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The Inversion of Reality in Israel

October 25, 2015

The Inversion of Reality in Israel, American Thinker, Ricki Hollander, October 25, 2015

The perpetrator is turned into the victim.

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For ten years, I’ve spent the Jewish holidays in Jerusalem, joining multitudes from all over Israel and abroad who flock here to celebrate. It is a period of festivity, with concerts and events throughout the city. From my apartment outside the Old City, I watch Jews streaming to the Western Wall as generations before them have done, and Christian tourists who come to celebrate the Feast of the Tabernacles.

This year, the holiday begins with the usual exuberance, but events take a dark turn as streets turn into murder scenes, and paranoia grips the city.

Exhorted by their leaders to defend Islam’s holy sites, Palestinians are fed lies about marauding Jews planning to take over the Al-Aqsa mosque. President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s purported peace partner, calls on Palestinians to prevent Jews from “defiling” the Temple Mount “with their filthy feet.” He promises that “every martyr will be placed in Paradise.” His call is repeated by political and religious leaders on TV and social media, illustrated with graphic images of bloody knives.

As if on cue, Palestinians eager to find that promised paradise leave their homes with butcher knives to seek out Jewish victims. A young Israeli couple are ambushed and killed before their children. A vicious attack on a family returning from the Western Wall leaves two dead. The gruesome scene is filmed by Arab onlookers who casually watch the victims die, sipping Coke and refusing to help.

Within days, a wave of violence has engulfed the city. The festive streets filled with holiday celebrants have become eerily deserted. No one knows when or where the next knifing will occur.

I am awakened one night by the sharp staccato of gunfire, followed by the long wailing of ambulances come to evacuate the latest stabbing victim, a 15-year-old boy, and his assailant, Fadi Aloun, shot dead by police. On his Facebook page is Aloun’s declaration that he intends to become a shahid (martyr). Film clips show him walking along the train tracks after the attack, while Jewish youths behind the guardrail point him out as the perpetrator, telling arriving patrolmen to shoot.

Palestinian sources proclaim that “Martyr Aloun” was “murdered in cold blood.” The Globe and Mail follows, reporting that Aloun “was accosted … by a mob of Israelis, who accused him of carrying out a stabbing some time before” and “prodded” police to kill him. The perpetrator is turned into the victim.

In the ensuing days, sounds of sirens and helicopters become a constant backdrop. They signify new attacks and more casualties. Regular radio programming is pre-empted with news that comes around the clock. Reports of “incidents” are not confined just to Jerusalem now. They are coming from all over the country – Tel Aviv, Petach Tikvah, Jaffa, Afula. High schools are closed in Jerusalem – not enough security guards. Jerusalem’s mayor says residents should carry weapons for self-protection. Those who do venture out look over their shoulders. Some sport baseball bats or umbrellas. I buy pepper spray, one of the last available vials.

An acquaintance, Tzvi, recounts his own brush with terrorism: he is walking and chatting with his friend Daniel in the Old City, when suddenly Daniel keels over and falls to his knees, head forward and bleeding, dazed and unaware. Tzvi whips around to see a petite Arab girl standing directly behind Daniel with arm raised, grasping a butcher’s knife, about to bury it in Daniel’s back. In that second of panic, an unarmed Tzvi fends off the assailant by swinging his laptop at her head. She staggers back, then lunges forward again with her knife, as if possessed. He swings again, shouting, “An attack!” and yells at Daniel to shoot the attacker who, despite the blows, is still wildly lunging with her knife. The police hear the shot, come running, and hold down the assailant, who is still fighting, screaming that she wants to die. Medics treat Daniel and his attacker on the spot before transferring them to hospital.

The terrorist is Shorouq Dwayyat, an 18-year-old student who, before stabbing Daniel, implored her mother on Facebook not to mourn her when she becomes “a shahid for Allah.” Palestinians, however, report that Dwayyat was attacked by Jewish “settlers” who ripped off her headscarf. They show a video of her lying on the ground surrounded by Israeli police. NPR airs a report interviewing Dwayyat’s family, who say they’ve heard that Shorouq’s hijab was removed. They insist she is incapable of stabbing anyone and declare that Palestinian rage is stoked by three things – “the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” protecting Islamic rights,” like wearing our hijab,” and “Israeli attacks on children and others.” The report gives no voice to the victims.

On one particularly brutal day of violence, two teenage cousins, Ahmed and Hassan, walk through the streets with knives, looking for victims. They slash an Israeli man and then come upon a 13-year-old boy riding his bicycle. They throw him down and repeatedly stab him, leaving him nearly dead. Much of this shocking barbarism can be seen on surveillance film made public. A CCTV clip also shows Israeli police approaching Hassan, who rushes at them with knife aloft. He is shot dead. Ahmed runs into the street and is struck by a car. Cell phone footage shows him afterward, lying with his legs bent beneath him, blood on the ground. Someone is heard cursing him.

The story quickly becomes inverted. The Palestinian prime minister calls Hassan’s shooting an “assassination in cold blood.” Abbas’s spokesman blames the Israeli government for Hassan’s “execution.” In a televised speech, President Abbas accuses Israel of “executing our children in cold blood, just as they did to the boy Ahmad Manasra and to other children in Jerusalem and elsewhere.”

Inconveniently for Abbas, Ahmad is filmed, alive and well in an Israeli hospital. Prime Minister Netanyahu calls the Palestinian leadership out, accusing them of lying to encourage more violence. Yet some Western media continue to distort the story. An NBC website article conveys the false Palestinian claims as credible and questions the accounts of Israeli spokesmen in a he-said, she-said scenario, despite clear-cut footage of the perpetrators chasing their victims and charging toward police with a knife.

With each attack, the facts are twisted by Palestinian media and leaders. Terrorists shot or killed in self-defense are held up as victims of Israeli savagery. Truth is turned on its head.

The story continues to be distorted here, too. The reality of knife-wielding Palestinians shot in self-defense becomes a “cycle of violence.” Victim and perpetrator are equated, distinctions blurred.

Headlines mislead: MSNBC describes an armed Palestinian lunging at security officers as “Man shot after rushing past police in Jerusalem.” The LA Times declares “Four Palestinians Killed in Israeli Violence” while USA Today writes “Israelis Kill 4 as Violence Surges” without noting that the four killed were actively engaged in violence.

The president’s spokesperson parrots Palestinian accusations of excessive force and terrorism by Israelis. Secretary of State John Kerry blames the outbreak of Palestinian violence on “massive” Israeli settlement building.

I feel I’ve entered an alternate universe, where black is white and perpetrator and victim are reversed. Palestinian lies and incitement are downplayed or concealed. Truth has become a casualty, along with the innocents who have been wounded and killed by those brainwashed by hate rhetoric.

Categories: Abbas, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Filthy Jews, Foreign policy, Islam's war on Jews, Islamic jihad, Israel, Kerry, Obama and Israel, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians and Jews, Temple Mount
Tags: Abbas, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Filthy Jews, Foreign Policy, Islam's war on Jews, Islamic Jihad, Israel, Kerry, Obama and Israel, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians and Jews, Temple Mount

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An Israeli Arab flies paraglider into Syria to join ISIS without being intercepted

October 25, 2015

An Israeli Arab flies paraglider into Syria to join ISIS without being intercepted, DEBKAfile, October 25, 2015

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In a major security breach, an Israeli Arab, 23, was able to fly by paraglider across into Syria from the southwestern village of Mevo Hama Saturday, Oct. 24, southwestern Golan without being intercepted – although an IDF spotter had reported the event. The pilot came from the Israeli Arab town of Jaljuliya east of Kfar Saba near the West Bank. His defection, apparently to the Islamic State, was clearly organized in advance. His landing in Syria was secured by a party from the jihadist group who came to pick him up.

The massive air-and-ground search operation the Israeli military scrambled came too late.

“We believe he planned this move to the other side, and joined a group there,” Brig.-Gen. Moti Almoz told reporters during a conference call Sunday morning, after a gag order on the story was lifted. Another IDF statement said that Israeli forces are still trying to ascertain the person’s intentions

DEBKAfile’s military sources count this event as a particularly grave security lapse for the following reasons:

1. The Shin Bet was clearly taken unawares of a conspiracy for the Israeli Arab’s flight.

2. No one discovered that a paraglider was being assembled in secret at Mevo Hama or had it brought there unnoticed. And who helped him launch it?

3. How did he set up communication with ISIS-Syria without being detected by Israeli security?

4. How did the preparations on the Syrian side to receive the pilot escape the attention of IDF military intelligence?

5. Why was no one on the spot authorized to shoot the paraglider shot down before it flew across the border? By the time the report went through channels, the bird had flown.

ISIS claims it has taken an “Israeli pilot” captive.

Our military sources add that the paraglider operation was set up by a hostile element to test Israel’s defenses in three areas:

The efficiency of IDF spotter posts across the Golan. The glider was indeed sighted and reported.
Israeli Air force operations in Golan – which were indeed found with holes that can be used for penetration.
Israel’s air defense on the Golan. This episode exposed the absence of a commander with authority to act with dispatch to foil an unforeseen event.

In other words, Israel’s defenses were wide open to attack Saturday.

Categories: Golan, Intelligence, Islamic State, Israel, Israeli Arabs
Tags: Golan, Intelligence, Islamic State, Israe, Israeli Arabs

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ISIS trying to co-opt Palestinian jihad against Israel as part of its own cause

October 24, 2015

ISIS trying to co-opt Palestinian jihad against Israel as part of its own cause, Breitbart, Edwin Mora, October 24, 2015

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AP Photo/Militant Website, File

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), through several of its media organs, has expressed support for the deluge of Palestinian terrorist attacks currently plaguing Israel, calling for more.

A new report by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor argues the new outbursts of support for Palestinian terrorism is an attempt to commandeer the cause as part of its own.

ISIS considers itself the authority in political and religious matters for all Muslims, with its Caliphate backing Sunnis who fight its enemies.

ISIS regards the Muslim Brotherhood’s movements and affiliates, such as the terrorist group Hamas, as too pragmatic and not radical enough. “In much of the Islamic world, when there are various approaches, the radical one tends to trump those deemed to be weaker,” notes The Jerusalem Post.

According to a poll conducted by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar, late last year, nearly one-quarter of Palestinians had positive views of ISIS. However, “the pro-ISIS presence within the Palestinian territories should not be exaggerated. It is primarily limited to small and divided pro-IS groups in Gaza,” Middle East Forum fellow Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi told The Jerusalem Post.

That being said, ISIS “does not need to have an operational presence on the ground in Israel to be effective, as its propaganda over the Internet can serve as an incitement tool for more attacks,” declares the Post.

ISIS has embarked upon a media campaign that involves the release of a series of videos in support of the ongoing terrorist attacks in Israel and encouraging the Palestinians to carry out more lone wolf assaults, the new report by MEMRI reveals.

As he congratulates the Palestinian attackers on their recent attacks on the Jews, the narrator of a nine-minute video declares:

Oh mujahideen, we call on you to prepare yourselves spiritually and materially to strike terror and fear into the hearts of the Jews. … Know that the soldiers of Islam are fighting here in Iraq, Syria, Khorasan, and West Africa, but their sights are set on Bayt Al-Maqdis [Jerusalem].

The footage was released by ISIS’ information office in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Mosul fell to ISIS in June 2014. Khorasan is an ancient name for a region that covers large parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, India, and other surrounding countries.

The MEMRI report noted that “a substantial part of these videos is dedicated to ideological attacks on Hamas and Fatah.”

“Fatah has become an agent of the infidel Jews and Christians, while Hamas is doing the bidding of the Shi’ites [Iranians] and Alawites [the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad],” said the report.

The Middle East Forum’s Tamimi told the The Jerusalem Post that ISIS rhetoric in support of the deteriorating security situation on the ground in Israel fueled by the Palestinian attacks is an effective means to make headlines.

It also “fits in with [the] idea of supporting the cause of Muslims everywhere,” said Tamimi who closely monitors Islamist opposition groups in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS has established a foothold in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, and other regions and is expanding its presence across the globe, with its affiliates pushing for power as far as its Khorasan Province–Afghanistan.

“Arab youth in the Palestinian territories and Israel are influenced by the storm waging in neighboring countries and are willing to join the call to action and seek martyrdom for the sake of their cause,” notes the Post.

“But for now, Islamic State is more of an observer to the violence waging in Israel as local groups such as Hamas have the advantage in claiming the terror as its own because of proximity and its experience waging war against Israel, not only in words,” it adds.

Categories: Hamas, Islamic State, Israel, Palestinians
Tags: Hamas, Islamic State, Israel, Palestinians

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The Palestinian Jihad: Lies, Lies and More Lies

October 24, 2015

The Palestinian Jihad: Lies, Lies and More Lies, Gatestone Institute, Bassam Tawil, October 24, 2015

First, we are not seeing anything “popular.” We are not seeing, as before, thousands of Palestinians participating in the violence or protests.
It is just another wave of terrorism: targeting Jews for being Jews. The terrorists and their apologists do not distinguish between a Jew living in the city of Beersheba, and a Jew from a West Bank settlement. For the Palestinian leaders and media, these Jews are all “settlers” living in “occupied territories.”
The appropriate term for the current wave of terrorism is “jihad”. The attacks on Jews in Israel and the West Bank are part of the global jihad that has been waged for many years against Jews in particular, non-Muslims in general, and even against other Muslims who might not agree with a differing version of Islam.
This jihad is not aimed at “ending occupation” or protesting against misery and checkpoints. The terrorists do not see a difference between a “left wing Jew” and a “right wing Jew.” They do not ask their victims about their political affiliation before knifing them.
In a grotesque rewrite of history, UNESCO declared that two Jewish holy sites, Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, were Muslim holy sites.
This is a wave of terrorism based on lies. Palestinian leaders, including Abbas his officials in the Palestinian Authority and his Fatah faction, have been lying to us for months. They told Palestinians that the Jews are “invading” and “desecrating” Islamic holy sites with the purpose of destroying them. Abbas and his officials are urging Muslims to join the jihad against the Jews.
The leaders are now telling us that most of the terrorists were, in fact, innocent civilians who were shot dead by Israelis while on their way to buy food or going to work. Lying has become an integral part of the jihad against Jews. The campaign of lies, distortion and fabrications is not less serious than the terror attacks.
This is yet another phase of the worldwide jihad against all the “infidels” and “enemies of Islam.” Those who are murdering Jews today do not hesitate to murder other non-Muslims tomorrow, especially those who are seen as Israel’s friends, such as the U.S.

Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are calling it a “peaceful popular resistance.” They are referring, of course, to the latest wave of stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks against the Jews in Israel.

In the view of our leaders — and, unfortunately, many in the international community — this is a “peaceful popular resistance,” an uprising, or an “intifada,” like two previous uprisings we had in 1987 and 2000.

What is happening these days in the Palestinian territories and Israel, however, is anything but a “peaceful popular resistance.” First, we are not seeing anything “popular.” We are not seeing, as before, thousands of Palestinians participating in the violence or protests. These attacks are not protests launched by villagers, residents of refugee camps and members of professional unions in the Palestinian territories.

What we are seeing are pure terrorist attacks carried out mostly by impressionable young men and women whose hearts and minds have been poisoned by the inflammatory rhetoric and incitement of Palestinian leaders, mosques, the media, Facebook and other social media. The terrorists who carry knives or firearms to murder Jews are usually, it seems, disturbed youngsters, who have been fired up by the pervasive atmosphere of hate poured over them daily by their leaders and these leaders’ media outlets. The current terrorists are not part of an armed group such as the Tanzim or the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, nor a “popular resistance,” a street gang, or any organized movement.

Contrary to what Palestinian leaders have been telling us, not to mention the rest of the world, these terrorists do not believe in any form of “peaceful and popular resistance” against Israel. After all, there is nothing peaceful or popular about stabbing or shooting Jews waiting at a bus stop or driving their cars on their way to work or back home. Surely, there is nothing peaceful about murdering a Jewish couple in front of their four children, or stabbing and seriously wounding a 13-year-old boy riding his bicycle on the streets of Jerusalem.

This is, bluntly, just another wave of terrorism: targeting Jews for being Jews. The terrorists and their apologists do not distinguish between a Jew living in the city of Beersheba, and a Jew from a settlement in the West Bank. In the eyes of the Palestinian leaders and media, these Jews are all “settlers” living in “occupied territories.” To many of them, and as they repeatedly tell us, all of Israel is “occupied territory.”

Official Palestinian maps continue to present Palestine as occupying all of Israel. And there are continual attempts erase history Jewish presence. Last July, Rachel’s Tomb, the burial site of a Jewish Matriarch was attacked by explosives launched from slingshots. And just last week Joseph’s Tomb, the burial site of a Jewish Patriarch, was torched. These are the same methods al-Qaeda and Da’esh (ISIS) have been using in Bamiyan and Palmyra to try to obliterate any evidence of a pre-Islamic presence other ancient sites. These attack were accompanied by requests from six Arab states — Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Tunisia, Morocco ad the United Arab Emirates — to have UNESCO declare the Rachel’s Tomb, and Western Wall — a retaining wall and all that is left of the Jews’ Second Temple that the Romans destroyed in 70 CE — part of the Muslim Temple Mount under Palestinian control. The last request was removed before the vote, but in a grotesque rewrite of history, UNESCO did declare that two other Jewish holy sites, Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, were Muslim holy sites.

In addition, the official media of the Western-funded Palestinian Authority have been referring to the Jewish victims of the current wave of terrorism as “settlers.” A 73-year-old woman who lives in the Western part of the city and who was stabbed at Jerusalem’s central bus station two weeks ago was described as a “settler.” Similarly, two Jews who were stabbed and wounded in the city of Ra’anana, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, were also described by Abbas’s media outlets as “settlers.” Their city, Ra’anana, well within the “1967 line,” has also been described by most Palestinian media outlets and journalists as a “settlement.”

What does all this show? The answer is very simple: Most Palestinians continue to see Israel as one big settlement that needs to be uprooted and destroyed. It also shows that these Palestinians do not draw a distinction between a Jew living a West Bank settlement and a Jew living in an Israeli city inside Israel. The Jewish victims of this wave of terrorism are all “settlers” and “colonialists” who deserved what happened to them because they are “living on stolen land.” This is the message that the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other Palestinian groups are sending to the Palestinians and the rest of the world: that “settlers” are “legitimate” targets that deserve to be slaughtered and shot dead by a people fighting for “independence and freedom.”

The appropriate term for the current wave of terrorism is “jihad” (holy war). The attacks on Jews in Israel and the West Bank are part of the global jihad that has been waging for many years against Jews in particular, non-Muslims in general and even against other Muslims who might not agree with a differing version of Islam.

Almost all the terrorists involved in these recent attacks are affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two jihadi groups whose main goal is to destroy Israel by murdering and intimidating Jews. Like Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, the two Palestinian groups are also seeking to create an Islamic caliphate governed by Islamic sharia law.

This jihad is not aimed at “ending occupation” or protesting against misery and checkpoints. Rather, it is a jihad designed to drive the Jews out of the region. Period. The terrorists and their sponsors do not see a difference between an Israeli soldier and an Israeli baby. They do not see a difference between a “left wing Jew” and a “right wing Jew.” The terrorists do not ask their victims about their political affiliation before sticking a knife into them.

This is a wave of terrorism based on lies, lies and more lies. Palestinian leaders, including Abbas and his Fatah faction, have been lying to us for months about the nature of the visits of Jews to the Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount. They told Palestinians that the Jews are “invading” and “desecrating” Islamic holy sites with the purpose of destroying them. By doing so, Abbas and his officials in the Palestinian Authority and Fatah have actually been urging Muslims to join the jihad against the Jews.

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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) ignited competition among radical groups as to which faction could incite the most violence. Left: official PA media incite Palestinians, from a young age, to murder Jews.

After the wave of terrorism began, the Palestinian leaders continued to lie about the circumstances surrounding the death of the terrorists. The leaders are now telling us that most of the terrorists were, in fact, innocent civilians who were shot dead by Israel while they were on their way to buy food for their families or going to work. The Palestinian leaders are lying when they tell us that the terrorists were killed as part of a new Israeli policy of “field executions” against young Palestinian men and women. Lying and distorting the truth has become an integral part of the jihad against Jews. The campaign of lies, distortion and fabrications is not less serious than the terror attacks. There is no difference between a Palestinian leader who incites and lies, and a terrorist who grabs a knife and takes to the street to murder a Jew.

It is time for us to open our eyes and see the reality as it is: this is yet another phase of the worldwide jihad against all the “infidels” and “enemies of Islam.” Those who are murdering Jews today do not hesitate to murder other non-Muslims tomorrow, especially those who are seen as Israel’s friends such as the U.S. and most nations in the West. So let us put things in context and start calling the wave of terrorism by its real name, not an “intifada” or a “peaceful popular resistance.” It is a jihad.

Categories: Abbas, Fatah, Gaza, Hamas, Intifada, Islamic jihad, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, UNESCO, West Bank, Western media
Tags: Abbas, Fatah, Gaza, Hamas, intifada, Islamic Jihad, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, UNESCO, West Bank, Western media

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Fatah on the verge of eruption

October 24, 2015

Fatah on the verge of eruption, Ynet News, Alex Fishman, October 23, 2015

As long as Tanzim militants did not walk around brandishing their weapons in public, Israel and the PA turned a blind eye. Now, they are emerging as a significant and central player, fervently courted by the Fatah leadership. Those seeking to inherit Abbas’ seat need the Tanzim divisions on their side. The mounting tensions, the political situation and the anarchy on the street are pushing both Tanzim militants and those courting them to take more extreme positions, and call for an armed conflict against Israel.

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IDF troops that entered Shuafat refugee camp this week had to withdraw after encountering dozens of armed militants; this is only an example of what might happen when Fatah’s armed wing, Tanzim, joins the fight against Israel. And they won’t do with just knives: There are thousands of weapons all over East Jerusalem.

When senior Palestinian security officials want to mock their Israeli colleagues, they remind them that just in Qalandiya – an area controlled by Israel – there are at least 400 M-16 rifles. That figure does not incluide other weapons – guns, explosives and grenades – that are in the hands of militant groups there. Some of these groups are affiliated with Fatah’s Tanzim, some are affiliated with other organizations, and others belong to criminal organizations – all operating in this no man’s land, where no law applies.

These militants have no problem with appearing on camera, on Channel 2 for example, just as they had no quams about opening fire at an IDF force that went into Qalandiya last Saturday to arrest a wanted man who already spent a year and a half in prison.

“So are YOU going to go in there and get the weapons out, or are you going to leave it to us?” the Israeli security officials respond in anger whenever anyone accuses them of sitting on their hands and doing nothing – implying that the Israeli security forces are afraid to enter a refugee camp under their control in order to demilitarize the Tanzim.

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A Tanzim militant (Photo: AP)

Even Israel admits that there is an arsenal of some 3,000 weapons inside the Shaufat refugee camp. The figure includes M-16 and kalashnikov assault rifles, grenades, and IEDs (improvised explosive devices).

Last Saturday night, an army force entered the camp to take measurements of a home set to be demolished. Several dozen militants surrounded the building and made it abundantly clear that they were willing to die in order to stop the structure from being demolished. This is the mood in Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The army will have to come back there, with more forces, in order to complete preparations. And now it’s clear that demolishing terrorists’ homes – a countermeasure promised by the Israeli government – will entail fighting dozens of militants who have been left unchecked for years.

Tanzim power structure

Israeli security officials tend to dismiss the knife-wielding terrorists, presenting them as proof of the weakned status of the more established Palestinian terrorist organizations. Except that for a Muslim, the knife is the symbol of the fight for the holy places, in the spirit of the “sword of Islam.” Muslims don’t view the use of a knife as an act of desperation and wretchedness, but an act of bravery. So the less friction on the Temple Mount – which would lead to the lowering of religious tensions – the less stabbing attacks we’ll have.

In the current wave of violence, the stabbing attacks are just ripples in the ocean. The statistics surrounding these “lone-wolf attacks” don’t accurately reflect the level of violence accumulating on the Palestinian street. Israeli security officials are more concerned with these massive tidal waves that have a far bigger potential of dangerously erupting.

Indeed, when the IDF prepares to face a long-term wave of violence, it takes into consideration the eventuality that at any given moment- and without prior warning – thousands of militants in the West Bank, mostly affiliated with Fatah’s Tanzim, could join the fight.

In its early days, Tanzim was a secret organization compiled of local political activists, students, and released prisoners, which executed Fatah’s policies: Be it social activities, organizing support rallies for the regime, or rioting against Israel. Later, during the second intifada, Tanzim’s militants committed terror attacks against Israeli security forces and civilians, including the terror attack in Kibbutz Metzer, where five people were murdered – including a mother and her two children.

The basic structure of the organization remains, and nowadays it serves as Fatah’s “shadow army” operating on the Palestinian street, alongside the PA’s security forces.

However, the ties between the heads of Tanzim and the Mukataa in Ramallah are growing weaker by the day. Abbas’ security forces can’t enter some of the refugee camps because the Tanzim militants kick them out.

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A Tanzim militant (Photo: AP)

Two months ago, when there was talk of the day after Abbas, Tanzim threatened the heads of Fatah that if it didn’t get its share of the leadership pie, they would launch attacks against Palestinian security facilities and take them by force.

Tanzim’s militants are spread over ten districts of the West Bank. East Jerusalem is one of these districts. Each district is divided into sub-districts, and then further divided into neighborhoods, villages, ect. The smallest unit is the “Jannah,” and it that might also be a bunch of huts outside a village. Every such unit – from the district to the Jannah – has commanders. Today, when these groups sense Abbas’ weakness and the crumbling of his regime, they go out on the street armed, in broad daylight. This is an act of defiance not just against the Palestinian Authority, but also against Israel.

After the second intifada, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, under the auspices of the Americans, signed a pardon agreement for wanted militants. The agreement dictated that the Fatah militants who fought as part of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the second intifada would cease their involvement in terrorism and disarm. Israel, in return, would stop pursuing them. It turns out that some of the armed Tanzim militants of today are the same wanted militants from the distant past – the same ones who committed not to carry arms. So even that agreement has fallen apart.

The arson at Joseph’s Tomb last weekend might have been an anti-Jewish provocation, but it also demonstrated how little regard the Palestinian militant groups have for the Palestinian security forces. Joseph’s Tomb is only 400 meters away, in a straight line, from a central Palestinian security forces base. The perpetrators acted against the PA’s interests, and right under its nose. They just don’t give the Palestinian security forces the time of day.

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Tanzim militants (Photo: AP)

As long as Tanzim militants did not walk around brandishing their weapons in public, Israel and the PA turned a blind eye. Now, they are emerging as a significant and central player, fervently courted by the Fatah leadership. Those seeking to inherit Abbas’ seat need the Tanzim divisions on their side. The mounting tensions, the political situation and the anarchy on the street are pushing both Tanzim militants and those courting them to take more extreme positions, and call for an armed conflict against Israel.

Jibril Rajoub, for example, is one of the ten candidates to succeed Abbas. When this wave of violence just started, Rajoub was still urging the Palestinian security forces to hold a dialogue with Israel and now, this week, he changed his tune to a far more extreme position, encouraging the knife-wielding terrorists, as if he was competing with Hamas over who has the most inflammatory rhetoric. Rajoub wants to win back the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people, Israeli officials explain, and the Palestinian people want blood. Rajoub views himself as one of the leaders of Tanzim, and this kind of rhetoric only serves to increase his popularity on the Palestinian street.

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Jibril Rajoub, rising in popularity on the Palestinian street (Photo: Amit Shabi)

Several of Abbas’ potential successors even formed coalitions to bring Tanzim to their side. For example, the coalition of Abbas’ rivals, headed by Mohammed Dahlan, which also includes Yasser Abed Rabbo (the former secretary-general of Fatah’s executive committee, who was removed from office) and Salam Fayyad (the former Palestinian prime minister who was also removed from office). This coalition seeks to bring in Marwan Barghouti, who is imprisoned in Israel, as a symbol. It also has money, and a lot of it, that Dahlan brought with him from the Gulf monarchies, in order to buy Tanzim’s loyalty.

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Marwan Barghouti, a symbol (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

Then there’s also the group of Abbas allies, like Majid Faraj, the head of the Palestinian security forces, and Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator with Israel.

They face other potential candidates to succeed Abbas, like Muhammad al-‘Alul – the former governor of Nablus and one of the more senior members of the Tanzim leadership, who’s been there since the first intifada.

All of these candidates have their sights on the militant organization, trying to appropriate it. The fight for Tanzim creates a kind of conduct and comments that are becoming more and more extreme.

Eisenkot’s West Bank forum

This week, Abbas finally realized the kind of trap he walked into. In a desperate attempt to stop the escalation, he tried to reframe the fight with a new slogan: “Smart Resistance.” Wednesday’s editorial in the PA’s mouthpiece Al-Hayat al-Jadida warns against the situation getting out of control, which could hurt the Palestinian people’s quality of life. The term “third intifada” is not mentioned.

Abbas’ former slogan, “Peaceful Resistance,” is no longer relevant. As long as the resistance only included stone-throwing, rioting, and Molotov cocktails, Abbas would congratulate the “shahids” who committed these actions. He was against terrorism in principle, but not to this kind of activity. But the moment the PA started encouraging violence of any kind – it was inviting that escalation. And when the knives started appearing and Abbas was unwilling to condemn the stabbers, it came back to him like a boomerang. The Palestinian street no longer accepts the PA’s authority. Young rioters don’t heed the calls of the Palestinian security forces, Hamas, or anyone else for that matter. That is why the PA leadership is now talking about a “Smart Resistance”: To bring the knives back into the kitchen, because the Palestinians will pay dearly for this escalation. But it appears Abbas has already missed the train.

stone throwers

Stone throwers: ‘Peaceful resistance’; Knife-wielding attackers:’Smart resistance’ (Photo: AP)

In war games held by the IDF’s Central Command on the eve of Abbas’ speech at the UN General Assembly meeting last month – with Israeli officials worried about an inflammatory speech that would set the Palestinian street on fire – the army drilled several scenarios of a loss of control over the West Bank.

The first scenario: A wave of lone-wolf attackers dragging the entire Palestinian street into all-out violence. This scenario is defined as low-level violence, and it is unfolding right now.

The second scenario was of a violent outburst inside the refugee camps that would enlist Tanzim to an armed struggle that would set the West Bank on fire. This is the scenario currently worrying Israel’s defense establishment. That is why Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon instructed the army to prepare for long-term deployment of increased forces in the West Bank, including the possibility of switching out the conscript soldiers in the West Bank with reservists, to allow the army to resume its regular training schedule.

Assignments for the reservists have already been determined, and starting December they too will be deployed in the West Bank. There will be a price to pay for the reservists – there’ll make more mistakes out in the field – but the army has been on high alert in the West Bank for a month now, and it is unclear when that would end. So calling up the reserves at this point appears like a necessary step.

Stone throwers for Abbas

Abbas welcomed stone-throwing rioters (Photo: EPA)

Facing constantly increasing levels of terrorism, the IDF’s General Staff is also focusing on preparing long-term plans. Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot holds at least three weekly meetings with a team of senior officers who rose up the ranks while fighting terrorism in the West Bank. Among them is Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, who was the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division; the head of Army Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Herzl Levy, who was the commander of the Jenin Brigade; the head of the Operations Branch, Maj.-Gen. Nitzn Alon, who was the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division and the GOC Central Command; the current GOC Central Commander, Maj.-Gen. Roni Numa; COGAT Maj.-Gen.

Yoav Mordechai; the head of the Operations Division, Brig.-Gen. Aharon Haliva, who commanded over the Tulkarm-Qalqilya sector; and of course the current Judea and Samaria Division commander, Brig.-Gen. Lior Carmeli, who served in the past as the head of the Jenin Brigade. Not to mention Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen and the commander of the Shin Bet’s Jerusalem District, in charge of the West Bank, who served in Hebron for 17 years.

The army wants to send a message that it put its best people on the job – senior officers with the most experience fighting against the Palestinians in the West Bank that the army has. There’s more than a subtle hint here to the attempts of politicians to challenge the defense establishment’s judgment with bizarre ideas, meant solely to bring the situation to a boiling point in order to create a new reality on the ground vis-à-vis the Palestinians.

For example, Bayit Yehudi Minister Uri Ariel’s call to stop the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority. On paper, this is an innocuous and logical proposal. They owe over NIS 1.5 billion to the Israel Electric Corporation, so why do we need to pay their bills? After all, those funds are also paying the stipends given to families of terrorists.

Except that army officials who are in communication with the Palestinian security forces have received a very clear message from them: Don’t you dare touch our tax money. If the funds don’t come in, there will be no money to pay policemen’s salaries. No salaries? Those policemen won’t be out in the field or worse – they’ll join the ranks of Tanzim or Hamas.

And this is what Minister Ariel and his ilk want: Anarchy.

Anarchy

Anarchy (Photo: AFP)

The defense establishment is fighting tooth and nail to stop the approval of a proposal from right-wing ministers to impose a blockade on the West Bank. The government has accepted the defense establishment’s position. The ball is now in the prime minister’s court. The moment Netanyahu caves in and surrenders to the pressure coming from the extreme right – the IDF will no longer be able to stop an all-out armed conflict.

It was no coincidence that the defense minister – in a speech he made this week – chose to speak against the inciters, the “price tag” people, and the like. The defense establishment is aware of the potential threat of Jewish violence. The most effective weapon the defense minister has against Jewish extremists in the West Bank is Israeli public opinion, which won’t accept such conduct from hawkish ministers and settler leaders on the ground.

The heads of the Palestinian security forces are having a hard time keeping their men in line. There were already several “rebellions” by Palestinian security personnel who tried to commit attacks – and were thwarted. The heads of the Palestinian security forces are pleading with Israel to minimize the amount of casualties in clashes with Palestinians, to keep out of Area A, and not deny them the funds to pay salaries.

Snipers instead of aerial fire

On October 16, Palestinian security forces arrested two terror cells: One belonging to Hamas and the other to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. According to intelligence obtained by the PA, the Hamas cell planned to commit a big terror attack meant to rile up the Palestinian street and weaken the Palestinian Authority.

Israel has no reason to doubt the credibility of this report. A similar incident occurred, on a much larger scale, on the eve of Operation Protective Edge. At the time, the Shin Bet exposed a Hamas plot including dozens of operatives planning to commit several major terror attacks against Israel and the Palestinian Authority in an effort to bring down Abbas.

Hamas is currently fighting on three separate fronts, leading a different policy in each of them. In Jerusalem, Hamas is working to take over the Temple Mount. In the West Bank, it’s making every effort to execute a large-scale terror attack that would serve as the final nail in the coffin for the Palestinian Authority as it is today. The large sums of money feeding the propaganda Hamas is spreading through social media as well as traditional media is coming from Istanbul, from the Hamas headquarters in Turkey.

Gaza border (2)

Clashes on the Gaza border (Photo: Reuters)

Saleh Al-Aruri, who was exiled to Qatar by the Turkish government several months ago, has returned to Istanbul with the Turks’ consent, and is leading Hamas’ a campaign of propaganda and incitement under the slogan “Stab, stab!” This message is falling on attentive ears not just in East Jerusalem and among Palestinians illegally staying in Israel, but also in the West Bank, mostly in the Hebron area, where quite a few stabbing attacks occurred over the past week.

In recent days, the incitement coming out of Turkey has been working to change the focus from stabbing attacks to vehicular attacks. Hamas believes the stabbing attacks have exhausted themselves, even though there were quite a few of them taking place in the West Bank this week, mostly in the Hebron area. The vehicular attacks are far more effective. And, indeed, there has been a rise in vehicular attacks in recent days.

In the Gaza Strip, on the other hand, Hamas lets the Palestinians to blow off steam, but keeps it under control, and stops, by all means possible, any rocket fire at Israel. Twelve Gazans have been killed in clashes with IDF forces on the border fence and in airstrikes, without any response from Hamas.

The field is flooded with IDF snipers, and over the past few days protesters have failed to cross the border fence. The IDF is also trying not to give Hamas a reason to change its policy in the Gaza Strip. When snipers fired from inside the Strip, hitting an Israeli vehicle, the army considered a targeted strike from the air. But out of operative considerations, the IDF decided instead to hit back with sniper fire. By the way, these Gazan snipers were part of an organization that broke away from Hamas.

Hamas is playing these three different games with a lot of caution and without any confusion. The organization’s basic assumption is that Israel won’t launch another conflict in the Gaza Strip over a terror attack initiated by Hamas in the West Bank.

The Palestinian security forces were not the only ones arresting Hamas operatives in the West Bank. The IDF conducted its own raids, arresting both military and political figures. One such political figure was Hassan Yousef, who is considered the head of Hamas in the West Bank, and who Israel accuses of incitement. But what these arrests are actually meant to do is signal Hamas that Israel will trample the organization’s presence in the West Bank, just as it did during Operation Brother’s Keeper, after the kidnapping and murder of the three yeshiva students in the summer of 2014.

During a situation assessment meeting held in Israel after the arrests, one of the officers compared dealing with Hamas to going to the family health center. Every once in a while, people like Hassan Yousef need to be brought in to see how much weight he gained, how high he got and check his mental state. A sort of litmus paper for the way the wind blows in the West Bank. The problem is that at this family health center, there are no innocent babies or kind nurses. The players in the triangle of Israel-West Bank-Gaza have already realized that the era of knife-wielding attackers could very well be one day remembered as normal compared to what the Palestinian street knows, could and might do.

Categories: Abbas, Fatah, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Israel, Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, West Bank
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Murder as politics

October 24, 2015

Murder as politics, The Washington Times, Louis Rene Beres, October 22, 2015

Even as growing numbers of Palestinian terrorists stab madly at Israeli men, women, and children, much of the world still endorses creation of “Palestine.” Such mindless support continues, moreover, despite the fact that the Palestinians themselves reject any sort of two-state solution. Indeed, the latest such poll (September 2015), conducted by Palestinian research organizations, concluded that almost half the resident Arabs strongly favor the use of armed force and generalized violence against Israeli noncombatants.

For the most part, western news reports notwithstanding, knife wielding attackers are not “lone wolves.” Rather, they have been conspicuously spurred on by vitriolic PA incitements, and by carefully synchronized calls from the mosques to murder “The Jews.”

The Palestinian Authority shares with Hamas the irredentist vision of a one-state solution. There is nothing hidden or ambiguous about this true plan for Israel’s disappearance. It is plainly codified on the official maps of both factions, where Israel is identified only as “Occupied Palestine.”

For virtually all Arab forces in the Middle East, the conflict with Israel is never about land. It is about God, and about always-related promises of personal immortality. It is about power over death.

For the Palestinians, their carefully sanitized public rhetoric notwithstanding, the enemy is not the Israelis (that term is just subterfuge, for the media), but “The Jews.” The screaming young Palestinian, who strikes indiscriminately with his serrated blade, fully expects to become a “martyr.” He only risks “death” in order not to die.

There is more. A Palestinian state — any Palestinian state — would rapidly be taken over by ISIS, or by related jihadi adversaries. Already, ISIS is operating in parts of Syria that could bring it to the critical borders of Israel’s Golan Heights. Significantly, it has also set recognizable operational sights on Jordan and West Bank (Judea/Samaria).

Over the next several months, and even while the Palestinian Authority continues to orchestrate more “Third Intifada” attacks on Israelis, ISIS will commence its fated march westward, across Jordan, ending up at the eastern boundaries of West Bank. These boundaries, of course, would represent the territorial margins of what PA/Fatah both already affirm as the geographic heart of “Palestine.”

Palestinian forces, primarily Fatah, would then yield to ISIS, and to its local proxies. Fatah would then have to choose between pleading with the Jewish State to become an ally against a now-common foe, or abandoning all its residual military operations to the IsraelDefense Forces directly. Arguably, without IDF assistance in such desperate circumstances, “Palestine” wouldn’t stand a chance.

One additional irony ought to be noted. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long made acceptance of any Palestinian state contingent upon prior Palestinian “demilitarization.” Should the Palestinian Authority and Hamas somehow accede to this problematic expectation, it could make ISIS’ predictable destructions in the area much easier to carry out. Paradoxically, a “Palestine” that had properly stood by its pre-state legal concessions to Israel, could effectively increase the overall danger posed to both Palestinians and Israelis.

What about Jordan? Under pertinent international law, the Hashemite Kingdom has incurred certain binding obligations regarding joint cooperation with Israel against terrorism. These obligations, as reinforcing complements to more generally binding legal rules, are expressly codified at the 1994 Treaty of Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Could this treaty still have any palpable effect upon Jordan’s capacity to militarily block anticipated ISIS advances?

Not at all. The more generic problem of enforcing treaties had already been identified back in the 17th century, by Thomas Hobbes. Said the English philosopher, in his “Leviathan,” a work well known to America’s founding fathers: “Covenants, without the Sword, are but words …”

From the 17th century onward, the world political system has been anarchic, or, in Hobbesian terms, a “state of nature.” In the anarchic Middle East, especially, considerations of raw power routinely trump international law. Here, too, truth here may be counter-intuitive. On those endlessly perplexing matters concerning Palestinian statehood, for example, it is finally time to understand that “Palestine‘s” true enemy in the region is not Israel, but rather a hideously sordid amalgam of Islamist Arab forces. Going forward, any further Palestinian advances toward statehood would likely be solely to the longer-term tactical advantage of ISIS.

Is this the sort of statehood cause that should be enthusiastically supported in Washington, and in most European capitals? It is, but only if we should first want to see an expansion of “Third Intifada” terror to the homeland. Not likely.

If you like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, you’ll love “Palestine.”

Categories: Death to Israel, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic State, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians, Two state solution, Western media
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Blood in the Headlines

October 24, 2015

Blood in the Headlines, American Thinker, Celeste Marcus, October 23, 2015

Arabs are stabbing Jews again. This is another in a series of tactics utilized by the Arabs to push the Jews out of the region. Since Israel’s founding Arabs have been attempting to wipe the Jews out of the Middle East. The stabbings now taking place are a strategy employed to both demoralize Israel on the ground, and delegitmize Israel on the world stage. The Western Media is a coconspirator in this delegitimization effort.

Scenario: a teenager stabs a thirteen-year old on a bicycle in front of you. If you don’t try to defend the victim, you are a bystander. But if you actively, loudly, publicly condemn the police for shooting the attacker you are no longer a bystander. You are now a participant. The mainstream media has consistently misrepresented the situation in the Middle East. These journalists are not mere bystanders; they are key participants in a war.

Israel has undergone a transformation over the past few weeks. On October 1st, four children watched from the backseat of a car as their parents were shot dead. That was the first in a series of similar horrors. The Israeli Defense Force website provides this accounting:

October 1: Eitam and Naama Henkin killed in front of their four children in shooting attack near Nablus. Assailants apprehended
October 3: 2 Israelis killed, 2 injured in stabbing attack in Jerusalem
October 4: Israeli teenager stabbed in Jerusalem. Assailant shot on site.
October 7: Israeli civilian stabbed in Jerusalem. IDF soldier stabbed in Kiryat Gat. Israeli civilian stabbed in Petah Tikva. Attempted car ramming in Jerusalem.
October 8: 4 Israelis injured in screwdriver stabbing attack in Tel Aviv.Israeli stabbed in Kiryat Arba. Israeli stabbed in Afula.
October 9: 6 Israelis stabbed 5 Israelis injured.
October 10: 7 Israelis injured
October 11: 7 Israelis injured in various attacks
October 12: 2Attempted stabbings. 4 succesful stabbings.
·October 13: 3 Israelis killed 13 injured
October 15: 1Israeli Injured. Joseph’s tomb burnt.
October 17: 3 Israelis stabbed
October 18·: 1 soldier killed, 10 Israelis attacked

If you’re a typical American teenager you did not know about these attacks. If you don’t have family in Israel you did not spend the study breaks of the last two weeks scanning Israeli media’s reports of victims for the names of your friends. News updates from the mainstream media may have alerted you to the fact that something out of the ordinary was going on in Israel. You don’t know that Israeli children are afraid to go to school. You don’t know that mothers and fathers sleep with guns next to their beds, just in case.

A slim collection of journalists with a sweet spot for honest reporting have begun rebuking the mainstream media for failing to bear witness to this spillage of Jewish blood. This rebuke, though apt, is incomplete. It casts the media as mere bystanders rather than active participants. It ignores the culpability of the journalists and reporters providing their readers with a biased anti-Israel conception of the streets in which Israeli children are being stabbed. Here is an example of such condemnable reporting: “Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two” – BBC News, October 3rd

This headline fails to identify the Palestinian as the attacker. Odd.

This is not silence. This is not unbiased journalism. This is vilification; specifically the vilification of a country for defending its citizens from lethal harm. It is also precisely what the attackers are hoping for. That teenagers were killed is a tragedy, but that the media blames those who were defending themselves rather than those who were instructing mere children to stab Jews is not an example of silence. It is a dangerous, shameful trend.

The following headlines, to pick a few from countless examples, are further examples of this same failing:

“Two Palestinian Teenagers Killed, Two Injured by Israeli Police” – The Wall Street Journal, October 12th

“Two Palestinians aged 12 and 15 have been shot dead and two knife attacks have left five Israelis wounded” – The Guardian, October 10th

“6 Palestinian teens die amid Mideast unrest” – Los Angeles Times, October 11th

These consistent misrepresentations are not accidental. The chasmic difference between the blood on the street and the blood in the headlines is far too great and far too uniform to be unintentional. The media has consciously sided with the wrong side, and they are therefore guilty of contributing directly to the problem. They are guilty of legitimizing a regime that systematically incites its citizens to terror. That is what portraying terrorist as victim accomplishes.

This legitimation has consequences beyond the trajectory of dinner time conversation. In a free country people read the newspaper, and people also vote in elections. Two weeks before the first attack in October, Mahmoud Abbas, acting leader of the Palestinian Authority, stated, “we bless every drop of blood that has been spilled in Jerusalem.” This is one of countless examples of the catalysis of violence by Abbas against Jews. Don’t look for that quote in the BBC or the NY Times — you won’t find it. What you will find is reports that Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with Abbas to discuss peace negotiations.

Abbas wrote his PhD dissertation arguing against the historicity of the Holocaust. He was part of the leadership that engineered the Munich Massacre, the Coastal Road Massacre, the murder of diplomats in the Sudan. His resume is riddled with American and Jewish corpses. That he is constantly portrayed by the media, and consequently by our government, as a legitimate partner in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East is absurd. That U.S. aid money is given as payment to the family members of those martyred at the behest of their government, while murdering Israelis is absurd. That the United Nations has issued more condemnations of Israel than any other country in the world, including Syria and Iran and North Korea, is absurd. These absurdities are linked; they are the manifestations of a febrile virus with which the mainstream media is infecting its readers.

This is not silence. This is not passive communication. This is legitimizing terror. This noxious reporting is equally responsible for the blood of the Palestinian teenagers as it is the Israeli victims.

If the media were only guilty of silence, that would be a gross dereliction of journalistic responsibility. It would be cowardly. But they are not only guilty of silence, they are guilty of participation. They are complicit.

Categories: Abbas, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians and Jews, Western media
Tags: Abbas, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians and Jews, Western media

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Crazy like a fox

October 23, 2015

Crazy like a fox, Front Page Magazine, Caroline Glick, October 23, 2015

benjamin-netanyahu

Due to his “gaffe,” every Western media outlet reported on Husseini’s actions. Some even mentioned that in his PhD dissertation, current Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the Holocaust was both a myth and a joint Zionist-Nazi project. For most Westerners, this is the first they’ve heard of the fact that the Palestinian’s George Washington was a Nazi war criminal.

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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is crazy like a fox.

Netanyahu’s assertion on Tuesday before the World Zionist Congress that the founder of the Palestinian people, Haj Amin al-Husseini, convinced Adolf Hitler to eradicate rather than expel the Jews of Europe was an overstatement of Husseini’s role.

No, the Holocaust was not Husseini’s idea.

But he was a partner in perpetrating and promoting it. He also made it inevitable.

As I detailed in my book The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, during the course of Husseini’s meeting with Hitler in Berlin in November 1941, Hitler told the Arab leader of his plan to eradicate European Jewry.

Husseini told Hitler that he would support the Nazis, and rally the Arab world to their side, if Hitler agreed to two conditions: that Hitler support his bid to rule over a postwar Arab state comprised of present-day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel; and that Hitler support the genocide of Middle Eastern Jewry.

As both the official Nazi record and Husseini’s summary of the meeting in his diary report, Hitler accepted Husseini’s demands.

And it makes sense that he did.

Husseini proved his loyalty to the Nazis long before he arrived in Berlin. His romance with them began with Hitler’s election victory in 1933. From then on, Husseini’s followers in Mandatory Palestine greeted one another with the Nazi salute. Swastikas festooned their towns. The Nazis began directly funding Husseini’s terror war against the Jews of Israel and British Mandatory officials in 1937.

In 1937, the British forced Husseini to flee the country. In 1941, he organized and incited a pro-Nazi military coup in Iraq. The British were forced to invade Iraq in response to the coup.

Husseini then fled to Rome where he met with Mussolini and went on the Berlin, where he remained for the duration of the war.

As the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Husseini invented and shaped the Palestinian national ethos in a manner that aligned with his pathological hatred of the Jews. Rather than providing the Palestinian Arabs with a positive vision of a future state that would safeguard and cultivate them as a distinct Arab nation, he shaped Palestinian society as a wholly negative phenomenon. It was seeded in a hybrid hatred of Jews that fused Koranic hostility to Jews with racism-based annihilationist European anti-Semitism rooted in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which Husseini translated and published in Arabic.

The goal of Husseini’s nationalist drive was not to form a Palestinian Arab state, but to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state and to annihilate all aspects of the Jewish national liberation movement through a campaign a terror and political warfare.

Husseini’s goal of leading an Arab state that encompassed Iraq and the entire Levant shows that the founding father of the Palestinian national project did not view “Palestine” as a distinct territorial entity.

After Hitler agreed to both of Husseini’s conditions, Husseini began his active collaboration in the Nazi war effort. He participated in the Holocaust directly. In 1943, he formed the SS Handschar Division comprised of Bosnian Muslims. His troops exterminated 90 percent of Bosnia’s 14,000-member Jewish community.

Husseini used his position as well to scuttle British attempts to trade German prisoners of war for Jews. In one such documented episode, in 1943 Husseini appealed to SS commander Heinrich Himmler to cancel a deal to exchange 4,500 Jewish children and 500 Jewish adults from Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria to cancel the deal and send the Jews to Auschwitz.

Himmler bowed to his appeal. The Jews were sent to the gas chambers.

Husseini contributed to the Holocaust indirectly.

Beginning shortly after his meeting with Hitler and extending through the end of the war, Husseini broadcast regular programs to the Arab world on Nazi short wave radio in Arabic. In those broadcasts he engendered support for the Nazis and the extermination of world Jewry. Using the mix of Islamic Jew-hatred and European annihilationist anti-Semitism he had developed in Jerusalem, Husseini cultivated a culture of support for the annihilation of Jews and the destruction of the Jewish (then nascent) state in the Land of Israel. That culture, bred through those broadcasts heard regularly by millions throughout the entire Arab world, still holds today.

Husseini was indicted as a war criminal in Nuremberg. Rather than try him, the allies allowed him to flee to Egypt in 1946. There he was greeted as a war hero by King Farouk.

It is true that Hitler didn’t need Husseini to convince him to annihilate European Jewry. By the time Husseini arrived in Germany, the Nazis had already murdered a million Jews.

But Netanyahu’s claim that Husseini made it impossible for Hitler to suffice with expelling the Jews from Europe is true. The only place that wanted the Jews of Europe was the nascent Jewish state in the Land of Israel.

Through his terror war against the Jews and the British Mandatory authorities, and through his incitement of pro-Nazi sentiment in Egypt, Iraq and the Levant, Husseini convinced the British to betray their legal obligation to allow free Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel and so closed off the Jews’ last avenue of escape from Nazi-dominated Europe.

As Netanyahu said, Husseini is revered and glorified by the Palestinians. Yasser Arafat claimed that he was Husseini’s political heir and blood relative as a means of legitimizing his claim to leadership over the Palestinians.

Hamas as well has invoked Husseini as its ideological founding father.

History in hand, it is time to return to Netanyahu, and his overstatement of Husseini’s role in the Holocaust.

From the time of Husseini till today, propaganda and terror have been the Palestinians’ weapons of choice in their war against the Jews. Internally lies are spread of nonexistent Jewish plots and imaginary acts of aggression, to incite and solicit the murder of Jews. Propaganda and lies are then used to glorify the murderers as heroes and martyrs.

Externally, the Palestinians spread lies about Palestinian victimhood at the hands of bloodthirsty Jewish settlers and security forces who seek to drive the Arabs from their homes. By casting themselves as victims to the outside world, the Palestinians ensure that Israeli responses to their acts of aggression are perceived as acts of aggression, which they are fully justified in attempting to defy through murderous rampages against Jews.

The Palestinians recognize that for their terror to be acceptable to the West, they must portray themselves as guileless victims. Hence, they repeatedly insist the absurd claim that terrorists who deliberately kill Jews by running them over, are really merely victims involved in traffic accidents. The Palestinian teenage girl who this week sought to infiltrate the community of Yitzhar with a carving knife, suffers from “sleepwalking.”

These ridiculous lies are only credible in a world devoid of any historical knowledge of the Palestinians’ 95-year history of aggression against the Jews. And so the Palestinians have invented a false history of their war against Israel in which thousands of years of Jewish history is blotted out, and thousands of years of Palestinian history have been invented out of whole cloth.

In this revised version of events, Husseini has been erased from history. His role in the Holocaust has been deleted. The fact that the goal of the Palestinian national movement from its inception has been to annihilate the Jewish state and that the annihilation of Israel remains its goal still today has similarly been washed out of the history books and the news pages.

To maintain this fictional account of current and historical events, the Palestinians depend on the collaboration of the Western media.

And with each passing year, that collaboration has grown more open, expansive and shameless.

Western reporting on the events of the day now are almost entirely devoid of any relationship to reality.

Consider just a few recent examples. CNN’s report of the Palestinian arson assault on Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus on October 16 contained no mention of the fact that the fire at the holy Jewish site was set by Palestinians. In the same report, the network stated, “In the past month, eight Israelis died in 30 attacks involving knives and other weapons.”

As if fires set themselves and angry knives wander the streets.

MSNBC’s reporter Ayman Mohyeldin was caught lying two weeks ago as he claimed that the knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist in the Old City of Jerusalem who was lunging toward security personnel as they killed him, was an unarmed, innocent bystander. As Mohyeldin spewed his lies, the video of the assault that clearly showed the terrorist wielding a knife was being broadcast to his viewers.

That embarrassment didn’t stop MSNBC from maintaining the myth of Israeli aggression, however.

The next week, the network posted a graphic of British Mandatory Palestine from 1946 which it claimed was the State of Palestine in 1946. The graphic them purported to show how the Jews stole ever more Palestinian land in the years that followed. Although the network was forced to broadcast a retraction, the lie that Palestine once existed had already been told.

Then of course there was The New York Times with its stunning “background” piece purporting to provide its readers with historical context regarding the competing Israeli and Palestinian claims regarding the Temple Mount. The Times reported as fact the false claim that there is a debate among respected academics regarding whether the Jewish temples were actually located on the Temple Mount.

In other words, the Times unabashedly participated in the Palestinian project of rewriting history in a manner that erases Jewish history from the Jewish homeland.

Netanyahu recognizes that the media have sided with the Palestinians in their war to destroy Israel through a mix of terror and propaganda.

He knows that the only stories they will report on are stories with an anti-Israel angle. It is reasonable then to assume that he decided to use their embrace of every possible angle of attack as a means to get the truth out about the nature of the war.

By exaggerating Husseini’s importance in the Holocaust, Netanyahu gave the media a means of attacking him. But by doing so, he forced the Times to report on the Palestinians’ founding father’s role in destroying European Jewry and his desire to carry out the Final Solution in the Middle East. They would have ignored the issue if Netanyahu had not exaggerated his actual role.

Due to his “gaffe,” every Western media outlet reported on Husseini’s actions. Some even mentioned that in his PhD dissertation, current Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the Holocaust was both a myth and a joint Zionist-Nazi project. For most Westerners, this is the first they’ve heard of the fact that the Palestinian’s George Washington was a Nazi war criminal.

Like I said, crazy as a fox.

Categories: Abbas, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Arafat, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Islam's war on Jews, Israel, Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority, Palestinians and Jews, Temple Mount, Western media
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Diplomacy: Looking for ways to douse the spark

October 23, 2015

Diplomacy: Looking for ways to douse the spark, Jerusalem Post, Herb Keinon, October 23, 2015

(They “dance around in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows,” with apologies to Robert Frost. — DM)

ShowImage (15)

Netanyahu and Kerry meeting in Berlin. (photo credit:AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO)

And now the diplomatic dance begins, again.

After three weeks of runaway terrorism on the streets, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived for a quick visit midweek; US Secretary of State John Kerry – after meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in Berlin – is expected to meet on Saturday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, along with Jordan’s King Hussein; EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is doing the same; and the French are floating various proposals to take to the UN Security Council.

All predictable, all the traditional steps taken in a time of Mideast crisis.

Ban did what Ban does in these situations – he comes, meets with both sides, issues platitudes about the need for both sides to show restraint, and declares how important it is to keep that light of hope burning.

The UN secretary-general dutifully fulfilled his role in the script. Netanyahu obliged by meeting politely with Ban, who then went on to meet politely with Abbas, to what appears to be absolutely no effect. It’s a dance whose steps – and way of ending – are known far in advance.

Jerusalem does not take Ban’s efforts overseriously, as the organization that he heads is seen as a big part of the problem rather than the solution.

Witness Wednesday’s one-sided resolution adopted by UNESCO, the UN’s cultural heritage agency, condemning “Israeli aggression” on the Temple Mount and declaring that the Jewish holy sites of Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs are an “integral part of Palestine.”

Similar disdain, to a certain extent, characterizes Israel’s view of the EU’s efforts. Netanyahu will listen to Mogherini, and lament both Abbas’s incitement and the EU’s acceptance of it, but will place little stock in the EU’s ability to play a constructive role in calming down the situation.

Brussels is not seen in Jerusalem as a particularly honest broker on all things Palestinian but, rather, as the institution that nurtures – perhaps more than any other – the hope among the Palestinians that if they press long enough and hard enough, the international community will deliver to them what they publicly say they want: a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital, and some kind of “fair and just” accommodation for the refugees.

The very skeptical Israeli view of the EU in any diplomatic process is reinforced by steps taken by France, which this week considered bringing a resolution to the UN Security Council to place international observers on the Temple Mount.

This idea, which Israel would never accept, and which even Jordan and the Palestinians have apparently rejected, is born of a burning French diplomatic desire to always do something, anything, in the Mideast – especially when there seems to be a stalemate or vacuum.

It is also the product of sour relations currently prevailing between Paris and Jerusalem, as well as a lingering French hope for the internationalization of Jerusalem – for the establishment of a corpus separatum in Jerusalem under a special international regime – which France hopes to be a part of.

So with the UN out, the EU out, and France out, that leaves the US.

But it is not as if Jerusalem is harboring any hopes that Kerry will be able to ride in and save the day.

From Jerusalem’s perspective the US track record in the region is not sterling, and though it appreciates Washington’s desire to help, there is little illusion that high-profile, high-level meetings will have any immediate effect on the ground.

And while Jerusalem is not waiting for Kerry with baited breath, it was clear from the beginning that he would get involved. An uptick in terrorism and violence leads to a well-worn pattern in Washington: condemnations of the terrorism, then statements that anger Israel about proportionality or settlements, followed by calls for restraint on both sides, and then meetings with the leaders.

But this current spurt of terrorism and violence is different from previous rounds, in that there is no identifiable organization – such as Hamas and Fatah’s Tanzim militia – to hold directly responsible for the bloodshed. This time it is more amorphous, individual terrorists incited by calls for Jewish blood on Facebook and from various leaders, going out to kill Jews.

The lack of a clear organizational structure behind the terrorism makes it more difficult for the security services to stop, because it is much more difficult to gather intelligence on an individual who grabs a knife and goes out to kill than on attacks directed by an organization.

Also, there is not one person seemingly in control who may be pressured to cease the violence.

It is not as if Kerry can talk to Abbas and convince him to issue a call to his people to “hold your horses,” and the horses will obediently be held. Abbas does not have anything near that type of control – many of the horses simply do not heed him.

This time around, thankfully, neither the State Department nor Kerry are inflating expectations; they are not talking about Kerry’s separate meeting with the leaders as a potential breakthrough for restarting the diplomatic talks and bringing a peace deal in a number of months.

Washington, it should be remembered, is still engaged in its own Mideast policy reassessment, a policy reassessment brought about after the breakdown of the Kerry-led peace talks in April 2014, and re-announced after Netanyahu’s preelection statement – which he later retracted – of less than full fealty to the notion of a two-state solution.

Rather, this time the bar has been set low, with the goals very limited.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday that the meetings would deal with “practical ways in which political breathing space can be had to help end the violence.”

No overreaching there, just looking for breathing space. The breathing space that Kirby mentioned but did not elaborate upon is likely to be an attempt – in discussions with Netanyahu, Abbas and especially Jordan’s King Abdullah – to come up with a clear set of procedures for governing the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount has – like so many times over the last century – been the spark to violence against Jews. To douse the fire, there will be some need to deal with the spark, but this has to be done in a way where both Israel and the Palestinians can say that they have not given in.

In recent days Kerry has spoken about the need for clarity. Everyone talks about the status quo on the Temple Mount, but there is little understanding of what that entails.

“Israel understands the importance of the status quo and… our objective is to make sure that everyone understands what that means,” Kerry said at press conference on Monday in Madrid, adding that “we are not seeking a new change or outsiders to come in; I don’t think Israel or Jordan wants that, and we’re not proposing it. What we need is clarity.”

The new “clarity” is expected to involve enhanced coordination and cooperation with Jordan, possibly even more Jordanian representatives on the site, in such a way as to undercut the spurious charge that Israel is somehow threatening al-Aksa Mosque.

Former National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror said in an Israel Radio interview this week that he had little expectation regarding Kerry’s meeting with Netanyahu or Abbas, because the US has little impact on the Palestinians – which is true.

But the US does have leverage on Jordan, and this leverage may now be needed to get Abdullah to take a greater role in day-to- day administration and involvement at the site – if only as a way to suck the oxygen out of the lie propelling the current round of terrorism: that Israel is endangering al-Aksa.

Categories: Abbas, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Ban Ki-Moon, Denial, Diplomacy, Europe, Foreign policy, France, Hamas, Islam's war on Jews, Israel, Jordan, Kerry, Netanyahu, Palestinians, United Nations
Tags: Abbas, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Ban Ki-Moon, Denial, Diplomacy, Europe, Foreign Policy, France, Hamas, Islam's war on Jews, Israel, Jordan, Kerry, Netanyahu, Palestinians, United Nations

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‘The mufti planned to build crematorium in Dotan Valley’

October 23, 2015

‘The mufti planned to build crematorium in Dotan Valley’, Israel Hayom, Daniel Siryoti, Erez Linn, October 23, 2015

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Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini with Adolf Hitler in Berlin | Photo credit: AFP

Journalists and historians say Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini’s contribution to encouraging Hilter to pursue the extermination of Jews in Europe cannot be disregarded • White House: Inflammatory accusations on both sides need to stop.

The controversy over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks on Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini’s role in the extermination of European Jewry has promoted veteran journalist Haviv Kanaan to recall the malicious plan the mufti devised.

Kanaan published an article in Haaretz in 1970 in which he reviewed the senior Muslim clergyman’s actions in 1942, when the Jewish community in then-British Mandate Palestine was preparing for the possibility of a Nazi invasion. Kanaan said that in 1968, while researching his article, he met with Faiz Bay Idrisi, a senior Arab officer in the Mandate Police, who spoke of al-Husseini’s intention to build a crematorium in the northwest Samarian hills.

“Even today, as I recall what I heard from police officials and mufti supporters, chills go through my body,” Idrisi told Kanaan at the time, recalling how in case of a German invasion “Haj Amin Husseini was gearing to enter Jerusalem at the head of the Muslim Arab Legion squadron he’d created for the Third Reich. The mufti’s plan was to build a huge Auschwitz-like crematorium in the Dotan Valley, near Nablus, to which Jews from Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and North Africa would be imprisoned and exterminated, just like the Jews in the death camps in Europe.”

This should come as no surprise in light of al-Husseini’s known views and actions during the Holocaust, and prior to it.

Haj Amin al-Husseini was born in Jerusalem in 1895 to a wealthy family of landowners. His father also served as the grand mufti of Jerusalem and his uncles headed the Arab Higher Committee in British-Mandate Palestine.

Al-Husseini was appointed grand mufti in 1921. An inflammatory address he gave in August 1929 sparked mass anti-Jewish violence, which resulted in the massacre of dozens of Jews by Arab mobs.

John Chancellor, the British high commissioner at the time, held al-Husseini responsible for the massacres.

Shortly after Hitler’s rise to power, al-Husseini sent a message to the German envoy in Jerusalem, expressing support for the new Nazi regime. He received generous funding from the Nazis in return.

In 1937, al-Husseini was ousted from office. He fled to Lebanon, and from there to Syria, all while maintaining his ties with the Nazi regime. In 1941, the Muslim clergyman arrived in Berlin, where he met with Hitler and the senior Nazi leadership, who assured him that once the Middle East is conquered, “Germany’s sole purpose would be to obliterate the Jewish population occupying the Arab space under the auspices of the British.”

Another voice lending merit to Netanyahu’s remark is author Wolfgang Schwanitz, who penned the book “Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East.” Schwanitz also argues that Hitler’s meeting with al-Husseini played a critical role in inspiring the Holocaust.

“It’s a historical fact that the grand mufti was an accomplice in this. … He was the top non-European adviser to Hitler on the process of eliminating Europe’s Jews,” Schwanitz said. “It would be absurd to discount the mufti’s role in encouraging Hitler and other Nazi officials to carry out the final solution.”

Meanwhile, the White House on Thursday addressed the controversial remarks surrounding the mufti’s role in the Holocaust.

“There was no doubt as to who was responsible for the Holocaust, which involved the systematic murder of six million Jews,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz. “Inflammatory actions and accusations on both sides could fuel the violence even further. This needs to stop.”

Categories: Foreign policy, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Islam's war on Jews, Israel, Netanyahu, Obama and Israel, Palestinian heroes
Tags: Foreign Policy, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Islam's war on Jews, Israel, Netanyahu, Obama and Israel, Palestinian heroes

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