Meandering Thoughts on the Israeli Front Lines

 

Let us start with the United Nations and before reporting on the predictably less wonderful reports refer to yesterday’s article which will be right below this or on the top of the next page and is titled Historic First Tashlich Observed at the United Nations which told about the using of a Jewish tradition for casting away sins by throwing bread upon the waters. The story related how a European Christian group called Forum for Cultural Diplomacy made all the arrangements which was something of a pleasant surprise. The service can be viewed at the article and is just under twelve minutes long. Of course this event was arranged very tactically to coincide with the opening ceremonies for the United Nations General Assembly and all the unbelievable garbage which will ensue. It is awful enough to hear Iranian President Rowhani give a speech calling for the rest of the world to support and join Iran in fighting terrorism across the globe. Never mind that Iran is or has been one of the main benefactors for Hamas and is the lifeline for Hezballah and Syrian Dictator Bashir Assad because these are not terrorists or evil dictators, they are necessary allies in fighting what is being billed as a greater terror threat, the Islamic State. Good parts of the effectiveness of the Islamic State are the weapons, particularly the Abrams heavy battle tanks and other armored vehicles and artillery and other weapons systems they were all but gifted when the Iraqi Army, and we use the word army loosely, simply dropped or disembarked from their equipment and vehicles and fled to try and remove their fatigues and melt into the civilian population. Now Russia has taken the initiative and will be the benefactor by saving the world from the Islamic State while rearming Hezballah and Assad and giving them top flight groups and front line units to assist if not carry the fight. Meanwhile President Obama is steadfastly sticking to his guns and demanding the Assad be dethroned if Russia expects the United States to assist while still maintaining that he has no coherent plan to fight the Islamic State. Maybe somebody should check with the Pentagon as I am quite sure they have a virtual plethora of plans on how to eradicate the Islamic State. Perhaps some brave soul might want to take President Obama across the Potomac River and assist him on finding that huge building which has four walls and a spare, the Pentagon; because it is obvious he has not consulted his General Staff Officers.

 

We will be hearing from Mahmoud Abbas who will talk about the hardships he suffers and how those mean Israelis will not surrender completely and that the entire world should assist his Fatah run Arab Palestinian Authority to murder the six-million plus Jews in Israel in order to have his whole State of Palestine built on the graves of the Israeli peoples, Christians, Jews, Baha’i, and potentially many Muslims as well. There will be the European delegates demanding financial and other assistance in handling their Muslim invaders who are not there due to anything beyond having the Quran swallow up the Bible and impose Sharia as soon as they have sufficient numbers in any area. If these Muslim ‘refugees’ can be located in various places in small numbers such that they do not have a sizeable percentage of any area in which they have been placed because if any nation takes the shorter route and simply places large numbers of these Muslims in a small area they will turn it into little Afghanistan or wee little Pakistan or even the corner that is like Syria and Libya and all of these areas will become Muslim only areas where even the police, ambulances and firefighters fear to tread. For those in the United States, do not fear because President Obama is considering taking a couple of hundreds of thousands of these displaced and destitute refugees and setting them up with their own communities outside or within any number of United States major cities. Further, we guess if they claim to be bring hundreds of thousands they will more than likely integrate anywhere from three to twenty million before President Obama leaves office and it will be done completely through the Immigration and Naturalization Service and a number of secret Executive Orders which President Obama will have sealed so they never see the light of day claiming they are of national importance and as such must not be released for general knowledge.

 

Then there will be the denunciation ceremonies where the United States and Israel are serially and solely sentenced for presumed serious crimes of not bending far enough thus allowing all freedoms to be abolished and many lives left unprotected from the purification of their societies by their enemies who hold a tyrannical majority in the General Assembly. The Israeli condemnations almost all have to do with findings from Human Rights NGOs and complaints from Mahmoud Abbas and the other Arab leadership of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and any others who desire jumping in. One can bet there will be a few suggestions from Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and potentially Jordan about the rioting on the Temple Mount, rioting by Muslim youths directed by Hamas leadership but Jordan wants Israel to just hand over the Temple Mount and East Jerusalem otherwise the violence will continue. But there will be nothing truly new about the attempt to dismember Israel by the cutthroats from the Arab world plus Iran and a few other Islamic fundamentalist leaders. Then there are the condemnations of the United States and as usual they will all pass just as the ones condemning Israel will all pass. My favorite is the denunciation of the United States embargo on Cuba which, according to the United Nations General Assembly, is the principle and driving force behind Cuba’s sagging economy, declining wealth, shortfalls in food production and every other conceivable ill of which Cuba is the shining example of a degraded and unfree dictatorial regressive regime such as the Castro’s apply with an iron fist. The passage of this motion was such a certainty that the vote to censure the United States embargo on Cuba passed on a vote of one-hundred-eighty-eight to two. It has been intimated in reports that President Obama will direct the United States Ambassador to the United Nations simply abstain as that, according to the President, will deny the motion of any merit. Even soon to be ex-Speaker John Boehner said about the president’s plan was to point out that President Obama has a “responsibility to defend US law and that’s what {he} should do.” We should fully expect that this year the vote will register as one-hundred-eighty-eight to one with one abstention. Just in case you are wondering who is that one who defends the honor of the United States and will very likely be the only nation to stand this year and was the sole supporter voting with the United States against the sanction last year is, you probably already guessed, it is Israel. The Associated Press reported on Monday, and some congressional leaders are aghast that President Obama would consider shirking his sovereign obligation. “It is unheard-of for a UN member state not to oppose resolutions critical of its own laws,” the Associated Press reported on Monday. Americans need look no further than that vote where the European Parliaments vote against the United States and it is only Israel who will stand for the righteousness of the United States and the principles behind the Cuban embargo as the only weapon one can wield which will have any effect.

 

Lastly I wish to report to my readers about a situation which has been ignored by the mainstream media as they have become complacent and it is partially the fault of the Israeli government and their plan to make something which is of great import, especially to the people living with this threat, but has become the run of the mill, every day experience which has simply become an acceptable level of violence and there is the presumed retribution, what more could one demand? What I am talking about is the drip, drip, drip Chinese water treatment which is a form of torture and in this case we replace the droplets of water with a rocket fired out of Gaza aimed at Israeli cities, though restricted pretty much to no further than Tel Aviv with an occasional rocket launched towards Jerusalem. The authorities believe and have come to expect that there will be the constant need for an Iron Dome battery to be placed where intelligence believes the next rocket will be targeting. The Israeli public, especially in Ashdod, one of the favorite targets for these rockets, are furious with the lack of resolve and the business as usual and they are expected to go about their lives relying on the Iron Dome to protect them and that not even every rocket is replied to with an Israeli airstrike or artillery fire striking an empty warehouse, somebody’s barn which had stored rocket parts or other such representative target which is pretty much guaranteed to not have anyone anywhere near the target when bombed. This is intolerable for the people under such a threat and is probably made all the worse by the alarms not being sounded when the rocket launch had been detected and the target assessed and if necessary shot out of the sky by the Iran Dome systems.

 

 

 

 

So why am I complaining about something which is apparently being addressed and the government is right on top of this situation and what do I really want, another Gaza War? I complain because the people of Ashdod are upset and have petitioned the government and the media to report and act on this plight, this curse which they must endure and be brave little citizens and soldier on, as one might have instructed the citizens of London during the blitz, but at least then their government was in a state of war, certainly you would not desire another War in Gaza. Those making this analogy are doing what President Obama did with the Iran agreement and amplifying greatly the alternative and refusing to allow for any mitigating and other paths to be compared, the debate was agreement or war. Here the Israeli government is implying that the only alternative to their current action of punishing Hamas or Islamic Jihad by exploding one of their weapons storage locations and only after assuring that nobody is at the target and if there is we wait until they depart. After all, the argument goes, these rockets are being intercepted and the people launching them may not actually be members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad and may be trying to exacerbate the situation and forcing Israel into another war where Israel wins the battle and damages the terror infrastructure. This is acceptable because the terrorists know that Iran and Saudi Arabia will build or send replacements for the destroyed infrastructure. Their actual aim is to make Israel pay such a price in the media with the pictures of Gazans whose homes were destroyed and their plight making the news, especially in left wing reports like the editorial board at Haaretz or the New York Times might write as there is always room for the human tragedy stories to pluck the world’s heartstrings and demonize Israel. The truth is there is a far more effective way to force an end to these rocket launches or at least have Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership trying to be far more effective in preventing rockets being fired as there can be a real threat to their peace and quiet should these aggressions continue. I agree there is no real reason to open a war footage over three or four rockets fired into Israel every week, there are bigger fish to fry with the Temple Mount rioting being the tragedy du jour for which Israel has been the target of a lynching by the media. A little coverage on that in a moment. The way to end this Chinese rocket treatment with a constant drumbeat of launch-intercept, launch-intercept, launch-intercept such that three or four times every week this continues and can be brought to a halt simply by targeting the leadership of Islamic Jihad and Hamas. When we respond by bombing a shed where aluminum has been stored and reserved to make more rockets, they simply import more aluminum under the world sponsored with full European and American financing and protection and continue as if nothing happened and nothing was lost, as in reality it changed nothing. Hamas and Islamic Jihad do not care if the Israeli response is an unmanned and basically empty structure as that is an acceptable price that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have decided to absorb that punishment for the privilege of shooting rockets at Israel. Target the leadership and the rockets will truly be prevented by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as each reprisal actually costs the leaders dearly as each one is wiped from the equation as a real and effective form of reaction which will prevent the next rocket. If the world cries for the poor Hamas and Islamic Jihad being targeted in response for rockets fired at Israel, then we can simply let them cry and response that if they want the targeting of jihadist leaders, all they need do is convince Hamas and Islamic Jihad to actually prevent any, and we mean any, rocket from being fired into Israel as there would be a real cost to Hamas and friends.

 

 

 

 

The Temple Mount situation has become a war zone with actual barricades constructed to give the rioters a protected and armored area from which to launch pyrotechnics and hurl rocks and bricks and to sling good sized stones at police with many of these tactics causing severe injury to the police and security personnel. Meanwhile there has been little if any response to the accusations by Jordanian King and others blaming Israel for the violence. This is a similar form of blaming the victim for having the audacity to be where the crime against them is being committed as if to cry that if only they would never go out to places where such threats are, then the threats would stop. This demand is a demand for Israel to surrender the Temple Mount and allow the Muslim behavior, the Muslim rioters and their violence to succeed and chase the Jews from the Temple Mount so that it can be claimed that the Jews do not value the Temple Mount so it must not have any significance to them proving the two Temples never existed and are just fairy tales for children which makes them proud as if such events as in the Bible are at all true. The answer they should receive is that the Bible is accurate and true and you know the two Temples did indeed stand on the Temple Mount a good twenty-five-hundred years before Islam was even founded and the Jewish People have worshipped on those holy grounds which you desecrate not only with these rioting but whenever you play soccer or other games on the Temple Mount plaza and other actions one would never see done by the Israelis to any holy grounds.

 

 

 

There is no easy path to treat these rioters as they are being stirred up and led by some hardcore mercenaries who assist in arming and planning the violence to make it as photogenic as possible and even take the pictures we desire ourselves and have our own stringers sell our propaganda shots to the media which is hungrily eaten-up by the European mainstream media and even at time in the United States this story is told, that the poor and victimized, they have to be victims, have been denied their holy right for respect of their holy site which covers the entire Temple Mount and not just the area around the structure. Further, the only story which must be told is how the Islamic al-Aqsa Mosque is being desecrated as the pictures depict. That is true but their state of disrepair is a direct result of their using the al-Aqsa Mosque as an armory and a fortified fallback position from which one can still attempt to fire pyrotechnics at the police. The best part is the media has taken up the rioters cause and for a simple reason, the Israeli leadership is bankrupt when it comes to opposing the violence from the many terror groups and where there is no peace plan other than the Jews cutting their own throats and allowing the Arabs to overrun the entirety of Israel, that is the sole way to quell the riots, to simple cease to exist. The Hamas charter calls for Jihad until every Jew on planet Earth has been murdered. It cannot be stated any more clearly what is driving the violence; it is the existence of Israel and of Jews on the face of this Earth. The rioters’ desire is to prevent Jewish access to the Temple Mount through violent confrontations and rioting and the authorities granting them the exact situational reward they are rioting to create so they have a means to achieve no Jews visiting the Temple Mount as long as they riot. Simply allow Jews free access to the Temple Mount from any entrance, just as any Muslim is allowed, and permit Jewish prayers on the Temple Mount, both private and group prayers led by a Rabbi giving the Jews equal rights, nothing special, just equality. The Muslims are demanding they be granted superior rights by the denying the Jews their rights, this must not be permitted to succeed. The rioting will cease once all peoples, Jews, Druze, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Baha’I, Hindus and even atheists are permitted free access to the Temple Mount and everybody is permitted to pray, visit, marvel at the holy structures and even take pictures. There should be a limit that prevents desecration of any one sight by allowing each holy place to define who is permitted into their areas and finally not permitting the playing of soccer or other similar pursuits which would detract from the decorum which must be expected and enforced at this holiest of holy places.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Recognizing the End of America

 

The First question we need answer is can, and if so how, the United States return to being the moral leader of the free world. Unfortunately it will not be so easy as to return to acting as a leader or changing its retreat from the forefront and taking up the banner dropped January 20, 2009 when President Obama was sworn into office and made his very first phone call from the Oval Office. One can learn a lot about the direction the Presidency will take going forward by paying attention to the smallest of things, an off the cuff comment, the wistful glances at the least opportune times, immediate reactions when one is caught off their guard and acts from deep within; but none are more telling than finding out what one places their most important relations which can be ascertained by often the simplest of actions. The telling act by any President is the order in which they place their first phone call from the Oval Office on Inauguration Day. Newly elected and just having taken the oath of office, twice we find out though stories on why and what was different the second time vary, President Obama did what likely every President has as soon as they get a chance, they go into the Oval Office and sit behind the resolute desk and take in the view of the most important office in the world and then it hits them, they are the most important person in the world right then and there before doing anything to prove themselves. Then they take the phone and make that all important first phone call from the seat of power. Who they call and in what order is an important stage for realizing what direction and the importance of issues and relations are all revealed over that first week and the phone calls they make, the people they arrange to meet, and the people they have closest to them assisting their sorting out who is responsible for what, the attention paid to those first briefings and their first time for each function. More often than not it takes six months to figure out which direction a Presidency has set for itself. Not so much with President Obama.

 

 

Abbas and Obama Handshake with Netanyahu Watching at Opening of Peace Talks where the three met for a photo-op announcing the start of peace talks brought on with ten month building freeze as enticement, but Abbas never negotiated except to demand officially announced permanent building freeze which Netanyahu agreed to permanent stealth freeze but not announced. Abbas and Obama have pressed for announced freeze to ruin Bibi’s political future and bring down present government hoping Labor-Livni government will win next time.

 

What President Obama placed his highest emphasis on was apparent as soon as he finished pressing that last number for that all important first phone call; that was the first step in foreign policy agenda which has not strayed one iota from that initial act. So, who did President Obama call with that first phone call after walking into the Oval Office and seating himself down in the leather bound chair behind the massive resolute desk and reached for the receiver and punched in that first number making a call to a leader outside of the United States, what did it say about the forty-fourth President? Well, the fact he called somebody overseas, we know that he had at least one foreign agenda item at the top of his list of priorities. That the call was reportedly of a friendly and possibly defined as jovial told us he had called somebody he felt comfortable talking with and with whom he could be at ease and lastly, that the President called the person by their first name he was talking to what might be termed a friend who thusly indicated that if this said anything about President Obama and foreign policy it was that this was very likely an area the President placed great importance and emphasis for the President’s agenda. So, who received this all important phone call which was so potentially revealing about the Presidency that unfolded over those first hours on that all important day of firsts? That was the most shocking and gave many a jolt and served as a clarion wake-up bell as it placed a shroud of doubts which actions over the next few months and beyond reverberated the importance the President himself placed on his relations with the recipient of that first phone call, Mahmoud Abbas.

 

We were never made aware of how long it was before President Obama placed his call to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu but we estimate it was not until much further into his Presidency and we suspect that first call was likely made out of necessity rather than cordial relations. We were told that Prime Minister Netanyahu did call to extend warm greetings and wished the President well but we were never informed by either party whether the two actually spoke or if the phone call was simply registered along with the myriad of other similar phone calls. Armed with the information available we have Mahmoud Abbas as the very first person President Obama called and that he placed this call from the Oval Office later in the afternoon when President Obama first visited his new office and that it was the only call made during that first visit though such is unconfirmed and will likely remain as such. One thing which has been validated by actions is that the first phone call was a good measure of the man who had just taken the oath of office and would preside over the most influential position and force on the world’s stage. It did not take much longer before the foreign policy agenda began to emerge from behind that shroud of uncertainty when the President gave his speech from Cairo. The affirmations that President Obama was going to be far more preoccupied with the Middle East and promoting an agenda deeply steeped as his preeminent “Hope and Change” agenda which would result in far more change and turmoil over the ensuing years.

 

The next shoe to fall came over the President’s presumed backing for forcing a peace between Israel and the Arabs and that President Obama was willing to place his office squarely behind Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab Palestinian claims for statehood when the President came out pressing Israel to return to the negotiations table and to once again demanding Israel make concessions in order to gain the cooperation of Mahmoud Abbas because if he did not get some guarantees up front, what was the use of his even negotiating. There were no doubts that Israel would want to negotiated, Israel was always ready to negotiate. The offer was a fateful one as it had never been rescinded since that initial promise to a building freeze for ten months while the negotiations would presumably work through to an actual final agreement. Why would it not as here we had a United States President who was ready to assist the two sides in reaching an agreement, maybe too interested in reaching an agreement. Prime Minister Netanyahu took an unprecedented position and froze all building in Judea and Samaria which was announced and also in East Jerusalem though this was an under the table promise which for political reasons could not be made public. The first nine months passed and the sole meeting had been the customary photo-op and then Abbas refused to negotiate and instead spent that entire time demanding that the building freeze be made permanent and to continue in perpetuity until a final agreement could be reached. Suddenly Mahmoud Abbas after about three months of insisting on a permanent building freeze slightly altered his terms and now demanded such a freeze be not only the Israeli unofficial policy but that it be announced for all the world to witness this concession, unprecedented concession, had been forced by Mahmoud Abbas. It seemingly was all about Abbas parading around with streamers flowing off his cape announcing concessions he had forced and less about peace and actual negotiations. Over time it became apparent that Prime Minister Netanyahu had given his word to President Obama that there would be a building freeze in place on all of Judea, Samaria and even East Jerusalem though it would be a silent unannounced freeze and would often take form to appear as if building was imminent but that he, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Moshe Ya’alon, would continue to enforce a silent building freeze in order to get Mahmoud Abbas to the negotiations table. After nine of the ten months of announced building freeze had passed, Abbas continued to demand assurances and an announced permanent freeze knowing that the minute such an announcement was made that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political career was over. Netanyahu also knew this and so the unofficial and unannounced but still permanent building freeze has been in place ever since with no doubt President Obama at every junction reminding Prime Minister Netanyahu that the man in Washington demands he keep his promise despite not holding anybody else to their promises including Iran and their nuclear, for peaceful purposes only, weapons program.

 

So now we have Israel in their seventieth month of an unofficial, unannounced, complete building freeze on Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem where no buildings for Jews are to be constructed by where the Arab Palestinians are permitted to build without any of those pesky and irritating requirements such as licenses, inspections, or even ownership of the land on which they build even to include Area C which was under Oslo reserved for Jewish rule but promised to Israel, the Jew amongst the nations, and are not of any consequence. Only promises forced from the Jew Nation are enforceable but promises to them, you must be kidding, are worthless just as all promises made to Jews since history was first recorded. Anyway, what are they going to do, sue us? Where, in what court, who would even listen to them. Don’t they know that the courts are only there to enforce judgements against them and that even the United States has grown tired of their constant demands for the Palestinians to recognize them? Why does nobody in the world honestly recognize the Jewish right to self-determination, a country for the Jews? Next you will tell me it was a promise from Hashem and that permits the Jews the right to a country. As we all know, President Obama was converted into Christianity and taught about Christianity by Reverend Jeremiah Wright who practices a form of replacement theology which does not recognize any Jewish claims to the Promised Land and rather believes them to have been cast off by G0d and left to do the devil’s work and are cursed by G0d to lives spent as cast out from His righteous protections, accursed forced to live lives of doubt scorned by all and forced to live being chased from one land after another never permitted to put down roots or ever to know peace or security. For twenty years and being converted by, married by, children baptized by this one preacher, Jeremiah Wright; yet, we are supposed to believe that President Obama never heard a single disparaging word, or at least seldom was heard a disparaging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.

 

The new presumably right leaning, nationalist, Zionist Israeli government has taken office with the guarantees that the gloves are finally coming off. Well, we’re waiting and thus far we have seen no changes which for the slightest make one believe that anything has changed. I know, Iran is far more important and then there is the Islamic State which promises to be on both borders, Gaza as well as Judea and Samaria and the government just is unable to address the building freeze and the truth is there will be plenty of room for building later after these crises are gone. Somehow that seems awful difficult to believe and it would be more readily believable that there is still that pesky building freeze in place and President Obama has you pegged as simply a pushover and the only person in the entire world he can bully and as long as he can he will continue to bully you to death and what does that say about you and the Israeli people. We should not be on bended knee before any others for Hashem is the L0rd our G0d and we have no others besides Him. We are not to bow down before Pharaoh nor before Nebakanezzer, nor Xerxes King of Persia, nor Caesar, nor any mortal man including Barack Hussein Obama II as you are My servants and shall serve only Hashem. You have the full support of the people though that will wane as your will appears to wane and weaken as your knees weaken and cease to have hope in their hearts if you do not give them hope in their lands. President Obama has mortally wounded the United States for centuries at the very least. Obama has proven beyond the remotest of doubts that the promises and word of an American President is only as good as his character and worth nothing after he leaves office. Laws do not matter, treaties do not matter, letters of promise do not matter, and with some Presidents even their own word and promises do not matter and this President has lied to you, spat in your face, demeaned you, disparaged you with other leaders (remember Obama and Sarkozy), enfeebled you before your enemies and sold Israel down the river with his arm Iran with nukes treaty. Wake up and smell the coffee and realize that that man in Washington holds nothing but animosity and hatreds for you, your nation, and the Jewish People. Obama does not even serve Hashem as he serves Allah, the god of Abraham, Ishmael and Muhammad, not Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His conversion and any other vow he may have taken were all in the service of Allah as he was simply taking those steps as required to serve Allah more efficiently and was all taqiyya and thus meaningless. Judge the man by his actions as truly you will be judged and treat him with the same respect he has shown you and his word to you. If you are unable to serve the people of Israel because of a promise made to a lying hater of Israel and everything Jewish outside of campaign cash and lastly has placed Israel in an untenable position by adopting the most hardline of the Arab demands of the right of return to Israel of five-million plus Arab refugees which would bring about the end of Israel as the home of the Jews at their very first election and within weeks of that election almost, if not every, Jew will have departed Israel voluntarily or have left this mortal existence. If President Obama were to have his way, then Israel as the home of the Jewish People and as the dreams and aspirations of the Jewish People will have died a horrid death. He has forced Mahmoud Abbas to take an even more strident and extreme position by adopting every last one of the Arab demands thus making them the mainstream position and also radicalized the anti-Israel demonstrators and groups such that only the eradication of our state is acceptable now as many Jews in the United States and Europe have taken as their position feeling that as leftist Jews they must be more anti-Israel than anybody else, and these are the people who will be used and discarded in order to destroy Israel. The only way to prevent their strident leftist indoctrinations from destroying Israel is for every Zionist and nationalist Israeli Jew to stand and make a difference, but how can we do such when as soon as we do we are reminded that even Prime Minister of Israel Netanyahu, the most Zionist of them all, recognized the illegitimacy of Israel and its Jewish oppression of the Arab Palestinians and that is why he has not permitted building in Judea and Samaria and has ignored the calls for Jews to be permitted prayer on the Temple Mount. We are pleading with you Prime Minister, get out in front and lead as we are already there following and only need you at the fore where as our Prime Minister you belong. Do you think for a minute that Tzipi Livni would have wasted ten seconds before leading marches against the Jews residing legally in Judea and Samaria or anywhere else the leftist desire to thrown the Jews out of. Have we not had enough of being our own worst enemies? Lead us and lead us NOW! If you cannot as you gave your word, then allow another to do so and confess that you are bound by word and duty and for that betrayal you step aside and please make the next Prime Minister a true Zionist in the mold of Ze’ev Jabotinsky.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Jewish Prayer in Jerusalem Becoming Point of Contention

The Jordanian Ministers in their Parliament had 86 of the 150 Ministers vote to expel Israeli envoy Daniel Nevo over the Israeli Knesset holding discussions over whether freedom of religion within Israel, including all of Jerusalem, extended as to permit Jews to offer prayers while visiting on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in all of Judaism as well as extending similar protection for Christian prayers as well. This vote in Jordan is the second part of their rejection of the possibility of Jews being permitted to pray openly as one day earlier forty-seven Ministers of the Jordanian Parliament signed a motion demanding that 1994 peace treaty with Israel be annulled over the debate in Israel. Prominent lower house deputy Khalil Attieh was quoted as saying, “All deputies who attended a meeting today to discuss Israel’s debate on sovereignty over Al-Aqsa voted to kick out the Israeli envoy and recall the Jordanian ambassador in Israel (Walid Obeidat). This was in protest at the Knesset debate. It is up to the government to act on the vote. If it does not, we will consider a no-confidence motion.” Jordan’s State-run Petra news agency said the MPs, “demanded the government take immediate action to stop Israel’s schemes.”

 

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy labeled the Knesset Ministers who proposed equal treatment for all religions, especially Jews and Christians, on the Temple Mount, as they are currently reserved solely for Muslims, to be “extremists” to corrupt the political scene and intentionally lead to a crises “in Palestine and the entire region.” He further demanded that Israeli leadership take the necessary steps to curb these extremists who were taking such drastic and dangerous moves and who he claimed, broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque and quarreled with the mosque visitors. Fahmy stressed that eastern Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state and that the Al-Aqsa Mosque and all sacred places are part of eastern Jerusalem. He saw no reason to disturb the rules which have been in place since 1967 as they had served to contain the peace and prevent the destruction of any of the holy places found on the Al-Aqsa Mosque Plaza, Islam’s third most holy site. Of course Foreign Minister Fahmy did not see to include that the areas of the Temple Mount are also holy to Judaism and Christianity which seems to be a blind spot found in the vast majority of Muslim spokespeople. They are quick to demand that Islam and its beliefs and places be protected and respected but not quite as adamant to have other religions beliefs and places protected and respected.  

 

Then there was the emergency session of the Arab League called to address the crisis of the Israeli Knesset discussion on equality of rights to pray for all religions which was described as part of the series of “recent Israeli attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” Protesting that recent visits of Israeli rightists to Al-Aqsa will lead to more tension and turn the conflict into a religious one, Palestinian Authority’s Ambassador to Egypt Barakat al-Farra stated, “If Israel continues this policy, it proves that it does not want peace but continues to violate international laws and resolutions.” He further demanded that the international community must fulfill its duty to protect holy sites. Palestinian Authority’s Barakat al-Farra commenting about recent visits of Israeli rightists that threatened the Al-Aqsa Mosque was probably a reference to Minister of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin (Likud-Beytenu) finally being permitted to again ascend to the Temple Mount after ten months of being banned by Israeli police after the Muslim Waqf protested his insistence of acting in a threatening manner and performing actions which desecrated the holy al-Aqsa Mosque. The offensive actions committed by Minister Feiglin was to have appeared to have moved his lips which may have been an effort to pray, which would not have likely been an Islamic prayer but rather the prayer of an unbeliever, a heretical infidel, which, by its nature, is a direct threat both religiously and structurally to the Islamic purity and holy structures within the areas claimed to be wholly holy Islamic area named Haram al-Sharif by Muslims.

 

Meanwhile, back at the debate over whether religious freedoms guaranteed to all people within Israel also extends to non-Muslims while visiting the Temple Mount just as it protects Muslims, Christians, Baha’I and every other religion throughout Israel, the debate took some heated twists and turns. The most extreme disturbances during the meeting of the Interior Committee chaired by MK Miri Regev (Likud Beytenu) occurred once the Arab Knesset Ministers were granted the floor. Among the most egregious examples was provided by Taleb Abu Arar (Raam-Taal) who claimed the Jews have no reason to visit the 3,000 year old site of their First and Second Temple. This is not any new provocative example of revisionist history about the Jewish attachment to the Temple Mount or false narrative concerning the First Temple and Second Temple. Recently the Islamic Waqf, the authority permitted to supervise the Temple Mount by the government of Israel as a sign of deference to possible sensitivities of Islamic concerns for their holy sites built on this location, have issued a pamphlet that makes new claims regarding the Temple Mount which arguing that King Solomon was a Muslim and that there is no Jewish connection to either the Temple Mount or the Western Wall (Kotel). Such revisionist claims reveal that the Muslims refuse to return the consideration and extreme efforts by Israel and her Jewish majority to avoid trampling on any rights or sensitivities of their Muslim citizens and other Muslims within Israeli jurisdictions including those currently living within the semiautonomous rule of the Palestinian Authority. One section which is titled, “Al-Buraq Wall and NOT the Wailing Wall they have written that, “Al-Buraq wall is part of the western wall of the Al-Aqsa mosque.” They also refer to the belief that Mohammed rose into heaven and that the Western Wall is the location where he “tied his winged steed, Al-Buraq.” The pamphlet continues stating, “Jews and some Christians, while falsely claiming it is part of their so-called ‘Temple,’ have made a ritual of standing in front of it, and wailing over the power they say was lost to Muslims. Despite the lack of a shred of proof to support these claims, they have turned it into a Jewish shrine since occupation in 1967.” Still, the most egregious and breathtaking claim has to be that, “Solomon (PBUH) was one of the prophets of Islam.” This is just a small portion of the claims that place in question all claims made by Jews and Christians among which they also claim that Jesus was a Muslim prophet who will serve the Mahdi during the Muslim rendition of the End Times. Despite these offensive and insulting declarations and practices by the Islamic Waqf and other general insults emanating from many among the Palestinian Muslim leadership, Israel continues to grant equal, if not preferential, rights to the Muslims and have no intentions of changing such since, as Jews, we obey the Jewish commandments of Torah which instruct us to treat the stranger among us as if he were a fellow Jew and to always remember that we were strangers in the land of Egypt. All of this is simply another example how in today’s world, no good deed goes unpunished.

 

Beyond the Cusp