jew means he wants to "normalize" relationships, another horrible crime.

If there are any Palestinian Arab leaders who really want peace and are willing to accept responsibility, they are in fear for their lives by saying it out loud.

The "culture of peace" that Abbas ridiculously claimed to have created in his UN speech is not only a lie, it is the exact opposite of the truth. He and others have created a culture of hate and a cult of death that is now so powerful that they must obey it themselves.

The West ignored Israel's insistence that the incitement must end (something explicitly agreed to during the Oslo process.) This intifada is the direct result of that decision. And real peace activists are starting to wake up to the fact that peace is impossible with a society that has been brought up to hate.

But as long as "human rights" NGOs ignore the culture of hate that is behind the murders, and the Western media ignores the obvious, there will be very few Palestinian Arabs with the bravery to stand up to this vortex of hate and say, "enough!"

This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah incitement to kill Jews is explicit - and ignored

The media and Western politicians are still ignoring the role of incitement in the current terror spree, and especially the role played by Mahmoud Abbas' own Fatah party.

I showed examples of posters on the official Fatah Facebook page yesterday. But it even gets worse.

Like this photo on their page, which is a call by Fatah's student arm for a demonstration at Quds University in Bethlehem today.

#Resist_boycott_RiseUp_Fatah_Youth_Call to arms

Rise for Palestine ("intafidh")

Start by yourself... support your people

Who can miss the message of this poster, see on the webpage of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades?

Rise, oh Palestinian and resist,

And never bargain about your right!

Mahmoud Abbas could shut this incitement down in an hour if he wanted to. Instead - he funds it.

And his Al Aqsa Brigades are openly roaming the West Bank, with guns. (The armed group that Abbas pretended to dismantle years ago.)

But will John Kerry or Ban Ki Moon mention this when they meet him? Will they even bring up that Abbas' words and his party's actions are a major driver behind the cyber-intifada?

Of course not. They will nod sagely as he pretends that it is all about "hopelessness" and "occupation" and "Al Aqsa" and the myriad other excuses for stabbing Jews in their homeland.

But Abbas, and his people, are inciting people to murder random Jews. We have the proof. And it is proof that Westerners choose to ignore because they need to believe that a somewhat less genocidal Palestinian leader compared to Arafat or the Mufti is in fact moderate by Western standards.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

As my family beings to settle into a daily routine here in Judea. My husband and I are beginning to establish ourselves in building a small business for ourselves, and it's hard. Working in Israel is tough. Most people do a few things just to make ends meet, but what matters most is that no one ever starves. Jews help each other every day and miracles from G-d are seen. One of the things I do for a living is maintenance and cleaning for the school my daughter attends.

On Fridays, in Area A of the Palestinian Authority, where Jewish land is declared "Judenrein" (Jew-free) I was in the very last classroom closest to the Palestinian village doing my finishing touches before erev Shabbat. Broadcasting from every mosque in sight in a booming decible was the sermon that encourages Palestinians to murder Jews and throw us into the sea. I can understand some Arabic. Something something Allahu Akhbar, something something yehudim, rinse and repeat all over again. This lunacy takes place every Friday in order to annoy Jews as we prepare for our Shabbat. How this people can ever get away from committing violence will be more than a miracle.

Imagine you lived in a village, town or city where recordings were constantly telling you to go out and kill a nation because you were taught false myths from birth that Jews stole from you? The Palestinian clerics use past recordings to instill hatred and terror into their people over and over again. They play it so loud that at 4 am, it's my alarm clock. The Muslim call to prayer outside of the sermon sounds like people groaning who have been stuck in purgatory or hell for thousands of years. IT IS that creepy to listen to. It feels as though any moment, a Palestinian terrorist could descend upon the classroom I am in where all around me is darkness outside and murder me and my daughter. At any moment, it could be any Israeli at any time.

I am usually fear-free as security is all around us. Though not usually seen, it is always there with monitors, electric fencing and guards driving and walking around. I personally like to see the guns in front of me. However, I trust my country implicitely to handle security measures at all times.

When I see no security I feel it isn't there. When I see no guards, I fear for my life. When I am cleaning in this room, I shake. I know the yishuv security is all around me. However, last night another sermon came on their loudspeakers. When your daughter says, "Mom, I'm really scared right now." I'm an Israeli mother now. I'm supposed to be tough. Do I cower in fear and show weakness to a child so new to a language she's never spoken before August? Do I act like a whining two year old to a former home schooled girl just trying to fit in and make friends? Or, do I show her that we are a courageous, resilient people with thousands of years of history. A people who were exiled from our land but who kept our faith. We tried unceasingly to come home - and succeeded More importantly, we are not going to stoop to the level of the Palestinians, a people living in conditions of corruption, drug trafficking and terror. We not will be vigilantes. But we will defend ourselves to the teeth.

The question of why my government allows the mosques that surround Judea and Samaria to broadcast these sermons perplexes me. Why not send in our army to shut down these recordings permanently? Mosques that no one goes to pray in. Why fight terror when allowing these messages to be played deflates the purpose of peace through strength. I don't know which cleric is ranting, but why haven't more been brought to justice for incitement? Why hasn't Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel been put in a jail for life? Why do we allow an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood to exist and live off the fruits of our labor? And when will the Knesset ban these inciters for life, exile them from our land and deport them to the country or their birthplace?

We always hear in Hebrew, "slowly slowly." Unfortunately. We can't afford to slow down legislation against seventh century throwbacks who are not wanted anywhere else in the world. We have been too nice. It is time for the Prime Minister to set his sights on this issue and pass a law banning any and all Mosques from airing their creepy groaning and terror messages for good.

Palestinian schools honor their young terrorists

From AFP, caption by UK Media Watch:

Close-up:

But this isn't the only example of how Palestinian Arabs are honoring student terrorists.

The Palestinian Ministry of Education planted olive trees in honor of the student "martyrs" including Hassan Manasra, who was one of the teens to stab the 13-year old boy on his bike in Pisgat Ze'ev.

Depraved.

(h/t Bob K)

10/19 Links Pt2: MSNBC Admits Anti-Israel Graphics Were Wrong; Iranian Leaders Reject Nuclear Deal

From Ian:

MSNBC Admits Anti-Israel Graphics Were ‘Wrong’

MSNBC has admitted that highly controversial graphics aired on the network that depicted Israel as stealing land from the Palestinians were “factually wrong” and that the broadcast would be corrected on Monday, according to a network spokesperson.
The cable news network has been fighting off criticism after it aired the graphics and analysis, including a map linked to conspiracy groups branded as anti-Semitic, that portrayed Israel as existing on territory expropriated from Palestine.
The graphics garnered criticism from pro-Israel advocates and has now prompted the network to acknowledge that the graphics were highly misleading.
“In an attempt to shed light on the geographic context of the Israeli-Palestinian issue, we aired a map that was factually wrong,” the spokesperson said on Sunday.
Two MSNBC broadcasters, Kate Snow and Martin Fletcher, “will address the map in a segment Monday about agendas and disinformation on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the spokesperson said.
Fletcher, a Middle East analyst, said on Sunday that the map and analyses were “dead wrong.”

MSNBC Apologizes For Palestinian Map-Gate

Sky News fails to challenge lie that Israel plans to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque

First, beginning at roughly the 4:20 mark in the film, note that Rossi falsely claimed that Netanyahu has a secret plan to allow Jews to pray at the Temple Mount / Al-Aqsa Compound.
However, as anyone who’s been following the issue would surely know, the Israeli prime minister has stated repeatedly that there is no such plan to change the status quo, where Jews can visit but not pray. Indeed, Netanyahu recently banned Israeli MKs and ministers (and Arab MKs) from visiting the site in order to prevent the possibility that a visit by a controversial political figure will ignite more violence.
Even worse, the PSC Vice Chair then claims there is a secret plan to destroy the Mosque and build a Third Temple. This also goes unchallenged by Rossi.
He further claims that Israeli security personnel have engaged in “extra-judicial executions”.
The Sky News reporter allowed millions of viewers to hear such PSC propaganda without comment or critical scrutiny.

Israel slams UNESCO vote calling Western Wall Muslim

The proposal to recognize the adjoining Western Wall as a Muslim holy site was submitted by six Muslim countries on behalf of the Palestinians, according to a Ynet news report.
The proposal also calls for the international community to condemn Israel for urging “its citizens to bear arms in light of [the] recent terror wave,” as well as for recent actions by Israel and the Israel Defense Forces in Jerusalem. The document, a copy of which was obtained by Ynet, refers to Jerusalem as “the occupied capital of Palestine.”
In addition, the Palestinians seek condemnation of ongoing Israeli archaeological excavations near the Temple Mount and in Jerusalem’s Old City, as well as of the “aggression and illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship and access of Muslims to Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israel’s attempts to break the status quo since 1967.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely denounced the bid on Monday.
“This shameful and deceitful Palestinian attempt to rewrite history will fail the test of reality,” Hotovely said.
The Likud lawmaker said her ministry is making every effort to see that the bid is voted down by UNESCO on Tuesday.
The proposal is largely expected to pass, as most of UNESCO’s 58 members traditionally support the Palestinian cause.

Another @UNRWA teacher supports stabbing Jews

Alaa Elian is an UNRWA teacher in Gaza.

He recently posted this on Facebook:

I am not even close to running out of examples of UNRWA teachers and employees posting hate.

By the way, one UNRWA worker I exposed recently, Sohaib Fayyad, simply eliminated any mention of UNRWA in his Facebook page and keeps on posting hate.

It seems doubtful that he was fired, because if that was the case he would just list UNRWA as a former job. Instead, he cleansed any mention of UNRWA

(Literally as I was writing this, the page was taken down again.)

Lesson from 1931: It's the antisemitism, stupid

From the Palestine Bulletin, december 15, 1931, reporting on an Islamic conference in Jerusalem.

The incitement - claims of Jews planning to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque, saying that Jews are desecrating holy places by merely being there, the support for terrorists - is virtually identical to today's incitement.

The hate for Jews today is no different than it was in 1921, 1929 or 1931. It has nothing to do with Israeli actions, nothing to do with settlements, nothing to do with "occupation," nothing to do with Al Aqsa, nothing to do with prisoners or "refugees" or claims of organ-stealing or torture.

It is pure antisemitism.

10/19 Links Pt1: The Deafening Silence; Fatah’s official social media glorifies Martyrdom and murder

From Ian:

Deafening Silence

Instead of recognizing the profound unrest and rise of Palestinian terrorism, many have implicated Israel. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently condemned the killings by Israeli forces of four Palestinians—three of whom carried out terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and were killed during, or subsequent to the attacks. Ki-moon made no mention of the Israelis murdered by these terrorists. He called on Israel to investigate the incidents and “force” they used.
Force? Last time I checked, killing people as they attempt to stab you to death is not an instance of excessive force.
The world must not only condemn the horrific acts of terror; we must also condemn those responsible for inciting the violence. The Palestinian Authority is one group that we must demand be held accountable. In a recent speech on Palestinian TV, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stated: “We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem. With the help of Allah, every shaheed (martyr) will be in heaven.” He called on Palestinians to prevent Jews from entering the Temple Mount “by any means possible” and declared that Jews "have no right to defile [Al Aqsa Mosque] with their filthy feet." Days later, he declared the Oslo Accords void in a speech at the United Nations. Throughout the recent wave of terror, Fatah, Abbas’s party, has delivered leaflets in Palestinian towns praising the terrorists, and Fatah Twitter accounts have glorified the attacks. This week, a knife-wielding Gaza cleric called upon his congregants to stab Jews and “cut them into body parts.” He urged some to “restrain the victim, while others attack him with axes and butcher knives.”
The picture in Israel is grim: The country is facing mounting attacks and some Palestinian leaders are calling for a Third Intifada. Life in Israel has drastically changed over the past few weeks: Citizens stay indoors, commuters spend hours longer in their cars to take safer routes, and shops and restaurants are eerily deserted. As time goes on, more and more people know those personally affected by the violence. Nowhere is safe.
Israel is under attack and it is outrageous that the world has remained silent throughout these recent atrocities. It is time for the world to speak up.
The silence is deafening.

Fatah’s official social media promotes and glorifies Martyrdom and murder

While world media is focusing on terror promotion in private social media, the official Palestinian Authority and Fatah social media cannot be ignored. Just as the PA and Fatah leadership started this terror campaign, so too Abbas' party, Fatah, in its official social media, continues to pour fuel on the fire by glorifying terror attacks, murderers, and those seeking Martyrdom-death for Allah (Shahada).
One Fatah tweet showed the image of four terrorists who between them killed 2 and stabbed 7 Israelis, with the following praise:
"Our Martyrs [come] in droves
Our determination is [like] mountains,
it does not bow down before the despicable
and does not fear arrest"
[Fatah Twitter account, Oct. 13, 2015]
The terrorists pictured are Muhannad Halabi, who killed two in the Old City of Jerusalem, Fadi Alloun, who stabbed one, Amjad Al-Jundi, who stabbed one, and Thaer Abu Ghazaleh, who stabbed five. (More details about the attacks below)
Fatah urges Palestinians to seek Martyrdom-death, as often documented by Palestinian Media Watch, presenting it as sweet and desirable.

Netanyahu: Palestinian incitement is 'Osama Bin Laden meets Mark Zuckerberg'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Likud faction Monday that the current wave of Palestinian violence is the result of social media web sites, singling out Facebook.
Netanyahu said Israeli security officials were aware of the significant impact of incitement garnered from social media, because of what terrorists who attacked Jews over the past few weeks have written on their private Facebook pages.
"What has been going on is due to the combination of the Internet and Islamic extremism," Netanyahu said. "It has been Osama Bin Laden meets [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg."
Netanyahu said Israel was in "a lengthy struggle" and expressed full confidence that the Jewish state would win. He urged citizens to respect the law and not take it into their own hands, as happened Sunday night when Israelis attacked an Eritrean who was thought to have been a suicide bomber.
Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett criticized Netanyahu for enabling the construction of security barriers between the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Armon Hanatziv and Jabel Mukaber. At a meeting of his faction, he slammed the international community for not showing Israel enough support as it fights terror.
"Part of the world is morally confused and unsure who is the aggressor," Bennett said, purposely speaking in English. "I call upon our friends around the world to support us. Those around the world who gives us grades and advice: Wake up. We might be on the front lines now, but this war is also in your country. Don't find yourselves on the wrong side of history."

Deputy Foreign Minister Blames Abbas for 'Culture of Death'

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) laid the blame for the current terror wave in Israel on Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, in an editorial published in the Wall Street Journal Monday.
The latest surge of Arab terror attacks against Jews, she said, immediately followed a "well-orchestrated campaign of violence" and "explicit calls by the Palestinian leadership to 'spill blood.'”
She quoted Abbas, who said on PA television on September 16: “We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem. This is pure blood, clean blood, blood on its way to Allah. With the help of Allah, every martyr will be in heaven, and every wounded will get his reward.”
Two weeks later, she noted, terrorists murdered a Jewish couple, Eitam and Naama Henkin, in front of their four children.
The PA made clear that it approved of the murder.

"Non-political" UNRWA schools in Lebanon hold rallies supporting "Jerusalem intifada"

UNRWA is officially a non-political organization. As its director said in a 2009 speech:

UNRWA is non-political in nature and orientation. Our mandate rests on humanitarian and human development work and is underpinned by core United Nations precepts of neutrality and impartiality.

Last week, UNRWA students in Lebanon held a rally "supporting the Jerusalem intifada and supporting the Al Aqsa Mosque":

They were saying things like "With our blood and soul we will redeem you, oh Al-Aqsa" and "Million martyrs marching towards Jerusalem."

This rally was ostensibly organized only by the students of an UNRWA school, not the staff, even though it seems unlikely that students themselves could organize such a rally without logistical help from adults.

It also is difficult to conceive that these students that happen to go to an UNRWA school decided on their own to do something that contradicts the supposedly non-political nature of their lessons.

Moreover, this article indicates that a similar rally held yesterday in Lebanon was organized by UNRWA itself.

On Sunday, UNRWA schools in Lebanon organized a rally of solidarity with the Palestinian people and their legitimate struggle for freedom, return and independence, and in condemnation of the "Israeli" aggression and the repeated incursions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

UNRWA's pretense to be non-political is more and more absurd every day.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

File photo

This news is all over Arab media this morning.

The Director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Omar Kiswani, told the Anatolia news agency that that the number of Jewish "intruders to the Al-Aqsa Mosque" in Jerusalem, has significantly decreased during the last two weeks.

Kiswani said in a statement, "We saw over the past two weeks a clear decline in the number of incursions of the "Al-Aqsa Mosque," and we do not see Israeli political figures among the intruders."

He said that 29 "settlers" "stormed" into the "Al-Aqsa Mosque" Sunday, adding: "There is a decline in their numbers, usually on {Sundays] there are close to 100 invaders."

The subtext is that the Palestinian Arabs who are being killed while trying to stab Jews are being vindicated in that they have managed to scare some Jews from ascending to the Temple Mount during this terror spree in Jerusalem.

When Arabs claim that Israel treats their lives as cheap, remember that they view the lives of their children as far, far cheaper.

Look how much Mahmoud Abbas is trying to calm things down!

You know how the media keeps saying that Mahmoud Abbas is trying to stop the current terror spree from becoming a full-blown intifada?

Here are some photos posted on Fatah's official Facebook page over the past couple of days.

Today, support for an armed uprising:

Yesterday, glorification of an armed uprising:

Yesterday, incitement with a cartoon from an antisemite:

Caption: "Making the life for the occupier as hard as possible is the duty of the occupied. It's anti-colonialism!

Yesterday, a typical call for peace:

Yesterday: Antisemitism and incitement

Saturday, glorifying the firebombing of an Israeli bus which they brag injured the driver:

And, yes, Abbas' Fatah party officially glorifies stabbing Israelis as well:

Abbas is the head of Fatah and he is encouraging violence, not trying to stop it.

Propaganda lesson: How Iran creates news stories from thin air

Iran's Mehr News reports:

Russian jets forced Israeli fighter-bombers to change their course when trying to enter the Syrian airspace.

Russian Aerospace Force warplanes operating in Syria forced Israeli fighter-bombers to change their course when trying to enter the airspace of the Arab nation on espionage missions.

The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted Lebanese diplomatic sources saying that the event took place yesterday after Russian radars detected various Zionist fighters flying close to the Syrian territory.

Now, Mehr News isn't exactly the most reliable news outlet. but it is quoting Yediot Aharonot, and Yediot has some standards.

So what did Yediot say?

Russian forces warned Israel over IAF flights in Russian controlled airspace near the Syrian–Lebanese border area after Israeli jets were detected nearby, according to a report Friday in the Lebanese media outlet As Safir.

The report comes a mere day after Russia announced that it had established a "hotline" with Israel in order to coordinate aerial activity over Lebanon and Syria.

As Safir quoted Lebanese diplomatic officials who were "in the know," as saying that the warning was issued after Russian radar identified Israeli aircraft approaching Russian-controlled airspace two weeks ago.

"Russian aircraft immediately blocked the Israeli jets' path while they flew above the Akkar region in northern Lebanon. The Russians immediately sent a clear warning to the Israelis that entering Syrian airspace would be a pretext for opening fire," the source said.

How would a Lebanese source know what messages are being sent between Russia and Israel?

The answer is in the next paragraph:

According to the paper, which is considered loyal to Hezbollah, the Israeli aircraft quickly heeded the warnings and changed their course.

Iran instructed Hezbollah to "leak" a story to make Zionists afraid of Russia, an Israeli news outlet reported it with somewhat proper skepticism, and Iranian media now uses the Israeli report as proof that it is true.

News laundering.

Israeli restaurant offers 50% off - if Arabs and Jews share the table

The Hummus Bar, a family restaurant in Kfar Vitkin, Israel, has an intifada special.

On their Facebook page they write:

Afraid of Arabs?

Afraid of Jews?

No Arabs with us!

But there are also no Jews...

What we do have are human beings! Our Arab hummus is excellent! Our Jewish falafel is praiseworthy! And refills are free! (I think that is the translation...)

Special: 50% discount on hummus dishes for tables where Arabs and Jews sit together!
Valid Sunday-Thursday.

The restaurant is kosher, which means that it is Halal as well

Except for the Heineken beer they serve.

There are hundreds of comments, some from around the world, and most are positive. But I don't know if anyone has taken the restaurant up on the offer yet.

.@UNRWA "youth ambassador" releases new song glorifying violence as UN plays dumb

UNRWA's "youth ambassador" and former Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf has released a music video that shows that he supports violence.

The video includes romantic scenes of rock throwing and firebombs.

The lyrics also indicate that Nazareth is "occupied," meaning that Assaf is singing to destroy Israel, not just end the "occupation."

The headline in Palestine Press Agency about this video says that it shows that Assaf is involved with the "Al Quds uprising."

The UN, when asked about UNRWA employees spreading hate on social media, claims that "it remains to be seen" if the people posting this hate are really employees at UNRWA.

Because, you know, when people say they work at UNRWA, display UNRWA certificates that they received, show photos of their schools and classrooms, it could all be a big Zionist hoax.

UN Watch issued a statement about this:

"This is absurd — the UN is trying to stick its head in the sand,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization that monitors the world body.

“We have presented Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with new and unequivocal evidence of at least ten self-described UNRWA officials engaged in racist incitement, so it’s simply outrageous for the world body — which famously makes snap condemnations in situations when it has seen no evidence — to ignore what everyone can see with their own eyes,” said Neuer.

“UN Watch’s report includes archived screenshots as well as live links to antisemitic incitement by UNRWA officials, many of whom post pictures of themselves teaching in UNRWA classrooms,” added Neuer.

WAR CRIME!! ARAB HUMILIATED! (he also shot lots of Jews and killed one) (update)

There was another horrific attack, this time at the Beersheva bus station.

One person was killed and six wounded after two terrorists carried out an attack at the central bus station in Beersheba on Sunday night.

Israel Police said that the two suspects entered the bus station, where one of them fired shots while the other stabbed.

The wounded were brought to Soroka University Medical Center where one person who was initially critically hurt eventually died of his wounds. One person was in critical condition, four were moderately wounded and one was lightly wounded. One of the terrorists was killed while the second terrorist was shot and apprehended.

ABC News producer Nasser Atta tweeted this description of the video below:

The video he linked to also described the scene as "Palestinians wounded are tortured and humiliated by the Israeli army."

This occurs seconds after the attack, and clearly the terrorist is being held in place by a chair to make sure that he cannot get up and kill some more. It is true that one Israeli appears to angrily throw a row of seats at the terrorist.

But Nasser Atta and the Arab who posted the video are far more concerned about the humiliation suffered by this terrorist in his moment of glory than about the actual victims.

The same thing happened with the Arab world angrily sharing video of the child terrorist who was apparently harshly insulted by an Israeli with the camera, heard calling him a "son of a whore" multiple times, right after he stabbed a 12 year old Israeli boy leaving a candy shop on his bike.

Apparently, humiliating Arabs is a war crime. There is nothing worse.

Murdering Israelis is a natural reaction to the humiliation Arabs feel all the time. And here's proof - Israelis are humiliating these intifada heroes!

Nothing shows the difference bwteeen the West and the honor/shame society of the Arab world better than these. It is a world where murdering Jewish kids or old people is honorable, but insulting the murderers is an affront to the entire Palestinian Arab society - at least the majority that wholeheartedly supports the murders.

(UPDATE: Apparently the person beaten in that video was an Eritean who was mistaken as another terrorist.)

10/18 Links: Fatah: Kick the Jews off the Temple Mount; Amnesty Sponsors Blood Libel Promoter

From Ian:

PMW: Fatah: Kick the Jews off the Temple Mount

A cartoon posted today on the “official Facebook page” of Abbas’ Fatah movement shows a Palestinian child kicking a long-nosed, terrified, ultra-orthodox Jew off the Temple Mount. The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock appear in the background along with the words "leave our skies." A line from a poem by the Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish, calling for all Jews to leave Israel, is posted with the cartoon:
“Leave our country, our land, our sea, our wheat, our salt, our wounds. Everything."
[Official Facebook page of the Fatah Movement, Oct. 18, 2015]
The cartoon joins numerous statements by Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials that Jews should not be allowed on the Temple Mount, which they call the Al-Aqsa Mosque plaza, because it is Islamic and Jews “defile it.” As documented by Palestinian Media Watch, PA Chairman Abbas has stated this several times, including last month:
"The Al-Aqsa [Mosque] is ours... and they have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem."
[Official PA TV, Sept. 16, 2015 and official website of PA Chairman Abbas, Sept. 16, 2015]
Abbas has also justified the current Palestinian violence and attacks as “protection of the holy sites.”

PMW: Al-Aqsa preacher: Jews worship the Devil, will be exterminated by Muslims

In his lesson in the Al-Aqsa Mosque this week, Palestinian preacher of Islam Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi taught that Jews are destined to build a Temple outside the area of the Temple Mount, where they will worship the Devil. At the End of Time, Muslims will seek out the Jews everywhere and exterminate them all. The Sheikh also referred to the well-known Hadith foretelling that one day Jews will hide from Muslims, but the rock and the tree will call out: "O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him":
Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi, teaches Islam twice a week in the Al-Aqsa Mosque: "The Children of Israel will be forced - they will not concede - they will be forced to change their plans to build the Temple inside the structure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and will have to build it outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque... A Temple of heresy to worship the Devil. Why? Because the Anti-Christ won't appear unless this Temple is built and the Devil is worshipped there... [At the End of Days] we will follow the Jews everywhere. They will not escape us. They will not be able to escape us. The rock and tree will speak, according to the Hadith (tradition) of the Prophet [Muhammad]... and it is a reliable promise from the Prophet according to which the tree and the rock will speak and say: 'O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' The Children of Israel will all be exterminated, the Anti-Christ will be killed and the Muslims will live in comfort for a long time." [Al-Msjed Al-Aqsa YouTube channel, Oct. 16, 2015]

Channel 1's authentic report

But those who watched the Israel Broadcasting Authority's Channel 1 current affairs program, "Yoman," were able to see what is really going on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An authentic report, presented by journalist Riad Ali, told the story that most clearly illustrates what has been going on here in recent decades and in recent weeks. In the broadcast, Ali went into a village in east Jerusalem and revealed the authentic opinions of Arabs who oppose our right to live in our homeland. We didn't hear them complain about any violation of the status quo on the Temple Mount. Not a word about settlers. No complaints about sewage in the streets or ramshackle roads, and no claims of discrimination in anything related to environmental development -- as the two private TV stations would have us believe.
There was only one crimson thread weaving through the comments again and again: We, the Israelis, have no right to live here. "No, I don't believe so. They should go back to where they came from," was the response from one Arab asked about whether there is room for the Jewish people in his country.
Mohammed Abu Oudah, a Fatah member integrated into Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' system, claimed that he and his family are originally from Al-Barriyya, a village that existed between Ramla and Lod. "I am a refugee here in this camp," he told the reporter, "Of course we want to go back." The yearning to remove us from our homes still fills the hearts of the elderly in Qalandiya, who bequeath their faded memories to the younger generations. "This land will be returned to us in a bloody [struggle]," a man named Hamza said. When asked what would happen if Israel agreed to return to the '67 borders, he replied, "We will agree in principle, but the next generation will demand more." We can only guess that if the reporter were to continue wandering through the Arab villages of east Jerusalem, he would find those dreaming to kill me and my family just to return to Tel Qatra, an ancient hill in northern Gedera -- the town where I live -- which until 1948 was home to the village of Qatra, conquered and destroyed in the War of Independence.

Why is Amnesty International Sponsoring a U.S. Tour for a Palestinian Promoter of the Blood Libel?

In April, Amnesty International came under fire when it rejected, by a vote of 468-461, a resolution calling for the organization to combat anti-Semitism in Britain. This refusal led many to question Amnesty’s commitment to fighting anti-Jewish prejudice. Now, the group’s American arm has added further fuel to the fire by sponsoring a U.S. speaking tour—including a stop in a third-grade classroom—for a Palestinian activist who promotes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
On his website, Bassem Tamimi is described as “an internationally recognized Palestinian human rights activist from the West Bank farming village of Nabi Selah” and “a beacon of hope and an inspiration to all who believe in freedom.” Detained repeatedly by Israeli authorities, Tamimi has been dubbed a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty, which subsequently co-sponsored an American speaking tour for him that began in September. Since then, Tamimi has spoken in 10 states, including multiple stops in New York and California and a plenary appearance at the annual conference of the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation, where he advocated the boycott of Israel.
Tamimi’s tour and its sponsorship by Amnesty have already drawn substantial criticism, given his radical views. In particular, objections were raised when Tamimi was brought in to address third-graders at the Beverly J. Martin School in Ithaca, New York. Luvelle Brown, Ithaca’s superintendent of schools, later denounced Tamimi’s remarks as “politically skewed, inflammatory, and not endorsed by the Ithaca City School District.” Amnesty, however, defended Tamimi’s appearance, dismissing the criticism as a “smear campaign” and “bullying and intimidation.”
But while perhaps that controversy could be chalked up to differences of political opinions, the latest one swirling around Tamimi cannot. On Wednesday, as reported by Cornell’s William Jacobson, Tamimi reposted a viral anti-Semitic meme on his Facebook page, alleging Israelis detain Palestinian children to steal their organs, and that Zionists control the media to suppress this information:

It is unacceptable that Israel maintains prejudicial policies toward Jews at the holiest site to the Jewish people.

Benjamin Netanyahu keeps assuring Barack Obama, and the American Department of State, that Israel intends to maintain the status quo at the Temple Mount.

EOZ columnist, Vic Rosenthal, proprietor of Abu Yehuda, has a few thoughts on the matter.

But the bottom line is that the status quo in Israel toward Jews, and all non-Muslims, in the Old City, on the Temple Mount, is entirely prejudicial. I am not a particularly religious person, but I am offended at the idea that only Muslims are allowed to pray on the holiest place to the Jewish people.

Israeli policy on this question is unethical and unjust toward Jewish people, toward all non-Muslims, and it must change.

It is, in fact, a policy grounded in al-Sharia because Moshe Dayan, who obviously should have known better, made a very big mistake. But now this mistake needs to be corrected.

Understand this:

At one time all the religions in the Middle East were political in the sense that they were total social systems.

Throughout the great majority of human history there was no distinction between the dictates of the faith and any aspect of the life of the individual. The same, of course, was true for Judaism and Christianity until the European Enlightenment of the 17th century. Thankfully, both religions embraced the Separation of Church and State.

Islam has yet do so and, in fact, is moving in the opposite direction. European Muslims - with their screeching and their stomping and their violence and their religiously grounded hatred - do not seem all that different from their Jew-Hating Middle Eastern counterparts.

So as the world burns, my natural question is, "what should Israel do?"

If you look at the scope of Israeli history the general tendency has been to defer to the West.

It was primarily due to the western governments that the United Nations acknowledged the existence of Israel to begin with. Sometimes people will say that the UN created Israel, in order to imply the illegitimacy of the Jewish State. This is false. Israel was created via the blood and sweat and deaths of many thousands of Jewish people - Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Sephardim - who built the necessary infrastructure for the emergence of the state. All the United Nations did was take a vote. It was the Jewish people in the Land of Israel at the end of the 19th century and through the 20th century who did the work and who drained the swamps and who built the roads and who created the schools and developed the political leadership, that made it so that the UN almost had to recognize it.

But the UN did not do the work, nor did they die in the fields. That was Jews. You know who else it was, of course? It was also untold numbers of Arabs who migrated into Israel because of increasing economic possibilities. Israel is the Jewish State, but Arabs helped build it for simple, human, economic reasons. They may have thought of the Jews as the children of swine and orangutans, but they still needed employment for the purpose of feeding their children. Their Koranically-based anti-Jewish racism did not override their basic social need to provide for their families.

This has changed.

The Narrative and the Temple Mount

Due to the Muslim Brotherhood, Yassir Arafat and his heinous side-kick, Mahmoud Abbas - and all their little off-spring like the PLO and Fatah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad - they have succeeded in raising an entire generation of Israeli Arabs who believe that they have a religious-political-moral imperative to stab Jewish people in the neck or run us down with their vehicles. They have been fed on the Narrative of Pure Palestinian Victimhood and thus honestly believe that they every right to take any Jewish life as a matter of social justice.

If we object we are spit upon by ideological morons, mainly in the western-left, who call us racist.

What Israel needs to do is take charge of the situation. If the Israelis back down it will give the Arabs good reason to advance. By handing the Temple Mount over to the Jordanian waqf it gave the Arab world reason to claim it as their own.

As we know, Arab-Muslims do not so much venerate Al-Aqsa as a place of religious contemplation, but as a violent political site in their never-ending hostility toward the Jewish minority in that part of the world.

The very last thing that is needed is maintenance of the status quo.

As Rosenthal writes:

I’ve been thinking about status quos (stati quo?) lately.

There’s the one on the Temple Mount, the absurd one that says that Jews may visit but may not pray. Lately Muslims have been trying to prevent Jews from visiting altogether. When you consider that this is and always has been the holiest site in Judaism, that Muslim colonialists built a triumphal shrine atop the ruins of the Jewish Temple – which those Muslims now say wasn’t really there anyway – the absurdity is even more manifest.

It is one thing for Arabs to discriminate against Jews, that is to be expected. It is another thing entirely for the Jewish State of Israel to discriminate against Jews. That is simply unacceptable.

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.