Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

The Waqf power play and the Zionist desire to see naked Muslim women

Muslim leaders advised worshipers to continue to stay away from the Temple Mount on Tuesday, even after Israel removed the metal detectors and security cameras that touched off a boycott of the holy site
The Waqf Islamic trust, which administers the site, said a decision to continue the boycott was pending a review of the new Israeli security arrangements there.
Ikrema Sabri, the head of the Supreme Islamic Committee in the city, said such a review might be completed later on Tuesday.
Earlier Tuesday, Israel’s security cabinet said it would replace the metal detectors with “advanced technologies,” referring reportedly to cameras that can detect hidden objects, but said the process could take up to six months.
Sabri told The Associated Press that “our position is that for now, nobody should enter” the shrine.
A Waqf official told The Times of Israel that they are continuing the boycott of the Temple Mount until all security measures added after the attack are removed.
The official noted that “the new high tech cameras” would not be accepted in place of the metal detectors.

Haaretz adds "The Waqf said that their position was to reject outright any change, including technological measures, or measures taken by Israel after the attack on the Temple Mount, in which two Israeli policemen were killed."

Arab media reports that the afternoon services were again being held outside the gates.

The Waqf had two major victories this week. One is that they forced Israel to back down on a critical security measure that can save lives - because they showed that to them, human lives aren't as important as their own self aggrandizement. If they riot and kill and attack Israeli police and get killed, it is all worth it because their own honor is enhanced.

The second victory is no less important to the Waqf. They successfully bullied their own people into staying away from their "third holiest site" even though the site was open to them. If supposedly fervent Muslims would have decided that worshiping at their holy site is more important than Waqf politics, then the Waqf would have become irrelevant as the supposed guardians of the site. It was hugely important to them to threaten anyone who wanted to go through the gates (even though the Al Aqsa Mosque itself remained closed.)

Now, the question is whether they will overreach, and continue to impose their ban on Muslims worshiping at the site in order to try to gain more concessions from Israel and enhance their own pride. A lot will depend on how Jordan and other Arab nations respond to the Israeli conciliatory moves.

Meanwhile, there is another Zionist plot to deal with:

A Times of Israel correspondent outside the compound said worshipers were remaining outside and police and Palestinian protesters were gearing up for another tense round of afternoon prayers in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Some 100 worshipers gathered next to the Lions Gate, outside of where the metal detectors had stood, in preparation for the prayers which they said would again not take place on the Temple Mount in protest of security measures.
Salah Abu Agrafa, who came for prayers with his two young sons, told The Times of Israel that the new security arrangements “defiled the holy site,” and he would only go on the Mount once the Waqf decided it was okay.
“This is not a victory for us,” he said. “They took away the metal detectors, but they replaced them with X-ray cameras that can look at our women naked.”

Those salacious Jews, always coming up with new ways to humiliate virtuous Muslim women.

You don't need X-ray cameras, Salah! You can see through your women's clothes today! And I bet that lots of the types of Muslims who grope their covered women in crowds in Egypt and elsewhere already have these cameras and eagerly peer behind the burqa.

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2014 cartoon

One of the ways that Arab journalists reliably rile up their readers is by posting regular stories of "Jews storming Al Aqsa", performing "Talmudic rituals" and "provoking the feelings of [Muslim] worshipers there."

What about when there are no Muslims there? How are the Jewish visitors, walking quietly, reported then?

Jewish settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Maghrib Gate today, accompanied by Israeli occupation forces, and carried out tours in its courtyards.
According to Palestinian sources in Jerusalem, more than 100 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is free of worshipers or officials and employees of Islamic endowments.

That was pretty much the tone of those stories over the past week. Even though the wording isn't as hysterical as previous ones, the very fact that they remain headline stories shows that the "provocation" of Muslims at the site isn't the issue - Jews altogether are a provocation by existing.

Elaph says that Israel's closing of the Temple Mount for a couple of days and allowing Jews to ascend unimpeded by the Waqf is "the height of the savagery of the Jews throughout their history." but don't worry:

No matter how hard Israel tries to use its terrible means of repression, it will not be able to distort the beauty of the holy city. The Jews will not be able to desecrate Al Aqsa Mosque. Those [Arab nations] who are behind Israel will not be able to support their patronage, their humiliating silence over their crimes, or their complicity and denial of their historic responsibilities towards their people and history, to prevent the raising of the adhaan in the holy city or the mosque.
Jerusalem will remain the flower of cities and the land of Rabat, until God inherits the land, despite the enemies of peace and humanity, no matter how much of the ropes[?] of human evil.

Hamrin News, referring to the events in Jordan on Sunday, writes:

The Jews of hatred could not tolerate [Jesus'] call for love, and they crucified him, and planted the nails of their hatred on his four limbs.
Those who want to know the secrets of Jews and their hatred of others hidden inside them must read their Talmud. It is their most important reference and a roadmap to their policies. Nothing exposes the mysticism of their teachings more than the written Talmud, written in a dark language belonging to the pre-civilization era. The Talmud, despite its intellectual primacy, continues to be the spiritual force that drives them to penetrate evil. The Jewish psychologist Sigmund Freud says that Jehovah, the god of the Hebrews, is a violent Jew.

On the other hand, a Lebanese newspaper has a very sympathetic article about how Arabs have been desecrating a Jewish cemetery in Lebanon, and using it as a trash dump. The few remaining Jews in Lebanon have complained to the police and to the prime minister, but they ignore their pleas.

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07/24 Links Pt2: Challenging Violent Speech—Unless It’s About Israel; Danon stuns UN Security Council

From Ian:

Challenging Violent Speech—Unless It’s About Israel

Writing in Al Jazeera, Stanley Cohen called on Israel to “accept that as an occupied people, Palestinians have a right to resist—in every way possible.” He begins by telling his readers: “long ago, it was settled that resistance and even armed struggle against a colonial occupation force is not just recognized under international law but specifically endorsed.” His entire article is predicated on a false premise in that it demands the characterization of Israel as a “colonial occupation force”— a characterization that is categorically incoherent.
Cohen cites a 1982 UN Resolution which “reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.” He does not mention which countries voted for and against this resolution.
Among the countries that voted for it: Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Qatar, Niger, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq.
Among the countries who voted against it: Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States.
On college campuses, the call for armed struggle has become the Cri de Coeur of leftist students who are otherwise hypersensitive to the impact that intangible words can have on corporeal beings. On Columbia’s campus, students who form the backbone of the BDS movement have successfully blurred the line between incitement and impassioned—albeit severely misguided—opinion. In 2016, the Columbia/ Barnard Socialists concluded one social media post by declaring: “long live the intifada.” As recently as Sunday—after the Halamish attack— the Students for Justice in Palestine shared the Al Jazeera article calling for armed resistance. Where are the outraged professors, administrators, and students concerned for the safety of the student body? Where are the charges of bigotry and racism, the calls to silence this speech, to stop this violence?
Nowhere does the idea that speech can constitute violence find more support than on elite liberal arts colleges. But regardless of whether they have intellectual or moral merit on their own, calls for safe spaces, trigger warnings, and micro-aggression-free environments that come from groups or individuals who not only condone, but use their words to quite literally call for violence, must be ignored, and the hypocrisy highlighted.
From the safe confines of an ivory-covered campus–or from the relative safety of this country, for that matter–it’s easy to preach justice and retribution, to portray armed struggle as the necessary means that will find justification through a righteous end. But especially those who are sensitive to the power of language should understand: euphemistic terminology does nothing to mitigate the violent nature inherent in this rhetoric. There must be no confusion. The left’s glorification of armed struggle is nothing short of approval for those Palestinians who target and kill innocent men, women, and children. Those who proclaim to speak for social justice have been damningly silent.

Amb. Danon stuns UN Security Council

Israeli Ambassador to the UN strongly criticized the Palestinian Authority's to the recent terrorist attacks in Israel ahead of a Security Council meeting on the recent violence over the Temple Mount.
Ambassador Danon presented a photograph from the scene of Friday’s terror attack in which the Salomon family was murdered.
“The Salomon family had gathered for the most joyous occasion, the birth of a new grandson. Instead, the night ended in a massacre. They sat down to eat the Sabbath meal when the terrorist entered their home. He stabbed his victims to death, murdering Yosef, the seventy-year-old grandfather, his daughter Haya, and his son Elad, all while the children were hidden in a room,” said Ambassador Danon.
“Instead of condemning this act of terror and calming the situation, the Palestinians are trying to spread the lie that this unspeakable act of violence is Israel’s fault. Do not believe these lies. The terrorist who murdered this family did so knowing that the PA will pay him thousands of dollars a month,” the Ambassador continued.

IsraellyCool: The Narrative of Palestine

In our little game of scoring, that makes the score 3-0. But this isn’t a game, is it? People are dying because the Palestinians refuse to look forward or backwards. Backwards tells them that we are the legitimate heirs to our homeland and though we have made it clear that we are prepared to live with them, despite very clear historical evidence that if you dig in the ground, it is our history you will find, not theirs (except for old Coca-Cola and Pepsi bottles circa 2010 left to rot).
The Palestinian narrative dating back anything more than 100 years is, without question fabricated. Even in the last 100 years, much of it is established by using other people’s images. That they live here now is something we all have to accept. When the Jews first moved into the land of Canaan, there were others who lived here. Those that were prepared to live with us nearly 4,000 years ago, remained. Those who were not, were defeated. It was the way of the world then and not something we have to answer for now. We were exiled 2,000 years ago and we have come home. The land offers its testimony on a regular basis that this land is our home.
Stealing images of the Holocaust just makes you look pathetic. Borrowing images from war-torn Syria, as they often do, just makes them look desperate. In days filled with violence, it is clear that the Palestinians have yet to learn that the way to a peaceful solution will not be found through violence or forgery.
We grow tired of your violence and your childish attempts to maintain the status quo when it suits you and demand it change when it doesn’t.
No, you will never rule this land – but then again, history shows that you never did. You rule in something like 40 other lands in this world. It won’t happen here. Accept it…or leave. Deal with it…or lose.

High Representative/Vice-President of the EU, Federica Mogherini recently received the Hessian Peace Prize.

She donated the prize to an organization called Yala:

I have decided to donate this prize today that you awarded to me to the Young Leaders' Academy YaLa. It is a group of young Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs who are trying to change our times, their times and to build peace together concretely through dialogue and cooperation in the region in their daily lives.
The first edition of this Peace Prize celebrated the Oslo Accords. So for me it is only natural to donate my award to these young people, men and women, who are trying to save Oslo by turning the promise of Oslo into reality.

So what is YaLa?

There are a number of components. For example, the MENA Leaders for Change Program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department, where Arab and Israeli students take part on various college-level peace studies.

I looked at Yala Press, a website where Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs can talk about their feelings about various topics.

What I found was that while Israeli writers are obsessed with peace with Palestinians, the Palestinians (in general) show little interest in peace with Israelis. (There are some rare exceptions, where Palestinians say they are OK with Israelis who oppose the "occupation," but most of the articles about peace with Israel come from other Arab countries.)

This recent post from a young man in Gaza talking about the 2014 war inadvertently shows the huge moral divide between Palestinians and Israelis. he describes what happens after he was woken up by a nearby airstrike in a story that is almost certainly peppered with lies:

I looked around myself in that room to wake my sleeping family up, but I found no one! The door of the room was open, and everyone was out. I rushed to the hall of the home and no one was there. I looked into the kitchen and the other rooms, but I realized I was left alone.
Having no hopes in staying at home alone to wait for my family, I went out and joined the crowds of people who were still running to somewhere seeking shelter! ...
To make sure my family was alright, I went to my father’s uncle’s home, that my dad used to always go to whenever something dangerous happened. I found my family there, and everyone was scared except my dad who was so mad at me! Well, he slapped me on my face asking me why I did not pick up the phone when he called me. I asked him why he did not take me with him when they fled, telling him that my phone’s battery was dead.
“I wanted you to be a man, so I left you alone at home. Well, in this war, I shouldn’t have done this!” Dad said, and then hugged me. I was and am still proud of my dad, who wanted me to be a man even during the bad situations.

His father left him at home during bombings that the youth claims left bodies of dozens of women and children on the street (there were no airstrikes of that type in Gaza in 2014) - in order to teach him to be a man? And he's proud of that?

Yala, like so many other "peace" programs, is created by and pushed by Israelis and Westerners. (Uri Savir seems to be its founder.) Nearly all of the articles that talk about real peace are written by Israelis. The Palestinians talk about how terrible their lives are but only blame Israel, not saying a word about their own failed leadership and the culture of glorifying martyrdom that they live in. Israelis will be upset at their government (they'll happily go on Breaking the Silence tours of Hebron, for example) but Palestinians aren't. Some non-Palestinian Arabs do talk about peace with Jews but very, very few Palestinians.

This is not fostering peace to any real extent. It is blaming one side for the lack of peace. But the EU and Federica Mogherini love programs like these because it allows them to throw money at programs that pretend to foster normalization between Palestinians and Israelis.

The only reason Yala has any success is because it is primarily online. The founders realized that the PA is dead-set against "normalization" so instead of shaming Abbas for his anti-peace stand, they pretend that online cooperative projects are good enough.

All you have to do is read the many stories written by Yala Young Leaders. The ones that advocate peace between Israelis and Palestinians are at least 95% Israeli. The editors at Yala Press come from Israel, Tunisia, Sudan and Morocco - but none from the Palestinian territories.

But no one seems too concerned because appearances are more important than facts.

(h/t Irene)

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Linda Sarsour upholds the legacy of Hitler’s Mufti (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

As is by now widely known, it was Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, who first used the vicious libel that Jews were threatening the Al Aqsa mosque to incite murderous violence in the 1920s. Husseini is now notorious as “Hitler’s Mufti” – and has even been described as “Hitler of the Holy Land” – but his legacy is alive and well: all over the Arab and Muslim world, political and religious leaders as well as the media are eager to invent ever new versions of Husseini’s libel when there are tensions around the place Muslims claim as Islam’s “third holiest” site, while ignoring, if not outright denying, that this is also Judaism’s most holy site.

So it is perhaps not surprising that “progressive” icon Linda Sarsour is happily joining in, sharing her version of the Al-Aqsa libel on Facebook. In recent days, she published two related posts.

On July 21, she wrote in part (full post archived here, original here):

“On this holy Friday, I pray for my Palestinian sisters and brothers, for Al Aqsa, for a free and liberated Palestine. Israeli government continues to collectively punish Palestinians and deny them entrance to Al Aqsa mosque, they are met with tear gas and rubber bullets and they still stand strong - they continue to show resolve and resilience as they pray in the thousands on the streets outside the gates in an act of non-violent resistance. Muslim Palestinians joined by their Christian Palestinian siblings.”

You see: Muslim Palestinians and Christian Palestinians are just wonderful, pious and peaceful; whereas Israel – i.e. the world’s only Jewish state – is a brutal and cruel oppressor. But Linda Sarsour was simply lying, just as Husseini lied back in the 1920s. The Israeli government wasn’t denying Palestinians entrance to the Al Aqsa mosque; instead, Muslim leaders had called on Palestinians not to enter the site in protest against metal detectors that had been installed well away from the mosque, at the entrances to the Temple Mount, after three Arab-Israeli Muslims had used the mosque a week earlier to receive guns from an accomplice for a deadly terror attack targeting Israeli police officers. Sarsour’s false claim that the “Israeli government continues to collectively punish Palestinians” was the only hint that might be construed as referring to this murderous terror attack – which Sarsour didn’t find worthwhile mentioning, let alone condemning.

Given that Sarsour never tires of emphasizing her religiosity, it is also noteworthy that she has apparently no problem with terrorists using the Al Aqsa mosque to get weapons; indeed, her enthusiastic support for the protests against the newly installed metal detectors and her failure to condemn the terror attack arguably amount to an implicit endorsement.

This is especially true since Sarsour followed up her first post with another that merely repeated what she had already said, but was posted a day after a Palestinian terrorist had slaughtered three members of a family at their home. Again, Sarsour pointedly ignored the horrific massacre (and of course the fact that Palestinians were proudly celebrating it); and as in her previous post, she also preferred to ignore the fact that the protests were not all as peaceful as she claimed, but escalated into violent riots.

Yet, Sarsour posted an image of Palestinians kneeling in prayer in a street, and wrote (archived):

“This is resilience. This is perseverance. This is faith. This is commitment. This is inspiration. This is Palestine. Denied access to pray at Al Aqsa Mosque in their own homeland, Palestinians pray on the streets in an act of non-violent resistance. They are met with tear gas and rubber bullets. But you still can’t keep them from God. While the world powers continue to turn a blind eye to the blatant injustice against and the suffering of the Palestinian people, they remain steadfast and teach us life, determination and patience. Palestine will be free, it’s not a question of if, its when. Long live Palestine!”

Interestingly, one of her followers challenged her about her lie that the Palestinians were denied access to the Al Aqsa mosque, asking where this had been reported and pointing out that a link she provided in response did not support her claim. Sarsour was clearly upset and replied:

“it sounds like you are justifying the current situation. The point is that the Palestinian people are engaging in mass non-violent civil disobedience to bring awareness to the longstanding brutal military occupation and the increased control over Jerusalem which is still international terrain. Israeli govt continues to violate the human rights of Palestinians and denies them religious freedom.”

But as Sarsour knows full well, the only people being denied religious freedom in Jerusalem are Christians and Jews who want to visit the Temple Mount: due to the rules set by the Muslim authorities that Israel left in charge of the Temple Mount plaza in 1967, non-Muslims can visit only at severely restricted hours and are strictly forbidden from praying and performing any religious ritual.

Interestingly enough, this time around, Sarsour’s lies and her studied silence about Palestinian violence and terror attacks were widely noted. Even Ha’aretz found it newsworthy and published an article under the title “Linda Sarsour Praises Non-violent Palestinian Resistance, Fails to Mention West Bank Attack” – which could be read as: Linda Sarsour is a hypocrite and liar who tries hard to whitewash Palestinian violence and terrorism.

But the man now known as “Hitler’s Mufti” would surely applaud her: on Facebook, she has more than 184K followers – which means that her posts praising Palestinian “resistance” reach a fairly wide audience. And the way she tries to whitewash Palestinian terrorism reminds me of what the mufti said in an interview in September 1929, shortly after he had incited the notorious Hebron massacre and the subsequent Arab violence, which left 133 Jews dead:

“When politely told that world opinion is holding him personally responsible and partially guilty for the savagery and unspeakable assaults, the Mufti smiled and with a sweeping gesture, showing delicate manicured hands, he declared: ‘My hands are clean, I declare before God. Moreover, it is untrue that the world is siding with the Jews. Telegrams are pouring in from all parts of the world expressing sympathy and offering to help the Palestine Arabs. We have telegrams from Moscow, also the Paris and Berlin branches of the Anti-Imperialist League. We are further assured of the solidarity of the entire Moslem world and have actually offers of armies to help us if necessary. Help is unnecessary. We will win through an economic boycott.’”

As it happens, Linda Sarsour is of course also for an economic boycott.

And as it happens, in 1929, many Jewish homes in Hebron looked pretty much like the home of the family who was attacked by a Palestinian terrorist last Friday evening.

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07/24 Links Pt1: Israeli Sovereignty Over the Temple Mount Is Crucial for Peace; Palestinians Protesting Metal Detectors

From Ian:

BESA: Israeli Sovereignty Over the Temple Mount Is Crucial for Peace

Regardless of its direct security merits, Israel’s decision to place metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount has been transformed by adversaries and Israel alike into an issue of sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Power-sharing there has always constituted a slippery slope to disaster. The murder of two Israeli policemen at the Temple Mount is an appropriate moment to rectify the situation by reasserting Israeli sovereignty over the holy site.
Why is Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount so important? Because international “partnership” arrangements in political hotspots not only rarely (if ever) work, but make matters much more volatile and dangerous. At the Temple Mount, only exclusive Israeli sovereignty can work.
Many partnerships over contested areas have been attempted, and they have led to only one outcome: failure. In 1949, for example, the UN tried to broker deals between Israel and Syria over demilitarized zones delimited in the Armistice Agreement. The three areas were perennial hotspots over which much blood was shed. They were only resolved (as are most Middle Eastern political conflicts) by a decisive victory and the establishment of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Before that, it was bedlam. Since then, there have been 40 years of quiet.

Palestinians Protesting Metal Detectors

It would be difficult to imagine a less sympathetic grievance to attract Western support to the Palestinian cause. In fact, the Palestinian response will appear contemptible to anyone who bothers to read even the basic facts of the matter. Israelis can’t go into shopping malls and bus stations, let alone visit the Western Wall, without passing through a metal detector. But Israeli-style security measures are a fact of life in the West as well, with metal detectors now a ubiquitous presence at sports events and, yes, outside religious sites like Notre Dame in Paris.
There is also of course a deep historical irony. With the possible exception of al-Qaeda, Palestinian terrorism—which pioneered the use of plane hijackings, airport attacks, and suicide bombings—has perhaps done more to force the introduction of metal detectors into our daily lives than just about any other cause.
The Israelis might try to look for a way out of this confrontation. Violence within the al-Aqsa complex is rare. The Israelis might well decide that the metal detectors have caused more trouble than this is worth, despite the fact that the Palestinian response is being driven by unsubstantiated paranoia about Jewish conspiracies to overturn the Temple Mount status quo. But if this kind of issue is going to be the chief grievance of the Palestinians, they shouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the world shrugs.

Reward and repetition are two of the best ways to ensure certain types of behaviors continue. And if such motivations are in place long enough, behavior becomes permanent as rewards harden into entitlements and repetition becomes habit.

We’re seeing something like this play out in the latest iteration of what Ruth Wisse urges us to start calling “The Arab War Against the Jews,” a more descriptive title for what even Israel’s friends keep calling called the “Arab-Israeli” conflict, which presumes an inaccurate “cycle-of-violence” narrative.

This time, the so-called “cycle” consists of Palestinians (urged on by leaders in both official and popular media) using their own holy places as the launch-pad for murder, then using Israeli security measures at those same holy places as a pretext for riots, further murder and demands for global protest.

To any rational observer, this mini- or pre- Intifada III is ultimately destined to suffer the fate as have previous ones with lots of people – Jew and Arab – losing their lives, a degradation of whatever progress Palestinian society might have made since the last “uprising,” and hopes for co-existence pushed ever further away. These are actually important goals for those urging on the killing (even if those actually holding the knives are motivated primarily by the urge to kill any Jew they can reach).

Needless to say, those “Friends of the Palestinian People” here on our shores have risen up to “stop the violence,” specifically the violence Israeli police, soldiers and citizens use to prevent their children from being stabbed, run over, shot and blown up. As for the killing spree itself, well – as usual – this crowd of Peace Warriors has little time for such trifles.

One of the few interesting things about this entirely unsurprising set of behaviors is the way those hoping to anchor their already-scheduled propaganda campaign to the current crisis are no longer even bothering to hide the transparency of the falsehoods they embrace and espouse.

On one level, the laundering of murderers (by, for example, presenting killers or would-be killers gunned down during an attack on their Jewish prey as “victims of Israeli aggression”) seems cynical beyond belief.

But after two decades of fauxtography (including presenting victims of murderous violence everywhere else in the Middle East as Palestinian “victims”), why not go the next step and simply lie to suit your needs without a second thought? Especially since fewer and fewer people outside the circle of Israel’s regular supporters show the slightest interest in calling SJP/JVP/BDS out on their fabrication, manipulation, and atrocious behavior.

This is where the repetition phenomenon mentioned at the top of this piece starts to provide some descriptive (and, sadly, predictive) utility. For just as Palestinians have been trained over the last two generations to automatically blame everything wrong with their lives and history on the Jews (a process which only accelerated once the “Peace Process” kicked in two decades ago), our local anti-Israel propagandists have been trained to expect almost no challenge to their endless propagandizing and lies – not from the media, not from cowed or corrupted academia, and not from the governments who fund the Palestinian polities working tirelessly to ensure violence continues.

And if you bother to ask why “human rights activists” have so little time for the rights of humans beyond Palestinian ones (although only the ones under Israeli jurisdiction), out comes the accusations of “changing the subject” (presuming the boycotters don’t ignore critics altogether).

I guess the one dim light in this otherwise depressing environment is that a political movement which thinks it has others in their pocket tends to get lazy and careless as feelings of invulnerability coupled with fantasies of impending triumph leads to poor decisions and overreach. It remains to be seen, however, if anyone will ever be willing to break the cycle of rewarding Israel’s enemies for the suffering they bring upon themselves and everyone else.

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Once again, Palestinians are behaving irrationally.

Once again, no one knows what to make of it.

And once again, once you apply the honor/shame construct, it all makes perfect sense.

Abbas didn't want to see the terror attack on the Israeli policemen. But he is bound by the social rules of his society, and once the events were set in motion, he has no choice but to act like a typical Arab leader who is too cowardly to face down the insane shame culture.

Israel closing down the Temple Mount for two days was a source of a huge amount of shame. It showed that Jews ultimately control the area, and the myth that the Waqf controls it was shown to be a lie. The idea that Jews control the purported third holiest site in Islam is a source of deep shame that has been buried for years by the fantasy of Waqf control.

Once the shame started, it cannot be erased.

The fact that Israel re-opened the area in less than 48 hours is irrelevant; the metal detectors - or cameras or extra guards or wands or anything - just add to the shame of reminding the Arabs of who is the boss of the Temple Mount in the sense of who ultimately provides security. All else is irrelevant.

Once we have entered the honor./shame universe, actual facts or logic are meaningless - all that matters are symbols. And symbols don't get bigger than pretending to "defend Al Aqsa." (Which is what the stabber in Petah Tikva shouted this morning, as he stabbed an Arab mistaking him for a Jew.)

Abbas cannot act in a way that diminishes his honor, so he needs to double down on demanding honor and refusing shame. He must use all the weapons in his arsenal to "win". Because the other aspect of honor/shame societies is the zero-sum game, and if Israel gets anything out of this episode that it didn't have before- like normal security that any society would demand - Abbas thinks he loses. Winning the zero-sum game becomes more important than human lives. Abbas therefore ups the ante and says he will end security cooperation - the biggest weapon in his arsenal. He feels he has to go for the big guns because if he loses, he is finished - his shame will end him as a leader.

So now a very reasonable Israeli expectation for basic security becomes a life-or-death pissing match to the Palestinian leadership. They cannot back down. If Israel would offer to compromise by painting a stick figure of a camera on all entrances to the Mount the pushback would be exactly the same. Actual facts are of no interest.

Meanwhile, the honor/shame dynamic is played out with more terror attacks. Hamas' leader called the father of the murderer of the father and his children in Halamish explicitly in terms of honor, saying that "Your son brought pride to the nation." Abbas cannot be seen as less interested in national pride than Hamas, to do so would be politically costly, although he cannot explicitly praise the attack either or risk alienating his Western friends. So he stays quiet. But he will pay the salary of the murderer for the rest of his life.

As often happens, the logical West is confronted with the irrational Middle East. Usually the West blinks before dealing with these seemingly crazy people who would happily start a war over metal detectors. Because crazy people are scary and unpredictable and passionate, while normal people just want to live their lives without that drama.

The interesting part of this saga is how the Western world reacts. Israel's requirement for security in the face of a proven threat reflects what every other nation would do. The PA's reaction is completely bonkers by any normal yardstick. If the world wasn't so reflexively "pro-Palestinian" it wouldn't coddle the crazy demands, but the Palestinians have made an art form of these kinds of crazy demands that end up sounding reasonable over the years of constant repetition.

This time might be a little too crazy for, say, Western Europe at least. Palestinians have been losing their support behind the scenes, especially in Arab countries but cracks are appearing in the West as well. Their UN victories are getting narrower, and European parties are pushing back more against the UNHRC bias. They believe in the two state solution but they are not quite as certain that the 1967 lines are so sacred. Palestinian intransigence is being seen more and more as an obstacle to peace.

This episode may hurt the Palestinians in the long run much more than a symbolic victory would gain them. And this can be accelerated if the West uses the honor/shame dynamic to shame the Palestinians into acting like responsible adults.

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Second synagogue in Turkey attacked after police left, Erdogan condemns attacks

YNet reports:

Two threatening demonstrations and mounting cases of vandalism against synagogues in Turkey—apparently carried out with the regime's tacit support against the backdrop of the Temple Mount crisis—are raising concerns among the country's Jewish community.

On the night between Thursday and Friday, dozens of demonstrators attacked the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul, threw rocks at the synagogue, kicked its doors and tried to break in.

Some protesters shouted, "If you do not let us enter our holy place, we will not let you enter your holy place."

The Jewish community was stunned that the police patrol car—which regularly protected the synagogue as it is a target for terror attacks—had left the area shortly before the demonstration started.

On Saturday, the ancient 15th century Ahrida synagogue in Balat, Istanbul was also attacked. As in the first case, the police car also left before the demonstration began, and the demonstrators charged the synagogue, blocking entry and chanting anti-Israel slogans.

The fact that the police left the area in both cases may indicate that the demonstrations were held with the quiet consent of the authorities, which made it possible to "let out steam" against the Jews.

However, Turkish leader Erdogan condemned the actions, as did some members of the parliament, even as they continued to blame Israel for its actions to secure lives:

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan harshly slammed the attack on the Neve Shalom synagogue by an ultra-nationalist group. The group had claimed the protest was a response to the restrictions on the al-Aqsa mosque.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport before heading to Saudi Arabia on July 23, Erdoğan said rights violations in Jerusalem may never be grounds for Muslims to violate the rights of others.

“We are members of a deeply rooted civilization that has provided peaceful coexistence to all religions, especially Jerusalem [sic], for centuries. The violations of rights in Jerusalem should never be a reason for Muslims to violate the rights of others. Reactions must be measured in the framework of the law,” he said.

Erdoğan also highlighted the importance of freedom of worship.

“To harm the freedom of worship of those who are members of other religions and their place of worship has no place in our society. Based on this understanding, we are putting forth efforts to ease the tensions in Jerusalem at once and for peace to return around Masjid al-Aqsa once again,” he added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım also criticized the synagogue protest, calling for restraint.

“We are inheritors of a civilization that regards differences as richness without discriminating against religion, sect, language and race. For this reason, we do not approve of the actions against the worship of our Jewish citizens, we call on our citizens to practice self-restraint,” he said on the Prime Ministry’s official Twitter account.

Here is video of the Neve Shalom attack.

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Jerusalem Arab denies any Israeli police were killed by Arabs, "Yahud always lie" (video)

This English-speaking Arab says that the Israeli police killed each other, that Jews always lie and that she hopes for violence.

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Here's the story from Ammon News (Jordan):

A Jordanian man was killed and an Israeli wounded in an exchange of fire inside the Israeli embassy on Sunday.

The man was reported to be involved in an attempted security breach at the embassy.

Two Jordanians were involced, one was killed and the other arrested.

Another newspaper, Al Ghad, identifies the dead man as a 17-year old Jordanian involved in a 'quarrel" in the embassy. It says that the man had been shot twice in the shoulder and the Israeli employee was stabbed in the chest.

Jordanian security is surrounding the area.

Al Wakeel News says that it was a quarrel over installing furniture.

UPDATE: Apparently the Israeli is in surgery now with multiple stab wounds to the abdomen and in critical condition.

Newer stories say the Israeli was shot as well, not stabbed.

UPDATE 2: Bloomberg says 2 Jordanians dead:

Jordan’s Anadolu news agency said one man was shot dead after stabbing an embassy staffer, citing an unidentified security official. The death of the second Jordanian was reported by al-Jazeera. Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the shooting, including on the identity and condition of its injured citizen, because of a government censorship order.

The story is still being censored in Israel, even though the wire services have it worldwide.

UPDATE 3: YNet reports:

The Foreign Ministry believes the incident to be a terrorist attack related to the events surrounding the Temple Mount.

Additionally, according to ministry officials, the 17-year-old attacker entered the home of an embassy official apparently to replace furniture, whereupon he happened to encounter the Israeli security guard and the Jordanian property owner.

The terrorist then came up behind the security guard and proceeded to stab him with a screwdriver, prompting the guard to produce a firearm and open fire at his attacker, killing him and the landlord.

But Ammon News seems to imply that the attacker stabbed both the doctor/landlord and the Israeli during a quarrel (unclear whom the quarrel was with.) Another carpenter was arrested by Jordanian authorities.

This is causing a diplomatic crisis as Israel does not want the guard questioned.

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07/23 Links: Hours before murderous attack, Fatah encouraged Palestinians to "rage," called for "escalation" and glorified death

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The slaughter of the Salomon family

So now the non-stop Palestinian Arab incitement against Israel has resulted in yet more Palestinian barbarism.
The Salomon family had gathered for a Friday night Shabbat dinner, celebrating the birth of a grandchild, in their home in the Israeli settlement of Halamish. A 19 year-old Palestinian burst in armed with a large knife and began stabbing members of the family.
He killed the grandfather, Yosef Salomon, 70, his daughter Chaya Salomon, 46, and son Elad Salomon, 36. Yosef’s wife Tova, 68, was seriously wounded.
The Times of Israel reports: “In initial questioning, Abed said he bought the knife two days ago, wanting to commit a terror attack because of events surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.”
This murderous attack is the direct result of the incitement by Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders. They are promoting this on the deranged pretext that Israel is somehow attacking Muslims at Temple Mount – all because Israel erected security barriers on the compound after one week ago Palestinians burst from al Aqsa mosque fully armed and murdered two Israeli Druze police officers stationed just outside.
The Palestinians are supported in their war of extermination against Israel by Europeans who are funding this incitement, having bought into this sick narrative of lies. Yet another Israeli family is destroyed by this madness. Let’s see how this latest savagery is reported by the western media, whose own hands in this spiral of Palestinian hysteria and murder are far from clean.

PMW: Hours before murderous attack, Fatah encouraged Palestinians to "rage," called for "escalation" and glorified death

On Friday, a few hours before a Palestinian terrorist murdered 3 Israelis by stabbing them to death in their home, Abbas' Fatah Movement encouraged Palestinians to "rage" and glorified death in a post on Facebook:
Posted text: "If I fall I will not be the first to die, and not the last to die
#Rage!
#Friday_of_dignity"
Text at top of image: "Palestinian National Liberation Movement - Fatah"
Text in center of image: "If I fall I will not be the first to die, and not the last to die
O my brothers, I write my will with my blood, please guard my revolution with your blood
Through Fatah's masses sweeping to attack
I am Fatah, I am a revolution, I am a storm (i.e., Al-Asifa, another name for Fatah)
[Fatah] Mobilization and Organization Commission's Information Office
#Rage_of_Jerusalem" [Official Fatah Facebook page, July 21, 2017]
PA official, Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh, Laila Ghannam asked Allah for "victory over [our] enemies" and that He "guard the Al-Aqsa Mosque from evil" and "have mercy on the Martyrs of Palestine" :

Temple Mount: What's the point in praying if you can't bring your gun?

This week a lot of people died in Israel. How did it all happen? What critical facts did the media leave out? And why do some headlines make it look like there's no moral difference between the victims and the attackers who killed them? We break down the events, the facts and the media failures.