There have been a number of incidents and events coming from the Palestinian by their actions which bodes evils, hatreds, contempt, disharmony, crisis, murder, denial of humanity, religious insults, and anything else which is counter to cooperation or peaceful intents. Some of these signs have come from individual events but first the general atmosphere needs to be addressed. On the Temple Mount every time there is a number of Jews allowed to visit the holiest place on the entire planet in their faith, even as they do not appear in any way to pray or show homage by speaking, closing their eyes for more than a normal blink, standing still and looking skyward, rocking back and forth, silently move their lips, whispering, or anything that any Muslim sees that they find can be thought to display prayer, the Muslims have changed their behavior and now riot anyways attacking the Jews throwing stones and on some occasions even Molotov cocktails as they know the Israeli police will close the Temple Mount to the Jews rather than take the more difficult job of stopping the Muslim rioting. Their actions have taken on an attitude that no longer will the Muslims permit Jews to visit the Temple Mount and they will do whatever is necessary to deny Jewish rights to their holiest site. The roads of Judea and Samaria continue to be made dangerous by the continued attacking of cars with Israeli license plates throwing ten to thirty pound large sharp cornered rocks and Molotov cocktails often from cars moving in the opposite direction in order to improve the possibility of these projectiles penetrating the windshield and hopefully murdering the driver causing the vehicle to crash and possibly kill the rest of the passengers. They have set up lookouts who signal the strike car which lies waiting ahead around a bend further up the road and upon receiving the information of a vehicle with Israeli license plates, which makes the driver and passengers presumably Jewish, is approaching along with color if any additional information might be necessary to make sure the correct car is assaulted. There have been increased thefts of cattle and herds, additional fires set to destroy crops, stolen farm equipment, trees uprooted, lands claimed illegally, and general terrorist activities. This latest general increase in victimizing Israelis and Jewish Israelis in particular began soon after the reelection of United States President Obama, the appointment of Secretary of State Kerry and Secretary of Defense Hagel, the political blowback over these two appointments as not necessarily being pro-Israel and most importantly the announcement of yet another concerted effort which will spare no avenue to forge peace between the Palestinian and the Israelis through the founding of a Palestinian state. This has been the reaction to most of the previous announcements of exerting extra efforts to reopen negotiations and find a path to peace. The Palestinian Authority has also had the same reaction to every announcement of restarting the peace process. They first see how much they can force out of Israel in concessions and at the same time ramp up their vitriol and propaganda calling for more severe and higher numbers of attacks, terrorist strikes, assaults, riots, breaking through the separation barrier, destruction of Israeli property, general lawlessness and especially denial of permitting Jewish access to their holy sites within Palestinian areas which include the majority of such sites including but not limited to the Cave of the Patriarchs, Joseph’s Tomb, Rachel’s Tomb, the Temple Mount, and some of the oldest synagogues, particularly the ancient one in Jericho. But these have been some of the general activities which have made Israelis uncomfortable in exercising many of what should be normal activities; there have been some particular events within the past week which are worthy of particular mention.
This past Friday Israel Defense Forces soldier Sergeant Tomer Hazan H”yd of Bat Yam who was twenty years old was invited by a coworker from the Tzachi Basarim Restaurant in Bat Yam to visit his family and hometown and upon reaching the destination the coworker, Nadal Amar, murdered Tomer Hazan and stuffed his body in a water hole. Nadal Amar, a resident of the village of Bayt Amin which is near Kalkilya, confessed that he had kidnapped Sergeant Tomer Hazan with the intent to murder him and then trade his body for the release of terrorist prisoners, including his brother. Also discovered during the interrogation of Nadal Amar was that Tomer Hazan was not his first attempt to convince somebody to visit his town on any reason often offering some business deal or similar offers. Nadal Amar disclosed that he found Tomer Hazan to be overly trusting and easy to abduct. Making this murder even more distressing was the fact that Nadal Amar was working at the restaurant illegally as he did not have the necessary paperwork to be employed within Israel and he traveled to and from work through an area where the courts had recently ruled the separation barrier be destroyed as it made access difficult for Palestinian who had identity cards allowing them to work inside Israel. Apparently it also had been preventing those who did not have those work permits, which include a security background check before being issued, from entering Israel and the Green Line and finding employment which could allow befriending somebody and abusing trust as in this case and leading to murder.
Gabriel (Gal) Kobi H”yd of Tirat Hacarmel who was also twenty years of age was shot and killed by a Palestinian sniper in Hevron. He was murdered in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood near the Machpelah Cave (Cave of the Patriarchs). A Magen David Adom crew tended Gabriel Kobi’s wounded upper body and prepped him for the helicopter ambulance which sped him to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. The efforts to revive Gabriel Kobi were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Arab Minister of the Knesset Ahmed Tibi of the Ra’am Ta’al Party gave a speech in the plenum where he demanded that Jews never be allowed to visit the Temple Mount as there is no reason for Jews to visit the site as it is solely a holy site for Muslims because of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the lack of other holy structures than Islamic sites ever having or presently existing upon the Temple Mount. Minister Tibi often comes up with the most insulting and inflammatory rhetoric when addressing the Knesset and delights in any reaction he is able to generate. What makes his presence as a member of the Israeli parliament even more insulting is his previous position as a personal aid to Yasser Arafat, arch terrorist and terror innovator. How it is possible for Ahmed Tibi to now sit on the Knesset and make speeches, propose legislation, vote as an Israeli parliamentarian and hold anything other than a prison cell after being the personal aid to the most vile terror master with the blood of thousands of Jews and Israelis on his hands and a record of graft and theft from the Palestinian people and government where he stole billions of dollars so his wife could live a life of luxury beyond belief in Paris and completely unimaginable. Yet it is Ahmed Tibi himself along with another Arab Minister of the Knesset, Haneen Zoabi who was on the Mavi Marmara and was found to have known of their plan to attack IDF personnel and simply allowed the attacks to occur, who both often make speeches in the Knesset and around the world when giving speeches claiming that Israel discriminates against Arabs refusing them representation or rights within Israeli society. When somebody who sits in the Knesset claims that they and those like them are prohibited from representation in the Israeli government, how can anything they utter be given credence, yet the mainstream world media hangs on their every utterance and give them headlines and the respect of a saint. This call by Ahmed Tibi for Jews to be forbidden from visitation on the Temple Mount because there has never been any Jewish history on the Temple Mount or, as he has claimed before, validity to any Jewish claims to Jerusalem. These events and so much more makes the idea that Israel inform the Palestinian authority and the world that should the current negotiations once again fail to produce peace and a final agreement, then Israel will consider the Oslo Accords Agreement a dead letter that has become null and void.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 