If you want to know what the Palestinian leadership has in the planning stage, all one need do is listen to what they are claiming Israel is doing to them. It pretty much is that simple. The occasional exception comes when there actually is a lone wolf perpetrating an original act of terrorism which they will then in turn call for others to also act in kind. The latest example of this came when a Hamas member ran down people waiting at a light rail station. The very next day Mahmoud Abbas and other Fatah along with Hamas leadership called for more terrorist strikes by running people over with cars and there was a second similar attack that day. The latest invective came from Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, via Twitter where in a series of tweets he threatened Israel as he claimed in one tweet, “This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of #Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated.” And in another tweet he called for the arming of every Palestinian because of, as he tweeted, “The only means to confront a barbaric regime like #Israel is arming West Bank.”
As the Iranian leader continued he accused Israel of murdering Arafat in the tweet that claimed, “We’ve seen 100s of times that #Israel doesn’t abide by #peace. They didn’t even tolerate Arafat who cooperated w/them & poisoned him to death.” Then Ayatollah Khamenei got to the point where he actually signaled Iranian intentions to include Abbas and the West Bank Palestinians as an additional arm of the Iranian terror machine in a tweet reading, “#West Bank should be armed just like #Gaza. Friends of Palestine should do their best to arm People in West Bank.” This is simply a more official statement by the Iranian leadership laying down their idea of a moral defense for the arming of the Palestinians in the Palestinian Authority, Fatah and other terrorists operating in Judea and Samaria, or as he refers to them using a Jordanian invention, West Bank, to be armed which now the Iranians will take upon themselves to so arm the Palestinian terror forces as they have the Gazan forces of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This will hopefully be taken by Israeli security forces as a warning of things to come and will strengthen their border personnel who are responsible for surveillance and interdiction of smuggling of arms across the borders into Judea and Samaria.
The probable intentions of the Iranians is to transform Judea and Samaria into a heightened and more armed terrorist state which will drive the Israelis out of any places beyond the Green Line, the armistice lines from the 1948-9 war to annihilate the new state of Israel which failed despite the forces from a half-dozen or so nation’s armies attacking the nascent state of Israel the very day of her founding. These threats were also the anticipated response to the recent news reports that United States President Obama had written a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offering him a more general acceptance for granting Iran a sweeter nuclear deal in exchange for their active participation in the efforts against ISIS in Iraq. This was simply a sign of the lack of cooperation the United States could expect claiming that Iran would assist the United States efforts by doing only those acts which would expand Iranian influence and hegemony in the Middle East.
Part of this defiant Iranian message may be a negative response to the advances of President Obama; it is also a bald-faced and open threat to Israel and must be taken only as such by the Israelis. Israel shares little concern for the half-hearted support being given to the forces fighting ISIS though any support for those opposing ISIS is a step in the right direction. Israeli attentions and concerns must remain for now somewhat closer to home as these were not idle Iranian threats. It has been a known fact that Mahmoud Abbas was jealous of the aid and training offered by the Iranians to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist forces in Gaza and wantonly desired the same deal for arming for his own terrorist forces, such as the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, in the West Bank. Now it appears that Abbas has gotten his wishes fulfilled at the price of now joining the other terror forces allied against Israel and under Iranian control, the price for the arms and other support from Iran. Nothing comes free of strings attached and arming the Palestinians of the West Bank, who are actively fighting Israel, is no exception and now Abbas will need to accustom himself for taking orders on when to attack and how to attack Israelis or their interests as well as when they are free to launch major offensives which intensify such attacks.
This may also be the final straw declaring another Intifada has been officially launched. Many Israelis already knew that the current increasing in rioting, assaults, rock throwing and other attacks in Jerusalem and beyond were being generally orchestrated through the incitement by the Palestinian Authority and its component terror organizers. They started referring to the increased levels of violence as the ‘Silent Intifada.’ Where many of those who were the first to reference acts of violence as the silent intifada referred to the escalation of the rock throwing from roadside attacks to more sophisticated jousting rocks assaults where a concealed lookout would signal their accomplices of a car with Israeli license plates passing their position which started the attack as the vehicle containing rock throwers accelerated to high speed heading in the opposite direction of the target vehicle where the rocks were launched right before the two vehicles passed one another aiming most often for the driver’s side of the windshield. The added speed from using a moving vehicle added great amounts of momentum making the rocks and even cinderblocks more effective and definitely potentially fatal if they struck people inside of the victim’s vehicle.
The terminology silent intifada gained wider acceptance as assaults by groups of Jerusalem Arab teens would assault individual Jews, couples, and even small numbers of women in areas of Jerusalem near the Arab neighborhoods and often on the Mount Scopus Campus of the Hebrew University. The general acceptance of the terminology came with the increased and obviously premeditated and highly organized daily rioting on the Temple Mount which ran in congruence with propaganda by Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other terror leadership claiming the Jews must be denied access to the Temple Mount by any and all means necessary. Abbas went so far as to refer to the Jews in derogatory terms referencing Jews visiting the Temple Mount as the equivalence to herds of beasts stampeding on the al-Aqsa Mosque. The reference of al-Aqsa Mosque has now become defined as anywhere on the Temple Mount. This allows for the claims that the Jews who come onto the Temple Mount are entering the mosque and defiling the mosque simply by their presence within the boundaries of the Temple Mount. Using such terminology is also a coded message for preselected groups to initiate a prolonged series of violent riots on the Temple Mount which is almost always rewarded by the security forces closing access to the Temple Mount for Jews.
So far the response from Prime Minister Netanyahu has been to promise the King of Jordan and even the high officials of the European Union that Israel will enforce the status quo on the Temple Mount. The status quo is politic-speak for surrender all rights to the Temple Mount solely to the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular. The fact is these statements are a confirmation of acceptance of Dhimmi status for Jews specifically and all non-Muslims in general when it comes to being permitted access to the Temple Mount and assures that as Dhimmis Jews will never ever say prayers or otherwise defile the Islamic purity and holiness of the Temple Mount. Thus far a number of Ministers of the Knesset have defied the suggestion from Prime Minister Netanyahu to avoid making the situation worse by refraining visiting the Temple Mount, and never mention the idea that the Israeli government would ever pass a law granting all equal rights on the Temple Mount. They and all of Israel have been told by their Prime Minister that the Jews have given their claims to the Temple Mount to a small council appointed by the government of Jordan called the Waqf and that Jews are to accept any decisions regarding their rights to visit and even, dare I say it, pray while upon the Temple Mount. The supposition is by surrendering completely the violent riots will cease and everything can calm down and return to normal. The problem is this surrender by Prime Minister Netanyahu makes return to normal impossible as he has basically stated that the government of Israel agrees with the Islamic demands that Jews be forbidden from defiling the al-Aqsa Mosque by which the Waqf, Jordanian King Abdullah II, and the Palestinian leadership mean the entirety of the Temple Mount to be completely off limits to Jews.
The surrendering of Jewish rights within Israel and making the Temple Mount outside of Israeli laws is a dangerous step and will not accomplish the desired end to the rioting on the Temple Mount or elsewhere in Jerusalem. The rioting is designed to drive the Israelis from not only the Temple Mount but from all of East Jerusalem, the Old City, Judea, Samaria and eventually from all of Israel itself. There will no longer be any act which the Israeli government will be capable of doing that will satiate the Arab hunger to drive the Jews from what they believe is their holy lands from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Prime Minister Netanyahu gained nothing and may have instead further reinforced the Palestinian tactic of excessive violence by rewarding them with surrender. Now the Palestinian leadership will continue to broaden and intensify the violence in order to gain further concessions which will only whet their appetites for more concessions through violent rioting. The only way to end this cycle of violence is to firmly enforce Israeli rights and equality before the law. The Supreme Court of Israel has already ruled more than once that the Jews have equal rights to access and prayer on the Temple Mount as it is within Israel thus must confirm to Israeli laws of equality, which means equal rights, equal responsibility and equal treatment under the law. This was applied strictly to Jewish rights to visit and to pray on the Temple Mount with no regard to any wishes or dreams expressed by the Waqf or anybody else. This rioting must not be rewarded otherwise we will start to see such rioting in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Haifa, Ashdod, Eilat and across all of Israel which will lead to a confrontation Israel has worked so diligently to avoid. Israel can no longer avoid the coming waves of violence by timidity; Israel must meet the coming spread of riotous violence with firmness and enforcement of the rule of law fairly and equally against all violence be it committed by Arabs, Jews or anyone else. For the immediate future expect to hear Mahmoud Abbas not only preaching violence for the Palestinians but also calling out the Israeli Arab population to riot and throw the Jews from within their places and eventually from all places. Eventually surrender will no longer be possible so it should not become Israeli policy now or at any time as if Israeli leadership behaves as would any Dhimmi would be expected to act, how then can any Israel retain their pride and by consequence their rights as equals. We can only be as strong as our government so our government must be as firm in enforcing Israelis rights so that Israelis themselves can be expected to hold their own against these threats. A strong backbone and firm reliance on our sacred rights, honor and the virtue of prayer will see us through this coming crisis. One last thing Mr. Prime Minister, if you will stand proud we will be there with you, if you fail us now we will be there without you.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 