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| Arabs riot in Jerusalem over metal detectors [Reuters] |
Little Sympathy for Palestinians Protesting Metal Detectors
- Walter Russell Mead
Palestinians rioted in Jerusalem following Israel's decision to install metal detectors at entrances to the Temple Mount. Last week, Palestinian terrorists smuggled guns into their own holy site, then used those guns to murder two Israeli police officers guarding one of the entrances to al-Aqsa. It's the installation of metal detectors, not the heinous use of a holy site as a launchpad for murder and terrorism, that has the Palestinians enraged.
It would be difficult to imagine a less sympathetic grievance to attract Western support to the Palestinian cause. Metal detectors are now a fact of life in the West, found at sports events and outside religious sites like Notre Dame in Paris. There is also the irony that Palestinian terrorism has done more to force the introduction of metal detectors into our daily lives than any other cause.
If this issue is going to be the chief grievance of the Palestinians, they shouldn't be surprised if the rest of the world shrugs.
The writer is professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College.
(American Interest)
Lapid: PA and Wakf Are Inciting to Murder - Anna Ahronheim
Former Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who heads the opposition Yesh Atid party, said, "The biggest problem right now is the volume of incitement coming from the PA and numerous speakers in the Arab world and Israel." Israel's placing metal detectors on the Temple Mount "did not come in a vacuum," but as a "direct result" of the deadly attack carried out by three Muslims who were supposed to be on the Temple Mount to pray.
"The fact that people are pretending that putting in place metal detectors to save innocent lives is in some way an attack on Islam and freedom of prayer is terrible incitement that causes violence and death for no reason."
"Every country on earth would have done the same. Are we not allowed to respond and protect ourselves? That is grotesque. Last week two Israeli officers, who were Druse, not even Jewish, were killed by people who brought weapons into a holy place. And instead of telling them that this is the wrong thing to do, they say that those who were killed are to blame; this is monstrous."
(Jerusalem Post)
Palestinian Terrorist Murders Three Israelis Inside Their Home
- Barney Breen-Portnoy
Three Israelis were stabbed to death and another was seriously wounded on Friday night by a knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist who broke into a home in the West Bank community of Halamish. An off-duty soldier shot and wounded the terrorist.
(Algemeiner)
Wife of Terror Victim Recounts Moments of Horror
- Elisha Ben Kimon and Rotem Elizera
Michal Salomon and her husband Elad arrived at Neveh Tzuf-Halamish to visit his parents. When she heard a man speaking in Arabic and realized the danger, she took three of her children and ran to the top floor of the house where her one-year-old twins were sleeping. "I started hearing screaming and shouting," Michal recounted. "I held the door with all my strength because it couldn't be locked."
Michal said she heard "horrible screams and gunshots," and then came downstairs and realized her husband Elad, 35, was no longer among the living, murdered along with his sister, Haya Salomon, 46, an elementary school teacher, and father, Yosef Salomon, 70. Elad's mother, Tovah, 68, was seriously wounded in the attack, stabbed several times in the back.
(Ynet News)
Halamish Terrorist Disguised Himself as a Religious Jew
- Tovah Lazaroff
Omar al-Abed, who murdered three Israelis in Halamish, had disguised himself to look like a religious Jew. He wore a white shirt and skullcap, and arrived at the Salomon family home just as they were about to start a celebration to mark the birth of a grandson.
He knocked on the door and they let him in because they were expecting people to visit.
(Jerusalem Post)
Halamish Terrorist Was Arrested and Released by PA for Planning Attacks
The Palestinian terrorist who stabbed to death three members of an Israeli family while they were eating Sabbath dinner at home on Friday night was arrested three months ago by PA security forces, his uncle said Saturday. Ibrahim al-Abed said his nephew Omar al-Abed spent two weeks in PA detention for planning attacks.
(Times of Israel)
U.S. Jewish Leaders Back Metal Detectors on Temple Mount
- Rafael Medoff
There is a broad consensus among American Jewish leaders in support of Israel's use of metal detectors to intercept terrorists on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations "supports taking the necessary and appropriate steps to assure security for all and to protect the sanctity of these holy sites," said the group's executive vice chairman and CEO, Malcolm Hoenlein.
"In a world where security measures are being enhanced in major gathering places, it's only surprising that the Temple Mount didn't have such measures until now," said American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris. B'nai B'rith International said, "Metal detectors are one way, used globally, to keep the public safe. There may be other methods, as well, but doing nothing is not an option."
(JNS.org)
Guard at Israeli Embassy in Jordan Stabbed; Kills Assailant
- Barak Ravid and Jack Khoury
A guard at the Israeli Embassy in Amman was stabbed on Sunday by a Jordanian carpenter who was installing furniture in his apartment. The Israeli security officer shot and killed the attacker.
(Ha'aretz)
Jordan Won't Let Israeli Embassy Guard Leave the Country
- Raphael Ahren
An Israeli security guard at the Israeli Embassy in Amman is being prevented from leaving Jordan, after he killed two Jordanians Sunday after being attacked by one of them with a screwdriver. The Israeli security guard, who was injured in the attack, enjoys diplomatic immunity according to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and is safe from arrest and investigation, Israel's Foreign Ministry said Monday. Israel is in talks with Jordan on ways to defuse the crisis.
(Times of Israel)
Abbas Cuts PA Security Ties with Israel over Metal Detectors
- Herb Keinon
PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced he has cut security ties with Israel until it reverses its decision regarding the metal detectors at the Temple Mount. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded that Israel has managed for many years without PA security cooperation, "and we'll manage now as well." He said security cooperation was "first and foremost" a Palestinian interest.
(Jerusalem Post)
Muslims Reject Smart Cameras as Alternative to Metal Detectors on Temple Mount
The Israel Police set up special surveillance cameras at one of the entrances to the Temple Mount on Sunday. The cameras can identify anyone with knives, weapons, hand grenades or other suspicious items. But Muslims at the site rejected any form of compromise inspection.
(Ynet News)
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UPDATES:
The Argument Is About Jews, Not Metal Detectors - Jonathan S. Tobin
- How could putting metal detectors to protect a holy site from a recurrence of murder provoke outrage, violence and a promise of mass riots? The answer is that this isn't about metal detectors. It's about the right of Jews to be in Jerusalem.
- Israel didn't change the status quo at the Temple Mount. Jews are still denied the right to pray at the holiest place in Judaism. The Islamic Waqf was left in charge of the Temple Mount's Al-Aqsa mosque.
- Nor was the new security measure discriminatory. Any Jew or non-Jew who wishes to enter the Western Wall plaza below the Temple Mount compound must also pass through metal detectors.
- For a century, Palestinian Arab leaders have been playing the "Al-Aqsa is in danger" card. It was the supposedly moderate Mahmoud Abbas who also claimed Jews were going to harm the mosque. His rhetoric sought to remind Palestinians that the conflict wasn't over borders or settlements, but something far more basic: a religious war that mandates Arab opposition to the Jewish presence.
- The new security measures are merely the latest pretext for Arab violence intended to make the point that Jews have no right to be there at all.
- The threats of violence are just one more power play intended to remind the world that the only solution Palestinians will ultimately accept is one in which the Jews are excluded. So long as this is their goal, it isn't Al-Aqsa that is in danger, but any hope for peace.
Murderous Palestinian Math - Liel Leibovitz
Omar al-Abed murdered three Jews last Friday night. This means he will almost certainly be sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.
According to the Palestinian Authority compensation law, this entitles him to $3,364 each month, four times what the average Palestinian earns. That's $40,368 a year, or $1,211,040 for 30 years.
Imagine there was a government-sponsored program here in America that paid you a million bucks every time you murdered members of another ethnic group.
In 2016, 11% of the PA's budget - $500 million - came from the U.S.
(Tablet)
Imagine there was a government-sponsored program here in America that paid you a million bucks every time you murdered members of another ethnic group.
In 2016, 11% of the PA's budget - $500 million - came from the U.S.
(Tablet)
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