Temple Mount and What it Says About Palestinian Peace

There exist a number of truths which can be seen simply by observing the realities, actions, reactions, denunciations and accusations and comparing those realities with the numerous presumptions of what an Israeli-Palestinian (or Arab) peace will produce. The reality which much of the world believes to be valid and the realities are often simply the proof that the propaganda by the Palestinians and the cooperative actions of the world media in repeating such propaganda almost word for word in news articles represents them as descriptions of realities. These are often accusations poignantly and passionately expressed claiming Israeli crimes and pejorative actions which are actually projections of the Palestinian actions against Israelis (especially Jews) thus turning the tables trying to turn the victims into the victimizers. The media seldom comes to witness the realities on the Temple Mount and accept whatever reports and pictures provided by Palestinian propaganda producing monitors who write inflammatory accusations against the Jews or Israelis accusing them of the crimes actually committed by the Palestinians which are given further credence with photo images and short and chopped, spliced and edited film clips which leave out the instigations and only represented the reactive force used to restore order as the unnecessary violence perpetrated against innocent Palestinian worshippers and attempts to prevent Palestinians from gathering to worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the very station where rocks, fireworks, Molotov cocktails and other weapons to be used against Israeli security officers to force a response which will be filmed as proof of Israeli miscreancy.

For the sake of clarity let’s get some facts out in front. Of the many entrances allowing unfettered access to the Temple Mount to almost everybody, especially tourists except those tourists wearing anything denoting their Jewishness, including all Palestinians, except under certain times when restrictions become necessary defined shortly, the Jews, especially Israelis, are restricted to a single entrance where access to this entrance is over narrow bridge which has been repaired and reinforced numerous times after engineers declared the bridge unsafe for pedestrian traffic. Every time this bridge has been declared unsafe it takes many weeks or even months of struggling with the Waqf, which is appointed by Jordan and has complete authority over all activities on the Temple Mount, simply attempting to get permission to repair the bridge. Many attempts have been made to replace this inadequate structure but all requests have been denied out of hand. Even when the crossing is open the Jews are subjected to searches to assure they are not carrying any religious items onto “sacred Islamic land” or any other forbidden items. Christians have been forced to remove crosses and had their prayer books held by security at the entrances as only Muslim religious items are permitted except for certain periods such as Christmas and Easter when the bans on Christian items is relaxed in the interest of selling trinkets and other tourist objects. Every Friday afternoon immediately after prayers there is a Muslim riot attacking Israeli security police on the Temple Mount. Whenever Israeli Jews are finally permitted their limited access which is limited to ten minutes per person and groups not exceeding a half dozen, or occasionally a few more, are permitted and are shadowed by Waqf and Israeli Police and should the Jewish visitors even move their lips they are considered to have been praying and are immediately arrested at the insistence of the Waqf monitors. Sometimes the Jews do not receive Waqf monitors and such should make them very nervous as that usually is a good indicator that they will be subject to screaming Palestinian women and children right in their faces with older teens and young men behind them often hurling rocks at them to punctuate the insults. When these riotous attacks are committed the Israeli police immediately take actions and rush the Israeli Jews off the Temple Mount and close the Temple Mount to further Israeli visitation for the rest of the day and even the rest of a week or longer. The Palestinians bring heavy construction equipment onto the Temple Mount at night, and even during daylight hours it has gotten so brazen, in order to dig up any archeological relics and precious items which might prove the Jewish history and the existence of the First Temple and Second Temple in efforts to remove any evidence of a Jewish existence throughout history. The Muslim rioting on the Temple Mount has reached levels of intensity that it has forced the closure of the Temple Mount to Palestinian males between fourteen and forty-five in order to restore order and have even a semblance of control over the situation. Because the Palestinian riots are a daily event and only Israelis are victimized it is not news even when Israeli Knesset members visit the Temple Mount and are pelted with rocks and taunts. But when Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount it did make news at the demands of Yasser Arafat so as to give an excuse for the ensuing Intifada which had been planned for months, then a Jew visiting the Temple Mount made news which read that Ariel Sharon defiled Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount where the Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim holy sites are located. Ariel Sharon never entered a single building and had received permission from the Islamic Waqf before visiting and his visit was fully expected which might explain all the pictures taken that appeared in news articles. These are some of the basic facts which are denied the light of day as they do not serve the correct news filters which demand that the Jews are causing the Palestinians misery and denying them their rights or ability to live or practice their religion in peace while the Jews run wild on the Temple Mount committing blasphemes and desecrating Muslim holy sites and attacking Muslim women and children daily when they finally are permitted by the Israeli police to spend a few precious minutes on their Temple Mount.

The main stories which are reported even by the leftist press in Israel and through much of the leftist media especially in Europe and North America tell of every instance when the Israelis place restrictions against Palestinian males between fourteen and forty-five in order to restore some semblance of order after particularly serious rioting by Palestinians on the Temple Mount. These reports usually simply note that the Israelis have once again closed the Temple Mount to Muslims. Often they go so far as to omit that the closure is solely for males between certain ages as if this additional information were included there might be some who might inquire why such limits were imposed and what had Palestinian males between these ages have done to warrant such a closure and denial of access. Then there are the reports which the reporter filing the story can claim is accurate and truthful to the best of their knowledge which will state that Palestinians security forces have reported serious rioting on the Temple Mount by teens which required security forces to use force to quell the rioting. There is no claim who was rioting or who actually was forced to use force to restore order, it is only reported that Palestinian security force personnel reported thus leaving the supposition that the rioters had to be Israelis and the Palestinians had to restore order. In order to see such slanted news at work one needs look no further than the coverage of the opening ceremonies at the United Nations late last month. There will be quotes from speeches blaming the violence between Israel and Gaza on Israeli belligerence and claims that Israel initiated the conflict. The slanted and inverted coverage and the placing of permanent victim status in the Palestinians and stigmatizing the Israelis as the universal aggressors who are constantly rejecting the Palestinians and their advances for peace and willingness to sacrifice if only Israel would agree is identical to the topsy-turvy coverage given the Temple Mount and virtually everything else concerning Israel and the Palestinians.

The news coverage reports how the Palestinians are ready to meet the Israelis once Israel meets their obligations for peace. The problem is the Palestinian definition of obligation is defined under the precepts of Sharia which states that any demand made by the Islamic side is automatically defined as an obligation for the non-Islamic side of the equation. When Mahmoud Abbas claims that the Israelis have refused to meet him on even grounds to negotiate peace he is actually claiming that Israel has refused to meet the conditions he has set out as his preconditions in order to facilitate a lasting peace. Mahmoud Abbas has some very simple preconditions which include Israel agreeing to returning inside the 1949 Armistice Lines, the ‘Right of Return’ for some five million Palestinian refugees to within Israel, the existence of a Palestinian military with the right to hold training exercises with other nations, free access between Gaza and the West Bank free from any Israeli interference, East Jerusalem as the Capital for the Palestinian State which will leave all of the Old City, Temple Mount and Western Wall within Palestine and beyond the reach for Israelis just as when Jordan controlled the same areas and numerous other demands. The easiest understanding of what it is that Abbas demands are to simply research the outstanding issues and especially the final status issues and these are the items which Abbas demand that Israel agree to the maximalist Palestinian demand on each one before he will negotiate. The real question is if Israel were to meet all those demands, exactly what would be left to negotiate. How much of the rest of Israel the Palestinians will be given control over? In case you think that that is going too far, let me add one last demand Abbas has always held to and brings out when he desires ending negotiations, that is his demand that any agreement reached between Israel and the Palestinians will not mean the end of Palestinian resistance until all of Palestinian lands have been liberated. Yep, that’s right, the Palestinians actual position is that the war against Israel will not be over until all of Israel has been destroyed and the Palestinians have made their lands free of any Jewish existence, just as they demand that any lands under Palestinian control be made free of all Jews just like the Jordanians did before them.

Beyond the Cusp