I’ve been following the increase in attacks on peaceful citizens in Israel. It seems the Arabs cant’ throw a rock without hitting a Jew in Israel. This is because that is their aim, along with throwing firebombs, and fireworks being thrown at citizens, and now the “peaceful” muslims are adding in knife attacks.
What could be behind this? Well, perhaps the leader Mahmoud Abbas? With Abbas, the reward from terrorism is good.
A Hamas member used a van to mow down pedestrians at two points along the capital’s light rail line midday Wednesday, killing one and wounding some 14 others, several critically. The fatality, Cap. Jidan Assad, 38, a Border Police officer from the Druze village of Beit Jaan, and the wounded were crossing the street when they were hit by the speeding vehicle, according to police. Assad is survived by a pregnant wife and a three-year-old son, according to Ynet News.
Abbas, in a condolence letter to the family of a Hamas terrorist who shot and severely wounded an Israeli-American last Wednesday, called the return fire by police which killed Muataz Hijazi a “sickening crime,” and “assassination which was perpetrated by the murderous, terrorist gangs of the despicable Israeli occupying army…”
Nor are attacks confined to groups of people with 3 month old babies. People traveling home from work on routes they usually take are finding things far more dangerous.
A brave group of Arab boys attacked a menacing group of Jewish School girls on a field trip by throwing rocks at them injuring one student and a teacher.
And now we have the latest horrific attack on Jews in Israel at Har Nof Synagogue. It is a escalation of what has been going on for some time. I’m so cynical I don’t even ask “why” anymore.
Well, ok, I ask why a lot. In fact, that is kind of how the genesis of this column started last week. I was talking to someone Friday, and I think if he heard “aval lama”, “but why” one more time I was going to have a pair of socks in my mouth. I was asking about the Temple Mount.
The Temple Mount is the first holiest site in Judaism, the third holiest in islam, and they persist in calling it the al-aqsa mosque. It has always baffled me that the Temple Mount is located in Israel, the Jewish state, is the holiest site in Judaism and Jews are not allowed to go there to pray. For that matter Christians aren’t real safe there either I don’t think. And part of what keeps the Jews from being allowed to pray on the Temple Mount are the Israeli police. Huh? These are their own people, they keep them from praying? The Israeli Police it seems, are trying to keep a bad situation from erupting into riots. Too late! Although the lack of anything other than muslims on the Temple Mount has not stopped muslims from carrying out attacks on civilians. And using the Temple Mount as they have hospitals and schools in Gaza as a terror base. In October the Police were forced to lock rioters in a building on the Temple Mount as Jews were allowed in for Sukkot.
How can this be? On June 7th, 1967 Jerusalem was reunited and The Temple Mount came under Israeli and Jewish control from the first time in about 2,000 years. The Shofar was sounded at the Western Wall by General Rabbi Shlomo Goren of the IDF to announce the liberation. It was considered a gift from G-d.
“We have returned to all that is holy in our land. We have returned never to be parted from it again.”
–Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, upon reaching the Western Wall
Unfortunately, “never” is a very short time in Dayan’s world at that point. Within days he had unilaterally ceded control of the Temple Mount back to the Jordanian Waqf, I find just thinking of them as “wack-o” works.
So while Prime Minister Levi Eshkol envisioned a committee made up of the various religions overseeing the Temple Mount, from the moment Dayan ceded control to the Jordanian wack-o faction, the dream of all faiths being allowed to worship and pray at the Temple Mount basically died.
A prominent Israeli Rabbi and activist Yehuda Glick works to allow increased access for Jews to the Temple Mount and has been doing so for a number of years. The absurdity of the situation is in full display by his arrest with his goat by Israeli police. This year it lead to an assassination attempt on his life.
I would count Yehuda Glick as a leader.
Far from the Temple Mount being a place where all faiths can now come to pray, it is becoming yet another terror stronghold for muslims. Not because they treat and value it as a Holy place, but because Jews and Christians do.
And this fight is not about religion, although that is certainly an element of it. Muslims are commanded in the quran to give “infidels”, that would be non-muslims, a chance to convert before they kill them.
If this were only about the Temple Mount, you wouldn’t hear statements from Hamas and Hezbollah denying the right of Israel to exist, and that they want to drive them into the sea. Nor would you be seeing attacks like the horrifying one in Har Nof. This is about killing people, a blind hatred.
I respect and admire Bibi Netanyahu, but I think he is off the mark when he says they will maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount. Although what that is, is hard to say. It’s certainly not what it was meant to be.
But when there are terrorist attacks in Israel, Bibi does respond, and he does take action. The houses of the terrorists are to be demolished. And he calls it what it is, a terrorist attack.
I do think there is absolutely and element of Spiritual warfare going on here. If attacks like the one in Har Nof can prevent people from going to Synagogue to learn, pray and worship? Then evil wins. But those people were no where near the Temple Mount when they were butchered. This was an attack on people because of who they were. Part of what makes them who they are is what they believe.
Another source of terror is “infiltrators”. In America they are called “undocumented democrats”. The difference in Israel is that the “infiltrators” are looking for jobs. In America, not so much. The areas where there are large groups of infiltrators the residents of the area live in fear. Israel has passed an infiltrator law but the point has been raised that the solution is even simpler than that. And they do need a solution, one Synagogue has been shut down, and Holocaust survivors are afraid to leave their apartment building. Again, preventing people from worship.
“I think the law is like treating cancer with Tylenol,” Komash, who is active in Tel Aviv, where infiltrators have largely taken over the central bus station, said.
“Putting the illegal infiltrators in detention for three years, building facilities, investing so much money for 10,000 infiltrators or 5,000 – that’s just not the solution,” he added. “What will they do with the remaining 40,000?”
“I think we simply need to send them back to their country,” he said. “The left simply defends them because most of them are Muslims, Christians and the left wants a state of all its citizens. But there’s no connection here. They’re not refugees, they’re infiltrators. They say themselves that they’re looking for a job here. It’s a simple solution: Sudanese to Sudan, Zionists to Zion.”~~Avi Komash
I do not believe for a second that Bibi is a stupid man, I think he knows and sees what is going on.
I think Bibi is a good leader.
What could be some of the issues that are constraining him from perhaps taking action against segments of the population that are terrorizing and killing his citizens?
Well, one answer I would think would be obama. Look at how obama responded to the attack at the Har Nof Synagogue. His statements seemed to imply that both sides were responsible, and called for both sides to rein in extremists. I am unaware of any Jews or Christians breaking into mosques and slaughtering innocent people. This does not serve Israel well, in my opinion.
A long time ago, I learned in a class about “shark bumps”. A shark will bump prospective victim (dinner) before it attacks, to see what will happen. If it fights back, it’s possible the shark will move on to easier prey. If not? It gets out the BBQ sauce. It is the same with criminal sharks. The guy that puts the hair up on the back of your neck when he asks you for the time? Or wants you to come closer to his car so he can ask for directions? Or stares you in the eyes and makes you uncomfortable? Do not respond meekly. It’s probably your intuition trying tell you “shark bump”. There have been SO many “shark bumps” in Israel. And the violence is getting worse because they haven’t been addressed with a harpoon.
As this Times of Israel article points out, the response coming out of the obama administration seems to differ depending on who the victims of the crime are. I am afraid because of the close relationship Israel and America have had in the past, pressure from the obama administration may affect Bibi’s responses.
Let’s look at how obama handles these types of situations in America.
Because obama is consistent. When the muslim nidal hasan murdered 13 soldiers at Ft. Hood, obama deemed it “workplace violence” rather than a terrorist attack.
Just as all religions are not treated equally on the Temple Mount in Israel, the same double standard seems to apply in America.
Jews are afraid of muslims on the Temple Mount, and they are not to pray there. In America if you are Jewish or Christian, you are not to pray in school. A recent change that one is. I can get you quite a few more of those. On the other hand, let’s see how schools are handling the religion of peace. Well, it seems there was an exercise, shall we call it, where a Nation of Islam document was used in a classroom that portrayed the founding fathers as racist. And, as I suspect we will see this more often now that many of the states have sold out to Common (rotten to the) Core. The children were told not to take the handout home, or talk to their parents about the exercise. Or the assignment where 10th graders made up islamic pamphlets to be designed for 3rd graders. No one seems to be able to find which week the schools will be teaching about empathy for Christianity or Judaism. Or this delightful exercise in a California school where based on the information the 8th graders were given, they came to the logical conclusion that the holocaust was fabricated for political gain, another common core exercise that one. You really should read that story, but make sure you have something to settle your stomach and outrage handy when done.
They reached that decision based upon the information the teacher gave them, and they were denied access to check other sources. If you look at how CNN, a faux news station covered the murders in the Synagogue, not only once, but twice, you begin see the specter of Julius Streicher arising. Those headlines go so well with obama calling on both sides to restrain extremists. Sounds sensible except again, one side isn’t slaughtering anyone. One side is just trying to survive things like rockets being fired out of a hospital or school in Gaza.
So in Israel and America, I think we see quite a difference in how the different religions are treated. How and what the people are allowed to do. What the state will and will not allow differs for the different groups quite a bit.
What do we see that is similar? Well, at the top of this story, the section from the story on how Mahmoud Abbas handled the killing of a terrorist by sending a letter of condolence to his family is quite similar to how obama chose to deal with a similar situation. There was a muslim in Oklahoma that beheaded a co-worker and was attempting to kill another one when he was shot and killed by the business owner who had a CCW. Rather than sending someone to investigate the mosque that spawned the killer, the DHS sent a Director with a “Thank You” note from obama to the mosque. It read in part
“Your service is a powerful example of the powerful roots of the Abrahamic faiths and how our communities can come together with shared peace with dignity and a sense of justice.”….
Yes, well.
Obama is not a leader worth following. Obama has an agenda that he is trying to ram down the throats of Americans, and for that matter, to an extent, Israel. Abbas is leading, his people are following and CNN, MSNBC and probably most of the lamestream media refuse to show it for what it is. My question last Friday was answered with “Poor leadership”. How, why could these things happen. “Poor leadership, not a strong leader”. Why would we in America think that things will turn out differently for us? Do you not think that we will begin to see attacks like the one at Har Nof? Most Church, and Synagogues are gun free zones. I hope and pray that will begin to change, and soon. Both in America and Israel.
But for that to happen, we will have to have real leadership. The kind of leader that loves this country and her freedom and wants to ensure it. As my esteemed colleague Y.B. Ben Avraham points out, we must strive to be leaders. I would add we must confront evil, to confront it, we must recognize it. We must do these things if we wish to live in a free society, to worship and live as we choose. And again, Y.B. is correct. The fate of the world hangs in the balance.
This video was shot at Berkley in CA. These are potential future leaders. This lunacy is part of what we strive to confront and stop.
The future leaders of the muslim world? They were eating candy to celebrate the massacre at Har Nor Synagogue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOHJ06bsSow
