Mourn for Zion, find Redemption?

If you’re like many in Israel, you used to look at news headlines as part of your morning routine. But, like many, you may not do that anymore.

You’d like to read about your Zion. But you can’t. The news has become too hostile, too outrageous—too intensely anti-Zion.

For you, the headlines no longer inform. They depress.

Look at headlines from the last five days alone, December 24 -29, 2014. There seems to be no good news at all for our Jewish Zion.

In fact, lovers of Zion may want to mourn after reading these headlines. For example, leftists in Israel want to see a pro-Arab take-over of Israel’s Knesset (“Radical Leftists Call for Jewish-Arab List to Conquer Knesset”, Arutz Sheva,   December 27, 2014). Anti-Zion newsmakers attack Zionistic Israelis (““Former Shin Bet Chief: Right-wing Parties are 'Destructive'”, Arutz Sheva, December 26, 2014).

Jews are attacked in Jerusalem. First, Jews travelling to a funeral are attacked (“Jews en route to Mount of Olives funeral attacked by Arab youths”, Jerusalem Post, December 28, 2014). A Jewish home is firebombed (““Firebomb Hurled at Residential Home in Jerusalem”, Arutz Sheva, December 28, 2014). Then, unnamed Arabs post a Youtube instructional video on how to stab people (“Palestinians create instructional video on stabbing”, Times of Israel, December 28, 2014).

Arabs continue to talk about conquering us (“Watch: Hamas Shows Off Army 'Ready to Conquer Jerusalem'”, Arutz Sheva, December 27, 2014; and, “Hamas: We will liberate Palestine and Jerusalem”, YNET, December 27, 2014).

The UN prepares yet again to demand an Israeli surrender of ancestral Jewish homeland to create a state for those who seek to destroy us. A new UN proposal, if approved, could result in displacing up to 400,000 Jews. No one cares that this will amputate a part of Zion (“Erekat: UNSC to vote Monday on draft demanding Israeli withdrawal from West Bank”, Jerusalem Post, December 26, 2014).

No one stands up for Zion.

Russia jumps on the Arab bandwagon (“Russia Expresses Support for PA's UN Resolution”, Arutz Sheva, December 26, 2014). Jordan ‘primes the pump’ at the UN (“Jordan to present amended Palestinian statehood resolution to UN”, Jerusalem Post, December 29, 2014).

No one helps Zion.

There’s more bad news. On December 25, 2014, as another religion celebrated its holiday, Jews in Israel seemed happy to participate (“In Israel, I can celebrate Christmas”, Times of Israel, December 25, 2014). Gay pride made headlines (“Dreaming of a pink Christmas: Tel Aviv launches winter LGBT festival”, Haaretz, December 25, 2014). Intermarriage was defended (“You say ‘intermarriage’ like it’s always a bad thing”, Times of Israel, December 25, 2014).

How can a religious Zionist read such things and not weep? These aren’t feel-good stories. They are harbingers of loss.

If, like some in Israel, such stories make you feel like mourning for Zion, don’t get depressed. You see, we learn in Tanach (Zechariah, chapters 12-14) that, during the days leading up to our Final Redemption, we will fight a war called, Gog Umagog. During that war, commentaries say, much mourning will occur (ibid, 12:11). We will, our Heritage tells us, mourn the death of Moshiach Ben Yosef (Succah, 52a).

During the war of Gog Umagog, Moshiach Ben Yosef will be killed (ibid). Then Moshiah Ben David will come (ibid). Our Final Redemption will begin (ArtScroll Talmud, Succah note 1, 52a-1).

During the period of Moshiach Ben Yosef, there will be an ingathering of Jews to Israel. The ancestral Jewish land of Israel will once again be settled. Jerusalem will be rebuilt.

That will be the job of Moshiach Ben Yosef—to ingather Jews, to build Jerusalem and begin fulfilling the commandments dependent upon the land (The Voice of the Turtledove, Pomeranz Bookseller, Jerusalem, p.6). We have done these things in modern Israel.

Perhaps that job of ingathering also includes activities that support the ingathering. Perhaps Moshiach Ben Yosef also will see the settlement and rebuilding of our land--which, of course, we have also done in modern Israel.

Part of the ingathering process is to take the land, possess it (not surrender it) and to settle it (ibid, p 9). It is only after these tasks have been completed that Moshiach Ben Yosef  dies. Then, Moshiach Ben David will come.

We have done all these things in modern Israel. But now, Israel is pressured to give away portions of Zion. How can we move towards Redemption if we unsettle the land?

Here’s a question: what if Moshiach Ben Yosef isn’t a person? What if Moshiach Ben Yosef is an idea? What if that idea is ‘Zion’—the return to and rebuilding of Israel?

There are hints to this concept in Voice of the Turtledove (above, pp 20-21, 22, 25-26, 30-31). The hints are indeed subtle, but once you understand the concept, you realize the hints are there. It is a concept which comes to life through the work of many people over time (ibid, 33) who are called, ‘special messengers’ (ibid, p 36).   

Could this mean that Moshiach Ben Yosef is an idea?

We don’t know. Our Tanach isn’t a fact-book. It’s not a history book. It’s unique. It’s a Book of poetry-that-becomes-fact-and-history.

There’s nothing else like it. It stands alone, defined by rules we can’t understand, containing realities we appreciate only after its poetry has indeed turned into factual history: the destruction of the Temples, the exiles, the persecutions, the return, the blossoming of Israel, etc.

Could the mourning within Zecahaiah (ibid) that precedes the Final Redemption be linked to your depression over today’s anti-Zion news headlines?

Mourning is a sadness over loss. It’s a depression because of loss—or because of the anticipation of a loss.

Isn’t that how you feel about Zion when you see these depressing headlines? How does Zion weaken when intermarriage is approved? How does Zion cry when pieces of her are carved away for those who hate her? Doesn’t Zion mourn over the anticipation of such loss?

Could the eulogies we heard after the recent Har Nof massacre be part of Zechariah’s Redemptive mourning? What if we add to the Har Nof eulogies all the eulogies we heard this summer for the three kidnapped boys, the lone soldiers and others killed in the Gaza fighting? We saw more than a hundred thousand mourners attending those eulogies. Would the accumulated effect of those eulogies be what Zechariah meant when he said (of the days before Redemption), ‘the mourning will become intense in Jerusalem’ (Zechariah, 12:11)?

As we mourn, do the footsteps of Redemption draw near?

 

 

How the ‘Palestinian Cause’ abuses history

Today, I offer to you an essay from the website, frontpage mag. It’s dated December 26, 2014. I have edited it. No comment is necessary. The essay speaks for itself:

Palestinians Attempt to Co-Opt Jewish History

by Ari Lieberman

 

In December 2011, former US House Speaker and presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, made the following observation regarding Palestinians:

“Remember there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community…”

That comment set off a firestorm of criticism. But it’s actually grounded in historical fact. As historian Benny Morris pointed out in his book, 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War, at the turn of the 20th century, most Arabs residing in the Land of Israel--or “Palestine”--considered themselves to be subjects of the Ottoman Empire. There were some local Arabs with vague nationalistic tendencies, but even this minority considered itself to be part of Greater Syria. There simply was no reference to an independent ‘Palestine’ for a distinct group of people calling themselves ‘Palestinians.’

Morris reminds us that the residents of Arab villages routinely failed to come to the assistance of nearby villages that were under attack by Jewish forces (during the 1948 war), thus reinforcing the view that Arab villagers felt little loyalty to all but clan and village. The notion of a ‘Palestinian people’ was an alien concept to the common Arab villager who was not bound by any sense of duty to assist a neighboring village.

Occasionally, Arabs themselves have acknowledged this fact. In a revealing 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein stated,

 “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism”.

It was a rare moment of candor. But his was not an isolated admission. In a March 2012 televised address, Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security, Fathi Hammad, essentially validated Gingrich’s assessment of the ‘Palestinians’. While pleading for Egypt to assist Gaza, Hammad let loose with a series of embarrassing admissions that were certainly not intended for Western audiences.

“Every Palestinian…throughout Palestine can prove his Arab roots, whether from Saudi Arabia or Yemen or anywhere.” He went on to say that “personally, half my family is Egyptian, we are all like that…Brothers, half the Palestinians are Egyptian and the other half are Saudis…Who are the Palestinians?” he asks rhetorically. “We are Egyptian! We are Arab! We are Muslim!”

Absent from this speech was any recognition of an independent Palestinian identity; instead, his words acknowledge that there is no such identity.  

Lacking their own independent history, culture and identity, Palestinians have adopted a strategy of denying Jewish history. Arafat, for example, flat-out denied the fact that great Jewish Temples, built first by king Solomon and then by Herod, once stood where the Al-Aqsa Mosque currently stands. So ridiculous were his comments that they earned a swift rebuke from President Clinton. Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, has taken a cue from his boss; he also denies Jewish history.

Palestinian Arabs attempt to recruit Western “experts” and academics to their cause. In his book, The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City, veteran Israeli diplomat Dore Gold chronicles the length to which Arab-Muslims and their Western supporters will go to deny the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. For example, they argue that much of ancient Jewish history was myth, including the Kingdoms of David and Solomon.

From the Arab perspective, this tactic was a sound one. Sever the ancient historical Jewish connection to Israel and you severely undermine claims of indigenousness. But archaeology doesn’t lie. In 1993, archaeologists discovered a 9th century stele at Tel Dan in northern Israel that clearly referenced the “House of David.” Additional discoveries since then, including finds in Jerusalem, Tel Zayit and at the Fortress of Elah, have further eroded claims by deniers and naysayers.

Not content with denying Jewish history, anti-Israel Arabs have actually attempted to co-opt it by absurdly claiming that Moses and King Saul were Palestinian Muslims who conquered and claimed “Palestine” for the benefit of Palestinians. These risible comments were spewed forth by “Dr.” Omar Ja’ara, a lecturer at Al-Najah University in Nablus and broadcast on Palestinian Authority TV.

Of course, it doesn’t matter that Saul and Moses lived more than 1,700 years before Islam was born. Facts play absolutely no role in Palestinian academia. Empirical data and evidence is ignored. Precedence is given to upholding a false, pernicious and viscerally anti-Semitic narrative that either denies historical fact or co-opts it.

As PLO bigwig Zahir Muhsein candidly noted (above), the claim of a Palestinian identity is a falsehood whose aim is not designed to achieve liberation or advancement for a specific people but rather to subjugate, undermine and destroy another people. For those of you who still remain unconvinced, consider the recent comments made by a prominent sheikh during a religious sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. During his speech, the sheikh never uttered a single desire or longing for Palestinian statehood. Instead, he expressed the desire to join with ISIS in its quest for an Islamic caliphate.  His audience chanted, “amen!”

Few in the West face up to this malevolent reality.

For the full text of this essay, visit frontpage mag.

The ‘Palestinian Cause’: signs of genocide?

According to the narrative of the ‘Palestinian Cause’, Israel occupies ancient ‘Palestinian’ land. The ‘Palestinian’ people seek justice. They want their homeland back. They want their ‘rights’. They want Israeli occupiers out.

The say they war against Israel only because they war against oppression and occupation. They say they fight for a just, ethical cause.

But there’s trouble in this ‘Palestinian’ ethical paradise. Its narrative may not pass the smell test. For example, it turns out that most of the ‘Palestinian’ narrative has no basis in truth. There was never an ancient Arab-only’ Palestine’ that now needs to be ‘free’. There never existed an ancient ‘Palestinian’ people.

The story of an ancient ‘Palestine’ has no archaeological record. There’s no history of ancient ‘Palestinian’ kings, queens, generals or other potentates. Indeed, while so much of anti-Israel rhetoric gets expressed in terms of Islamic belief, it turns out that the words, ‘Palestine’ and ‘Palestinian people’ never appear in the Islamic Koran.

But the words, ‘Jews’ and ‘Israel’, are in the Koran.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement supports the ‘Palestinian’ drive for rights and justice. But it suffers the same flaw. It advertises itself as a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) that will work against Israel until Israel complies with international law and Palestinian rights (BDS Homepage). The movement claims to be “a truly global movement against Israeli Apartheid” (ibid). But, as former (and once proud) supporter Norman Finkelstein discovered, the BDS movement isn’t about ‘Palestinian’ rights (“Finkelstein: BDS Movement is a 'Cult', Arutz Sheva, February 15, 2015).

Yes, Finkelstein said, BDS calls itself a “rights based organization” and claims it is “fighting for rights” and “enforcing the law” (ibid).  But in reality it does no such thing. Instead, its goal is to eliminate Israel (ibid). As Finkelstein puts it, “they [BDS adherents] think they are very clever, but they know that the end result [of their efforts] is that there is no Israel” (ibid).

In other others, this former supporter has concluded that the sole BDS goal is to destroy Israel (ibid).

The justice ‘Palestinians’ demand is not linked to the right to create an independent state. The justice they seek is linked to liberation from an Israeli occupation of ‘Palestine’.

Many do-gooders who join the fight for ‘Palestinian’ justice don’t understand the difference between ‘independent state’ and ‘liberation from Israeli occupation’.  They believe that ‘independence’ and ‘liberation’ are synonyms. They aren’t.

 ‘Independence’ means a desire to be autonomous. ‘Liberation’ is different. As one strongly anti-Israel ‘Palestinian’ website explains, “There is a huge difference between ‘liberation’ and an ‘independent state’. Freedom for Palestinians means much more than establishing a bantustan [state] in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” (“The sham solidarity of Israel’s Zionist left”, The Electronic Intifada, July 28, 2011).

For the ‘Palestinian Cause’, ‘liberation’ means the complete removal of Jews from modern-day Israel (the land Arabs call ‘Palestine’). Israeli ‘occupation’ occurs when Jews control land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea (which includes all of modern Israel). This is why Hamas recently objected to Mahmoud Abbas’s UN demand for an Israeli withdrawal from Judea-Samaria: such a withdrawal, Hamas declared, doesn’t represent a consensus of the ‘Palestinian’ people (“Hamas Opposes PA's UN Resolution”, Arutz Sheva, December 25, 2014).

You see, the ‘consensus’ of the ‘Palestinian’ people doesn’t seem to be a desire for an independent state. That ‘consensus’ appears almost every day to be the desire to liberate all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which is just another way of saying its aim is to remove Jews from modern Israel and turn the ‘liberated’ area into an Islamic state called ‘Palestine’ (see the Hamas Charter).

The ‘Palestinian Cause’ has a problem when its supporters ignore self-rule and speak instead of Israel as an Apartheid state that must be dismantled (“Former Canadian Minister of Justice Cotler: ‘Calling Israel an Apartheid State is Not Antisemitic’”, Antony Lerman, June 11, 20-11).  This ‘dismantling’ is not a euphemism for an ‘indenpedent Palestine’. It’s a euphemism for Israel’s destruction (ibid).

The ‘Palestinian Cause’ has a problem when you go to a local march to support the ‘Palestinian struggle’ and see signs that say, ’death to Jews’ (“Anti-Israel protesters clash with police outside Paris synagogue”, Haaretz, July 13, 2014) and ‘Hitler was right’ (“Israel Protesters: ‘Hitler Was Right’”, charisma news, August 13, 2014).

These aren’t signs of the ethical struggle for self-rule. They aren’t signs of a drive for ‘rights’.

They’re signs of genocide.

Man, G-d, peace--and Mahmoud Abbas

In the long history of Man versus G-d, Man has always been a competitor. He has always sought to prove that G-d can be beaten.

That effort began with the Tower of Babel. It’s been going on ever since.

Man knows the first principle of power: you’re nothing until you become king of the hill.

Man wants to be that king. He wants G-dhead for himself.

Man surveys his world. He sees what he calls G-d’s work: poverty, war, oppression. That’s why Man turns against G-d. He says G-d has failed.

Man rejects failure. He wants to succeed. He says success comes when you control the world: the more you control the world, the higher your quality of life will be.

What’s wrong with that? Control disease, extend life. Control science, travel 500 miles in a single day in air conditioned and easy-chair comfort. Control farmland, refrigeration and transportation, eat fresh seasonal food year-round.

The more control Man has gathered for himself, the better life has become. That’s a proven fact. So far, Man’s control of his world has put a human on the moon. It’s conquered disease. It’s given us flat-screen TV, velcro and free internet pornography.

Can it get any better than that? Yes, it could get better--if Man had even more control.

That’s why Man wars against G-d: Man says he can do better.

Ever vigilant, ever competitive—ever patient--Man believes that G-d has made a mistake. In fact, according to Man, G-d has made a fatal mistake.

G-d didn’t stay in the forever-inaccessible Heaven. He didn’t stay hidden. He brought His Presence to earth.

That’s a mistake. Earth is Man’s turf. It’s where Man rules.

Man says it’s G-d’s fatal mistake. You see, when G-d came into this world he Chose to give His name and reputation to the Jews.

According to Man, that was G-d’s fatal error. He picked the wrong Chosen.

Ever since G-d had the gall to offend Man by choosing the Jew as His Chosen, Man has sought to erase that offense. He has sought to erase the inaccessible G-d by erasing the all-too-vulnerable Jew.

The Jew made G-d accessible. But that accessibility made G-d vulnerable.

Man’s plan is simple: if you kill G-d’s Chosen, you discredit the G-d. You ennoble the killer.

Surely, if Man discredited G-d, you’d acknowledge Man’s power. Surely, if Man destroyed G-d’s Chosen, you’d see that Man would be strong enough to put a chicken in every pot, win the War on Poverty and make sure you’ll never look fat again.

Look at what Man’s done so far. In the last hundred years alone, he’s brought you hip-hop music, computers, Starbucks coffee, sports bras and cell phones. He’s improved your life in those hundred years more than in all of past history combined.

Man’s done this because he’s gathered power for himself. He has used that power to improve your life. He has used it also to turn against G-d. Haven’t you noticed that these two trends have developed together?   

The last hundred years have brought incredible scientific and technological advancements to humanity. Those advancements improve your life. They also drive the war against G-d’s Chosen. The rise of Communism in the 1920’s, the rise of Nazism in the 1930’s and the explosion of Islamic-fuelled Jew-hate in the 1940’s, have all employed Man’s advancements in communication, transportation, chemistry and warfare to slaughter close to eight million Jews.

No one had ever killed that many Jews in so short a period of time. But it became possible because Man has grown strong.

Now, in the 21^st Century, Man gets even stronger. He closes in on G-d. He closes in on the Jews. He creates human organs in a test tube. He develops drugs to reverse disease. He discovers a new way to destroy G-d’s Chosen.

He discovers Mahmoud Abbas.

Fuelled by the leadership of this Islamic Mahmoud, Man unites with a shared passion. Leftists—Man’s secret anti-G-d terror organization—unite with the EU, the US, the UN, the leadership of several Christian churches and many within Islam. Together, they build a new Tower of Babel. They will do what G-d has failed to do. They will create world peace.

Once, G-d promised the Jews He’d bring world peace. But do you see Him working at it? Do you see any results?

Man works at it. He understands results. He even has a bumper sticker to promote those results: for world peace, destroy Israel.

Mahmoud is strong. He dedicates his life to the work of Man. He leads Man’s war against G-d’s Chosen. Upon his shoulders, he carries Man’s hope. If he succeeds, Man will proclaim, ‘victory’.

All Mahmoud has to do is destroy the homeland G-d Chose for His Chosen.

Genocidal crime isn’t natural. It isn’t heroic

On Tuesday, November 18, 2014, two Arab terrorists walked into a Jewish synagogue in one of Jerusalem’s Jewish neighbourhoods and murdered five people and wounded at least eight. According to information that has now been made public, four of the victims were not only murdered while they prayed, but were killed while they prayed the ‘Amidah’ prayer, which is, arguably, the central focus of our daily prayers. It is the moment in our daily prayer when we get the chance to speak most directly to G-d.

These four Jews were murdered as they spoke to G-d.

The fifth murder victim was an Israeli Arab Druze policeman who was killed at the scene of the attack. We mourn with the victims’ families for their loss. We honour the Druze officer who fell serving the Jewish people. We pray for a complete recovery for the wounded.

Murder is an act of violence. Civilized societies consider it to be the most horrible of crimes, worthy of the harshest of punishment (Wikipedia). For most Western criminal law, murder is the unlawful killing of one human by another, with malice aforethought (Joshua Dressler, Understanding Criminal Law, 3rd ed, 2001).

‘Malice aforethought’ is typically defined as having four characteristics: an intent to kill; an intent to inflict grievous bodily harm; a reckless indifference to unjustifiably high risk to human life; and an intent to commit a dangerous felony (a ’felony’ is normally defined as ‘a serious crime’).

Murder: it’s vicious, it’s horrific, it’s wrong by its very nature. It’s evil.

But for some people, the murder of Jews is none of these (I emphasize key words below so you can track them through the news stories you’re about to see). For some people:

It isn’t horrific to murder a Jew. It’s a reason for joy.

It isn’t wrong to murder a Jew. It’s a source of community pride.

It isn’t unlawful to murder a Jew. It’s heroic.

It isn’t evil to murder a Jew. It’s normal. It’s natural.

The families of the terrorists celebrated with joy upon learning that their flesh and blood had committed the murders (“Terrorists' Families Celebrate, Pass out Candies in Jerusalem”, Arutz Sheva, November 18, 2014). They handed out candies. They “responded with shouts of joy” (ibid). A cousin told Israeli news that this attack was “a normal thing that can be expected from every man” (ibid). A resident in the Arab community from which the terrorists came, said, “we are proud of the two martyrs who carried out the attack” (ibid).

Politicians celebrated the attack (“Abbas's PA and Fatah Celebrate 'Heroic' Jerusalem Attack”, Arutz Sheva, November 19, 2014). They termed the attack ‘a heroic operation’ (ibid). Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas described this attack as "a natural reaction to Israel's practices against Palestinians” (“Five dead in attack on Jerusalem synagogue”, Al Jazeera, November 18, 2014).

From these news stories, we see that it appears normal, natural and joyous to murder a Jew. It appears heroic.

But murdering a Jew after a leader has called for an Intifada might also be called, committing a genocidal crime.

Genocidal crime is a crime against humanity.

Here’s the original definition of ‘genocide’, published in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin:

“By ‘genocide’ we mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. This new word, coined by the author to denote an old practice in its modern development, is made from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide (killing)…. Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group” (see The Holocaust Encyclopedia, “Coining a Word and Championing a Cause: The Story of Raphael Lemkin”, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website).

The attack we saw this week against Jews in Israel was directed against individuals, not because they are individuals, but, apparently, because they are members of a specific national and religious group—Israel’s Jews. That makes these murders more than a crime. They are genocidal crimes.

In the world led by Mahmoud Abbas, these genocidal murders are called heroic, normal and natural. The news stories above show you that. But the Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, passed by the UN in 1948, doesn’t see genocidal crime as normal, natural or heroic. It sees such acts as “a crime under international law” and “condemned by the civilized world” (ibid). They’re not praiseworthy. They’re “an odious scourge” (ibid). They are not political acts. They are punishable crimes.

Genocidal crime isn’t natural. It’s not heroic. It’s something the civilized world has been called upon to condemn.

 

 

 

Abbas, rage, Rosh Hashannah prayer—and Israel

The Jewish Rosh Hashannah (The New Year) holiday is the moment each year when our fate for the upcoming year is determined. Our Rosh Hashannah prayers say it best: “…who is to live, who is to die…who is to be humbled, who is to be exalted”.

The nation-state of Israel is not exempt from these words. It, too, has a destiny to be fulfilled each year.

This year, 5775 on the Jewish calendar, began on September 25, 2014. Through the first 55 days of this new year, Israel’s destiny so far looks ugly.    

Since Rosh Hashannah, Israel has had either a ‘silent Intifada’, a real Intifada or, as some argue, war. Yes, most of the violence we’ve seen has been on TV or in news pictures. It appears limited to Arab neighbourhoods. In Jerusalem, for example, Arabs seem mostly to express their hate for Jews by trashing their own environment.

But there has also been a dramatic increase in serious violence against Jews, not only in Jerusalem, but all over Israel. For example, we’ve had a ‘car Intifada’ in which Arabs have used their vehicles to kill Jews. We’ve seen what some call a ‘knife Intifada’ against Jews. We’ve seen hundreds of other kinds of anti-Jew attacks (“Last Week in Israel: 240 Terror Attacks, 23 Wounded, and 2 Dead”, Jewish Press, November 16, 2014).

Since Rosh Hashannah, we’ve seen Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s so-called Arab ‘peace partner’ call for more violence, not peace or co-existence. He quoted the  Quran to incite violence (“Abbas quotes Quranic verse encouraging ‎violent resistance in speech”, Palestinian Media Watch (pmw), September 28, 2014). He gave a speech that was replayed and replayed to suggest violence be brought to the Temple Mount (“PA TV broadcasts 19 times in 3 days Abbas' implicit call for violence in Jerusalem”, pmw, October 19, 2014). He authorized a ‘Day of Rage’ (“Abbas's Fatah Calls for 'Day of Rage' Terrorism”, Arutz Sheva, October 30, 2014). He glorified the shooter of a Jewish freedom-of-worship advocate (“Abbas glorifies shooter of Rabbi Glick”, pmw, November 3, 2014).   

The world says he’s our ‘peace partner’. He isn’t. His words say he’s a cheerleader for Jew-hate.

Since Rosh Hashannah, Jews have sought to exercise their basic human right to worship on the Temple Mount—Judaism’s holiest site. Abbas, on the other hand, has sought to provoke violence.

He’s been steadfast. He wants violence against Jews. He wants Israel humbled.

He wasn’t the only Palestinian Authority (PA) official to incite for or glorify violence. For example, one PA official glorified the Arab who used his car to murder a three-month old Jewish infant (“Abbas' advisor: Murderer of baby is "heroic Martyr", pmw, October 23, 2014).

After an Arab attempted to assassinate Rabbi Glick (above), another PA official praised the shooter (“Abbas' advisor: Shooter of Rabbi Glick is "the Martyr of Dawn in Jerusalem", pmw, October 30, 2014). Four days later, another official glorified the shooter again (“Abbas' advisor to shooter of Rabbi Glick: "Your bullets were a beacon”, pmw, November 3, 2014).

Since Rosh Hashannah, Israel’s near-term fate has looked horrible. Arab Jew-hate has increased. Riots increase.

It’s ugly.

Since Rosh Hashannah, No PA official has talked about how to create a new state. Mahmoud Abbas hasn’t discussed infrastructure, co-existence or the financial costs of ‘independence’. He hasn’t discussed economic cooperation. He hasn’t explored how ‘two states can in fact live side-by-side in peace and security’. 

What he’s talked about is glorifying Jew-killing; inciting against Jews; and demanding that Jews be banned from the freedom to worship at their Holy sites.

He’s talked about terrorism. He’s talked about rage. He’s talked about violence.

Europe supports Abbas. A recent report (November 17, 2014) reveals that, despite Abbas’s obsession with rage and violence, Europe stills sees Israel as the only and exclusive reason there is no peace (“Secret EU Document Reveals Israel Sanctions Policy”, Arutz Sheva). Abbas glorifies Jew-killers—and the EU distributes a report to its member states detailing ways (sanctions) to punish Israel should ‘peace’ fail.  

That says something ugly about the EU. It says something equally ugly about Abbas.

It also suggests trouble for a beleaguered Israel. It suggests that, on Rosh Hashannah, G-d may have determined that Israel should see many troubles this year.  

Yesterday, Israel saw much trouble: four Jews were murdered in their synagogue while praying. Today, we learn of more trouble: Spain’s Parliament becomes the fourth European Parliament (the others are Britain, Sweden and Ireland) to express support for a new Arab ‘Palestine’.

Jews know that ‘trouble’ is not ‘destiny’. We know we can--to a great extent--control our destiny. We know it from our Rosh Hashannah prayers.

Our year could start with trouble. But it could end with joy.

We must never forget that.

 

Arabs kill praying Jews. Here’s the Arab message

During morning prayers today, November 18, 2014, two Arab terrorists entered a Jewish synagogue in West Jerusalem, the Jewish portion of Israel’s capital city. Early reports said the two were armed with a meat cleaver, an axe and at least one  gun (“Four killed in terror attack at Jerusalem synagogue”, Times of Israel, November 18, 2014).

The terrorists attacked the Jewish worshippers. They killed four and injured at least eight others. The terrorists were then killed at the site in gun battle with Israeli police [Update: a fifth murder victim has been identified--an Israeli Arab Druze police officer who has died from wounds received during the gun battle with the terrorists].

A synagogue is considered to be a holy site. It contains sacred texts, including Torah scrolls. It is a place of prayer, peace and contemplation.

It’s a place of holiness. It’s a sanctuary, not a war zone or a killing field.

To the Arabs who attack Jews, a Jewish synagogue has no sanctity. It has no holiness. It’s not a synagogue. It’s a killing zone.

During the last three weeks, Arabs have killed a total of 8 Israelis in outdoor public places—a train platform, an intersection, a bus stop. Most of the dead are Jews.

On the surface, this morning’s synagogue attack seems unusual. It doesn’t fit the recent pattern. But it suggests what is at the heart of this ‘third Intifada’: prayer, religion, Islam.

Let’s be honest here: the Arab attacks we’ve seen the last three weeks aren’t random. They aren’t accidental.

Some may call them ‘unofficial’ because there’s no paper trail. There are no written orders handed to attackers by an authority figure.

But the attacks are nonetheless part of a war. It is a war of hate driven by religion. It is a war against Jews, designed to kill Jews.

Today’s attack shows that Jews aren’t safe anywhere in Israel. It demonstrates that the Arab war against Israel isn’t about statehood. It’s about the supremacy of Islam. It’s about driving out the Jew so that the only prayers heard in Israel will be Muslim prayers.

That’s why this synagogue attack is significant. It speaks to the core of the Arab dream: an Islamic ‘Palestine’ to replace Israel.

If you doubt that, Read the Hamas Charter. Listen to recent speeches from Mahmoud Abbas. Look closely at the Fatah political Party logo.

Fatah and Hamas are unified. They fight Israel as one entity. Both sing the same song: the Jew must go. Their current rallying cry is, the Temple Mount must be defended for Islam.

This third Intifada—Israel is afraid to call it that—focuses on prayer. It focuses on an Arab call to protect the Temple Mount for exclusive Islamic prayer. Its design is to focus Muslim anger. Its aim is to incite Arab rage against the Jew. 

The Arab does this because he knows that he who controls the Temple Mount controls the land. He attacks the Temple Mount so he can begin the conquest of the land.

He starts with a religious premise: Jews don‘t belong on the Temple Mount. Jews have no right to pray on the Temple Mount. Jews who set foot on the Temple Mount—Judaism’s holiest place on earth—desecrate Islam.

When Arabs clash with Israeli police on the Temple Mount, they accuse Israel of a ‘barbarism’ that will destroy interreligious dialogue around the world (“Erdogan calls Israel’s methods on Temple Mount ‘barbaric’”, Times of Israel, November 7, 2014). That’s nonsense. The barbarism is the Arab attack against a holy site.

Arabs have no shame. They say Jerusalem cannot be monopolized by one religion—Judaism—(ibid) when it is they who seek to Islamicize both Jerusalem and the Temple Mount (“Mufti: Jerusalem is 'Islamic'”, Arutz Sheva, November 12, 2013;  “Palestinian Authority Denies Jewish Right to Western Wall”, Arutz Sheva, August 12, 2013; “Discrimination Against Jews Continues at the Temple Mount”, Arutz Sheva, October 28. 2013).

The attack on that synagogue this morning was an Arab act of war. It demonstrates what some in Israel already know: if Jews cannot pray safely on the Temple Mount, Jews cannot pray safely anywhere (MK Moshe Feiglin, Likud).

The Arab sends a message. Jews should be afraid to go to their synagogues.

The Arab sends a message: our terrorists can enter your house of worship. Our terrorists can walk in, call out to our allah in your holy place (as these two terrorists did)--and kill you.  

The Arab sends a message: the Jew should fear. He should fear to pray. He should fear to ascend to the Temple Mount.

He should be afraid.

The Arab sends a message: if you retreat before me, I will kill you. If you appease me, I will kill you. If you fear me, I will kill you. If you pray to your G-d, I will kill you.

 

 

 

The Temple Mount: an American betrayal

On July 28, 2014, US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke at a US State Department briefing in Washington, DC. His subject was the release of the State Department’s newest Report (dated for year 2013) on International Religious Freedom (“Remarks at the Rollout of the 2013 Report on International Religious Freedom”, US State Department Homepage, July 28, 2014).

Secretary Kerry said that Freedom of Religion isn’t just for Americans. It’s a ‘universal value’. It’s for everyone. It is, he said, ingrained in every human heart.

Secretary Kerry went beyond the ‘human heart’. He declared that the freedom to profess and practice one’s faith is the birth-right of every human being. It is, he stated, a right that’s part of International law. He then added, “The promotion of international religious freedom is a priority for President Obama.”

That seems to be true. Obama has himself said that Religious Freedom is important to America. For example, in August, 2010, he said, “This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable” (“America's True History of Religious Tolerance”, Smithsonian Magazine, October 2010). 

The point of these remarks is to demonstrate that Religious Freedom isn’t an after-thought at the US State Department.  It’s a core objective of U.S. foreign policy (“Religious Freedom”, US State Department Homepage).

The US claims it actively promotes religious freedom as part of its Foreign policy strategy (ibid). That’s why the State Department of the United States publishes this annual report: to monitor the status of Religious Freedom across the world. It does this because America believes that no ruling authority can “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” (“How America defines religious freedom”, The Economist Explains, March 24, 2014).  The US dedicates this report to that proposition.

The US is so serious about Freedom of Religion that it uses this monitoring Report in order to identify and then denounce any regime that persecutes on the basis of religious belief (ibid). It claims that if it finds such persecution, it reserves for itself the right to take diplomatic action against those violators.

For the United States, Freedom of Religion is a serious business. The State Department’s website says so.

But when it comes to Jews in Israel, that US commitment to religious freedom simply isn’t there. When Jews are forbidden the freedom to practice their religion upon Judaism’s holiest site—the Temple Mount--the US has not  denounced (see above) the anti-Jewish Muslim authorities who violate Jews’ rights. When a Muslim politician recently declared that Jews have no right to pray on the Temple Mount (“MK Tibi: 'Jews Have No Right To Pray on Temple Mount'”, Arutz Sheva, October 31, 2014),  America didn’t stand up for those Jews. It didn’t seek to protect the Jews’ ‘birth-right’ (see Kerry’s comments, above) to practice their own religion.

Instead, the US demanded the opposite--that the Temple Mount be open to Muslims, not Jews (“US Told Israel Temple Mount ’Must Be Opened to Muslims’”, Jewish Express, October 31, 2014). It remained silent about protecting Jewish freedom of worship. That silence meant that, so far as the US was concerned, Jews had no freedom of worship on their own Temple Mount.

Contrary to its stated mission to promote Religious Freedom and to denounce those who deny it to others, the US has completely ignored those who deny Jews in Israel that freedom. It denounces no one—except Jews who ask for the right to exercise their religious beliefs.

The US pressured Israel to ban Jews from the Temple Mount (ibid).

Go to the US Statement Department Homepage for ‘Religious Freedom’. It’s all there (at least, as of November 16, 2014): the US is committed to freedom of religion; it is committed to “international covenants that guarantee it [freedom of religion] as the inalienable right of every human being [emphasis mine]”; it holds international religious freedom as a core objective of US foreign policy.

Why won’t the US stand up to defend the inalienable rights of Jews to worship at their own Temple Mount? Where is the US commitment to Jews’ freedom of religion?

The US fails to defend Jews’ religious rights at the Temple Mount. It fails to protect the sanctity of Religious Freedom. It fails to stand up for those ‘International covenants’ that guarantee religious freedom to everyone. It fails to denounce those Muslims who demand that the Jewish right to freedom of worship be denied.

The US undercuts its mission. It betrays that mission. It betrays the Jews of Israel.

The 21st Century: Civilization recedes. Chaos expands

For perhaps a hundred and fifty years—since the end of the American Civil War--Western Man has grown rich because of freedom, technology and the growth of consumer-driven economies. Western Man has created a civilization based on materialism. It works. That civilization has expanded exponentially.

All across Westernized nations, mechanization, science and electronics brought a TV to every living room and a car to practically every garage. The wealth of the West has reduced individual poverty, increased life expectancy and decreased infant mortality.

For this expanding civilization, literacy is up, deadly childhood diseases are down and high school graduation became the norm, not the exception. Western man has become better fed, better educated, better dressed and better entertained than any of his ancestors.

But the expansion of civilization may have peaked. Since the 9/11/2001 Jihadi terror attacks against America, individual wealth has declined. Both unemployment and underemployment have skyrocketed in Western nations. National debts rise. Per capita income drops. Political dissatisfaction increases.

All this has happened as Muslim immigrants have poured into Western nations.

Since 2001, global freedom has declined. Freedom has been important to Western man. It’s been linked repeatedly to national wealth, a growing sense of personal safety and the spread of human rights.

But freedom has eroded in each of the last eight years—a record string of annual declines (Freedom in the World 2014, Freedom House).  Increasingly, national leaders are developing their own form of ‘modern authoritarianism’ (ibid). With this style of governing, shrewd leaders cripple political opposition without annihilating it. They flout the rule of law—but maintain a veneer of order, legitimacy, and prosperity (ibid).

More and more, these modern dictators control political and social institutions. They dominate the government. They gain control of the media, judiciary and security forces (ibid).  Not coincidentally, democracy falters (ibid).

When global democracy erodes, two things happen. Civilization retreats. Chaos expands.

Concurrent with the retreat of freedom, there is an unravelling of social order and personal safety. One expression of this unravelling is The Failed States Index (for more info on this Index, see the website for The Fund for Peace). The Index has just been renamed. It’s now called, The Fragile State Index.

The title has been changed because there is a growing realization that all states, to different degrees, face conditions that threaten the livelihoods of their citizens, thereby increasing a state’s ‘fragility’ (“Fragile States Index,” Foreign Policy Magazine, 2013). According to the latest index, 77% (138) of the 178 countries studied are less than ‘stable’. Many qualify to be called, ‘Fragile States’ (“As the World Turns: Will the West Prevail?”, Middle East Forum, September/October 2014).

Instead of an expanding civilization zone—which we saw for almost a century and-a-half-- the world now sees greater ‘fragility’. It sees a growing number of states that have descended into chaos, with a number of other countries threatening to follow them (ibid). These fallen and failing states turn their political geography into a ‘chaos zone’ (ibid).

The worst part of this ‘chaos zone’ starts in Africa and spreads up through the Arab Middle East. The ‘Arab Spring’, fighting in Syria, Somalia, Eretria, South Sudan, the Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic all combine with the Islamic State to form a toxic ‘chaos zone’. In this zone, states cease to exist as functioning governments. In the place of ‘government’, tribal factionalism and/or religious terrorism replace all hope of order, law and civilization.

Most of the top ten on the Fragile State Index are disintegrating—or close to it (“The Fragile State Index”, ibid). Some argue that we can’t afford to dismiss these disintegrating states (“As the world turns”, ibid). We can’t look at them as disconnected from civilization (ibid) because they connect to civilization.

The predatory rulers of the ‘chaos zone’ often use civilization for ruthless ends. They buy weapons, computers and medicine from civilization (ibid). In exchange, they sell  diamonds, precious stones, human trafficking, drugs, stolen oil and money laundering opportunities (ibid). In 2009, they collected some $870 billion in revenues from these sales (ibid).

Some of that revenue is used to spread chaos.

For example, the Islamic State (ISIS) has recently published a series of strategic and operation ‘tips’ for Jihadi operatives in Egypt (“ISIS’s public support for the Egyptian jihadi organization Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, encouraging it to escalate the campaign of terror against the Egyptian regime. In turn, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”, The Meir Amit Terrorism and Information Center, November 12, 2014). At some level, ISIS joins with Al Qaeda and other Jihadi groups to peddle its chaos (ibid).

ISIS is the richest terror organization in the world. It has $2 billion in assets. It can earn $3 million a day (“Wealthy Terrorists Don’t Need Foreign Aid”, Commentary, November 13, 2014). It has money to spend to spread its chaos.

The spreading ‘chaos zone’ is not passive. Much of it serves an active world-wide Jihadi ideology. That ideology aims to destroy Western civilization. That ideology expands. It expands in the Middle East. It secures beachheads among Muslim immigrant communities in Europe and North America (“As the world turns…”, ibid). It expands at civilization’s expense.

The chaos zone versus civilization: it’s what’s new for the 21^st Century.

The US votes: throw Israel under the bus

Democrats and Republicans in America are still taking about recent US elections (November 4, 2014).  As a result of those mid-term elections, Democrats are reeling. Republicans are smiling.

Republicans now control both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. The key word here is, ‘control’.

Republican control of Congress doesn’t bode well for the current (Democratic) President. A US President usually has trouble governing when the Party that opposes him has such power.

Therefore, it isn’t a surprise that talk opposing the President’s policies should pop up as soon as elections results were clear. What might surprise some is that much of that talk has used the word, ‘impeachment’.  

It’s been only ten days since that election. But we’ve already seen at least ten news stories about ‘impeachment’.

That’s what happens to losers. They get thrown under the proverbial bus—sometimes, by their erstwhile friends.

It’s too early to tell if that ‘bus’ will run over the US president. But those of us who live in Israel know what it’s like to get thrown under a bus by a so-called friend. We know because there’s been another ‘election’. This ‘election’ was about Israel, not the US Congress.

This so-called ‘election’ wasn’t advertised. There were no ballot boxes. There were no announcements. But the results of this ‘election’ are as real as those US elections.

Israel lost. It’s now been thrown under the bus.

This ‘election’ is the choice that the current White House has  made to support terror over democracy.

We are reminded of this ‘election’ by a comment Jonathan S. Tobin has just made about Hamas (“Wealthy Terrorists Don’t Need Foreign Aid”, Commentary, November 13, 2014). It seems that Hamas is the world’s second richest terrorist organization, second only to ISIS (what we call, ‘The Islamic State’) (“Forbes Israel: ISIS is World's Richest Terrorist Organisation in History”, International Business Times, November 12, 2014).

ISIS has perhaps $2 billion in assets. Hamas has $1 billion. By contrast, the Taliban rank fifth. They have a paltry $400 million. Al Qaeda seems downright poor. It has only $150 million.

Remember AL Qaeda and the Taliban? America went to war against them. American spilt its blood fighting them.

They’re pikers compared to Hamas.

Now, the wealth spread between Hamas and Al Qaeda/Taliban is going to get even bigger—much bigger.  You see, the international community has just committed to donate $5.4 billion to Hamas (Tobin, ibid).

The last time the world gave money to Hamas was to rebuild Gaza after the November 2012 war that Hamas had started with Israel. Hamas used much of that money to rearm and to build massive terror tunnels for the next war with Israel, which just ended in August, 2014.

Now, Hamas will receive even more money to 'rebuild'.  It’s going to get $5.4 billion.

Hamas has already announced that it isn’t done with its tunnels--which, you may note, have only one use: to cross into Israel in order to kill and kidnap Jews. Hamas needs money to rebuild what Israel has just destroyed.

Hamas will receive $5.4 billion.

According to this report (International Business Times, ibid), terror groups fund their operations from theft, drugs and extortion. ISIS’s main source of revenue comes from oil stolen from captured oil-fields in Iraq and Syria. It earns perhaps $3 million a day from this oil.

Hamas earns its revenue from ‘Gaza’. The report says that “the group's takeover of Gaza in 2007 was the point when it entered ‘the big league’” (ibid).

This means that Hamas doesn’t run Gaza as a state, community or civil municipality for the benefit of its population. It runs Gaza as a criminal enterprise. It uses the proceeds of that enterprise to wage terror war against Israel. Now, it will have another $5.4 billion.

Read the Hamas Charter. The Hamas raison d’etra is not to help Gazans. Its Charter states that its purpose is to destroy the Jewish state. It declares that there is no political solution to the ‘Palestinian question’. The only solution is Jihad—holy war against the Jews in Israel.

In writing about the $5.4 billion commitment to Gaza, Tobin observes that “the most curious thing about this exercise in international philanthropy was that no one thought to ask Hamas to pay for at least some of the damage they caused by igniting a bloody war” (ibid).

He needn’t have been so curious. The nations have already answered that question: they have already voted to support terror over democracy. We saw that in the 50-day war just past—when the greatest leader (Barack Obama) of the greatest nation (America) openly sided with Hamas against Israel.  

Last week, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a New York audience that Israel went to “extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilians casualties” in Gaza (see Jonathan Tobin, “Dempsey debunks US attacks on Israel”, Commentary, November 7, 2014). This is an extraordinary statement, given how the US behaved during that war.

During this war, the US cast its vote for terror. It led a stampede against Israel. It accused Israel of killing ‘too many’ civilians. It told the world that Israel was killing civilians in an 'overly disproportionate' manner (ibid).

Those American anti-Israel accusations didn’t go unnoticed.

The UN noticed. It called for a war crimes investigation of Israel.

Meanwhile, the criminal, brutal and cynical Hamas ruthlessly used civilians as human shields (a war crime). Hamas did this publicly. It boasted about doing it. Yet the US was at the front of the ‘Israel is killing Gazans’ attack.

That didn’t go unnoticed.

Hamas and Fatah saw how its crimes were ignored. Now, as a result of that US support, they bring their war to destroy the Jewish state right into the heart of Jerusalem, the nation’s capital. They bring their war directly to the heart of Zion, the Temple Mount.


The US continues to support them against Israel.

The US has voted. Like the rest of the world, it will throw Israel under the bus.

 

 

 

 

The Car Intifada

Today, I share an essay with you. It’s called, “The Car Intifada”, by Joseph Klein. It comes from the website, Frontpage Mag. It’s dated November 12, 2014. It gives a clear summary of recent terror attacks in Israel. It gives a clearer view of what has driven these attacks.

Here’s the essay. I have edited it:

Hamas leaders have been urging their followers to use cars and knives to spill as much Jewish blood as possible.  Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called on Palestinians to stop Jews from visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism, by using “all means” necessary.

These calls for violence by top Palestinian authorities have been enthusiastically answered by thugs in the street.  Six Israelis have been killed in terror attacks in the last three weeks – not by rockets, but by cars and knives wielded as murder weapons against Israelis, including women and children.

On October 22nd, a member of Hamas rammed his car into pedestrians in Jerusalem, killing a three-month-old girl.

Last week, a Palestinian Jerusalem resident also turned his vehicle into a killing machine. He killed an Israeli and wounded 13 others when he drove into a group of people waiting at a light rail station. On the same day, yet another Palestinian ran into and wounded three Israeli soldiers near Jerusalem.

Leaders of both Abbas’s party, Fatah, and Hamas, shrugged and said the attacks were perfectly “natural” or “normal” responses to Israeli policies.  They call the killers national heroes.

Palestinians have flocked to social media to celebrate what they’re calling the “Car Intifada.” A video of a new song with that catchy title appears on the MoslimMan.Rok Facebook page. It’s become a hit that has Palestinians happily singing along to lyrics such as “Run over the two-month-old baby – that is how we get them.”

Palestinian Media Watch reports on a cartoon appearing on one of Fatah’s official Facebook pages (“Fatah-The Main Page”), which carried the label “the run over organization”. It urges people to “Hit the gas at 199 [km/h] for Al-Aqsa.”

On another Facebook page, “The National Liberation Movement – Fatah,” a cartoon appears showing a car going after three fleeing stereotyped Jews wearing hats with the Star of David.

The car may be the Palestinians’ murder weapon of choice these days, but anything they can use to kill Jews will suffice. After all, they are just following the directions of their leaders. One of Hamas’s leaders said just last week, during a television interview, that even a Palestinian “who owns nothing but his faith has a kitchen in his house in which he has a knife.” It is his duty to “grab his knife and confront the Zionist enemy.”

Is it any surprise that in separate knifing incidents on November 10th, an Israeli soldier and a woman were stabbed to death by Palestinians practicing their “faith”? The soldier was killed in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian. The woman was killed at a traffic circle in the West Bank; a Palestinian driver had tried and failed to run over people waiting at a bus station; he got out of his car and stabbed the woman to death.

The Obama administration and European Union issued the most tepid of condemnations of the killings. “It is absolutely critical that the parties take every possible measure to protect civilians and de-escalate tensions,” said US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement on November 11th saying he was “deeply concerned about the upsurge in violence and killings”.

As usual, the UN at its highest levels refused to lay the blame for the latest spate of violence where it belongs: on the Palestinians and their leadership. The spokesperson’s office for the Secretary General, despite several requests for comment, has refused to condemn the incendiary remarks of Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders.  There has also been no UN condemnation of the Palestinians’ demand, which they have backed up with violence, that Jews and other non-Muslims be barred from worshipping anywhere on the Temple Mount. Instead, the UN, as well as the Obama administration, appear to support this demand (in order to reduce tensions,  they say) even though the forcible exclusion of Jews and other non-Muslims from worship at a site sacred to them is contrary to the basic human right of free exercise of religion.

Symbolic of the UN’s unconditional support for the Palestinians, no matter how badly they act, the United Nations hosted a fashion show to recognize the UN’s international year of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The event was held on November 10th, the same day of two murders of Israelis committed by Palestinians who had been incited to their acts of violence by their leaders. As Israeli UN Ambassador Prosor asked rhetorically, “Solidarity with incitement? Solidarity with terror and extremism?” Apparently so.

Remember the name, The Car Intifada. It’s how Arabs express their Jew-hate.