The current rendition of a Temple Mount status-quo includes the understanding that whenever rioting on the Temple Mount strikes, then Jews must be banned from accessing the Temple Mount, is quite removed from the initial status-quo from right after the Six Day War in the first weeks of June 1967. We discussed this in yesterday’s article to some depth and will hopefully add more to the discussion here. We find the discussions, demands, condemnations and exclamations between politicians, be they Jordanians speaking for the Waqf which is run with Jordanian oversight, the Arab Palestinians who constantly make demands and incite violence, Arab leaders including the Arab League who simply add fodder for the rioting masses, the United Nations leaders who are stuck on blame Israel first and always, and defensive Israeli politicians who try and sound serious and upset while apologizing all to be useless in altering the volatile situations and providing a final solution which will end the current insanity. The truth of the current state of affairs is that the Arabs are in the process of incitement and attempts at expanding their boundaries to outside the walls of the Temple Mount. The incitement has been instigated and inflamed by Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate inciter, and other Arab Palestinian Authority (PA) government officers with assistance from Hamas out of Gaza.
The initial violence which has led to where we now are facing the Third Intifada began just before Rosh Hashanah in efforts planned well ahead of time to prevent Jews ascending to the Temple Mount during the Jewish High Holidays. The al-Aqsa Mosque played a very important part in the instigations and the actual rioting being the main base and armory providing safe refuge for the rioters to retreat beyond the reach of Israeli Security Police and to store rocks, cinderblocks, pyrotechnics, and Molotov cocktail making supplies among other weaponry and supplies (pictured below). The instigation is identical to the cry which began the rioting in 1929 murder spree in Hevron and Jerusalem and again across the entirety of the 1930s which was the lamentation that the Jews were violating the al-Aqsa Mosque. In his speech Abbas claimed that, “The al-Aqsa (Mosque) is ours, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is ours (as belonging to the Arab Palestinians), and they (Jews) have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem.” The complete video from Palestinian Media Watch can be viewed right below the al-Aqsa picture set.
The pre-Rosh Hashanah violence did have pretty much the effect desired as free access to the Temple Mount was not permitted and when the first few Jews were permitted onto the Temple Mount Arab women descended upon them calling them names, screaming “Allahu Akbar” at the top of their lungs and spitting with shoving whenever possible and the rioters mounted a simultaneous assault coming out from the al-Aqsa Mosque armed with large rocks, fireworks and Molotov cocktails with backing by others with steel pipes and clubs which these added pressures forcing the cancellation of further visits until things calmed and when they attempted another the escalation was again immediate and final. The rioting continued with it ramping still more fevered than before heading into Yom Kippur and continued through Sukkot and beyond. The rioting also was accompanied by attacks across all of Israel both within and outside the Green Line. There were attacks even in Tel Aviv including two assaults in a Tel Aviv neighborhood called Ra’anana which occurred within minutes of each other. In both instances there were four injured in the second attack after one was injured in the first before a number of others in the immediate vicinity intervened and subdued the terrorist forcing him to remain on the ground until police arrived and pushed the crowds back and arrested the ‘suspect’ while in the other attack the terrorist ran from the scene and was subdued at a short distance and turned over to police. Below is a video which caught the second terror assault where four people were stabbed in quick succession before the assailant continued to flee the scene only to be subdued by a number of other pedestrians and turned over to police.
The rioting has included a growing number of stabbings, some shooting attacks, the use of vehicles to run over people walking on sidewalks or waiting for mass transit more often than not at bus stops as most train and light rail stops have been fortified against such attacks after some horrific terrorist acts earlier this year. These transit stops which were fortified with steel and concrete barriers were relatively few in number compared to the number of bus stops across all of Israel and fortifying these will take a large outlay of funds and probably years to complete. Fortifying bus stops will likely cost even more than it did to fortify schools which were determined to be most vulnerable to being struck by Hamas and other rockets which continue to be fired into Israel at a rate of anywhere from two or three to a half dozen each week with nary a week going by without at least one attempt. Fortunately, there have been a greater than normal percentage of rockets which have not cleared Gaza and instead have hit locations within Gaza and have struck a number of residences and a few other buildings within Gaza. We have been waiting for the United Nations to demand Israel fortify buildings in Gaza as there were calls for Israel to share some of the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries (launch of interceptor pictured below) with Hamas so Hamas could guard Gaza from rockets and artillery. The actual words, according to Haaretz, from High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay were, “They have not only provided the heavy weaponry which is now being used by Israel in Gaza but they’ve also provided almost one-billion dollars in providing the ‘Iron Domes’ to protect the Israelis from rocket attacks. But no such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling.”
Iron Dome Launch to Intercept Rockets Originating from Gaza
which is Under Hamas Governance and Held Responsible for all
Rockets by Israel Regardless of Who Actually Launches Rockets
The latest information about the levels of violence and what part Hamas can play was defined in their call for Hamas terrorists who live in Judea and Samaria to assault Israelis using suicidal homicide bombing attacks instead of Hamas returning to a rocket onslaught out of Gaza. Their reasoning for not starting another rocket offensive was, according to the Hamas rumor mill, they did not want to outshine the efforts currently being performed by Fatah and other PA aligned groups with the stabbings and using vehicles to injure and murder Israelis, especially Jews. The one complaint was that nobody was attempting to use bombs even if it became necessary to use suicidal homicide bombing attacks which they then made the request for Hamas operatives to immediately start to work with whoever was required to carry out such attacks in the immediate future. Should this actually signal the next ramping in the violence it may bring a definitive series of steps by Israeli security and IDF forces in order to put an end to the slowly rising level of attacks and do what will eventually be necessary. No matter how long the leadership is willing to put up with the violence, it has driven many an Israeli to the point of distraction and they have already started demanding that the government take the required steps to return calm and make the streets and bus stops and everything else safe again before there is an attack whose results are so horrific that the government will have no choice but to act. It would really be preferred for things not to escalate any further and for the government to cut the IDF, Shin Bet, Police and Border Patrol free to put an end to the violence and have them start by arresting Mahmoud Abbas, Saab Erekat and the rest of the Fatah, PA, PLO and al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades leaders and cut the head off of this terror snake. Enough was enough when the violence just continued to ramp through the High Holidays and now has turned to general mayhem across the width and breadth of Israel and the areas beyond the Green Line.
The reason that the world will be upset is ridiculous as we all know they will be upset with anything the Jews in Israel do to protect themselves and will only accept Jews who allow others to murder them at will and simply plead for our betters to come and save us. That is not the kind of Jew who lives in Israel and it is time for our leaders to have the same grit that the citizens have shown when faced with armed terrorists and they charge them in numbers and subdue them despite the danger or the fear of what the world will think. We honestly do not care what the world may think. We care about what we think and we think that this is our homeland, all of it from the Sea to the River and it has gone beyond time we enforced that and took control of our future taking it in our hands. We need to take responsibility for our lands and take care of the threats which reside within and without, and there are legions of both and we recognize this. We know that the threat will only increase and grow for as long as we allow the Arab threat from within our homeland to continue with their murderous defiance, and we have seen where many of the latest terrorist attackers come from within Green Line Israel and the world is not at ease that we arrest them any more than when we arrest Hamas and Fatah terrorists from within Arab Palestinian areas. The world can rot for all that matters here; what matters here is our safety and our future and the government making both as promising as possible. The first step to that promise is to end the murderous terrorisms from all sources. If that means taking control of all of Judea and Samaria, then get it done now as there will be no better time. Should we wait we will end up facing armies of Europe and the United States and who knows who else. As Israel we have One Ally and He sits on high and sees all that we do. Hashem is likely very sad at our timidity and lack of faith that He is with us and wants us to take care of the land, all the lands which He entrusted to us. What more reason could one need beyond Hashem commanded us to take, keep and flourish in His lands for as long as we followed the commandments and kept the covenant and it is time to do both. The people of Israel are ready and Hashem is always ready for when we act boldly and in His name and with the blessings of Hashem, so what are you waiting for, the people to rise up on their own? That you cannot afford and we know that as well which is why it is necessary for the leadership to act and let the world cry and fume, at least we will have served Hashem, Baruch Hashem.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 