Monday, October 12, 2015

A view of Arab violence you might not have seen


Here’s an essay about Arab violence. It’s worth your time to read.

The author is Bassam Tawil. The title of the essay is “Palestinians: Why Our Leaders Are Hypocrites and Liars”. The essay was published at gatestoneinstitute on October 4, 2015. I’ve done some light editing:

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“While Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to exploit our teenagers in the Gaza Strip by training them to join the jihad against Jews and ‘infidels,’ our leaders in the West Bank commit a similar crime against Palestinian youths.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, who falsely describes himself as President of the State of Palestine, has been encouraging our teenagers to engage in a so-called ‘popular resistance’ against Israel. But these leaders, including Abbas himself, do not send their own children and grandchildren to participate in this ‘popular struggle.’ As usual, our leaders want the children of others to take to the streets and throw stones and firebombs at Jews.

The ‘popular struggle’ that the PA leadership spearheads is anything but peaceful. In some instances, it has proved to be lethal. [Between] September 13[-October 4, 2015], five Jews have been murdered by this ‘struggle’.

During the past few months, hundreds of Palestinian teenagers from Jerusalem have been arrested for throwing stones and firebombs at Israeli vehicles. These teenagers have offered various explanations as to why they take part in the ‘popular resistance’ against Israel. Most of them say they wanted to protest against visits by Jews to the Temple Mount -- an act described by our leaders as a ‘contamination’ of Islamic holy sites. Mahmoud Abbas, who is by no means a devout Muslim, recently accused Jews of desecrating Al-Aqsa Mosque with their ‘filthy feet.’

Abbas and other senior figures in the PA leadership have also issued sometimes-daily threats against Israel in response to perfectly peaceful visits by Jews to the Temple Mount. One PA official, Mahmoud Habbash, even announced that visits by Jews to the Temple Mount would ignite a third world war.

It is this type of incitement that prompts our youths to hurl stones and firebombs at Jews. These youths are not taking to the streets to fight ‘occupation.’ Their goal is to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to Jews. Otherwise, how does one explain the fact that Palestinian teenagers have thrown dozens of firebombs at Jewish homes in the Old City? When someone tosses a firebomb at a house or a car, his intention is to burn civilians alive.

Our leaders, who are fully responsible for sending these teenagers to throw stones and firebombs at Jews, are sitting in their luxurious offices and villas in Ramallah and rubbing their hands with deep satisfaction. Abbas and several Palestinian leaders in the West Bank would like to see our youth riot on the streets of Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, so they can hold Israel responsible for cracking down on ‘innocent’ Palestinians. They want to depict Israel as a state that attacks Palestinian teenagers.

After having incited our youths to engage in violence against Jews, our hypocritical leaders now rush to condemn new Israeli measures against stone-throwers. It’s as if our leaders demand that throwing stones and firebombs at Jews in cars and homes is a basic right of Palestinians.

One of the loudest hypocrites is Saeb Erekat, the veteran Palestinian negotiator who was recently elected Secretary-General of the PLO. Erekat, who never dispatched his sons and daughters to throw stones and firebombs at Jews, was quoted this week condemning Israel's newly approved measures against Palestinian stone-throwers. He described these measures as ‘inhumane’ and part of Israeli ‘incitement’ against Palestinians.

Neither Erekat nor his boss, Mahmoud Abbas, has denounced the violence by Palestinians against Jews. The only time they issue condemnations is when Israel arrests children for throwing stones and firebombs. Our leaders believe Israel has no right to defend itself against those who would burn Jews driving in their vehicles or sleeping in their homes.

If anyone is desecrating Islamic holy sites, it’s those who bring explosives, stones and firebombs into Al-Aqsa Mosque in the first place. For the past few months, dozens of Palestinian youths have used the mosque as a launching pad for attacking Jewish visitors and policemen on the Temple Mount. The Jews who visit the site do not bring with them stones, firebombs and clubs. It’s young Muslim men, not Jews, who desecrate our holy sites with their ‘filthy feet.’

Reports of Muslim youth rioting on the Temple Mount show that Muslims have no respect for their religious sites. The images of masked youths inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, collecting stones for attacking Jews, also reveal the true intentions of the rioters and those behind them: to attack Jewish visitors.

We contaminate our mosques with our own hands and feet and then blame Jews for desecrating Islamic holy sites. Not only are we lying, but we are also displaying the highest level of hypocrisy and impudence. We plan and initiate violence on the Temple Mount and elsewhere and then complain to the world that Israel is arresting our youths ‘for no reason.’

It’s obvious that our leaders are once again leading us toward a catastrophe. They want our children to get hurt or killed so they can go to the United Nations and complain that Israel uses ‘excessive force’. Our leaders, of course, don’t tell the world that they are the ones inciting these young men to take to the streets and attack the first Jew they run into. Nor do they tell the world that it is Muslims, not Jews, who are contaminating Islamic holy sites through their violent acts.

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I don’t know anything about the person who wrote this essay. But I do know this: he states what Jews in Jerusalem and Judea-Samaria know from their own experience to be true. Arab leaders incite their followers to kill Jews.  

The essayist adds one additional element to this story that might be noteworthy: this Arab strategy of attack the Jew-blame the Jew will end; and when it does, it will lead to an Arab catastrophe.

You should remember that because the G-d of Israel has a Story for you. It’s the Story of the Final Jewish Redemption. You can be sure that lies, violence, Jew-killing and hypocrisy will be part of that Story. You can also be sure that these lies, violence and hypocrisy will indeed lead to an Arab catastrophe of Biblical proportion.

Stay tuned.

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