The terrorists did not need permission from Hamas leaders to murder the first Jews they ran into. The inflammatory rhetoric of Abbas and Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and media outlets was sufficient to drive any Palestinian to go out and murder Jews.
Instead of condemning the murder of the Jews, the PA denounced Israel for killing the two Palestinians who carried out the Jerusalem attacks.
The Palestinian Authority and its leaders are in no position today to condemn the murder of any Jews, simply because the PA itself has been encouraging such terrorist attacks through its ceaseless campaign of incitement against Israel.
The PA is playing a double game: it tells the world that it wants peace and coexistence with Israel; meanwhile it incites Palestinians against Israel, driving some to set out with guns and knives to murder Jews.
Although Abbas has repeatedly stated during the past few years that he does not want another intifada against Israel, his statements and actions show that he is doing his utmost to spark another wave of violence, in order to invite international pressure on Israel.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) and its leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas, cannot evade responsibility for the latest wave of terror attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
True, in the end it turned out that Hamas was behind the murder of Eitam and Naama Henkin in front of their four children, but there is no ignoring the fact that the anti-Israel incitement of Abbas and other Palestinian leaders in Ramallah paved the way for the terrorists to carry out this and other attacks.
The incitement, which has been around for many years, intensified after the arson attack that killed three members of the Dawabsha family in the West Bank village of Duma in July.
Since then, Abbas and his senior officials have been waging an unprecedented campaign of incitement against Israel in general and Jewish settlers in particular, although the perpetrators of the Duma attack still have not been identified or caught. Palestinian Authority leaders have since accused the Israeli government of committing “war crimes,” and have told their people that the arson attack was actually part of an Israeli conspiracy against all Palestinians.
Abbas has even gone as far as accusing Israel of promoting a “culture of terror and apartheid.” That claim came in addition to threats by senior Palestinian officials to launch retaliatory “operations” against Israel in response to the arson attack.
The West Bank’s Palestinian media, which are controlled by the PA, have also played a role in the massive campaign of incitement against Israel and settlers. Jewish settlers are depicted in Palestinian media outlets as “gangsters” and “terrorists” and the Israeli government is dubbed the “Occupation Government.”
Official Palestinian Authority media outlets incite Palestinians, from a young age, to murder Jews. (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch)
The recent tensions at the Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have also been exploited by Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership to delegitimize Israel and demonize “Jewish extremists and settlers.” For several months now, Abbas and his senior officials and media outlets have been accusing Jewish visitors to the holy site of “contaminating” and “desecrating” one of Islam’s holiest shrines. Palestinian officials and journalists have been telling their people that the Jews are plotting to demolish the Aqsa Mosque. Moreover, they have been urging and encouraging Palestinians to converge on the Aqsa Mosque compound to “defend” it against purported Jewish schemes.
The campaign of incitement reached its peak recently when Abbas was quoted as accusing Jews of “defiling the Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet.” Abbas also announced that, “Every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem is pure blood.”
The Hamas terrorists who murdered the Henkins live in the West Bank, and were undoubtedly exposed to the incitement by Abbas and the PA. The terrorists did not need permission from the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip or Turkey to go out and murder the first Jews they ran into. The inflammatory rhetoric of Abbas and Palestinian Authority officials and media outlets was sufficient to drive any Palestinian to murder Jews.
The two Palestinian assailants who carried out last week’s stabbing attacks in Jerusalem wanted to kill Jews because they were led to believe that this was the only means to stop them from “contaminating” the Aqsa Mosque. After all, this is precisely what Abbas and other PA officials have been telling them for the past few months. Again, while the two stabbers were not Abbas loyalists (one of them, Muhannad Halabi, was affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad), there is no doubt that the incitement of the Palestinian Authority played a major role in increasing their motivation to murder Jews.
Halabi, who stabbed and shot four Israelis in the Old City of Jerusalem, killing Rabbi Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Banita, and wounding Adele Banita and her baby, wrote on his Facebook page hours before the attack: “What is happening to al-Aqsa Mosque is what is happening to our holy sites, and what is happening to the women of al-Aqsa is what is happening to our mothers and women. I don’t believe that our people will succumb to humiliation. The people will indeed rise up.” Halabi’s statements are not much different from those made by several senior PA officials in recent weeks and months.
The Palestinian Authority also bears responsibility for the wave of terror attacks: its leaders never condemned the murder of the four Jews near Nablus and in the Old City of Jerusalem. By refusing to denounce the attacks, Abbas and the PA leadership are sending a message to Palestinians that it is fine to murder Jewish parents in front of their children, or Jews on their way to pray at the Western Wall. Instead of condemning the murder of the Jews, the Palestinian Authority chose to denounce Israel for killing the two Palestinians who carried out the Jerusalem attacks. By doing so, the PA is actually inciting Palestinians to seek revenge for the “cold-blooded execution” of the two assailants.
The Palestinian Authority and its leaders are in no position today to condemn the killing of any Jews, simply because it is the PA itself that has been encouraging such terrorist attacks through its ceaseless campaign of incitement against Israel.
In this regard, the PA is playing a double game: on the one hand, it is telling the world that it wants peace and coexistence with Israel; on the other hand, it is continuing to incite Palestinians against Israel, and driving some to take guns and knives and set out to murder Jews.
The Palestinian Authority’s fiery anti-Israel rhetoric has led to a wave of terrorist attacks that could easily deteriorate into a third intifada. Although Abbas has repeatedly stated during the past few years that he does not want another intifada against Israel, his statements and actions show that he is doing his utmost to spark another wave of violence in order to draw the world’s attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and invite international pressure on Israel.
After the Israeli cabinet launched measures Tuesday, Oct. 6, for “strengthening anti-terror defense” – such as cameras in the sky – and officials labored to spread word that the surge of Palestinian violence of the past week was beginning to ebb, Israel was hit that night from offside by a vicious pro-Palestinian upheaval in the Tel Aviv suburb of Jaffa. Hundreds of Israeli Arabs swarmed onto the streets to hurl rocks and burning containers at police, passing buses and Jews on the street. Six police officers were injured. Fired up by the radical Israeli Northern Muslim Movement, the rioters brandished Palestinian flags and yelled “Allah is Great!” and “With our blood we shall redeem Al Aqsa!”
The Army Radio Station studio was besieged for five hours.
At length, the police announced the disturbance had been brought to an end by negotiations with Arab community leaders in Jaffa.
That strategy was part and parcel of the efforts made by IDF officers to bring an end to the surge of Palestinian violence besetting Jerusalem and the West Bank through revived negotiations with Palestinian security chiefs and soothing rhetoric poured out for the public by government and military officials. But the gap between that rhetoric and the unruly situation on the ground was impossible to bridge. The rocks and firebombs kept on flying – even after three killer-terrorists’ homes were demolished in Jerusalem Monday night.
Here too, the measure failed to impress as a deterrent because the punishment was meted out for terrorist crimes committed in 2014 and were therefore a year old – evidence of Israeli’s extremely slow response to murderous terror.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu finds himself cornered by two conflicting crises. While facing popular demands to quell Palestinian violence that caused four Israeli deaths and 30 people injured during the High Festivals, he is confronted with a mutiny within the government coalition and his own Likud party. At least half a dozen ministers angrily reject the line taken by the prime minister and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon for the past year – that the terror crisis must be handled “calmly and responsibly” – as nothing but softness on Palestinian terror.
Netanyahu has shot back by threatening to break up the government, which is less than a year old – either by inviting the opposition parties to join a new national unity government or calling a snap election.
This threat is fairly hollow. Replacing the mutinous ministers with members of the Labor opposition is a non-starter since its leader Yitzhak Herzog scarcely controls his own party. A coalition with Yair Lapid’s Future party and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu would be harder to control than the present lineup.
Netanyahu finds himself in this corner because he is handling the two crises by political means as part of the same problem.
This tactic is taken by Palestinian extremist leaders as a sign of Israeli weakness and encourages them to pour more fuel on the fire of anti-Israel violence. Ineffective measures, such as the cameras in the sky, which never worked on the 443 highway to Jerusalem, for instance, make things worse. The trickle of rockets from Gaza contradicts Ya’alon’s pledge to stop it. A proactive, creative hand against the escalating Palestinian violence would gain the support of all the ministers and ease the popular sense of pervasive insecurity.
Palestinian jihadists have continued murdering Jews in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his security forces stood by for days and let these murders happen. In fact, by declaring last week at the United Nations General Assembly that he was prepared to walk away from the Oslo Accords and abandon the Palestinian Authority’s security responsibilities, Abbas effectively gave the Palestinian thugs a wink and a nod. His incendiary rhetoric regarding the Temple Mount has also contributed to the incitement of Palestinian violence.
Abbas knowingly lied to the General Assembly when he accused the Israeli government of using “brutal force to impose its plans to undermine the Islamic and Christian sanctuaries in Jerusalem, particularly its actions at Al-Aqsa Mosque.” He also lied when he accused Israel of taking actions to “convert the conflict from a political to religious one, creating an explosive in Jerusalem and in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Abbas himself has helped create the explosive situation in Jerusalem and the West Bank with his irresponsible falsehoods, appeals to religious fanaticism and incitement to violence. He has no basis for claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to keep his promise to maintain the status quo around the Old City compound where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, which means the Israeli government’s agreement that only Muslims are permitted to worship there. Despite Mr. Netanyahu’s repeated assurances, “Abbas continues to deliberately spread false allegations with the sole purpose of sparking violence amongst the Palestinian People,” Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor correctly charged.
The spark has been ignited.
Last week, a couple riding with their children in a car in the West Bank were shot and killed. Israeli security forces have reportedly identified the Hamas cell responsible for this brutal slaughter.
A rabbi and an off-duty Israeli soldier were stabbed to death by a Palestinian youth in the Old City of Jerusalem over the weekend. The soldier’s wife and toddler were wounded. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. Hamas praised the attack as a “heroic operation.” This was too much even for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who issued a statement that condemned Hamas specifically for “praising such heinous attacks.”
The violence continued as a Palestinian man stabbed and wounded a Jewish teenager near the Old City early Sunday morning. On Sunday night, Israelis celebrating on the eve of Simhat Torah had to face once again a rocket attack launched from Gaza.
The latest Palestinian attacks have prompted a security crackdown by Israeli military and police forces in order to curb further violence. Measures include detonating jihadists’ houses, more administrative detentions, a beefed up military presence and temporarily placing restrictions on Palestinians allowed to enter the Old City.
Yet the violence has not abated. In a 24-hour period between Sunday and Monday more than twenty incidences of violence in several parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank erupted as Palestinian mobs attacked with firebombs, explosives and rocks. Two Palestinian youths were killed as Israeli soldiers tried to quell the Palestinian violence. At last, no doubt prompted by the loss of Palestinian lives, Abbas appears to have taken notice of the chaos he helped to spark. He is finally taking some steps to prevent the Palestinian-inspired violence from getting totally out of hand. But Abbas waited to act until after four Israelis were killed and Israel’s response aimed at the Palestinian assassins and rioters has resulted in the deaths and injury of Palestinians.
Some Palestinians have justified the recent violence against Jews as deserved revenge for the burning alive of a Palestinian family, including a baby, reported to have been done by Jewish extremist settlers. This is nothing less than a cynical exploitation of a human tragedy by thugs who do not need any excuses for their murderous rampages. The fact is that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately condemned the arson attack, which allegedly killed the Palestinian family, as an “act of terrorism” that will not be tolerated by the State of Israel “regardless of who the perpetrators are.” Contrast Netanyahu’s responsible leadership with Abbas, who has incited violence and then has been too slow to react when it happens, and with Abbas’s “coalition partner” Hamas, which sponsors or encourages such attacks.
In his UN General Assembly speech last week, Abbas tried to portray the Palestinians as “spreading the culture of peace and coexistence between our people and in our region.” What kind of snake oil is this con artist selling? When Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, the co-founder of Abbas’s “coalition partner” Hamas, said several years ago that Jews “have no future among the nations of the world” and “are headed to annihilation,” was he spreading “the culture of peace and coexistence?” Hamas has certainly not changed its stripes since its co-founder made that remark and suddenly become the Johnny Appleseed of peace and coexistence. In fact, Hamas today is teaching Palestinian children to become the next generation of hate-filled jihadists sent out to kill Jews.
The Palestinian leadership is not interested in negotiating a viable, good faith peace agreement with Israel. It never has been. They refuse to compromise on a single thing, whether it be their insistence on returning to virtually the pre-1967 lines for establishing the border between Israel and a new Palestinian state or their insistence on the so-called “Right of Return” allowing potentially millions of so-called Palestinian refugees to overrun even a pre-1967 Israel. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other jihadist groups use violence as their tactic of choice to intimidate and try to annihilate Israelis. Abbas uses incendiary rhetoric and manipulation of international law and institutions as his tactic of choice to try and delegitimize Israel. Their desired end game is the same – the complete destruction of the Jewish state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.
(Much of this article is satirical, so only if taken literally are many of the views expressed mine. It is highly unlikely that they reflect the views of Warsclerotic or its other editors. — DM)
This is a redux of a satirical article I posted on February 18, 2013. It is based on the following theses advanced, overtly or sub silentio, by Imam Obama: Islam is the true Religion of Peace and seeks, for the betterment of all humanity, to eliminate the savagery of false religions. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood are highly respected for their religious and hence peaceful nature and also for dealing fairly but firmly with all enemies of truth and justice.
While announcing his courageous presidential initiative vis a vis the Muslim Brotherhood, President Obama also stated that He is reaching out for an AIDS infected polygamous doctor to serve as His personal physician and soon-to-be-released felons to serve as school teachers, czars and members of His cabinet. To consider past felonies could, according to Obama’s EEOC, have “a disparate impact based on race and national origin.”
At a press conference held at the nineteenth hole at the Floridian Golf and Yacht Club in Palm City, Florida, Obama stated
America has far too long discriminated invidiously against minority group members. By hiring Muslim Brotherhood bodyguards, reaching out for an AIDS infected polygamous personal physician and searching diligently for felons and other oppressed minorities to serve Me as school teachers, czars and cabinet officials, I am leading from the front as a strong President has to do — and as I always do — in continuing to eliminate our nation’s irrational and disgraceful Islamophobia, polygamyophobia, Aidsophobia and Felonophobia.
Let me just add this: with My new Muslim Brotherhood bodyguards — certified as totally reliable by My good friend, mentor and partner for peace President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine, may peace be upon him — I feel safer than ever before. Having them to serve Me makes Me truly proud of My historic successes in fundamentally transforming the once hated United States into the wonderfully multicultural and internationally beloved nation she has become.
Sharyl Attkisson, who had mistakenly been allowed to wander in to cover the event for her recently inaugurated on-line news service, was chased by Obama’s bodyguards and forced to scurry for cover behind a large tree. Unluckily for her, she noticed neither the noose dangling inconspicuously from the tree nor the hidden tripwire.
Following His typically hard-hitting press conference, President Obama skillfully mounted His presidential golf cart along with guards in traditional Arab costume armed with scimitars and machine guns. Their toothy grins were greeted with delighted applause from the legitimate press.
As the presidential entourage sped out of view, the Muslim Brotherhood Chorus could be heard singing lustily, but with the tranquility of true Islamic lust peace in their hearts, from the direction in which the presidential cart had gone. The festivities there were off-limits even to the legitimate press, but here is a video of one of their practice sessions.
President Obama’s new guards will, of course, accompany Him to the terrorist enclave occasionally referred to as Israel, where He plans to snub meet illegitimate Zionist “Prime Minister” Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s police and IDF goons routinely ignore the gentle admonitions of the Obama State Department to show restraint in dealing with Palestinians longing for freedom from Jews. Then Netanyahu has the gall to scream that “Palestinian incitement” has caused the gentle Palestinians to murder Jews.
Here are faithful Palestinians engaging in religious activities at their beloved mosque.
Palestinian Arab young men with masks, inside Al-Aqsa Mosque (some wearing shoes), stockpile rocks to use for throwing at Jews who visit the Temple Mount, September 27, 2015.
Will Netanyahu never learn to distinguish the good and holy from the wicked and satanic? The good and holy Palestinians are very well aware of the differences; they cannot, will not and should not restrain their pious efforts.
(This video is better in full-screen mode. Click the small icon at the bottom right. — DM)
This video has some beautiful music:
Instead of showing proper restraint, Netanyahu’s goons arrest — and in the process sometimes kill — Palestinians for no better reason than that they had just euthanized a few Jews with filthy feet. Or something.
It is anticipated that the Muslim Brotherhood Chorus, assisted as appropriate by President Obama’s new bodyguards, will put on a command performance at the Knesset while President Obama ventures into Ramallah. There, He will discuss with heroes of Terroristine, I mean Palestinian heroes and other beloved national leaders, matters of regional importance. These include eliminating all Zionist settlements in Palestine — and along with them all Zionist war crimes including their use of the brutal Jewish Iron Dome to commit genocide against innocent women, children and other Palestinian civilians.
Unlike in “Israel,” where President Obama is rightfully fearful of assassination by the numerous Zionist fanatics who infest Palestinian lands, He knows that He will be as safe as a small child with his mother in Ramallah even without His Muslim Brotherhood bodyguards.
President Obama’s personal initiatives are expected to bring true peace to the entire Middle East if He can persuade the unlawful Zionist usurpers of Palestinian lands to cease their ruthlessly barbaric, wicked ways and go back to wherever they came from. If their vile genocidal ideology continues to obstruct His efforts, He will have to do something else, probably call upon Vladimir Putin — a former KGB officer and now a ninety-eight pound weakling prancing about on the world stage — to deal with the problem as he deems appropriate.
If even that doesn’t work, only one option may remain to save humanity. It has not been approved by Imam Obama, but here it is.
The calm of the holiday was disturbed in the Gaza Belt on Sunday evening when, shortly after 11:00 p.m., the “Red Alert” incoming rocket siren was heard in Nahal Oz, Alumim and the area.
Two rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel, but the first one missed the target and exploded on the Gazan side of the border.
A second rocket exploded in an open area of the Eshkol Regional Council. There were no physical injuries or damages.
Rocket attacks on the south have been intermittent over the past few weeks. Last week, a rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system as it was headed towards the city of Ashdod.
(The video is better in full screen mode. Click the small icon at the bottom right. — DM)
This is what Muslim morality looks like. And it’s not the worst of it. Back before Israel’s War of Independence, Muslims sold photo postcards of murdered Jews.
On Sunday afternoon Adelle Banita-Bennett 22 years old, widow of Aharon Banita-Bennett, who herself was seriously injured in the stabbing attack Saturday night in Old City of Jerusalem, woke up from medical coma she had been placed under in order to enable doctors to treat her.
Among the first people she spoke to was Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi David Lau, whom she told in detail about the attack.
The widow told Rabbi Lau that she attempted to escape from the terrorist after the stabbing began.
“I ran for dozens of meters with a knife in my shoulder, bleeding. Arabs in the area who saw this horrible scene clapped and laughed, and told that they hoped for my quick death. I felt I was about to faint,” she said. “I tried to hold on to someone who passed by, and they just shook me off and kicked me, and said ‘die.’”
“I did not understand what was happening to me. I felt someone on my back and then I saw my husband begin to confront him. Aaron punched him hard in the face. He really fought him.”
Suddenly the terrorist left her husband and began attacking her. He began stabbing her and then returned to her husband. “There were many Arabs (Muslims) around who watched it happen. They only laughed and grinned. I begged them for help. “Help me. Help me.”…
“I told them I was wounded and my husband and kids were back there.
“All the way that I ran, I heard curses, shouts. They were like animals. I felt it was organized.”
Mohannad Shafik Halabi from Al-Bireh near Ramallah in Samaria of Islamic Jihad drew a a knife and attacked the Bennett family near Lions’ Gate as they were making their way to the Western Wall.
Hamas issued a statement that praised the “heroic operation.” The Islamic Jihad terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the terrorist “one of our sons.”
The victims were identified as Rabbi Nehemia Lavie, 41, of Jerusalem, and Aharon Bennett, 22, of Beitar Ilit. Bennett’s wife was in serious condition after undergoing surgery in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.
Adelle Banita, who is being treated in Hadassah Medial Center, will be reunited this evening with her two-year-old daughter who suffered a gunshot wound to the right leg.
This is the constant reality of living next door to Islam. Islam is a fundamentally racist supremacist creed. That is why it’s in conflict with Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and even itself.
Coexistence with Islam is made impossible by Islamic hatred and violence.
We contaminate our mosques with our own hands and feet, and then blame Jews for desecrating Islamic holy sites. If anyone is desecrating Islamic holy sites, it is those who bring explosives, stones and firebombs into Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Jews who visit the Temple Mount do not bring with them stones, bombs or clubs. It is young Muslim men who are desecrating our holy sites with their “filthy feet.”
These leaders, including Abbas himself, are not willing to send their own children and grandchildren to participate in the “popular struggle.” They are fully responsible for sending the children of others to throw stones and firebombs at Jews. Sitting in their luxurious offices and villas in Ramallah, they demand that Israel be held responsible for cracking down on “innocent” Palestinians. Their main goal is to embarrass Israel and depict it as a state that takes tough measures against Palestinian teenagers.
These youths are not taking to the streets to fight “occupation.” Their main goal is to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to Jews. When someone tosses a firebomb at a house or a car, his intention is to burn civilians alive.
It is as if our leaders are saying that throwing stones and firebombs at Jews in their cars and homes is a basic right of Palestinians. Our leaders believe Israel has no right to defend itself against those who seek to burn Jews driving in their vehicles or sleeping inside their homes.
While Hamas and Islamic Jihad are continuing to exploit our teenagers in the Gaza Strip by training them to join the jihad against Jews and “infidels,” our leaders in the West Bank are committing a similar crime against Palestinian youths.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, who falsely describes himself as President of the State of Palestine, has been encouraging our teenagers to engage in the so-called “popular resistance” against Israel. But these leaders, including Abbas himself, are not willing to send their own children and grandchildren to participate in the “popular struggle.” As usual, our leaders want the children of others to take to the streets and throw stones and firebombs at Jews.
The “popular struggle” that the PA leadership is spearheading these days is anything but peaceful. In some instances, it has even proved to be lethal. Recently, Alexander Levlovich was killed after losing control of his vehicle in Jerusalem. Investigations showed that at least four Arab youths had pelted his car with stones, causing Levlovich to hit a tree.
During the past few months, hundreds of Palestinian teenagers from Jerusalem have been arrested for throwing stones and firebombs at Israeli vehicles. These teenagers have offered various explanations as to why they decided to take part in the “popular resistance” against Israel. Most of them said they wanted to protest against visits by Jews to the Temple Mount — an act described by our leaders as a “contamination” of Islamic holy sites. Mahmoud Abbas, who is by no means a devout Muslim, recently accused Jews of desecrating Al-Aqsa Mosque with their “filthy feet.”
Abbas and other senior figures in the Palestinian Authority leadership have also been issuing daily threats against Israel in response to perfectly peaceful visits by Jews to the Temple Mount. One of them, Mahmoud Habbash, even went as far as announcing that the visits by Jews to the Temple Mount would ignite a third world war.
It is this type of incitement that prompts our youths to hurl stones and firebombs at Jews. These youths are not taking to the streets to fight “occupation.” Their main goal is to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to Jews. Otherwise, how does one explain the fact that Palestinian teenagers have thrown dozens of firebombs at Jewish homes in the Old City? When someone tosses a firebomb at a house or a car, his intention is to burn civilians alive.
Our leaders, who are fully responsible for sending these teenagers to throw stones and firebombs at Jews, are sitting in their luxurious offices and villas in Ramallah and rubbing their hands with deep satisfaction. Abbas and several Palestinian leaders in the West Bank would like to see our youths rioting on the streets of Jerusalem and in the Temple Mount’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, so that they can hold Israel responsible for cracking down on “innocent” Palestinians. Their main goal is to embarrass Israel and depict it as a state that takes tough measures against Palestinian teenagers, whose only fault is participation in “popular resistance.”
After having incited our youths to engage in violence against Jews, our hypocritical leaders are now rushing to condemn new Israeli measures against stone-throwers. It is as if our leaders are saying that throwing stones and firebombs at Jews in cars and homes is a basic right of Palestinians.
One of the loudest hypocrites is Saeb Erekat, the veteran Palestinian negotiator who was recently elected Secretary-General of the PLO. Erekat, who never dispatched his sons and daughters to throw stones and firebombs at Jews, was quoted this week condemning Israel’s newly approved measures against Palestinian stone-throwers. He described these measures as “inhumane” and part of Israeli “incitement” against Palestinians.
Neither Erekat nor his boss, Mahmoud Abbas, has denounced the violence by Palestinians against Jews. The only time they issue condemnations is when Israel arrests teenagers for throwing stones and firebombs. Our leaders believe Israel has no right to defend itself against those who seek to burn Jews driving in their vehicles or sleeping inside their homes.
If anyone is desecrating Islamic holy sites, it is those who bring explosives, stones and firebombs into Al-Aqsa Mosque in the first place. For the past few months, dozens of Palestinian youths have used the mosque as a launching pad for attacking Jewish visitors and policemen on the Temple Mount. The Jews who visit the site do not bring with them stones, firebombs and clubs. It is young Muslim men who are desecrating our holy sites with their “filthy feet.”
Such reports show that Muslims have no respect for their religious sites. The images of masked youths inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, collecting stones for attacking Jews, also reveal the true intentions of the rioters and those behind them: to harm Jewish visitors and policemen, who anyway have no plans to enter the mosque.
Palestinian Arab young men with masks, inside Al-Aqsa Mosque (some wearing shoes), stockpile rocks to use for throwing at Jews who visit the Temple Mount, September 27, 2015.
We contaminate our mosques with our own hands and feet and then blame Jews for desecrating Islamic holy sites. Not only are we lying, but we are also displaying the highest level of hypocrisy and impudence. We plan and initiate the violence on the Temple Mount and elsewhere and then we run to complain to the world that Israel is arresting our youths “for no reason.”
It is obvious that our leaders are once again leading us toward a catastrophe. They want our children to get hurt or killed so that they can go to the United Nations and complain that Israel is using “excessive force” against the Palestinians. Our leaders, of course, do not tell the world that they are the ones inciting these young men to take to the streets and attack the first Jew they run into. Nor do they tell the world that it is Muslims, and not Jews, who are contaminating Islamic holy sites through their violent acts.
Those who rushed to declare the death of the Oslo Accords fell into Abbas’s trap.
Abbas’s threats are mainly designed to scare the international community into pressuring Israel to offer Abbas more concessions. He is hoping that inaccurate headlines concerning the purported abrogation of the Oslo Accords will cause panic in Washington and European capitals, prompting world leaders to demand that Israel give Abbas everything he asks for.
Abbas knows that cancelling the agreements with Israel would mean dissolving his PalestinianAuthority, and the end of his political career.
The tens of thousands of Arab refugees now seeking asylum in Europe could not care less about the “occupation” and settlements.
Ironically, Abbas declaredthat, “We are working on spreading the culture of peace and coexistence between our people and in our region.” But his harsh words against Israel, in addition to continued anti-Israel incitement in the Palestinian media, prove that he is moving in the opposite direction. This form of incitement destroys any chance of peace.
After weeks of threatening to drop a bombshell during his speech before the UN General Assembly, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on September 30 proved once again that he is an expert in the art of bluffing.
In the end, the bombshell he and his aides promised to detonate at the UN turned out to be a collection of old threats to abrogate signed agreements and a smear campaign against Israel.
There was nothing dramatic or new in Abbas’s speech. During the past few years, he and some of his aides have been openly talking about the possibility of cancelling the Oslo Accords if Israel does not fulfill its obligations towards the peace process.
In his speech, Abbas repeated the same threat, although some Western political analysts and journalists misinterpreted it as an announcement that he was abrogating signed agreements with Israel.
As one of Abbas’s advisors, Mahmoud Habbash, later clarified, “President Abbas did not cancel any agreements. He only made a threat, which is not going to be carried out tomorrow.”
Now, it is obvious that the talk about a bombshell was mainly intended to create tension and suspense ahead of Abbas’s speech. This is a practice that Abbas and his aides have become accustomed to using during the past few years in order to draw as much attention as possible.
General Debate, 69th Session of the General Assembly Palestine-Bosnia-Samoa
The threat to cancel the Oslo Accords with Israel is not different from other threats that Abbas and his aides have made over the past few years. How many times has Abbas threatened in the past to resign from his post or suspend security coordination with Israel? In the end, he did not carry out any of these threats.
Abbas is unlikely, also this time, to carry out his latest threat to cancel the agreements with Israel. He knows that such a move would mean dissolving his Palestinian Authority and the end of his political career. But Abbas would like the world to believe that he has already cancelled the Oslo Accords. Judging from the inaccurate headlines in the international media, he seems to have achieved his goal.
Now, many in the international community are falsely convinced that Abbas has annulled all signed agreements with Israel. Those who rushed to declare the death of the Oslo Accords fell into Abbas’s trap.
Abbas’s threats are mainly designed to scare the international community into pressuring Israel to offer Abbas more concessions. He is hoping that the inaccurate headlines concerning the purported abrogation of the Oslo Accords will cause panic in Washington and European capitals, prompting world leaders to demand that Israel give Abbas everything he is asking for.
Abbas is also hoping that his recurring threats will put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict back at the world’s center stage. Abbas and the Palestinians feel that the world has lost interest in the conflict, largely due to the ongoing turmoil in the Arab world, the refugee crisis in Europe and the growing threat of the Islamic State terror group.
This concern was voiced by the PLO’s Saeb Erekat immediately after President Barack Obama’s speech at the UN General Assembly, which did not include any reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Expressing “disappointment” over Obama’s speech, Erekat asked, “Does President Obama believe he can defeat ISIS and terrorism, or achieve security and stability in the Middle East, by ignoring the continued Israeli occupation, settlement expansion and the continued attacks on al-Aqsa Mosque?”
Of course, there is no direct link between Israeli “occupation” and settlements and the growing threat of radical Islam or the turmoil in the Arab world. The Islamic State is not beheading Muslims and non-Muslims because of the settlements or “occupation.” The Islamic State is not committing all these atrocities because it wants to “liberate Palestine.” Its main objective is to conquer the world after killing all the “infidels” in order to establish a sharia-ruled caliphate. The Islamic State would kill Erekat and Abbas — and many other Muslims — on its way to achieve its goal. In the eyes of the Islamic State, folks like Erekat and Abbas are a fifth column and traitors.
But instead of supporting the world’s war against the Islamic State and radical Islam, Abbas and Erekat want the international community to look the other way and devote all its energies and attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The tens of thousands of Arab refugees who are now seeking asylum in several European countries could not care less about the “occupation” and settlements. These people have lost everything they used to possess and their only dream is to either return to their homes and lands safely or start a new life in Europe and the US.
Abbas wanted worldwide attention in wake of the international community’s preoccupation with the refugee crisis and the radical Islam threat. For now, he appears to have achieved his goal, largely thanks to the international community’s misreading of his speech at the United Nations.
But while everyone is busy talking about Abbas’s bombshell, only a few have noticed that his speech consisted mostly of anti-Israel rhetoric that is likely to aggravate tensions between the Palestinians and Israel. Abbas used the UN General Assembly podium to make grave charges against Israel concerning “apartheid,” settlements and tensions on the Temple Mount. His fiery rhetoric, which has been partially welcomed by Hamas and other radical Palestinian groups, is likely to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and encourage more Palestinians to engage in violence.
It is this form of incitement that destroys any chance of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This is the kind of rhetoric that prompts Palestinian youths to take to the streets and throw rocks and firebombs at Israeli civilians and policemen. Still, the international media, by and large, chose to ignore this destructive part of Abbas’s speech.
Ironically, Abbas declared in his speech that, “We are working on spreading the culture of peace and coexistence between our people and in our region.” But his harsh words against Israel, in addition to continued anti-Israel incitement in the Palestinian media, prove that he is moving in the opposite direction. As Abbas was addressing the UN General Assembly, some of his loyalists in Ramallah threatened and expelled Israeli Jewish journalists who came to interview Palestinians. This is certainly not a way to spread a “culture of peace and coexistence.”
(The principal focus of the article in on Israel and the Palestinians. — DM)
The failed foreign policies of the EU and the US under President Obama, have brought the Arabs to the brink of chaos, and destroyed regimes which, even though they were not democratic utopias, at least provided governance and public order. These failed policies have abandoned the Arabs to the atrocities of the Sunni Islamists and to the murderous proxies of the Iranian Islamic Revolution — and are ultimately the cause of the tsunami of refugees beating at the gates of Europe.
Now the EU and Obama want to bring the catastrophe of Gaza to the West Bank.
The American FDA is more careful with experiments on animals than the White House is with experiments on the people of the Middle East.
Every time the Palestinians have taken steps against the Israelis, we have hurt no one but ourselves, and are left with — nothing.
The Arabs living in Israel and the Palestinian Authority territories know, although it is a bitter pill to swallow, that we have been favored by fortune, because under the State of Israel we live in security.
In the face of ongoing mass murder in the Middle East, what arcane consideration, apart from Federica Mogherini being a racist, could possibly bring the EU to deal with something as marginal to global issues as boycotting Israeli face-cream and cookies?
With the anniversary of Al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, internal Palestinian discourse revolves around radical Islam and America’s actions. It relates to the slaughter, rape and millions of refugees who have fallen victim to Al-Qaeda, humanitarian calamity of and the Islamist terrorist organizations to which it gave birth, such as ISIS. Today an apocalyptic proportions is unfolding in territories that used to be Arab states but are now the battle grounds for feuding Arab tribes, whose only objective is to destroy one another.
In their heart of hearts, the Arabs living in Israel and the Palestinian Authority territories know, although it is a bitter pill to swallow, that we have been favored by fortune because under the State of Israel we live in security. This reality is brought home to us by the feeble international response and the strange behavior of U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of the Western world who have abandoned the Arabs to the atrocities of the Sunni Islamists (and their supporters in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar), and to the murderous proxies of the Iranian Islamic Revolution (mainly in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon).
In view of what is happening in neighboring countries, it is clear to us what will happen if Israel is in danger of destruction: no Western state will come to its aid and no Arab state will come to our aid. Our fate will be the same as that of our brothers beyond Israel’s borders. It is hard not to identify and sympathize with Israel’s efforts to fight terrorism and with its objections to the nuclear agreement with Iran.
Despite the chaos and worse than chaos in the Middle East, the EU’s foreign minister, Federica Mogherini, recently announced that the EU had decided to mark products made in the Israeli settlements. That is mind-boggling, so say the least. In the face of the ongoing mass murders in the Middle East, what arcane consideration, apart from Mogherini being a racist, could possibly bring the EU, now, to deal with something as blatantly marginal to global issues as the provenance of face cream and cookies?
In the final analysis, if the Europeans harm Israel’s ability to market goods manufactured in the West Bank, the first victims will be the Palestinian workers in the Israeli settlement factories. Every time the Palestinians have taken steps against the Israelis, we have hurt no one but ourselves. The last time we boycotted Israeli products we wound up buying them on the black market at double and triple the price. When we refused to work on construction sites, the Israelis switched to modular, prefabricated units, and the Palestinian construction workers who went on strike are unemployed to this day. When we refused to work in Israeli agriculture, they brought in workers from Thailand, who took our jobs and left us with — nothing.
The Western pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to establish a Palestinian state as soon as possible, when viewed through the prism of the mass murders and uncertainty in the Middle East, is incomprehensible. The initiative, and the obsession, to promote such a dangerous project at a time when everyone understands that the conditions on both sides are not yet ripe is dangerous; and the motives involved, whatever they really are, are suspicious. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not new, it has been waged in an atmosphere of terrorism and violence and hostility and complete lack of trust for a hundred years. So why exert pressure now?
Everyone, at least everyone living in the Middle East, knows full well that the conflict will not end with a “peace for our time” agreement forced on the two sides and accompanied by a handful of empty, meaningless documents; the dynamics are too dangerous. For both us and the Israelis it is a matter of life and death, not semantics; and it will probably take another hundred years before enough trust can be built on both sides to find a just solution.
The irony is staggering. At a time when the Arab states that were artificially created after the First World War crumble to dust, the EU is pressing for the creation of another artificial Arab state, this one called “Palestine,” to be carved out of territories once belonging to Jordan and Egypt. If “Palestine” is granted the status of statehood, it will force not only Israel but the rest of the world to grant it complete control over its borders, airports and a seaport. That will expose the new weak “state” to a rapid and certain takeover by Hamas, ISIS and various other terrorist organizations. Given the current situation in the West Bank, the elected government of “Palestine” will be controlled by Hamas. It will overthrow the Palestinian Authority, the way it did in the Gaza Strip, take over the West Bank, use its airports and seaport to import missiles, various other weapons and Islamist terrorists, and help Islamist terrorism in general, and ISIS in particular, to operate from its territory. The Islamists will proceed to attack Israel and Jordan the way ISIS is currently attacking Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula. Worse, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad will enter the new “Palestine” and strengthen its relations with Iran, just as it has in the Gaza Strip and Syria, and with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Evidently the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, which led directly to Hamas’s bloodbath and takeover of the Gaza Strip, the expulsion of the Palestinian Authority and the entrenchment of Islamist terrorism, was not enough for Europe. Now the EU and U.S. President Barack Obama want to bring the catastrophe of the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. The American Food and Drug Administration is more careful with experiments on animals than the White House is with experiments on the people living in the Middle East.
In view of the events in the Arab countries, it is clear to the Palestinians that American and European actions in the Middle East are the direct result of stupidity and complete ignorance of the Middle Eastern mindset, if not outright racism and malevolence. What is inescapable is that under Obama, both America and Europe brought the Arabs to the brink of chaos and beyond, destroyed regimes which, even though they were not democratic utopias like the United States, at least provided governance and public order. That is ultimately the cause of the tsunami of refugees beating at the gates of Europe, all of it caused by the United States and its failed foreign policy.
All the signs indicate that the Middle East disaster is hardly far from over. It is actually just beginning. it will get worse because of the tens of billions that will now pour into the Ayatollahs’ coffers from the insane agreement with Iran. Much of this money will go directly not only to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force, Iran’s arm of international terrorism, but to the various proxy terrorist organizations Iran supports, thus hastening the total destruction of the Middle East and eventually large swaths of Africa.
The wave of refugees will increase, and the price will be paid by the Europeans, already faced with legions of refugees and no plan for dealing with them. Eventually Gaddafi’s prophecy will come true: Islam will conquer Europe without firing a shot.
Recent Comments