Netanyahu’s Risky Response to World Threats

 

There have been the usual threats and accusations along with rumors and rumors of rumors all of which indicate the possible move announced through trial balloons may be the biggest threat of them all. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has again found no problems in Syria, well, one general denunciation of the needless violence, no such complaints or other commentaries on Iraq, Iran, Cuba, North Korea or any of the other spots on the globe except for a number of mentions of supposed Israeli wrongs. Israel was blamed for spousal violence and honor killings in Gaza and the Palestinian Territories as apparently the presence of IDF troops assisting in keeping the calm and Abbas in power in the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) was the driving cause. There were other minor complaints which can be generally placed under the same old same old perfidies accused of Israel all stemming from the mere existence of the Jewish State.

 

 

 

But the United Nations has been busy on another front, the front of historic and significant places. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has determined the historic relevance of the Temple Mount, the Mosques, Churches and Shrine upon it, the Western Wall and Plaza and all surrounding areas are of solely Islamic origins. Apparently the wall built by Herod in the years before the start of the Gregorian calendar was actually built solely for Muhammad to tie up his first magic steed which transported him in his dream to the farthest Mosque, which happened to be present despite not being built for another two to three centuries where he strode upon second magical beast which carries him through the planes of Heaven where he met Moses, Gabriel, Abraham and a who’s who of Biblical greats and Allah as well where he was bid to write the Quran which would eventually be understood by the great sages of Islam instructed them to spread Islam across the face of the Earth until it was the sole religion putting to the sword all others in a final struggle.

 

Such decrees from UNESCO are not new and have the same weight as a feather blowing in the winds of war in Syria had of ending that carnage any time soon. Still, when these are added to the rest, we wonder why the Catholic Church and the other Christian religions who are bid to care for the holy Christian Churches on the Temple Mount which were included in the general gifting of the entire area and transforming those as well into Muslim shrines are not up in arms. The same can be asked of the Israeli government and Jewish Chief Rabbis; where are their protests and indignations? Meanwhile there is the idea that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) may be pulled from their presence in Area A of the West Bank where they have assisted the Palestinian Security Forces with subduing terrorism including any attempts by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and we can guess potentially the Islamic State from toppling Mahmoud Abbas and setting up shop launching suicide bombers and rockets into Israel and other violences including the favorite pastime of hurling rocks through the windshields of passing vehicles in attempts to crash the vehicles and kill its occupants. One can only wonder where the impetus for such an idea could have arisen.

 

There was that interesting idea flushed out in the Huffington Post article titled To Save His Middle East Legacy, Obama Must Recognise a Palestinian State Now written by Ibrahim Fraihat, a Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center and Affiliate Scholar at Georgetown University in Qatar. In the article it was put forth that President Obama should recognize Palestine declaring its existence and potentially its borders as a final stab at preserving any legacy for President Obama in the Middle East, to finally earn his Nobel Peace Prize apparently given him in the promise that he would establish Palestine, and make a final, in your face, insult to pay back Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for his insults and actively campaigning in the United States for the Republicans against President Obama in his bid for his second term. It also stated that the United States would eventually recognize Palestine and why should President Obama allow such a great prize slip through his fingers and fall to some subsequent President. The piece de resistance was noting how once leaving office Presidents and other high officials from the United States government had all readjusted their positions on Israel and the Palestinians after leaving office and no longer falling under the pressures and influences of that eternal damnation (extra descriptors from our impressions) of the Israel Lobby. The prime example coming from that fairest of judges, Jimmy, Israel and the Jews be damned, Carter who never missed an opportunity to pile more grief and shames upon Israel at every turn.

 

Add the UNESCO rulings, the Human Rights constant irritations, the Huffington Post floating an idea for President Obama and the pulling of IDF troops from Area A allowing for the possible declaration of that area, the one guaranteed the Palestinians in the Oslo Accords where Area C was preserved for Israeli expansion and Area B was to be donated as to who got what and the then required borders which such would imply. The immediate reaction came from Yair Lapid among others who view themselves as Israel’s next Prime Minister warning of renewed suicide bombings, buses exploding on the streets of Tel Aviv and throughout Israel and a terror wave of unprecedented proportions as these attacks could now be organized and launched without the usual IDF and Shin Bet intelligence warning of the imminent attacks. May these warning be nothing more than political maneuvering and second guessing, there still is a grain of truth but Israel would not likely be the initial target, and there is the fly in the ointment. Without the IDF and other intelligence gathering there is a distinct possibility, some might say likelihood, that Hamas, or worse, Islamic State could launch a successful coup potentially using many of those exact same Palestinian Security Forces to assist their takeover. Where would the United Nations, European Union and all the other myriad of forces be in blaming Israel for such an eventuality and the instituting of a true and recognized terrorist takeover in the Palestinian governance? This would result in the unbelievable response where Hamas would be recognized as now being the new democratically chosen leaders and Gaza would no longer be that threat thus leading to demands for Israel to lift the embargo. But wait a moment, was there not a mention out of Turkey that Netanyahu had promised to lift the embargo and assist Turkey in building a sea port in Gaza as part of the reconciliation between the two nations. That simply places the cherry atop the giant ice cream sundae which apparently is in the offing if all these floated ideas come to fruition.

 

As to how much of this is valid we can only guess. The IDF pull back from Area A is very doable and would not particularly be a disaster and actually only an inconvenience in the loss of intelligence which would be nowhere near as serious as some have implied. The real danger of an IDF pullout is the possibility that Abbas would lose control and be replaced by somebody or some group worse than the Palestinian Authority. One must remember that the actually elected Palestinian Parliament has a majority of Hamas and allied ministers which would imply their having the real support in the West Bank, or at the least in Area A. The latest polling out of Gaza show the majority of the people asked actually called for the replacement of Hamas by anybody more attuned to their needs and less concerned with terror tunnels and rocket construction and more dedicated to rebuilding their homes and shopping areas and the rest of the destruction which has been all but ignored as the lion’s share of the concrete and building materials have indeed gone into terrorist infrastructure and largely tunnels which have been collapsing with an unbelievable frequency. It is notable that the people of Gaza have tired of the war every two to three years against Israel where Hamas assures the maximalist damage and the minimalist repair afterwards such that the next conflict starts with great photoshoots of destruction already in place before Israel fires their first salvo. How absolutely convenient if you are the media seeking a story condemning Israel or Hamas assuring their narrative of woe has a maximalist effect with the aid of the media.

 

All of these items start with the truths of the United Nations through UNESCO and the UNHRC and their decisions condemning Israel and all Israeli claims especially to any religious or historical sites. The declaration of the entirety of the Temple Mount and surroundings is right in step with the Cave of the Patriarchs where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Leah are all buried in the cave which Abraham bought using foreign monies so as to differentiate his claims from that of the Canaanites. That along with Rachel’s Tomb and Jacob’s tomb have all been designated Islamic holy sites if memory serves us correctly (validations or corrections would be accepted and appreciated). The article calling on President Obama to recognize Palestine though containing numerous and generous falsehoods is real and the rumor of an imminent IDF pull back from Area A is also real. What they all add up to is anybody’s conjecture and one is as good as any other unless you possess the demonstrable predictive powers of a Nostradamus, through writing in cryptic quatrains assisted in his being applied to any and every situation or event or more. Finally, any conclusions which imply the end of the Jewish State are great exaggerations with absolutely no connection to reality as we are not going anywhere, period. Lastly, the future is the one item where any prediction is usually malleable enough to at least contain a grain of truth otherwise who would believe them other than those already firmly in the camp from whence such preposterous prediction arise. One of our favorites for consistency is indeed former President Jimmy Carter who will always denounce Israel and praise Cuba, what a man of foresight, everything he represents is basically upside down and consistently so. He and the United Nations are two institutions where you can hardly ever go wrong opposing.

 

For your viewing pleasure, here is an outtake from the latest CNN Democrat Presidential debate where Hillary and Bernie square off over Israel, enjoy and do not take anything said by Hillary as denoting actual policies she would enact. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Not as Simple as America Safe Europe Not

 

There has been much discussion over the lapses in security follow-through by Belgium Security Forces which may have contributed to both the Paris attack and the more recent Brussels bombing as Molenbeek neighborhood produced both terror cells and much of the planning for both attacks were carried out there. Additionally, the leader of the Paris attacks was captured by Police in that same area. We have heard that Turkey had deported a number of Belgians who had been arrested attempting to enter Syria presumably to join the Islamic State and that the Belgian authorities did little if any follow-through and allowed these people to slip from view of enforcement personnel. There was told that the United States and Israel had both warned Brussels of the coming attack with some information pointing to Molenbeek and bombing of the airport and main subway station, the exact targets. Still, the Belgians did little if anything.

 

From this one might think that the situation in Belgium in general and in Brussels particularly was excessively lax considering the warnings received. What many may not have caught is that much of Europe and the world are similarly not well protected from terrorism. Egypt had a Russian jet loaded with a bomb explode over the Sinai and just this week had another aircraft hijacked by a disturbed individual. Though the hijacking was not technically terrorism, the people suffered through an ordeal which for all intents and purposes was an act of terror. The number of attacks across Europe since 9/11 has far outstripped that of the United States, a fact that almost every news coverage stressed, especially those based in the United States. This begs a few questions as to what are the differences between Europe and the United States which might account for this difference.

 

Could it be as simple as availability as most terrorists can walk to Europe from the Middle East or Northern Africa (MENA) where the United States would take a deal of swimming. That makes entry into the United States more regulated despite its presumed porous southern border with Mexico. One fact many are not aware of is that the southern border of Mexico is heavily guarded and short of bribery one does not cross without proper authorizations which in a strange manner makes that porous southern border of the United States a little safer. But there is a greater difference and it has to do with dividing the authority and assignment for responsibility to prevent terrorist strikes. The fact that the United States has an overriding security apparatus which operates nationally while each state operates locally makes all the difference. When one police force in Europe gets any evidence of a terrorist cell operating within their area, they would hopefully monitor them. But what if their plans are being sent cryptically to a cell the other end of Europe, what would the interaction appear as. Would it be as the Turkish, Israeli and American security warned the Belgians. Even with warnings, would there be in existence the infrastructure in their police to handle such intelligence. Very likely not and this needs to be made evident to those in the United States of their good fortune for being a republic binding the fifty states together in cooperation with set rules and assignments and this is their security which is lacking in Europe.

 

Let’s do a thought experiment. Imagine the United States never did become one nation and instead became fifty nations just as Europe has different nations. There would be different languages spoken in some of the nations due to the primary immigrants and no universal English preferred as was the case for over two centuries. How well would the individual nation states be at handling security? Would they have in place a unified method of securing their airports? Would they have the funding for expensive scanners and detectors for every air terminal? What would they do with individual bits of information from the many varied individual nation states to figure out a grand scale the targets for terror strikes? Remember that the United States had the CIA, the FBI, Military Intelligences, all the individual state, county, city and rural police. All together they might have been able to piece together the 9/11 attacks and prevented them. They had all the pieces and even the computer of one of the conspirators along with all their levels of security and they missed it! Europe has no overriding law enforcement which can operate freely and without any interference from local authorities. Don’t even try to claim INTERPOL which puts out its Ten Most Wanted lists and attempts to coordinate two hands clapping patty-cake from two people across the room from each other, it does not mesh well.

 

 

 

 

That is the problem in Europe, no coordinating body which can gather all the information and coordinate efforts. Even if INTERPOL had the smoking gun they would still require local police and security personnel to act to prevent any catastrophe. There was one article which got the solution correct, but it will require the nations of Europe to make a decision. Will the nations of Europe actually make an effort to cooperate if an overseeing agency is activated and placed responsible for tracking all things terror related and to whom these individual police and security agencies would necessarily need to report all leads and respond to any inquiries. Without their agreement in advance there is no reason for going through the actions as full coordination and cooperation is the key to success, just as it works, mostly, in the United States. What would rankle the nerves of the Europeans the most is that the overriding group would be NATO and would necessarily coordinate with Israeli security services in order to gain the whole picture. There would also be coordination with Egypt, Jordan and any other government willing to share solid and good information and intelligence. We all know that the European will do almost anything not to appear to react as Israel acts. They view the Israelis as paranoid lunatics who howl at the full moon and other imaginary threats. The Europeans are convinced that through respect and deference they can avoid terrorism like has been levelled against Israel, justifiably by most European thinking. Well, that same snake which the Europeans have been financing for decades has finally come home to roost and is killing Europeans and not just Jews. The time has passed where Europe needed to awaken to the threat levels they are facing and it is not too late, but it is imperative that action start and start soon to fight this rising menace. Either Europe will learn from the United States for coordinating across state lines and from the Israelis on how to implement smart security.

 

A final note on air safety. We have done our share of international flying in the past five years and have seen differing levels of security in the United States and elsewhere. We also have had more than sufficient relations with others including one friend whose plane landed in Brussels minutes after the terror attack, their ordeal was harrowing at best and maybe, just maybe, their luggage will find them again some day in the not too distant future. United, American, Southwest and whatever airlines you care to mention with one exception rely on whatever security the airport at which they fly from provides. That is pure insanity as that does not guarantee a level of expertise or efficiency that provides a safe environment for their passengers and employees. Many of these airlines met with Israeli representatives who described the means by which very few El Al aircraft has ever been successfully hijacked. The solution explained by El Al have always been regarded as the best methods for protecting passengers and aircrews but also too expensive and man-hour intensive to be utilized by these other major carriers. They claim passengers would refuse to pay the extra required for such screening while El Al does the multi-layered screening of passengers and background test their crews leading to the safest flying experience possible. Even further, the El Al aircraft are fit with Elbit Systems C-MUSIC anti-missile Protection systems, and that alone is worth the price of the fare.

 

 

 

 

The people at El Al take these incidents very personally. One of the most daring and astonishing stories is well worth reading titled How to thwart a gunman at 29,000 feet, by the only pilot who ever did. Please take the time and read this true story of one pilot who asked the right questions and used every bit of resources he had to foil an armed hijacking using guile, skill and a large dose of chutzpah. Meanwhile, if Europe is going to get a handle on the terror threat they prefer to pretend is not real, they are going to have to accept facts and deal intelligently with the threat and find a means for a coordinated effort by whatever means. NATO is simply the best suited with its current configuration and technical abilities and was designed to protect Europe from threats, that may as well include current terror threats, and let us all realize that maybe the Israelis actually know what they are dealing with and one might learn a thing or two.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Middle East News From the Other Perspective

 

With the waves of refugees and other various persons attempting to storm the fences and borders of Europe running into water cannons, hastily thrown up twelve foot fences, riot police, military forces and Heaven knows what other obstacles. It is like all of a sudden we have Apartheid Europe. The media have noted that Angela Merkel, Prime Minister of Germany, who had pledged to give refuge to eight-hundred-thousand Syrian and other refugees, has thrown up every conceivable barrier assuring Germany is closed at the borders and probably had not even allowed eight-thousand, let alone eight-hundred-thousand, refugees across her borders. Many have probably asked themselves that all important question all things in the Middle East eventually come around to, what has Israel done and how can we place the blame on Israel and force them to take in every last refugee. Well, I will give the small amounts I can remember and then an opinion or two.

 

First-off; Israel has taken in hundreds, if not thousands, of injured people from the Syrian border without any question as to for which group, side, terror outfit, civilian, innocent or guilty or even member of Bashir al-Assad’s ever diminishing Armed Services and treated them all at no cost, nursed them back to full health or the closest point possible and returned them back over the border with a few very select minority which have remained here for reasons I am not privileged to know. We have been providing these services which include performing emergency operations, transport to the many different hospitals in order to provide the best possibility for survival and recovery, and even provided some degree of physical therapy where necessary. These services have been provided free of charge but far from free from costs as many of the wounded required multiple surgeries and extensive recuperation time which was necessarily provided under special conditions for the security of the patient and the State of Israel and her people. Needless to point out that each patient had to be kept separate from any other patient from the war-torn nation as it might prove detrimental to have two patients handed over the border for medical assistance housed in the same room or even near each other in a hospital even with a twenty-four hour per day guards on their room. We desired to mend these fellow human beings and taking such risks might have proven detrimental to such ends.

 

Hopefully there are not any out in the world who expect Israel to take any refugees in from the Syrian war or the Iraq war or especially the war with the Islamic State. We hope that those we have treated will not come back at some future date and make our investment in mending their wounds suddenly become detrimental to our own people’s health and happiness, but sometimes these are the chances one takes when being decent peoples. Israel is all too experienced in being on the losing end of humanitarian gestures throughout the millennia of our existence and in the four corners of the globe and everywhere inbetween. As far as Israel taking in refugees from the violence in Syria and the devastation which has resulted, Israel had offered some refuge to two tribes of Druze and have also granted them Israeli umbrella of protection warning that actions against these Druze, after consultation and determining they desire, Israel will provide all necessary assistance for their protection. There have been discussion about having the Israeli Druze population make offers to take in these Druze from Syria, an offer which was turned down as the Druze desire to remain in their ancestral home. As far as Israel allowing Syrian refugees to enter, such would first be destructive to Israeli society and second would be a security nightmare attempting to discern which were true refugees and which were terrorist plants or other subversive individuals who would prove to be a danger to the Israeli public.

 

In other news which we have noted, news reports were leading with most articles telling of the IDF airstrike in northern Gaza on a terror weapons storage warehouse. What was finally mentioned in the third or fourth paragraph was that three rockets were launched at Ashkelon, which would have struck the heart of the city if not for being intercepted by Israel’s miraculous Iron Dome system which successfully destroyed all three rockets, and could have easily resulted in heavy loss of life. These three rockets were the exclamation point on the drib-n-drab of one rocket every other or third day until this escalation. Of course there was little if any mention of the rocket fire over the past couple of weeks as such attacks have become an awkward form of normal and as long as the projectiles do not kill anybody or earn an Israeli retaliatory strike, they do not reach the level of being newsworthy as targeting Israelis is not all that exciting. Apparently, unless the news can lead with Israel launched an attack on poor and unfortunate innocent Gazans where fortunately nobody was injured, then there can be no article. Has anybody noticed that unlike the rockets, rock attacks, recent gunfire and firebombings, the Israeli attacks seldom cause any casualties unless there is a specific target such as a ranking Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorist who is in the process of planning or training a terror squad for an attack. This is oddly intentional and makes Israel one of the few, if not only, nation to go to extreme lengths to not even have attacks which kill terrorist forces if at all possible and mainly target terror structures and supplies and almost always in the wee morning hours when all the terrorists are home sleeping soundly in their beds.

 

 

Memorial erected to commemorate the life of slain hiker
Danny Gonen three weeks after its unveiling the slab
for has been defaced by Arab vandals.

 

 

First item which is as shocking as it is disgusting was the desecration of the memorial erected to commemorate the life of slain hiker Danny Gonen three weeks after its unveiling the slab has been defaced by Arab vandals shown in the above image. There have been many recent rock attacks with on particular assault one Rosh Hashanah evening in Jerusalem which resulted in the murder of Alexander Levlovitz age 64 who lost control of his vehicle after a cinderblock sized boulder smashed through his windscreen. Meanwhile, the world including the Arab League, the King of Jordan, the Royals of Saudi Arabia, numerous United Nations officials and the same expected Western officials from NGOs and other Western entities including select governments have been complaining about the criminal violence and rioting on the Temple Mount. The facts are meaningless as almost unilaterally the demands have been for Israel to take steps to end the violence on the Temple Mount, the city of Jerusalem and the entirety of Judea and Samaria. They claim that Israel is responsible for the violence and must therefore end the violence. What has been left out on this miscarriage of justice and ignorance of the facts is the accepting blindly the Islamic accusations that Israel is responsible for all the violence and only Israel can correct the problems which will end these ever increasing waves of violence. Let’s take each of the areas of violence one at a time working from the large to the most specific.

 

The violence in Judea and Samaria has the widest range of events. These incidents are laughingly referred to as rock throwing. These projectiles are to rocks what the Saturn Five Moon launch vehicle is to a roman candle. These are rocks varying in size from as small as a hardball to as large as cinderblock and these are simply the thrown varieties. Those which are dropped from bridges are considerable larger. Also included in these “rocks” are firebombs, read Molotov Cocktails, which vary in size from twelve ounce bottles to as large as two liter or even larger bottles filled with various flammable liquids, some thickened to allow them to stick to the targets and light them on fire. These projectiles almost universally target vehicles with Israeli license plates. The people hurling these projectiles are Arab youths between age ten to twelve to well into adult ages up to even over thirty. There are also numerous tactics used in delivering these rock and firebombs with one using blocks the size of one to two cinderblocks but solid rock have likely the most imaginative method where a lookout stands around a corner looking for a likely target, preferably a vehicle with Israeli license plates and a family riding inside. When the lookout sees a preferable target they call their accomplices who are at the far end of a straight piece of road leading to the curve in the road with a hill or buildings which conceal their approach. They then accelerate attempting to reach maximum speed a short distance from the curve and the Arabs in the back of the pickup truck then hurl the rather large rock or group of smaller rocks and a firebomb or two and then make the turn at the curve, pick up their accomplice and disappear after making a maximal damaging assault. It was such an attack which injured Adele Biton causing her massive brain damage. She was almost three at the time of the attack and lived to see her next birthday and was given a party at the hospital where they had been using surgeries and physical therapy in an effort to save her young life. Adele Biton finally succumbed to her injuries within a year or so after the initial injury in a rock attack.

 

Adele Biton was almost three at the time of the attack and lived to see her next birthday and was given a party at the hospital where they had been using surgeries and physical therapy in an effort to save her young life. Adele Biton finally succumbed to her injuries within a year or so after the initial injury in a rock attack.

 

 

Moving to Jerusalem the attacks include rock attacks though the tactic of using vehicles to deliver larger rocks is almost unknown. Instead there are more rock attacks, rock ambushes, rioting, muggings, firebombings and recently shootings. There are rock ambushes used against parties entering the Mount of Olives Cemetery by the Arabs attending the Arab Schools at the top of a wall overlooking the main road leading into and out of the cemetery. There have been recent ramping of the violence in Jerusalem with shootings and Molotov Cocktails utilized in attacks between neighborhoods with Arabs victimizing Jewish residents the main direction of the assaults. There have been the uses of vehicles to strike at people waiting at train and bus stations. It was an assault within the confines of Jerusalem which caused the death of Alexander Levlovitz age 64 over the past week as well as starting one home on fire. The same kinds of attacks are daily occurrences on the Temple Mount. The Arabs have been instructed to make visiting the Temple Mount near impossible and make it into a horrific experience instead of a positive and spiritual experience. There are screaming crowds of women and men who flock surrounding Jews who ascend to the Temple Mount destroying any enjoyment. These demonstrations are under orders and financing which include Jordan and Saudi Arabia and other Arab and Islamic forces. These same forces and commanders who are giving the go ahead to assault Israelis with terrorism are the same sources with the complaints that Israel is to blame, something the world, especially Europeans, lap up like a sponge and water. These demands for Israel to put an end to the rioting on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and beyond are a collection of bald faced deceitful lying political entities attempting to garner world support for pushing Israel from the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and eventually the Middle East. They know their entire front is as false as they come and that if the world would approach these accusations honestly the Arab forces would not have a leg to stand upon. The actual target of these forces, both the perpetrators and the supportive forces from around the world is the death of every last Jews on the planet and they will not stop until they have driven the Jews into a small enclave and arranged for the annihilation of those within the enclave. That is their minimum demand and their demands only become more shrill and all-encompassing of all things anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and ultimately anti-Semitic. The only way to end their campaigns of lies is for the Israelis to use whatever force required and drive them from our rightful lands as per every treaty and having precedence over every argument which can all be found with simple searches and are things either we have already covered or will do so in the not too distant future. In the meantime please know that the left is not the friend of Israel or those who treasure Hashem and believe in Heaven as the left has no room for such people and would have them arrested and shot if they could.

 

Overnight we had a series of events which, though tragic, could have been far worse. Under the cover of early morning darkness two-thousand Jews were escorted in armored transport (busses) by IDF security forces to pray at Joseph’s Tomb (Kever Yoseph) located in Shechem (Nablus), Samaria. They went to pray and honor one of the greatest Bible figures and whose tomb, a shrine, originally was presumed to be left under Israeli control. The necessity of such precautions such as armored busses and IDF escorts became necessary after Palestinian rioting and organized assaults drove the IDF and Israelis from the entire town and then desecrated Joseph’s Tomb burning the entire contents and collapsing the dome. During that firefight in Shechem an IDF soldier was injured and the Palestinian Fatah gunmen took up positions guarding the injured soldier refusing to allow for his retrieval or treatment watching for hours as the young man slowly bled to death. Since then Kever Yoseph has been destroyed regularly and rebuilt by IDF and religious Jews. This morning we can add additional violence to the events at Joseph’s tomb as, while guarding the worshipers, approximately sixty Palestinians launched an assault on the tomb hurling rocks firebombs and other projectiles as well as rolling burning tires into the compound injuring one soldier but fortunately none of the worshipers. The young soldier was evacuated to a hospital for further treatment. While looking at the images of the desecration of Kever Yoseph, a defilement not worthy of international outrage or even a mention by the mainstream media, imagine what the front page pictures across the world would show if the same was done to the al-Aqsa Mosque.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond the Cusp