Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Abbas gave direct orders to his own terror group to foment violence

One detail of the events of the past two weeks that escaped notice is that Mahmoud Abbas is directly complicit in directing the actions of terror groups.

As the Times of Israel story I quoted in my last post said:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday approved plans by the leaders of the Fatah Tanzim militia to organize mass demonstrations on Friday as tensions escalated over Jerusalem’s contested Temple Mount.

Tanzim is a terror group. We haven't heard much from them for a number of years until last week during the "Day of Rage" which they organized.

Tanzim was founded by Yasir Arafat in 1995 - during the Oslo peace process - as a means for Arafat to maintain his own rejectionist group against Oslo (countering Islamist groups like Hamas) while pretending to support Oslo.

Marwan Barghouti was the head of Tanzim.

Tanzim was responsible for a number of terror attacks including several that specifically targeted children, such as the sniper murder of 10-month old Shalhevet Pass and the murders of pregnant Tali Hatuel along with her four daughters, aged two to ten. They also lured a 16-year old boy to his death by posing as an American girl on the Internet before murdering him.

Like the Al Aqsa Brigades, Tanzim is a Fatah terror group that was never dismantled by Abbas despite promises.

Now he is directly instructing the group to act violently.

Shlomi Eldar disagrees, writing on July 20 that Abbas really wanted to avoid all of these riots and that Fatah militant leaders have been acting independently and forced Abbas' hand.

If that is true, then since July 19 Abbas is not a leader but a puppet - and an enthusiastic one at that, as he is the one who has been inflaming tensions with his statements. Abbas is the one who decided to end security cooperation with Israel, not Fatah. Yet Abbas is still the head of Fatah and these groups nominally report to him, and based on the stories this week they seek his permission to riot.

At best Abbas has no control over anything and goes along with his most extreme, violent factions in order to remain in power. which means that anyone relying on Abbas to help bring peace is being dangerously naive.

At worst, Abbas is acting like Arafat, using these terror groups that report to him as a means to foment violence while maintaining the fiction of his own antipathy towards violence.

The media might not be noticing this yet, but you can be sure that Western intelligence agencies are quite aware of Abbas' double game in pretending to be peaceful while directing or allowing terror groups to act violently, a game has already seen deadly results.

(h/t Irene)

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After "Day of Rage" succeeds, Abbas moves back towards peace. Just kidding! (ElderToon)

From Times of Israel:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday approved plans by the leaders of the Fatah Tanzim militia to organize mass demonstrations on Friday as tensions escalated over Jerusalem’s contested Temple Mount.

The move came hours after both Fatah and its Hamas rival called for a second week for demonstrations throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem on Friday to protest Israeli security measures at the flashpoint holy site, significantly raising fears of renewed violence even after Israel removed metal detectors at the Mount.

This is about right:

Since I made this, Abbas has said that Muslims can return to the Temple Mount to worship, but it is unclear if he called off the demonstrations.

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07/26 Links Pt2: Ben Shapiro: Why the Left Protects Islam; The Menorah as Symbol and Myth

From Ian:

Ben Shapiro: Why the Left Protects Islam

This is no shock. The same left that barred Dawkins from his Berkeley event cheered this week while Palestinian Arabs rioted over metal detectors at the Temple Mount. Those leftists proclaim that the true obstacle to peace in the Middle East isn't Palestinian Arab violence -- it isn't Palestinians who stab Israeli Druz officers on the Temple Mount; or the Palestinians who invade homes and slaughter old men and women; or the Palestinians in government who cheer, honor and financially support such behavior. No, the problem is the Jews.
The same left that blames metal detectors for murderous assaults and Richard Dawkins for offending Islam makes excuses for radical Muslim and Women's March on Washington organizer Linda Sarsour, who has called for certain apostate Muslims to have their genitals removed, says that Zionists cannot be feminists and stands up for terrorists and terror supporters.
Why does the left seek to support radical Islam so ardently? Because the left believes that the quickest way to destroy Western civilization is no longer class warfare but multicultural warfare: Simply ally with groups that hate the prevailing system and work with them to take it down. Then, the left will build on the ashes of the old system. In this view, Dawkins is an opponent -- how can the left recruit Muslims to fight the system if Dawkins is busy alienating them? They support the Palestinian terror regime -- how can that colonialist outpost, Israel, be defeated without a little blood? They applaud Sarsour -- she's an ally, so she must be backed.
Alliance with nefarious forces calls your own morality into question. KPFA has a lot more to answer for than Dawkins. But the left will never have to answer such questions so long as it focuses in on its common enemy: a supposedly conservative establishment that must be fought with any tool at its disposal.

Douglas Murray: UK Terrorism: 'Enough' is Not 'Enough'

Yet now that we are nearly two months on from her comments, it is worth noting that to date there are no signs that "enough" has been "enough". Consider just two highly visible signs that what Britain has gone through this year has been, in fact, no wake-up call at all, and that instead, whatever might have been learned has been absorbed into the to-and-fro of political events, passing like any other transient news story.
Nearly two months on from British Prime Minister Theresa May's comments, following the Westminster terror attack, that there is "far too much tolerance of extremism" in the UK and that "Enough is enough", it is worth noting that what Britain has gone through this year has been, in fact, no wake-up call at all, and that to date there are no signs that "enough" has been "enough". (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
The first was an event that took place only a fortnight after Theresa May's claim that something had changed in the UK. This was the annual "Al-Quds Day" march in London, organised by the badly misnamed Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC). Apart from organising an annual "Islamophobe of the Year" award -- an award which two years ago they gave to the slaughtered staff of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo -- this Khomeinist group's main public activity each year is an "Al Quds Day" in London. The day allows a range of anti-Semites and anti-Israel extremists to congregate in central London, wave Hezbollah flags and call for the destruction of the Jewish state, Israel.
As Hezbollah is a terrorist group, and any distinction between a "military" and "diplomatic" wing of the group exists solely in the minds of a few people in the British Foreign Office, waving the flag of Hezbollah in public is waving the flag of a terrorist group. If the rules of the game were indeed changing after the followers of a Hezbollah-like creed had slaughtered citizens on a bridge in London, then the promotion of a terrorist group in the same city only days later would not have gone ahead. Nor would the speeches from the "Al Quds Day" platform have been allowed to be completed without arrests being made. The speeches to the 1,000-strong crowd included the most lurid imaginable claims.
These included a speech by the chairman of the IHRC, Nazim Ali. Mr Ali used his time before the public to make a connection between the horrific fire in a tower-block in West London days before the march and the Jewish state. According to Mr Ali, the roughly 80 victims of the fire at Grenfell Tower "were murdered by Theresa May's cronies, many of which are supporters of Zionist ideology." He went on:
"Let us not forget that some of the biggest corporations who were supporting the Conservative Party are Zionists. They are responsible for the murder of the people in Grenfell, in those towers in Grenfell, the Zionist supporters of the Tory party... It is the Zionists who give money to the Tory party, to kill people in high rise blocks... Careful, careful, careful of those rabbis who belong to the Board of Deputies [of British Jews], who have got blood on their hands."
Does Mrs. May regard this as "enough"?

MEMRI: Egyptian Writers Criticize The Negative Attitude To Christians And Jews Reflected In The Common Interpretation Of The Fatiha, The Opening Surah Of The Quran

A discussion has recently taken place in the Egyptian media regarding the interpretation of the last two verses (verses 6 and 7) of the Fatiha, the opening surah of the Quran. These verses state: "[Allah,] Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have incurred [Your] wrath or of those who are astray." According to the common interpretation of these verses,[i] the phrase "those upon whom You have bestowed favor" is taken to refer to the Muslims, while the phrases "those who have incurred [Your] wrath" and "those who are astray" are said to refer to the Jews and the Christians, respectively.
The discussion in the Egyptian media was sparked by an investigative article published January 27, 2017 in the Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Yawm. The article, by journalist Mu'ataz Nadi, stated that booklets handed out at funerals and in mourning tents in Egypt repeat this interpretation that refers negatively to the Jews and the Christians, even though renowned religious scholars, such as 19th-century religious reformist Muhammad 'Abduh and others, claimed that it is false.
Several Egyptian journalists responded with articles that supported Nadi's view, rejecting the interpretation that appears in the booklets and rebuking clerics, especially Al-Azhar, for allowing the publication of such materials that they said spread extremism. They added that the booklets are yet another indication of the urgent need to reform the religious discourse.[ii]
The following are excerpts from the Al-Masri Al-Yawm article and from articles that responded to it.

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.

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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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