Day of Rage: Intifada 3.0 (Dispatch 3), VICE News via You Tube, October 16, 2015
VICE News video:
(The following video is not from VICE news. More than four years old, it’s still relevant. — DM)
Archive for the ‘Palestinian Authority’ category
CNN: Jewish holy site somehow “catches fire” After Muslim attack
October 16, 2015CNN: Jewish holy site somehow “catches fire” After Muslim attack, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, October 16, 2015
Setting Joseph’s Tomb on fire is some sort of national Muslim sport. It happens so often that I don’t think anyone has even collected all the incidents together.
If Jews were constantly setting a Muslim holy site on fire, there would be so many UN resolutions they would provide toilet paper for UN HQ for a year. But Jewish holy sites don’t matter. Jewish lives don’t matter.
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The media is really doubling down on passive voice Muslim terrorism. Israel “actively” does things all the time. But terror attacks on Jews just seem to “happen”. Jewish holy sites just “catch on fire.”
Ask CNN. “Joseph’s Tomb site catches fire in wave of Palestinian-Israeli violence”
It caught fire from the wave of violence? The wave of violence was just sweeping around the place and ignited Joseph’s Tomb?
Even the New York Times headlined its story as, “Palestinians Set Fire to Joseph’s Tomb in West Bank”. The Washington Post called it, “Palestinian protesters set fire to a Jewish holy shrine in West Bank”.
The technical term for people who set things on fire is arsonist, not protester, but at least the Washington Post got “Jewish holy site” in the headline which no one else seems to have managed to do.
(But don’t give the Post too many bonus points yet. Here’s their headline describing a Muslim terrorist who stabbed an Israeli soldier and was shot. “Palestinian with ‘press’ logo on shirt shot dead in stabbing”.)
Let’s do a little thought experiment here.
Suppose a bunch of angry Jews stormed onto the Temple Mount and set the Islamic Al Aqsa Victory Mosque, planted by the Muslim invaders on the holiest site in Judaism, on fire. Would the headline read, “Al Aqsa Mosque catches fire in wave of Palestinian-Israeli violence.”
Or would it read, “Jewish Extremist Mob Torches Muslim Holy Site”?
Here’s a CNN headline from 2009. “Jewish Settlers Blamed over Mosque Attack”. Note how the mosque didn’t spontaneously “catch on fire”. It was attacked. The first words name Jews as the perpetrators because CNN believes it’s a priority to communicate blame in that instance to readers. Here its a priority for CNN to whitewash what happened. There’s no mysterious wave of violence that somehow relates to buildings catching on fire.
This isn’t just a headline issue. Ben Brumfield’s disgusting piece starts off, “Fire broke out overnight at the compound housing Joseph’s Tomb”.
The fire didn’t “break out”. There was no spontaneous combustion. It was set. But Ben Brumfield somehow takes 5 paragraphs to tell you that and to hint at who set it.
Some Palestinians had started a barricade to prevent Israeli troops from entering Nablus to destroy Palestinian homes when a smaller group tried to set fire to the tomb, a Palestinian official told CNN under condition of anonymity. Part of the compound burned, but the tomb remained intact, the official said.
So to summarize, Ben Brumfield’s warped spin here.
The Muslims were trying to protect themselves from Israeli soldiers… so naturally they set a Jewish holy site on fire. Or, as he puts it, they “tried to set fire to the tomb”. All those flames suggest that they succeeded insofar as there was a fire. Even if the tomb wasn’t destroyed.
For example, if CNN headquarters were set on fire by “Palestinian protesters” looking to defend themselves, the news network would still report that it had been set on fire, even if the building remained standing.
CNN follows that up with a lot of “context” and anti-Israel spin, none of which mentions how often Muslims attack Joseph’s Tomb. There was a Muslim arson attempt on the Tomb just this August. Then a Muslim terror cell plotted a bombing and shooting attack on the Tomb… also in August.
The plan of the four arrested terrorists was to set off explosives at Joseph’s Tomb and machine-gun the Jewish worshippers there.
Or, as Ben Brumfield might have reported it, “Explosives Were Set Off in a Wave of Palestinian-Israeli Violence.”
Setting Joseph’s Tomb on fire is some sort of national Muslim sport. It happens so often that I don’t think anyone has even collected all the incidents together.
Muslims vandals have defaced Joseph’s Tomb in yet another instance of Muslims attacking Jewish holy sites. The Muslims hooligans destroyed furniture, desecrated holy Jewish books, sprayed anti-semitic graffiti throughout the tomb’s grounds. There was also evidence that they had attempted to destroy Joseph’s Tomb by fire.
According to Samaria Council Chairman Gershon Mesika, “Only barbarians are capable of doing terrible things like this, destroying a holy place. The State of Israel must reclaim the Tomb of Yosef, as described in the Oslo Accords.”
That one was two years ago. But destroying other people’s holy places is how Muslim holy places are created.
Unfortunately, this was not the first time that Muslims have attacked Joseph’s Tomb. In 2011, a nephew of Science and Culture Minister Limor Livnat, Ben-Joseph Livnat, was murdered by Palestinian Authority security forces while visiting Joseph’s Tomb and four other Israelis were wounded. At his funeral, Limor Livnat stated, “He was murdered simply because he was Jewish.”
Muslims then proceeded to set Joseph’s Tomb on fire and they also attacked the funeral procession of Ben Joseph Livnat with rocks.
Let’s give these lovely people a state.
Furthermore, in 2008, 16 burning tires were thrown at Joseph’s Tomb and in other instances Joseph’s Tomb has been vandalized with swastikas and other anti-semitic graffiti. In 2000, the Palestinian Authority stormed Joseph’s Tomb, killed an IDF soldier, demolished Joseph’s Tomb, and desecrated Jewish holy books at the Jewish holy site. A Palestinian flag was raised over the Jewish holy site. Afterwards, the Palestinians attempted to transform Joseph’s Tomb into a mosque. Indeed, Palestinians to date claim that Joseph was a Muslim, yet this supposed claim holds no validity; otherwise, the Palestinians would treat Joseph’s Tomb more respectfully than they historically have.
Here’s a brief Wiki summary of the incredibly respectful treatment Joseph’s Tomb has received from Muslims over the last decade or so.
In the early days of the al-Aqsa Intifada, on the morning of October 7, 2000, Israel withdrew the small contingent of IDF border policemen who had been guarding the site of the Tomb of the Patriarch Joseph and its Yeshiva. The holy site was located in Shechem in Samaria, the town the Arabs call “Nablus”. Over the preceeding days, the Tomb had been attacked with gunfire, stones, and firebombs. The IDF defenders in the compound withstood the attacks and stopped several attempts by armed Palestinians to break in. An IDF border policemen was wounded, and the heavy rioting prevented his evacuation for treatment in time to save his life.
The PA also pledged to prevent any vandalism and to return the Tomb to its original state after the violence settled down.
The PA pledge was brazenly violated about two hours after the Israeli evacuation, when a Palestinian Arab mob entered the Tomb compound and began to systematically destroy everything in sight, including all remnants of the Yeshiva. The furniture and books that were left behind were burned by the mob. The Palestinian police stood by, failing to prevent any of these violent activities, despite their commitment to guard the Tomb. Within hours, Joseph’s Tomb was reduced to a smoldering heap of rubble. Within two days, as an Associated Press dispatch reported, “the dome of the tomb was painted green and bulldozers were seen clearing the surrounding area,” as the Palestinian Arabs sought to transform the biblical Joseph’s resting place into a Moslem holy site.
Minister Natan Sharansky wanted the foreign ministry to publicize photos of the desecrated site, which is in the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Nablus, the biblical Shechem.
“If we would have razed the gravesite of one of the founders of Islam, billions of Muslims would have taken to the streets,” Sharansky said. “It’s inconceivable that the world should not know about this travesty.”
Nablus mayor Ghassan Shakaa promised to repair the site to its pre-1967 state, and repairs were carried out; however, workers painted the exterior of the shrine’s dome green (the color of Islam), fuelling speculation that the Palestinians intended to build a mosque on the site. After some world outcry, the dome was repainted a neutral colour.
On February 23, 2003 the carved stone covering the grave was destroyed.
In February 2003 it was reported in the Jerusalem Post that the grave had been pounded with hammers and that the tree at its entrance had been broken; car parts and trash littered the tomb which had a “huge hole in its dome.”
In 2007, it was discovered that the tomb had been vandalised, and filled with burning garbage.
In early 2008, a group of MKs wrote a letter to the Prime Minister asking that the tomb be renovated: “The tombstone is completely shattered, and the holy site is desecrated in an appalling manner, the likes of which we have not seen in Israel or anywhere else in the world.”
In February, it was reported that Israel would officially ask the Palestinian Authority to carry out repairs at the tomb, but in response, vandals set tires on fire inside the tomb.
In December 2008, Jewish workers funded by anonymous donors painted the blackened walls and re-built the shattered stone marker covering the grave.
In late April 2009, a group of Jewish worshipers found the headstone smashed and swastikas painted on the walls, as well as boot prints on the grave itself
If Jews were constantly setting a Muslim holy site on fire, there would be so many UN resolutions they would provide toilet paper for UN HQ for a year. But Jewish holy sites don’t matter. Jewish lives don’t matter.
The Obama Intifada
October 16, 2015The Obama Intifada, Washington Free Beacon
Palestinians improvise a barricade during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank, Saturday, Oct. 10 / AP
Obama won’t hold the Palestinians accountable because that might jeopardize his policy of daylight between America and Israel. A policy that was intended to improve U.S. credibility in the Muslim world and thereby denuclearize Iran, disarm and remove Bashar al-Assad, and establish a peaceful Palestinian state. A policy that has instead destabilized the region, formalized the Russian-Iranian-Syrian axis, enriched and empowered the Shiite theocracy, rattled our allies, and done nothing to curtail Palestinian intransigence.
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More than 30 dead in Israel as Palestinians armed with knives attack innocents. What’s responsible? A campaign of incitement, which slanderously accuses Jews of intruding on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and murdering Arab children in cold blood.
And who is legitimizing this campaign? None other than Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, whom President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have long held up as a peacemaker. “I think nobody would dispute that whatever disagreements you may have with him, he has proven himself to be somebody who has committed to nonviolence and diplomatic efforts to resolve this issue,” Obama told writer Jeffrey Goldberg in 2014.
That’s a strange view of commitment. This is the same Abbas, remember, who rejected then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s absurdly generous 2008 peace offer. The same Abbas who resisted negotiations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the 10-month settlement freeze in 2010, which Obama demanded explicitly on the grounds that it would give Abbas the cover he needed to begin talks. Abbas finally relented to Saudi pressure, and attended a few meetings with Netanyahu that September. But under no definition of what the word “negotiation” actually means were these meetings for real: The freeze was about to expire, the get togethers were perfunctory, and nothing of significance was discussed. The farce ended soon after.
It is a lie to say that Mahmoud Abbas is committed to a diplomatic resolution. Just as it was a lie when, the other day at Harvard, Secretary Kerry attributed the bloodshed to “a frustration that is growing” because of the “massive increase in settlements over the course of the last years.” As Elliott Abrams points out, there has been an increase in the population of the settlements, but not in their size. As if the settlements have any connection to what’s happening in the first place: The terror gripping Israel is the result of a Palestinian leadership so adrift and corrupt, so aggrieved and conspiratorial, that it encourages the radicalization of its youth and promotes an atmosphere of hatred and murder.
David Horovitz of the Times of Israel recounts the history. Not only did Abbas reject Olmert and Obama. He insisted in 2013 that the Palestinian “right of return,” which would irrevocably transform Israel into a bi-national state, be part of any deal. Declared in 2014 that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza. Announced in 2015 that the Palestinian Authority would no longer uphold previous agreements. Charged Israel, falsely, with infiltrating and violating Muslim sites. Encouraged Palestinians to lionize the knife-wielding assailants as martyrs, victims of Israeli “execution.” Spread the myth that 13-year-old Ahmad Mansara, recovering in an Israeli hospital from wounds he incurred in a botched terrorist attack—in which he critically wounded a Jewish teen—had been killed by an Israeli vigilante.
Concludes Horovitz: “The fact is that Abbas has quite deliberately fueled the flames of this latest Al-Aqsa-centered terror wave.”
And what has the United States done to stop him? Nothing. Not during this presidency. Obama’s focus has been laser-like when it comes to Israel’s missteps, Israel’s weaknesses, Israel’s moral code, and what he sees as Israel’s true interests. Abbas, on the other hand, is someone Obama has been content to puff up, placate, excuse, humor, ignore.
“I have to commend President Abbas,” Obama said during a bilateral meeting at the White House last year. “He has been somebody who has consistently renounced violence, has consistently sought a diplomatic and peaceful solution that allows for two states, side by side, in peace and security.”
In his interview with Goldberg, conducted around the same time, Obama added, “I believe that President Abbas is sincere about his willingness to recognize Israel and its right to exist, to recognize Israel’s legitimate security needs, to shun violence, to resolve these issues in a diplomatic fashion that meets the concerns of the people of Israel.”
But at that White House meeting, according to reports, Abbas explicitly rejected three key elements of any agreement: recognition of Israel as a Jewish State; renunciation of the right of return; and commitment to “end of conflict” language that would foreclose future Palestinian demands. As he has done with so many dictators, theocrats, and goons, the president offered an open hand—and was rebuked with a closed fist.
This rebuke was not met with forceful rhetoric, countermeasures, or a shift in policy to strengthen Palestinian institutions, develop Palestinian civil society, broaden and liberalize the Palestinian leadership. It was met with silence. The White House just looked the other way.
“My concern about Obama is that he never asks anything about the Palestinians. He gives them a complete pass,”says Ambassador Dennis Ross, a former Obama official whose new book Doomed to Succeed tells the story of the beleaguered U.S.-Israel alliance. “It makes it worse for the Palestinians. For the Palestinians, you have a political culture that is driven so much by this profound sense of victimhood and grievance—the idea that they should do anything towards the Israelis, they should make any accommodation towards the Israelis, is completely illegitimate.”
Why the pass? Jeffrey Goldberg says it’s because the Palestinians “have less power.” That’s no excuse. Another possibility: The president is occupied with Cuba, ISIS, Syria, Ukraine, and Iran. He doesn’t have the bandwidth to hold Mahmoud Abbas to the same standard as Benjamin Netanyahu.
But we know that’s not the case, either. The president has been more than happy to castigate Netanyahu all along. Can’t he say a few tough things about Abbas?
Obama won’t hold the Palestinians accountable because that might jeopardize his policy of daylight between America and Israel. A policy that was intended to improve U.S. credibility in the Muslim world and thereby denuclearize Iran, disarm and remove Bashar al-Assad, and establish a peaceful Palestinian state. A policy that has instead destabilized the region, formalized the Russian-Iranian-Syrian axis, enriched and empowered the Shiite theocracy, rattled our allies, and done nothing to curtail Palestinian intransigence.
Even the carrot Obama offered Israel as part of the Iran deal—interdiction of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah—has been exposed as an illusion. Russia has a no-fly zone in Syria and is arming Syrian regulars and presumably Hezbollah, too. How else to explain Netanyahu’s sudden visit to Moscow last month? Hezbollah with a nuclear umbrella was something the Iran deal was supposed to prevent. Now Hassan Nasrallah benefits from the Russian nuclear umbrella, in addition to the Iranian one that will be unfurled a decade hence. Great job Obama.
So here we are: Palestinians no closer to statehood, Israel terrorized, Jewish and Arab lives being lost, and an atmosphere so rife with revisionism and paranoia that the New York Times is questioning the history of Jews on the Temple Mount. All because President Obama forgot that daylight ends in darkness.
‘Abbas: We Will Continue The Popular Resistance; Israel Is Plotting To Change Status Quo In Jerusalem; Israel Uses Terror, Executes Children
October 16, 2015Like the first and second intifadas, the current wave of terrorism is being exploited by Palestinian organizations and leaders, including by Palestinian President Mahmoud ‘Abbas, who attack Israel and accuse it of terror and crimes while making false claims and allegations. Some Palestinian organizations and leaders praised the perpetrators of the attacks, stating that they acted in self-defense. Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, even called to escalate the attacks.
In his recent statements and speeches, ‘Abbas did not mention any violent Palestinian actions, but spoke only of “popular resistance,” which he advocates. This term is highly misleading, since it evokes nonviolent action such as peaceful protests and marches, whereas the recent wave of Palestinian terror has included mostly knifings, many of which resulted in grave injuries and deaths, as well as the throwing of stones and firebombs and the slinging of metal balls, which have also resulted in injuries and deaths.
PA and its head, Mahmoud ‘Abbas, have not only refrained from condemning the terror of the recent month, but are encouraging it to continue and are presenting the perpetrators not as attackers who deliberately set out to stab Israelis but as innocent Palestinians whom Israel executed under false pretenses. They call the injuring or killing of terrorists “war crimes” and even state that they mean to sue Israel in the International Criminal Court. The language used by ‘Abbas – such as “the terror of the Israeli government and the settler herds”, “execution in cold blood,” and “Israel’s hostile attack” – is obviously not conducive to calming the atmosphere, and in fact incites violence.
Granted, ‘Abbas and his security apparatuses are currently working to prevent the spread of the conflicts in the PA territories, and they have indeed arrested Hamas activists. Furthermore, ‘Abbas met with Fatah leaders in the various districts, apparently to instruct them to take measures to quell the violence. However, these measures seem to be motivated by the fear of losing control of the situation and by the desire to avoid giving Israel an excuse to retake the PA territories.
Mahmoud ‘Abbas (image: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, October 14, 2014)
The Libel Of A Changed Status Quo At Al-Aqsa
In his October 14, 2015 speech on Palestinian television, ‘Abbas reiterated the libel that was the main catalyst for the current terror incidents, namely that Israel plans to alter the status quo in Jerusalem, despite repeated declarations by Israeli officials that Israel has no intention of doing so. ‘Abbas also declared that Israel’s actions were sparking a religious conflict. He said: “These days Israel’s hostile attack on our Palestinian people, its soil and its holy sites is intensifying, and the savage racism in its ugly form adds hideousness and repulsiveness to the occupation. These pose a threat to peace and stability and herald the lighting of the fuse of a religious conflict that will spark an all-consuming conflagration not only in the [Middle East] region but in the entire world. This is a warning bell for the international community to immediately intervene in a positive manner, before it will be too late.
“We say explicitly and unequivocally that we will not agree to a change in the status quo in the blessed Al-Aqsa and we will not allow Israel to carry out any plot intended to damage its sanctity and its purely Islamic [character]. The right [over Al-Qasa] is our exclusive right – Palestinians and Muslims everywhere. We seek rights, justice and peace. We have attacked nobody and we will not agree to attacks on our people, our homeland and our holy sites.”[1]
It should be mentioned that, one month ago, in a meeting with East Jerusalem residents, ‘Abbas urged them to continue opposing the “invasions” of Al-Aqsa and to prevent the Israelis from dividing it:
“The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all ours, and they [the Israelis] have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We shall not allow them to do so, and we shall do whatever we can to protect Jerusalem. We are in Jerusalem and will remain there. We will defend the places sacred to Christianity and Islam and will not abandon our city. We will continue to cleave to every inch of its soil and do everything to make its voice heard. I am confident that no harm will come to Jerusalem, even though Israel is waging a war of extermination against it. We will continue defending it under any circumstance. We are talking with everyone, and everyone is asking what we are doing to make [Jerusalem’s] voice heard.”[2]
‘Abbas: Israel Is Executing Palestinians, Including Children, In Cold Blood
Another false accusation invoked by ‘Abbas in his speech, and which has recently become a prominent part of the Palestinian narrative, is that Israel is executing Palestinians, including children, on the pretext that they attempted to stab Jews. As an example he cited the case of Ahmad Manasra, the 13-year-old boy who, on October 12, stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli boy his own age in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of Jerusalem, although Manasra is only moderately wounded and is hospitalized in Israel. ‘Abbas said: “We have told the entire world from the U.N. stage that in no way will we accept the existing situation in occupied Palestine, nor will we surrender to the logic of oppressive force and to the policy of occupation and aggression adopted by the Israeli government and its settler herds, who are using terror against our people, our holy places, our homes and our trees and are executing our children in cold blood, just as they did to the boy Ahmad Manasra and to other children in Jerusalem and elsewhere.”
Abbas stated further that the PA would sue Israel for the executions at the International Criminal Court: “We will file new suits over the execution of our sons, daughters and grandchildren. Whoever fears international law and its penalties should desist from committing crimes against our people.”[3]
The claim about the Israeli executions was echoed by Palestinian chief negotiator and PLO Executive Committee secretary Saeb Erekat, who said at a press conference that Israel was executing Palestinians, while ignoring the fact that they were killed while stabbing or attempting to stab Israelis. He said: “We demand that the [U.N.] special rapporteur on human rights Christof Heyns arrive immediately and investigate the field executions… According to the directive of President [‘Abbas], we decided to collect information in order to submit three lawsuits, against Prime Minister Netanyahu, his defense minister and the heads of the Israeli security forces.”[4]
‘Abbas: The Martyrs’ Blood Is The Price Of Freedom; The Palestinian Struggle Has Gained Attention, Earned Respect Of The Entire World
In his speech ‘Abbas called to continue the “popular resistance” and congratulated Jerusalem and the martyrs, stating that the events are the result of Israel’s rejection of the hand extended in peace and the continued construction in the settlements: “O heroic Palestinians, in your struggle and steadfastness you have gained considerable victories and political achievements, and thanks to this wondrous steadfastness the Palestinian cause has gained the attention and earned the respect of the entire world. True, we have paid for it in the blood of our martyrs and wounded, in the tears of our mothers and the torment of our prisoners, but that is the price of freedom, which is now very close.
“[I] congratulate you, our glorious people, as well as proud Jerusalem and its residents who stand on the front line; [I] congratulate Gaza, the West Bank and our people in the diaspora. Victory will come, with Allah’s help… We will persist in our legitimate national struggle, which focuses on our right to defend ourselves, the nonviolent popular resistance and the diplomatic and legal struggle, and we will act with the required patience, wisdom and valor to defend our people and its diplomatic and national achievements, which were attained following decades of struggle and persistence and via the long road of the martyrs, wounded and prisoners.
“The instability and insecurity result from the Israeli government’s rejection of our hand that is extended in [a bid for] a just peace that will guarantee the rights of our people, its freedom and its national honor. [They result from Israel’s] stubborn persistence in building in the settlements and imposing dictates [upon the Palestinians]. Peace, security and stability will only be achieved if the Israeli occupation ends and an independent Palestinian state is established, with holy Jerusalem as its capital, in the June 4, 1967 boundaries.
“Members of the glorious Palestinian people, wherever you are, I call upon you to rally together and unite, and be alert to the occupation’s schemes that are designed to torpedo our national enterprise. We will never be deterred from defending our people and protecting them. That is our right. [I] congratulate the martyrs, the wounded and the prisoners.”[5]
Senior Fatah Officials Praise The Terrorists, Encourage Continued “Popular Resistance”
Saeb Erekat praised Fadi ‘Aloun, who carried out an October 4, 2015 stabbing in Jerusalem, as well as Muhannad Al-Halabi, who stabbed two Israelis to death in Jerusalem’s old city the same day. He also listed the names of “martyrs,” most of whom perpetrated terror attacks, while emphasizing their young age. He added: “The Israeli method vis-a-vis the Palestinian people is [carrying out] field executions… Israel kills civilians and children and imposes collective punishments.”[6]
Other senior Fatah officials justified the violence and/or encouraged its continuation. In an interview with the Amad press agency, Fatah Central Committee member and former West Bank General Intelligence head Tawfiq Al-Tirawi said that the Palestinian people had the right to defend itself and to resist in order to secure its future, for popular resistance was one of the methods of resistance.[7]
Fatah Central Committee member ‘Azzam Al-Ahmad said: “We must continue the national awakening, for diplomatic activity without popular resistance is valueless. The time has arrived to expand the circle of [those] joining the popular resistance, and all of us have to participate in the struggle, each according to his ability.”[8]
Fatah Central Committee member ‘Abbas Zaki told the Turkish news agency Anadolu: “Armed struggle against the occupation is a legitimate right that we will not relinquish. However, this [activity] requires unity among all the Palestinian factions and establishing a central war room and formulating plans so that the armed struggle exacts a steep price from the enemy while [also] benefiting the Palestinian people. We reserve the right to [engage in] armed struggle, which is an option we will not give up, but we must consider how and when to carry it out, and whether the climate is right to use it to our benefit. At present we support [waging] a popular intifada that will confound the enemy and paralyze his security and economy, and prompt the world to address the question of how to end the world’s last remaining occupation.
“Deciding on an armed struggle now will [only] serve the enemy, who has the military power to kill [us] on a daily basis. Today we are defending ourselves, and we will continue to do so. We do not want escalation, but the enemy is attacking and destroying our cities and villages. [The means] of self-defense differ from one Palestinian to the other, some of us use stones and others knives.”[9]
Overt And Covert Threats To Escalate The Violence
In addition to congratulating the perpetrators of the stabbings and calling to continue the violence, members of the Fatah Central Committee even called to intensify it. ‘Azzam Al-Ahmad stated that, if Israel continued its “crimes” against the Palestinians, events would spiral out of control, and added: “There is a resemblance between the Israeli forces and the ISIS terror organization.”[10]
An October 13 announcement issued by the Al-Aqsa Brigades welcomed the attacks and called to “escalate them on the ground against the Israeli occupation that has made everything permitted, including killing women, children and the elderly in cold blood… The response will be painful and shocking, and we will act to light a fire under the filthy feet of the Zionists.”[11]
Image on Al-Aqsa Brigades website shows knife cleaving a Star of David, with the caption: “Palestinian, stand up and resist, and never relinquish your right” (3asfa.com, October 13, 2015)
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Ayyam (PA), October 15, 2015.
[2] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 5080, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: Jews “Have No Right to Defile the Al-Aqsa Mosque with Their Filthy Feet”, September 16, 2015.
[3] Al-Ayyam (PA), October 15, 2015.
[4] Amad.ps, October 13, 2015.
[5] Al-Ayyam (PA), October 15, 2015.
[6] Amad.ps, October 13, 2015.
[7] Amad.ps, October 13, 2015.
[8] Amad.ps, October 13, 2015.
[9] Amad.ps, October 9, 2015.
[10] Amad.ps, October 13, 2015.
[11] 3asfa.com, October 13, 2015.
What Do Palestinian Terrorists Want?
October 15, 2015What Do Palestinian Terrorists Want? Gatestone Institute, Bassam Tawil, October 15, 2015
- Palestinian terrorists are not driven by poverty and deprivation, as many have long argued. Instead, they are driven by hatred for Jews — because of what their leaders, media and mosques are telling them.
- These young people took advantage of their status as permanent residents of Israel to set out and murder Jews. Their Israeli ID cards allow them to travel freely inside Israel. They were also entitled to the social welfare benefits and free healthcare granted to all Israeli citizens.
- Muhannad Halabi wanted to murder Jews because he had been brainwashed by our leaders and media, and was driven by hatred — he was not living in misery and deprivation. The family’s house in the village of Surda, on the outskirts of Ramallah, looks as if it came out of a movie filmed in San Diego.
- This conflict is not about Islamic holy sites or Jerusalem. Murdering a Jewish couple in front of their four children has nothing to do with the Aqsa Mosque or “occupation.”
- For the terrorists, all Jews are “settlers” and Israel is one big settlement. This is not an intifada — it is just another killing-spree aimed at terrorizing the Jews and forcing them out of this part of the world. It already succeeded in the rest of the Middle East and is now being done there to the Christians as well.
- The current wave of terrorism is just another phase in our dream to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. The terrorists and their supporters are not struggling against a checkpoint or a wall. They want to see Israel destroyed, Jews slaughtered, and the streets of Israel running with Jewish blood.
During the past few days, I had occasion to visit the homes of some of the Palestinian men and women involved in the ongoing wave of terrorism against Israelis — the violence that some are calling an “intifada,” or uprising.
What I saw — what you or anyone could see during these visits — was that none of these Palestinians had suffered harsh lives. Their living conditions were anything but miserable. In fact, these murderers had been leading comfortable lives, with unlimited access to education and work.
Four of the terrorists came from Jerusalem and, as permanent residents who had not applied for citizenship, held Israeli ID cards. They enjoyed all the rights of an Israeli citizen, except for voting for the Knesset — but it is not as if the Arabs of Jerusalem are killing and dying because they want to vote in Israeli parliamentary elections.
These young people took advantage of their status as permanent residents of Israel to set out and murder Jews. They all had Israeli ID cards that allowed them to travel freely inside Israel, and even own and drive vehicles with Israeli license plates. They were also entitled to the social welfare benefits and free healthcare granted to all Israeli citizens, regardless of their faith, color or ethnicity.
None of the young Palestinians involved in the recent terror attacks lived a mud house, a tent, or even a rented apartment. They all lived in houses owned by their families, and had unlimited access to the internet. They all carried smartphones that allowed them to share their views on Facebook and Twitter and, among other things, to engage in wanton incitement against Israel and Jews.
At the home of Muhannad Halabi, for example, the Palestinian who murdered two Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem last week, you would discover that his father is a businessman who deals in air-conditioning systems and has his own business in Ramallah. The family’s house, in the village of Surda on the northern outskirts of Ramallah, looks as if it came out of a movie filmed in San Diego.
Muhannad Halabi, his relatives said, was a spoiled boy who had gotten everything he asked for. He had been studying law at Al-Quds University near Jerusalem, and was able to commute freely between Ramallah and the campus. But the good life Muhannad had did not prevent him from joining Islamic Jihad and murdering two Jews. He wanted to murder Jews because he had been brainwashed by our leaders and media, and was driven by hatred — he was not living in misery and deprivation.
The case of Shuruq Dweyat, an 18-year-old female student from the Tsur Baher village in Jerusalem, is not really different from that of Muhannad Halabi. She is now receiving treatment in an Israeli hospital, free of charge, after being shot and seriously wounded by the Jew she tried to murder inside the Old City of Jerusalem. She was studying history and geography at Bethlehem University, to which she travelled four times a week from her home, without facing any obstacles or being stopped by Israeli soldiers.
Photos Shuruq posted on social media show a happy woman who never stopped smiling and posing for “selfies.” She has her own smartphone. Her family, like those of all the other terrorists, own their own house and lead an extremely comfortable life. The Israeli ID card Shuruq holds allows her to go to any place inside Israel at any time. She chose to take advantage of this privilege to try to murder a random Jew in the street. The reason? She, too, was apparently driven by hatred, anti-Semitism and bigotry. She, too, was the victim of a massive propaganda machine that ceaselessly demonizes Israel and Jews.
If you had met 19-year-old Fadi Alloun, you would have seen possibly the most handsome man in Jerusalem. Fadi, who came from Issawiyeh in Jerusalem, had also been enjoying a good life under Israel’s administration. He too had an Israeli ID card and was able to travel freely throughout the country. His family told me that he had loved going to shopping malls in Israel to buy clothes from chain stores such as Zara, Renuar, Castro. With his snazzy clothes and sunglasses, he looked like more like an Italian fashion model than your average terrorist. He, too, had unlimited access to the Internet and his family owned their own house.
Fadi’s good life in Israel, however, did not prevent him from setting out to stab the first Jew he met on the street. This happened last week, when Fadi stabbed a 15-year-old Jew just outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Fadi was shot and killed by Israeli policemen who rushed to the scene of the attack. Fadi did not set out to murder Jews because he had a harsh life. Nor was he driven by misery or poverty. He had almost everything to which he aspired, and his family were well-off. The life Fadi had, in fact, was much better than the lives of many of his fellow Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As an Israeli resident, Fadi was able to go anywhere he wanted in Israel and had free access to restaurants, shopping malls and gyms.
Fadi Alloun, possibly the most handsome man in Jerusalem, stabbed a random 15-year-old Jew in the street last week. Police shot and killed Alloun moments after the attack.
The other young men and women who have carried out the current wave of terror attacks were also leading good lives; some had jobs inside Israel, in part thanks to their Israeli ID cards. Those who came from the West Bank were able to bypass checkpoints and the security barrier, just as thousands of other Palestinian laborers do, who cross into Israel every day in search of work and better lives.
To be honest, I envied these terrorists because of the comfortable lives they had. The furniture in their homes is far better than my furniture. Still, their luxuries did not stop them from setting out to murder Jews.
What does all this mean? It shows that the Palestinian terrorists are not driven by poverty and deprivation, as many have long been arguing. Palestinian terrorists are driven by hatred for Jews because of what their leaders, media and mosques are telling them: that the Jews are the enemy and that they have no right to be in this part of the world.
It also shows that this conflict is not about Islamic holy sites or Jerusalem, but about murdering Jews whenever possible. Murdering two Jews inside the Old City of Jerusalem or a Jewish couple in front of their four children has nothing to do with the Aqsa Mosque or “occupation.” It is simply about the desire to murder as many Jews as one can. The terrorists did not draw any distinction between a Jew living in east Jerusalem, the West Bank, Tel Aviv or Afula [northern Israel]. For the terrorists and their sponsors, all Jews are “settlers” and Israel is one big settlement that needs to be eliminated.
Our conflict with Israel is not about “occupation” or Jerusalem or holy sites or borders. Nor is it about poverty and poor living conditions or walls and fences and checkpoints. This conflict is really about Israel’s very existence in this part of the world. The current wave of terrorism is just another phase in our dream to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. This is not an intifada. It is just another killing-spree aimed at terrorizing the Jews and forcing them to leave this part of the world. It already succeeded in the rest of the Middle East, and is now being done to the Christians as well.
The terrorists and their supporters are not struggling against a checkpoint or a wall. They want to see Israel destroyed, Jews slaughtered, and the streets of Israel running with Jewish blood.
Terror slowdown as Israelis absorb first shock and gear up for the next round
October 14, 2015Terror slowdown as Israelis absorb first shock and gear up for the next round, DEBKAfile, October 14, 2015
Anti-terror operations in Jerusalem
Israelis have absorbed the first shock of the wave of Palestinian terror unleashed in the last two weeks. The Palestinians are likely absorbing the package of tough penalties for terror and deterrents the Netanyahu government began putting together Tuesday night. Wednesday, Oct. 14, saw relative calm after the deadly violence reached a new peak Tuesday with the first Palestinian shooting attack on a Jerusalem bus – this time by adults.
The relative lull is expected to last only until the Palestinians and their Israeli Arab supporters take stock, before inevitably launching their next round of terror.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem saw “only” two stabbing attacks. In the first, a terrorist wearing army fatigues tried to stab a Border Guardsman at Nablus Gate in Jerusalem, and was shot and killed by policemen and visitors. Two hours later, another terrorist attacked a woman bus passenger at the city’s central station. A police special ops officer ran after him up and shot him dead.
One of the counter-terror measures that went into effect Wednesday morning was the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee’s approval of Emergency Order 8 authorizing the mobilization of an additional 600 Border Guards combatants from the reserves, over and above the 800 already called up.
DEBKAfile’s military experts note that the rapid processing of this new intake with equipment and operational orders will reduce the need to detach from their regular duties the 500 IDF soldiers allocated for manning the streets of Jerusalem.
That is all to the good, because managing police officers and soldiers in harness is bound to be problematic.
Israel is not the first country to inject military strength into its capital to fight terror. The British and French governments have been known to deploy paratroops and armed personnel carriers into the streets of London and Paris when they were beset by a rising level of terror. This deployment never lasted more than a few days – just enough to calm a terrified citizenry.
But Jerusalem is different. The state of security is such that soldiers once in place may face a long-term stay in the capital to contend with a long-running security threat.
Another difficulty is that the soldiers assigned to this mission have been pulled out of tank, artillery and engineering courses with no training for combating urban terror. Those who come from outside the city will furthermore need to familiarize themselves with a new environment and its rhythms.
The Jerusalem Police are special. They must cope with complex, demanding and multi-tasking challenges to the town’s security. More than one terror attack may take place at different parts of the city. Unlike ordinary soldiers, they are trained and have the experience to quickly spot and take action against a terrorist in ordinary clothes who may pop up suddenly from among a large crowd to sow death.
A seasoned police officer can judge when to cut the assailant down to save lives and when to arrest him.
But the IDF servicemen to be recruited for anti-terror duties in support of security forces are much younger than the average policeman – on average around nineteen years old. Their firearms and kits are designed for conventional warfare on the Golan in the north or the Gaza Strip in the south – not for securing civilian buses or heavy vehicular and pedestrian traffic in a crowded city center.
That Border Guards reservists were hastily mobilized at the same time as the military units indicates that someone had the sense to understand that the presence of IDF troops on the streets and buses was good psychological first aid for people jumping at shadows for fear of a lone terrorist, but hardly an effective operational arm for the war on terror.
Three Israelis killed in two Jerusalem terror attacks within minutes
October 13, 2015Three Israelis killed in two Jerusalem terror attacks within minutes, DEBKAfile, October 13, 2015
Body of terrorist victim evacuated from stricken bus
By noon, Tuesday, Oct. 13, three Israelis were killed, 27 injured in Jerusalem by three terrorists from the same Palestinian Jebel Mukaber city neighborhood, which has a long history of terror. Armed with a gun and a knife, two terrorists tried to commandeer a bus a bus in the Armon Hanatziv district of Jerusalem, killing one Israeli and injuring 16, at least six seriously. One of the pair was shot dead, the second injured.
This was the first terrorist shooting attack in the current wave of violence. One of the killers was on the payroll of Bezek, Israel’s biggest telecom company.
In downtown Jerusalem, within minutes, a Palestinian ran down a group of pedestrians waiting at the Malchei Israel bus stop. He then jumped out of the car and struck his victims with a cleaver – continuing to strike even after he was shot by a local security guard. He killed 60-year old Rabbi Yeshayahu and injured three injured victims before he was shot dead.
Earlier, five Israelis were injured in two stabbing attacks carried out by a single terrorist in the town of Raanana north of Tel Aviv. He was overpowered by a civilian with a pepper gun and a selfie stick before police shot him dead.
After the Jerusalem attacks, police spokesmen admitted for the first time that they must have been synchronized and deliberately set up, finally abandoning the “lone wolf” theory attributed hitherto by Israeli officials to the current wave of terror.
Jerusalem’s two highway links – Rtes 1 and 443 – were meanwhile briefly shut to traffic in both directions as security forces swept for terrorist cars suspected of mingling with the intercity traffic.
DEBKAfile reported Monday.
The Palestinian knifing spree in Jerusalem Monday, Oct. 12, the day after an Israeli Arab from Umm al-Fham mowed down, then knifed, four Israelis in central Israel, puts the Palestinians on the same bloody course as Israeli Arabs, who launched an anti-Israel general strike Tuesday.
The day began at the Lions Gate, Border Guards police stopped a Palestinian who acted suspiciously. He pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the police men. The blade glanced off his body armor and the terrorist was shot dead.
At noon, a female terrorist inflicted moderate injuries on another two Border Guards officers opposite National Police Headquarters in northern Jerusalem. She was stopped by gun shots and seriously hurt.
A short time later, further north at Pisgat Zeev, two terrorists worked a street in tandem. They knocked a 13-year old Israeli boy off his bike and stabbed him. He is fighting for his life at Hadassah hospital on Mt. Scopus. The terrorist’s partner attacked a second Israeli, inflicting major knife wounds. Police at the scene stopped the rampage by shooting. One was killed.
The Umm al-Fahm assailant, Ali Riyadh Ahmed Ziwad, 20, who had to be restrained by police and passersby, Sunday night, assumed an air of surprised innocence after his arrest. “It was just a traffic accident,” he said, after running over, then critically injuring a 19-year old Israeli girl with a knife and stabbing three others.
He went into an act that is typical of the Palestinian tactic of assuming the role of victim after committing terrorist outrages.
Leaders of the Israeli Arab community (roughly one-tenth of Israel’s population) including its elected members of parliament embark on a general strike Tuesday, Oct. 13, followed Wednesday by a grandstand performance by Arab MKs at Al Aqsa, accompanied by a flock of Israeli and international camera crews.
They will have plenty of microphones to proclaim how badly they are treated and, above all, to continue to spread totally unproven falsehoods about Israeli desecrations of the Muslim Mosque of Al Aqsa, which has provided the Palestinians with their most evocative and unifying emblem for most of the past century.
Seventy-nine years ago, on April 19, 1936 – when Facebook, television and an Israel state were far in the future – the Arab High Command of Palestine declared a general strike which swiftly escalated into terrorist attacks against Jews and the British and evolved into the Great Arab Revolt.
Then, too, the rallying cry was “the Mosque is in danger!” for triggering the order to “burn a thousand buildings in Tel Aviv.” By the time it was over in 1939, 600 Jews, 200 British officials and 5,000 Arabs were dead. Many of the last group died in internecine tribal feuds.
The same rallying cry has ever since fired Palestinian campaigns of terror. The “Al Aqsa Intidafa” called by Yasser Arafat on Oct. 1, 2000, which saw the first intensive use of suicide attacks for terror, cost the lives of 1,178 Israelis and 50 foreigners, injured 8,022 civilians.
The Palestinians lost 3,333 dead and 30,000 injured – many self-inflicted.
No one can tell how the latest Israeli Arab strike will develop. Their leaders are doing their utmost to inflame passions and have already incited the first Israeli Arab stabbing attack in tune with Palestinian terrorists.
Israeli Arab leaders looks as though they have the bit between their teeth and are trying to use the weakness of the Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to set the pace of events for the Palestinians as well.
The Israeli government is trying to pour oil on these turbulent waters, turning to the slow-moving legislative process as a means of fighting terror, while beefing up police forces, who are barely able to keep pace with the slashing knives.
Officials and reporters still insist on the absence of a controlling hand behind the violence, despite the evidence of an unfolding stage-by-scale escalation. The policeman injured at Lions Gate Monday told reporters from his hospital bed that, while on duty at various sectors, he had traced systematic organization behind the stabbings; the knife terrorists kept on coming out at a steady, controlled pace, he said.
Israeli strategists are not moving swiftly or unhesitatingly enough to correctly evaluate this enemy and pounce strongly on his weaknesses.
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