Harry Potter and the Threats to Israel

 

A brilliant video editing job, depicting the threats facing Israel using a Harry Potter motif
[Hat tip: Aish HaTorah]

Obama's Folly

Asleep at the wheel?

In Shift, U.S. Invites Iran to Join Syria Talks - Jay Solomon & Felicia Schwartz

Iran will be invited to participate in international talks on the Syrian crisis Friday in Vienna, U.S. officials said, in a major shift in the Obama administration's approach. The U.S. and its Arab allies previously blocked Tehran from participating in UN-backed talks on Syria because of Tehran's deep military and financial support for Assad.
     
The White House also said it was willing to let President Assad remain in office and oversee a political transition in Syria, though he would eventually have to go.

The shift on Iran highlights the increased leverage of Russia and Iran after they jointly launched military operations in defense of Assad last month.
(Wall Street Journal)


Iran Steps Up Its Forces in Syria - Dugald McConnell & Brian Todd

Iran is increasing its military presence in Syria, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, told Iranian television Monday. "I think there's more than 1,000 Iranians that are on the ground in Iraq," Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators. "In Syria, we think the numbers are probably something less than 2,000." A U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency official estimated that since 2013, Iran has lost eight senior Iranian commanders in Syria, including at least six generals. 
(CNN)


Iran Confirms Losing 20 Revolutionary Guards - Umid Niayesh

The number of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps casualties in Syria reached 20 in the last week, the semi-official Iranian Defapress news agency reported.
(Trend-Azerbaijan)
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Saudi Shocker

Saudi prince al-Waleed bin Talal

Saudi Prince: I Side with Israel – Not the Palestinians

Saudi prince al-Waleed bin Talal has stated that in the event of another Palestinian Intifada (uprising) against Israel he would side with the Jewish State, saying that “Saudi Arabia has reached a political maturity to constitute a durable alliance with the Jewish nation.”

“I will side with the Jewish nation and its democratic aspirations in case of outbreak of a Palestinian Intifada and I shall exert all my influence to break any ominous Arab initiatives set to condemn Tel Aviv, because I deem the Arab-Israeli entente and future friendship necessary to impede the Iranian dangerous encroachment,” Al Qabas quotes the Saudi media tycoon as saying.

The Saudi Prince and entrepreneur posited that his country must reconsider its regional commitments and devise a new strategy to combat Iran’s increasing influence in Gulf States by forging a defense pact with Tel Aviv to deter any possible Iranian moves in the light of unfolding developments in the Syria and Moscow’s military intervention, the Kuwaiti Al Qabas daily reports according to AWD News.

“The whole Middle-East dispute is tantamount to matter of life and death for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from my vantage point ,and I know that Iranians seek to unseat the Saudi regime by playing the Palestinian card , hence to foil their plots Saudi Arabia and Israel must bolster their relations and form a united front to stymie Tehran’s ambitious agenda,” Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA) quoted Prince al-Waleed as saying on Tuesday , adding that Riyadh and Tel Aviv must achieve a modus vivendi, for Saudi policy in regard to Arab-Israeli crisis is no longer acceptable.

There have been several reports over the past years of secret Saudi-Israel relations, and specifically on military and intelligence issues. The recent nuclear deal with Iran has led Saudi officials and leaders to voice support of regional cooperation with Israel.
[United with Israel]
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UPDATES: 

Saudi Prince Denies Pledging to Support Israel Against Palestinians 

(News Tribe-UK)
    

Saudi Prince al Waleed bin Talal has denied as "completely bogus and untrue" a report by the Kuwaiti media outlet AWDNews that he would side with Israel in case of a Palestinian uprising. 


Azerbaijan: Israel’s secret Muslim friend - Robert Swift

Azerbaijan’s southern border with Iran...makes Israel and Azerbaijan natural allies since “both countries see Iran as an existential threat,” Lindenstrauss observed.
The Azerbaijan-Israel association suits both parties well. The selling of sophisticated weapons to Azerbaijan is “another attempt at psychological pressure on Iran” by the Jewish state, the author explained. Drone and air defense technologies make up the bulk of such exchanges.

But the cooperation goes further than this. Azerbaijan’s location makes it a natural back door into Iran. There are reports suggesting that all of Israel’s covert espionage activities conducted against Iran were based in Azerbaijan, including the assassinations of the nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, Murinson said.
The Iranian foreign ministry has accused Azerbaijan of collaborating with the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, and of acting as a safe house for its operations.

Azerbaijan’s proximity to Iran could also enable it to function as an airfield or refueling stop for Israeli jets conducting raids against targets in Iran. 
[Jerusalem Post]
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Israel's Gulf Breakthrough - Simon Henderson

[T]he United Arab Emirates gave Israel formal permission to establish a diplomatic office in Abu Dhabi under the auspices of the International Renewable Energy Agency. Although officials from both governments noted that the office is solely intended to facilitate Israel's membership in the agency, the announcement should be seen in the context of improving Israeli-Gulf relations. In fact, the new office is Israel's second diplomatic presence in a Persian Gulf country. This latest advance should also be seen as a consequence of the Obama administration's perceived embrace of Iran. 
The writer is director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Program at The Washington Institute. 
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
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How Can Jewish Prayer Be Forbidden in Jerusalem?

If these Jews are caught praying at this Jerusalem site, they will be arrested

Kerry: Israel, Jordan Working to Ease Holy Site Tensions - Matthew Lee
 
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Israel and Jordan have agreed on steps aimed at reducing tensions at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, after meeting with King Abdullah II and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Amman. 

Kerry said the steps include round-the-clock video monitoring and Israel's reaffirming of Jordan's special and historic role as custodian of the site. Israel has pledged to maintain the rules of worship at the site. 
(AP)


Secrets under the Al-Aqsa Mosque: A Photographic Essay
- Lenny Ben-David  

The current Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammed Ahmad Hussein, declared on Oct. 25 that ...there never was a Jewish Temple or shrine atop the Temple Mount.
 
The Al-Aqsa Mosque suffered a major collapse during an earthquake in 1927. During the years of renovation, photographers ventured into and under the mosque, documenting the mosaics, passageways, cisterns, and lumber that apparently were part of the ancient Jewish Temples.
The writer, who publishes Israel Daily Picture.com, served as Israel's Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington.
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)


Were There Jewish Temples on the Temple Mount? Yes
- Ruth Schuster and Ran Shapira 

The contention that there is no proof the Jewish Temples existed on the Temple Mount is an artifact of the recent Israeli-Arab conflict.

Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition has always held the Mount sacred and none queried the existence of the Temples. A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, published in English by the Supreme Muslim Council itself in 1925, states: "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute." "There is no scholarly school of thought that doubts the existence of the First Temple," Prof. Israel Finkelstein, a world-renowned expert on Jerusalem archaeology, told Ha'aretz.
 
Archaeologist Gabriel Barkay noted: "Two copies of inscriptions prohibiting the entry of nonbelievers to the Temple have been found on the Temple Mount, which Josephus wrote about. These inscriptions were on the dividing wall that surrounded the Second Temple, which prevented non-Jews from accessing the interior of the courtyard." The "warning" stone is at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
     
Another inscription in stone, "To the trumpeting place," was found in 1968 at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. "It is known that trumpets were blown at the corners of the Temple Mount, to declare the advent of Shabbat and other dates," Barkay explains. The stone is now at the Israel Museum.
    
We don't need to rely exclusively on digging in Jerusalem for solid evidence that the Mount housed the Second Temple. Roman Emperor Titus boasted of crushing the Jewish rebellion in 70 CE and destroying the Temple in Jerusalem. "The Arch of Titus in Rome shows the procession following the gleeful plunder of the Temple by the Romans, even showing the menorah they removed," says archaeology writer Julia Fridman. 
(Ha'aretz)


Israeli Relinquishment of the Temple Mount

The most relevant factual basis for disproving the “Al-Aksa is in danger” libel is, as noted, the de facto Israeli relinquishment of the Temple Mount, for which I could find no precedent in any other country or religion. The birthfather of this relinquishment, which for years has been called “the status quo on the Temple Mount,” was Moshe Dayan, who served as Israeli defense minister during the Six-Day War. The thrilling liberation of the Western Wall and the Temple Mount was documented in detail in dozens of publications that appeared after the war. Even the cry of paratroop commander Mordechai Gur into his field radio – “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” – entered the pantheon of national symbols of the State of Israel. And yet, the reality that Israel devised on the Temple Mount, and the heavy limitations it imposed on itself there, were very far from the euphoria of the liberation itself and the overwhelming encounter with the place where the two Temples of the Jewish people had stood in the past, long the focal point of its spiritual life.

Dayan’s first act on the Temple Mount, only a few hours after IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren blew the shofar and gave the Shehecheyanu blessing beside the Western Wall, was to immediately remove the Israeli flag that the paratroopers had raised on the mount.

Dayan’s second act was to clear out the paratroop company that was supposed to remain permanently stationed in the northern part of the mount. Dayan rejected the insistent pleas of the head of Central Command, Uzi Narkiss, who tried to prevent him from taking this measure. Narkiss reminded Dayan that Jordan, too, had stationed a military contingent on the mount...

But Dayan was not persuaded. He told Narkiss that it seemed to him the place would have to be left in the hands of the Muslim guards.

Moshe Dayan’s most significant act on the Temple Mount, which was widely criticized, was to forbid Jewish prayer there, unlike the arrangements at the Machpelah Cave in Hebron where there is also a functioning mosque.

In giving religious sovereignty over the mount to the Muslims, he believed he was defusing the site as a center of Palestinian nationalism.

[F]or many years the police have not allowed free entry by Jews to the Temple Mount, even for mere visits. The police restrict the number of Jews, particularly religious Jews, who can enter. Only a few dozen religious Jews are allowed to be there at once, and they are shadowed by Wakf guards and policemen who keep an eye on them, check their belongings to make sure they have not “smuggled” onto the mount a tallit (prayer shawl), tefillin (phylacteries), or prayer book, while warily ascertaining that their lips are not moving in prayer. Only after such a contingent of religious Jews has left is another group of a few dozen allowed to enter. The hours of entry for Jews to the mount are also restricted and meager, and in times of riots and tensions the site is closed to them altogether.

The fact that the official and actual policy of the State of Israel, as embodied in decisions of the Chief Rabbinical Council, the government, and the Supreme Court, leaves the management of the Temple Mount in the hands of the Muslim Wakf is not recognized in the Muslim world today.

[T]he claim that the state and its institutions have formulated a plot to destroy the Temple Mount mosques, and establish the Third Temple in their stead, is absurd and invalid. The State of Israel has indeed adhered to the Jewish heritage, honors Jewish history, and sees itself as committed to its ancient roots, a context in which the Temple Mount and the Temple are central. Regarding the mount, however, this involves an ideological and spiritual heritage, not a practical one; a profound bond and commitment, but only on the level of consciousness. At the same time, the State of Israel does just about everything, in both its statements and its actions, to make clear that it has no intentions of building the Third Temple or destroying the Temple Mount mosques. All this has in no way prevented the many-faceted “Al-Aksa is in danger” libel from developing and taking hold of the imaginations and hearts of tens of millions of Muslims.
[Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs]

Netanyahu on Mufti & Hitler

Noted Middle East Forum scholar Dr. Wolfgang G. Schwanitz responds to criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Schwanitz, a leading expert on ties between Nazis and Islamists, says al-Hajj Amin al-Husaini was instrumental in the decision to exterminate the Jews of Europe.

Mufti Did Advise Hitler on Holocaust 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn criticism for comments about the role of al-Hajj Amin al-Husaini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in conceiving and perpetrating the Holocaust. Indeed, leading Nazi aides testified that al-Husaini was one of the instigators of the genocide. In his 1999 autobiography, a senior Nazi official admitted how he advised Hitler and other leading Nazis, and that he acquired full knowledge of the ongoing mass murder.

Middle East Forum scholar, historian, and author Wolfgang G. Schwanitz added, "It is a historical fact that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem al-Hajj Amin al-Husaini was an accomplice whose collaboration with Adolf Hitler played an important role in the Holocaust. He was the foremost extra-European adviser in the process to destroy the Jews of Europe."

Although Schwanitz hadn't previously heard the dialogue between Hitler and al-Husaini as told by Netanyahu, he says it is absurd to ignore the role played by al-Hajj Amin al-Husaini, a war criminal, in encouraging and urging Hitler and other leading Nazis to exterminate European Jewry.

According to the foremost expert on the ties between Nazis and Islamists, there is much evidence that al-Husaini's primary goal was blocking all of the ways out of Europe. He pushed Hitler to slam the last doors of a burning house shut.

According to the foremost expert on the ties between Nazis and Islamists, there is much evidence that al-Husaini's primary goal was blocking all of the ways out of Europe. He pushed Hitler to slam the last doors of a burning house shut.
In their 2014 book Nazis, Islamists and the Making of the Modern Middle East, published by Yale University Press, Schwanitz and co-author Barry Rubin delve into the deep ties between Hitler and the Grand Mufti:

At their meeting [on November 28, 1941, Hitler and al-Husaini] concluded the pact of Jewish genocide in Europe and the Middle East, and immediately afterward, Hitler gave the order to prepare for the Holocaust. The next day invitations went out to thirteen Nazis for the Wannsee Conference to begin organizing the logistics of this mass murder.

The highly acclaimed book also examined the Grand Mufti's efforts to prevent Europe's Jews from finding refuge in the land that would become Israel:

And since any European Jews let out of Europe might later go to Palestine, al-Husaini made it clear that if Hitler wanted Muslims and Arabs as allies he must close Europe's exits to Jews. At the same time, al-Husaini and Arab rulers also told Britain that if it wanted to keep Arabs and Muslims from being enemies, it must close entrance to Palestine to all Jews. By succeeding on both fronts, al-Husaini contributed to the Holocaust doubly, directly, and from the start.

[Middle East Forum]

 

Netanyahu: The Mufti and the Nazi Final Solution

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:

Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, is still a revered figure in Palestinian society, he appears in textbooks, and it is taught that he is one of the founding fathers of the nation. Eichmann's deputy at the Nuremberg trials said, "The Mufti repeatedly proposed to the authorities, primarily Hitler, Ribbentrop and Himmler, to exterminate the Jews of Europe....The Mufti was one of the instigators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and was a partner and adviser to Eichmann and Hitler for carrying out this plan.

"The forefathers of the Palestinian nation, without a country and without the so-called "occupation," without land and without settlements, even then aspired to systematic incitement to exterminate the Jews. 
(Prime Minister's Office)


White House warns Netanyahu - Michael Wilner

Comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the week, which implicated the former grand mufti of Jerusalem in the decision to proceed with the Holocaust, amount to inflammatory rhetoric stoking tensions on the ground between Israel and the Palestinians, the White House said.
[Jerusalem Post]
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Netanyahu and the Historians - Jeffrey Herf

The Prime Minister has erred in his understanding of the timing of Hitler's decision-making but he is right about Husseini's disastrous impact on Palestinian political culture.

I hope that the discussion his comments have generated will draw more attention to the now abundant scholarship on Husseini's role in collaborating with the Nazis in their failed efforts to murder the Jews of North African and the Middle East during World War II.

We need more public discussion about the atrocious legacy he left behind that has been playing itself out, yet again, in the knife attacks on the streets of Israel's cities. That legacy of a political culture that venerates violence and anti-Semitism is a huge barrier to successful diplomacy and resolution of the old conflict. The more decision-makers in Washington cast a harsh glare on the enduring impact of Husseini's legacy, the more likely they will enhance the now dim chances for diplomatic success. If they can't find the words to speak clearly about it, diplomacy will stand little chance of success.
[The Times of Israel]
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UPDATE:

Crazy like a fox - Caroline Glick

Netanyahu's assertion that the founder of the Palestinian people, Haj Amin al-Husseini, convinced Adolf Hitler to eradicate rather than expel the Jews of Europe was an overstatement of Husseini's role. But Netanyahu's claim that Husseini made it impossible for Hitler to suffice with expelling the Jews from Europe is true.

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

Netanyahu recognizes that the media have sided with the Palestinians in their war to destroy Israel through a mix of terror and propaganda. He knows that the only stories they will report on are stories with an anti-Israel angle. It is reasonable then to assume that he decided to use their embrace of every possible angle of attack as a means to get the truth out about the nature of the war.

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

Due to his "gaffe," every Western media outlet reported on Husseini's actions.

Some even mentioned that in his PhD dissertation, current Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the Holocaust was both a myth and a joint Zionist-Nazi project. For most Westerners, this is the first they've heard of the fact that the Palestinian's George Washington was a Nazi war criminal.

Like I said, crazy as a fox.
[Jerusalem Post via JWR]

Media Screws Israel

The pretty boy of Israeli politics, Yair Lapid, hits the international media

Media Bias in Reporting on Terror Attacks in Israel - Yair Lapid
(Jewish News-UK)

• In the past two weeks terrorists have been chasing Israeli civilians across the country armed with knives, axes and guns. Jihadists are murdering and maiming, stabbing and burning. They no longer pretend this is about foreign policy, or even about settlements. It is religious fanaticism which knows no limits. In their own words, they want to murder Jews because they are Jews.
• Those in the media covering this wave of violence have created the impression that the victim is the aggressor, that the ones protecting themselves are the murderers, that Israel has no right to defend itself. Here are a few examples:
  • BBC headline - "Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two"
    The Palestinian who was shot wasn't a passerby; he was a terrorist who stabbed two Jews who walked past him.
  • CNN headline - "Joseph's Tomb Catches Fire"
    The tomb, a Jewish holy site under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction, didn't "catch fire." It was set on fire, it was arson.
  • Los Angeles Times headline - "4 Palestinian teens killed in Israeli violence"
    There is no mention that the four Palestinians were on a murder spree when they were killed.
  • NBC headline - "Man shot after rushing past police"
    The man tried to stab a police officer in the neck at Lion's Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.
• Before I was a politician I worked in the media for 31 years. I covered wars, international conflicts and countless clashes. I can say, with total responsibility, that this is an incomprehensible number of incorrect reports, misleading headlines, distortions of fact and total falsifications of the truth.
• It doesn't happen anywhere else in the world where democratic countries fight Islamic fundamentalism. When Israel isn't involved, the world understands that murderers can't wander free on the streets with guns and knives.
  
  The writer, a former Israeli finance minister, is the leader of the Yesh Atid party.

Reflections on Stabbing Intifada

Must Both Sides Exercise Restraint? - Ben-Dror Yemini

The young man approached a group of police officers, pulled out an axe and managed to hurt two of them before he was immediately shot in the head by other cops in the area. It didn't happen in east Jerusalem. It happened in October 2014 in the borough of Queens in New York. The terrorist was Zale Thompson, 32, an American who had converted to Islam.

No one thought for a minute that the police officers hadn't done the right thing. No one said that "both sides are required to exercise restraint." But that's exactly what the American administration's spokespeople, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, have been saying in the past week.

The use of a knife is not random. Slaughtering has become trendy. As far as the American administration is concerned, these are poor people acting out of distress. That is complete nonsense. Africa's poor don't turn to terror. It has nothing to do with poverty. It has to do with incitement and brainwashing.
(Ynet News)


With Attacks, Palestinians Proclaim: We Don't Want to Live Alongside You
- David Horovitz

As was the case at the start of the 2000s, when Hamas and Fatah terrorists were training, arming and dispatching suicide bombers to target our buses, malls, and restaurants, we set out each day knowing that people around us want to kill us. For now, they are generally using less devastating methods than back then. But potentially, there are more of them. And they are right here among us. The brainwashing has been so effective that they come at us ready and willing to die in the act of killing a Jew.

In bloody, unmistakable capital letters, the perpetrators of this new round of evil mayhem proclaim to Israelis: We don't want to live alongside you. We want to kill you and force you out of here.
(Times of Israel)


If Israel disappears - Mudar Zahran

Mudar Zahran

Since 1948, we Arabs have been taught that all we need to do is get rid of the Jewish state, and ‎everything else will go well after that. But that day did not come, nor does ‎it seem to be coming, as Jordanian opposition figure Emad Tarifi once told me: "It seems the fish in ‎the sea are not betting on us feeding them Jews."

In addition, we Arabs have given our dictators carte blanche to impoverish, terrorize, oppress and ‎destroy us all in the name of "the great Arab struggle to end the Zionist entity." The outcome of this has ‎been clear: While Israel made 10 new breakthroughs in cancer and cardiac treatments in the last two years ‎alone, we Arabs developed new execution methods. The latest is death by drowning in a cage, as ‎shown in an Islamic State group video two weeks ago.‎

We Arabs have wasted seven decades of our existence awaiting Israel's demise. It is time to think of the future, and whether Israel's "disappearance" should be our ‎ultimate wish.

What would happen if, one day, Israel were to disappear? While it does not seem feasible, it is the day around which entire Arab political, social and economic systems revolve.

If these Israel-haters got their wish to see Israel disappear, what would ‎happen?

 

Israel is the only reason Iran does not yet have nuclear weapons. Iran could buy the ‎technology to produce them, or could learn it quickly the way Pakistan did. Why has Iran been slow in ‎doing so? Because it learned a lesson from the experience of Saddam's Osirak reactor, which Israeli jets reduced to rubble in 1981.

Iran is not the only evil power in the Middle East: We also have Islamic State, which has now spread across ‎Iraq, Syria, Sinai and Libya, with clear ambitions to enter Jordan. Islamic State has not entered Jordan yet, and this is not ‎because of any fear of the Jordanian army. After all, the Global Firepower website ranks Jordan's army at ‎the same level as the Iraqi army, which Islamic State has defeated many times. Islamic State does not dare enter Jordan for one reason only -- its fear that Israeli jets would catch up with it 15 minutes later.

To those Arabs, Muslims, Westerners and others insisting that Israel must be erased from face of the ‎planet, I say: Don't bet on it, as Israel is becoming stronger every day through its democracy and ‎innovation, while Arab countries are getting weaker through dictatorship and chaos. And be careful ‎what you wish for, because if you were to get it, you too would most likely disappear, unless you ‎yearn to be ruled by Iran or Islamic State.‎

 In short, if the day were to come when Israel falls, Jordan, Egypt and many others would fall, too, and ‎Westerners would be begging Iran for oil.‎

We can hate Israel as much as we like, but we must realize that without it, we too would be ‎gone.‎

Mudar Zahran is a Jordanian-Palestinian who resides in the U.K.

[Israel HaYom][Hat tip: MW]
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UPDATES:

A Soundtrack for Palestinian Violence - Jodi Rudoren & Rami Nazzal

Music CDs sold in the West Bank feature songs like "Stab, Stab."
     
"Stab the Zionist and say God is great," declares one song. "Let the knives stab your enemy," says another. A third song urges, "Say hello to being a martyr."
     
Then there is "Run Over, Run Over the Settler."        
(New York Times)
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Ya'alon: Israel Is Surrounded by Jihadists - Bridget Johnson 

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, speaking at the U.S. National Defense University said:

"Those who claim that the problem is settlements - they murdered Jews before the construction of any settlements in the West Bank....Western like-minded people are ready to be deceived, manipulated by this kind of propaganda, forgetting the most important distinction between good and evil, going to relativism and other distinctions of victims and victimhood." Ya'alon said a cooperative strategy with the U.S. to tackle the violence must be "based on moral clarity."
(PJ Media)

"Stabbing Intifada"

SHOCKING VIDEO: Last night in Gaza. A hate mob, waving knives, chanting hate, crying out for Jewish blood. The media won't show the ugly hate behind Palestinian terror. So it's up to us.Fight the terror. Share the truth.----> Israel is Under Attack. But the world is silent. Demand action against Palestinian terror. Add your name at IsraelIsUnderAttack.com
Posted by The Israel Project on Sunday, October 18, 2015

Above is the Israel Project's video of a Gaza rally a few days ago, celebrating stabbing attacks against Jews.  

The Roots of the Stabbing Intifada - Jeffrey Goldberg

In September 1928, a group of Jewish residents of Jerusalem placed a bench in front of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount for the comfort of elderly worshipers.

Jerusalem's Muslim leaders treated this as a provocation, part of a Jewish conspiracy to take control of the Temple Mount. The spiritual leader of Palestine's Muslims, the mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, incited Arabs in Palestine against their Jewish neighbors by arguing that Islam itself was under threat. By next summer, violence by Arab rioters took the lives of 133 Jews.

The current quasi-uprising in which young Palestinians have been trying, and occasionally succeeding, to kill Jews with knives is prompted in good part by the same set of manipulated emotions that sparked the anti-Jewish riots of the 1920s.

Many of today's Palestinian leaders actively market rumors that the Israeli government is seeking to establish a permanent Jewish presence atop the Temple Mount. The comments of the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas - by general consensus the most moderate leader in the brief history of the Palestinian national movement - have been particularly harsh and his rhetoric has inflamed tensions.

The actual root cause of the Middle East conflict may be the unwillingness of many Muslim Palestinians to accept the notion that Jews are a people who are indigenous to the land Palestinians believe to be exclusively their own, and that the third-holiest site in Islam is also the holiest site of another religion.  
(Atlantic)


No Country for Jews? - Rabbi Daniel Gordis 

When Secretary of State John Kerry said that he would not "point fingers from afar" at who was responsible for the violence, and called the latest attacks part of a "revolving cycle that damages the future for everybody," he convinced Israelis once again that the present American administration has abandoned any ability to distinguish right from wrong, just from unjust, wise from destructive.
(New York Daily News)
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Palestinian Jihad: The Week in Review

The 1 minute video above is a review of this week's Arab terror against Jews

Child Sacrifice Brings No Honor to the Palestinian Cause
- Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie
 
The Palestinian national movement is one of the most stupid, murderous and bloodthirsty in all of human history. 

Rabbi Eric Yoffie

I said this in June 2001 when I expressed my profound regret that Palestinian voices of reason and moderation had not appeared in response to the peacemaking efforts of Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000 and 2001. Those words came back to me this week as I watched videos of Palestinians racing through the streets of Jerusalem, looking for Jews to kill. Once again, the leaders of Palestinian nationalism have led their people down the long, cruel path of violence, suffering and death.
     
Palestinian diplomats and politicians have proclaimed that Israeli security forces are to blame when they shoot at Palestinian killers and would-be assassins. The events of recent weeks cannot be justified or explained away. To excuse Palestinians from normal standards of moral judgment is to patronize them. Palestinians marauding through the streets of Jerusalem with knife and gun in hand is not acceptable, now or ever.

I know that more force will probably be necessary to bring quiet. That is unfortunate, but there is no alternative. Israelis will not tolerate such a situation: the whole point of the Jewish state was to create a place on this earth where Jews do not have to fear attacks from hoodlums and killers when they walk down the street. The terror must end, and Israel must do what is necessary to end it. 
The writer is a former president of the Union for Reform Judaism.
(Ha'aretz)


The Knives of Jerusalem - Editorial 

In the past two weeks Palestinian assailants have attacked more than 50 Jews, killing eight. Among the wounded: a 2-year-old toddler, a 13-year-old boy riding his bike, a 70-year-old woman boarding a bus. This is terrorism in its most exact and repulsive form.

The taste for violence emerges from a deep-seated culture of hate, nurtured by Palestinian leaders over many years in mosques, schools, newspapers, TV channels and social media.
     
There isn't an endless supply of Palestinians willing to meet a quick death in order to stab Israelis, and most Arab residents or citizens of Israel would rather live in a 21st-century startup nation run by Israelis than a 12th-century theocracy run by Hamas. The sooner Israelis impress on Palestinians that they will never bow to knives or bend to terror, the sooner the stabbings will end.
(Wall Street Journal)


Palestinians Torch Jewish Holy Site - Khaled Abu Toameh & Tovah Lazaroff

Yisrael Beytenu party head Avigdor Liberman held the Palestinian Authority responsible for the flames at Joseph’s Tomb and said it showed that the PA’s “occupation is no different than that of Islamic State.”

The Tomb is located near what was once the Biblical city of Shechem and has a history of Jewish, Christian and Muslim worship. It is fully under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Jewish worship has been severely limited at the tomb since the start of the second intifada in October 2000, after an Israeli border policeman was killed there during clashes with Palestinians.

Under the Olso Accords, Jews were allowed regular access to the site and a yeshiva was located there. Now Jewish worshipers can access the tomb only once a month in the middle of the night, when the IDF secures the roads in the city that lead to the tomb.

Pictures of flames jutting out from the Tomb were published by the Samaria Regional Council. Portions of the religious site were severely damaged in the fire. There were no reports of injuries.

Settlers and right wing politicians reacted to the arson attack by calling for the Tomb to be placed under Israeli control, in spite of its location on the edge of Nablus.

“Once again its been proven that there is no alternative to Israeli sovereignty when it comes to preserving Jewish holy sites,” said Avi Ro’eh, who heads the Council of Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria. He called on the government to allow Jewish worshipers regular access to the site.
[Jerusalem Post]
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The Separation Delusion - Caroline Glick

If we learn nothing else from the current violence, we must learn that the idea we can separate from the Palestinians is a delusion.

The current round of Palestinian terrorism, like last year’s offensive, has been largely undertaken by Arabs who live in Israel – either Israeli citizens from the Galilee or permanent residents from Jerusalem. The natural response that many Israelis have had to the fact that it is our fellow citizens and residents of our capital city that are perpetrating the violence has been to hope that a way can be found to finally separate from them.

While understandable, this visceral response to Arab-Israeli terrorism is based on a misunderstanding of reality.

Israelis who preach separation from the Palestinians as a strategic goal claim that the reason the Palestinians of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem – like the Palestinians of Gaza and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon before them – oppose Israel is because Israel controls the territory they live in. Accordingly, they argue, if Israel quits these areas – as it withdrew from Gaza and south Lebanon in the past – the Palestinians will stop their attacks.

They are wrong.

Arab Israelis and Jerusalem residents aren’t attacking Jews because Israel exercises sovereignty over the areas they live in. They are attacking Israel because like the Palestinians in Judea, and Samaria, they watch Palestinian and pan-Arab television, and like the Palestinians they use Facebook.

The reason that the Arab Israelis who have been moved to murder Jews do so with knives and pistols rather than missiles and suicide vests is that Israel controls Jerusalem and the Galilee. Israel’s sole security control over its territory enables the security cabinet to decide to deploy security forces throughout the country and to place roadblocks at the entrances to all the major Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem without fear of armed opposition.

Likewise, the reason the Palestinians of Judea and Samaria haven’t renewed their mass casualty bombings from a decade ago despite the Palestinian and pan-Arab incitement is that beginning in Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002, the IDF retook control over the Palestinian population centers from the PA.

Today Palestinian terrorist cells operating in the areas know that if they turn their guns on Israelis again, the IDF will immediately take their guns and arrest or kill them. Had Israel implemented then-prime minister Ehud Olmert’s plan to unilaterally withdraw from Judea and Samaria in 2007, Israel would be facing a catastrophic situation today.
[Jerusalem Post via Jewish World Review]
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The Root Cause of MidEast Violence

Newspaper headlines from seminal 1929 Arab riots

Jews Are Being Killed Simply for Being Jews - Eitan Na'eh

Arab rioters burned my great-great grandparents' house in Hebron in 1929. In 1936, the house of my great-grandparents in Jaffa was burned down by Arab rioters. In 1939, my father's cousin, Zalman Na'eh, was murdered at age 8, shot in the stomach by Arab terrorists while travelling on a bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

What prompted all these acts of terror? Was it the Israeli "occupation" - which did not exist at the time? Was it frustration about the peace process?

The very presence of Jews in the Land of Israel appears to be the root cause of terrorist violence against them. We have heard the lie that "Al Aqsa is in danger" since the 1920s. What we are seeing is not about religious rights or land. The reality is that, be it 1929 or 2015, Jews are being murdered simply for being Jews. 
The writer is Israel's Acting Ambassador to Great Britain.
(Telegraph-UK)
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UPDATE:

Excessive Force? - Eli E. Hertz

Rather than condemn Palestinian Arab terrorist tactics, the U.S. State Department condemned Israel's "excessive use of force" when it retaliates against the terror attacks.
How did the British deal with Palestinian Arab violence under the British Mandate during the Arab Revolt of 1936 to 1939?
 
According to Oxford historian Glen Rangwala, the British killed 5,032 Palestinians, wounded 14,760, detained 50,000, hanged 146, sentenced 2,000 to life prison terms, and demolished 5,000 houses in reprisals.
(Myths and Facts)
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Intifada déjà vu

Palestinian cleric Muhammad Salah, brandishes knife encouraging attacks against Jews
Al-Abrar Mosque, Rafah, October 9, 2015
For video of sermon click HERE

Palestine: The Psychotic Stage - Bret Stephens

If you've been following the news from Israel, you might have the impression that "violence" is killing a lot of people. Such was the Western media's way of describing two weeks of Palestinian assaults.

Left out of most of these stories is some sense of what Palestinian leaders have to say. As in the speech Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave last month: "Al Aqsa Mosque is ours. They [Jews] have no right to defile it with their filthy feet." And: "We bless every drop of blood spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah."

Why have so many Palestinians been seized by their present blood lust - by a communal psychosis in which plunging knives into the necks of Jewish women, children, soldiers and civilians is seen as a religious and patriotic duty, a moral fulfillment? Despair at the state of the peace process, or the economy? Please. It's time to stop furnishing the Palestinians with excuses.

Today in Israel, Palestinians are in the midst of a campaign to knife Jews to death, one at a time. This is psychotic. It is evil. To call it anything less is to serve as an apologist, and an accomplice.
(Wall Street Journal)


PA Rewards Palestinian Terrorists - Editorial

Israel Radio has reported how the PA pays convicted Palestinian terrorists substantial monthly stipends while they do time, using money handed over monthly by Israel as well as contributions the PA solicits from international donors. The message to indoctrinated and inflamed PA youth is that slaughtering Jews has unstinting societal sanction and official gratitude for spilling Jewish blood.

The greater the crime, the higher the remuneration. For example, Hamas bombmaker Abdullah Barghouti, responsible for killing 66 people and wounding 500 others, has already amassed more than six figures in PA "salaries." The latest crop of homegrown killers likewise expects to be officially celebrated as idols instead of castigated as villains. 
(Jerusalem Post)


Palestinian Bar Association Honors Terrorist - Eli Leon 

The Palestinian Bar Association - which receives major funding from the UN and EU - has decided to award an honorary law degree to Muhannad Halabi, the Palestinian law student who stabbed two Israelis to death in Jerusalem's Old City on Oct. 3, describing him as a "martyred hero."
(Israel Hayom)


Intifada déjà vu - David Brinn

The last Palestinian war against Israel resulted in walls, barriers and fences being erected to keep out the suicide bombers – a new reality that has shaped the last decade of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

This time, there's talk of  all kinds of measures - a closure for east Jerusalem residents, a military campaign, and we're already witnessing a huge uptick in security presence throughout the country.
[Jerusalem Post]
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Abbas' Barely Hidden Jihad

Abbas: “We bless every drop of blood spilled for Jerusalem. This is clean and pure blood, blood that was spilled for God. It is Allah’s will that every martyr will go to heaven and every wounded [terrorist] will receive God’s reward.” -quoted in Jerusalem Post

PA Waging Unprecedented Campaign of Incitement - Khaled Abu Toameh

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.
(Gatestone Institute)


A Rising Tide of Terror - David Horovitz

When Palestinian political leaders, spiritual leaders, mainstream media and social media constantly warn that the emotive Al-Aqsa holy site is in danger, as they have done relentlessly, violence is an almost inevitable consequence. 
(Times of Israel)


Fatah Leaders "Salute" Rioters Defending Al-Aqsa Mosque
- Khaled Abu Toameh    

At a meeting in Ramallah on Wednesday, the Fatah Central Council, including PA President Mahmoud Abbas, "saluted" the Palestinians for "rising to defend their al-Aqsa Mosque." 
(Jerusalem Post)


Israeli Escapes Lynching by Palestinian Mob - Roi Yanovsky

Rivi Lev Ohayon, 38, was injured south of Jerusalem after Palestinian attackers smashed her windows with rocks and attempted to physically remove her from the vehicle. "I managed to miraculously escape a lynching attempt," she said. "I noticed a line of about 10 people forming a human barrier. They were all holding rocks, and there were another 10 20-something-year-olds behind them....Ten of them jumped on my car and broke my windshield, while one of them opened my door. I saw my death. He started kicking me, but I managed to lock the door and drive away." Seven Israeli cars were damaged in the attack.
(Ynet News)


U.S. Jewish Leaders: Hold PA Accountable

Abbas and the PA "must be held to account for their direct and indirect roles in inciting the populace, especially the frequent references to Al-Aqsa being 'under siege' when they know that not to be the case....In fact, Israel restricts Jewish worshipers while allowing far greater freedom to Palestinians to pray at this holy site....Urging Palestinians to rise up to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque leads to the inevitable consequence of confrontation and violence." 
(Times of Israel)


Abbas' UN Speech and the Unrest in Jerusalem
- Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi 

Abbas' speech revealed his basic stance, which includes unequivocal support for terror, a racist attitude toward the Jewish people, an entrenched hatred for Israel, and a will to destroy it.

"Palestine is the land of holiness and peace, the birthplace of Jesus the emissary of love and the place of Muhammad's ascent to heaven," Abbas said. He pointedly refrained from mentioning that the land is also holy to the Jewish people whose history has been entwined with it for millennia.

Abbas stated that "Israeli governments have passed...orders to fire live bullets and to arrest and abuse peaceful Palestinian demonstrators." "Peaceful" is how he portrays hurling rocks at passing Israeli vehicles, throwing firebombs at Jews' houses, stabbing Jewish civilians, or running them over with vehicles.

Abbas did not express sorrow or regret over the mounting Palestinian terror against Jews. He did not protest the repressive rule and terror of Hamas in Palestinian Gaza, nor Hamas' aim of violently overthrowing his regime in the West Bank. Nor did he mention that it is only Israel's presence in the main parts of the West Bank that keeps his government in existence.
The writer is a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center.
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
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UPDATES:


The Recent Wave of Terrorism: Myths, Facts, and Wishful Thinking
- Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror

There is no real proof that "diplomatic initiatives" can quell terrorism. It was when the Oslo Accords were signed and the government was pursuing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in earnest that explosive devices and suicide bombers exploded nationwide.

We, the Jews, are the stronger party in this fight, and no wave of terrorism, horrific as it may be, will change that. Israel must use its force prudently, only when its results have proven benefits, and only as a last resort.
The writer is a former national security advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel. 
(Israel Hayom)


Nazareth Mayor Slams Arab Leadership for "Destroying Coexistence"
- Raoul Wootliff

Nazareth Mayor Ali Salem

Nazareth Mayor Ali Salem, the Muslim mayor of Israel's largest Arab city, criticized Arab Knesset members for their role in recent violent demonstrations, saying, "I blame the leaders; they are destroying our future, they are destroying coexistence."

"We need to find a way to live together. We cannot fight like this. We are damaging ourselves." 

Salem told Army Radio that he saw Joint (Arab) List chair Ayman Odeh at a violent protest in Nazareth on Thursday night, and told him to leave.
(Times of Israel)
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A Stabbing War - David Horovitz

Nobody knows whether this unprecedented spate of Palestinian "suicide stabbings" constitutes the start of another protracted round of conflict. This is a stabbing war born of insistent, hysterical intolerance. Impressionable young Palestinians have been persuaded that their God requires them to kill, and if necessary be killed, to "protect Al-Aqsa."

The false claim that Israel is about to permit Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, or otherwise change the policies that Israel has maintained at the holy site, has been assiduously spread by Hamas, Fatah, and the extremist Northern Branch of Israel's Islamic Movement, widely peddled in mosques and on social media, and bolstered by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel dare not entrust sovereign legitimacy to a Palestinian nation that is not truly prepared to live alongside what it acknowledges is a rooted, legitimate, revived Jewish state. Until the Palestinians internalize Israel's right to be here, their quest for independence is doomed.

This phase of violence suggests to Israelis that the Palestinians have a knife-wielding, even suicidal, intolerance for the Jewish state's connection to Judaism's holiest place, and that Moshe Dayan's historic decision in 1967 not to fully realize renewed Jewish sovereignty at the Temple Mount - and therefore not to risk a religious confrontation with the Muslim world - has hardened intransigence rather than encouraged the reciprocal imperative for understanding and compromise.
(Times of Israel)
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