Why Most Arab Countries Do Not Want Palestinians

 by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  

• [C]ountries such as Jordan and Lebanon had extremely negative experiences with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and other Palestinian armed groups who were trying to overthrow or destabilize their governments (Black September in Jordan in 1970 and the Lebanese Civil War 1975-1990).
• Arab leaders often make strong statements, issue condemnations of Israeli actions, and attend high-profile summits that express solidarity with the Palestinians. Their gestures, however -- apart from Iran and Qatar -- are often not matched by decisive steps...
• The refusal of the Arab countries to absorb Palestinians (including the ex-prisoners) is... proof why it would be a mistake to rely on the Arab countries to help rebuild and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.
• US President Donald J. Trump, who seems to be pinning his hopes on the Arabs to assist in funding and establishing a new government as well as deploying an international force in the Gaza Strip, needs to bear in mind that most of the Arab heads of state and regimes actually do not care about the Palestinians.
• By now, most Arab heads of state see Palestinians as having caused immeasurable harm wherever they went and as having rewarded with treachery whoever stretched out a hand to them.
• For the Arab leaders, the Palestinian issue is just another tool to advance their own political objectives, shore up their own popular support at home, or unite various factions against a common enemy.
• Most Arab leaders, in short, will continue to pretend that they are eager to help the US administration with its efforts to implement Trump's 20-point plan for peace in the Gaza Strip. In reality, the Arabs will continue to do their utmost to stay away from the Palestinians -- apart from helping them to regroup in the Gaza Strip.
• For the full article go to: https://tinyurl.com/3687yfyf

The Price Of Saudi-Israeli Peace.

Video Of The Week-A Camera Made in Israel Which Sees Through Walls - https://tinyurl.com/9y9fs53x 

For the full Article by Douglas Bloomfield - https://tinyurl.com/ycbwu6uc

Here is the letter from the JP, reacting to the Article above.

The connection drawn between relations with the  Saudis and concessions to the Palestinians, mentioned in the last few days’ editions of the Post, is extremely disturbing as it concerns one of the most basic reasons for the continuing war between Israel and the Palestinians. i.e. the so-called “OCCUPATION”, as explained below.

This has probably been one of the most successful and powerful propaganda stories put out over the past 70 years or so, arousing the most serious and widespread anti- Israel and antisemitic feelngs worldwide.

The actual fact of the matter is that the true status of Judea and Samaria, according to its factual recent hisfory, is that it was internationally established  legally as Israeli territory, was occupied by Jordan in 1948 in an attempt to destroy Israel, and recaptured by Israel in 1967 when the surrounding Arab countries again tried to annihilate Israel.

Israel then refrained from annexing the area (called “the West Bank”) but was prepared to negotiate its status in the framework of an overall peace agreement, which status applies until today. Israel has meanwhile tried to give the Palestinians the opportunity to develop independently in parts of the “West Bank”, but they have failed in this endeavor, using their energies to fight each other and attempting to murder Jews and Israelis.

The Palestinians never owned any country or part thereof, and the concept of “occupation” by Israel in this regard is a total fabrication since they’ve never owned anything that could be occupied.

The entire phenomenon of Palestinians waging war on Israel with every means available, including rockets into residential areas, continual horrific terrorist murders of Jews or Israelis, the spreading of lies in every country, and their Covenant calling for the annihilation of Israel, rests on one assumption only ― the lie, which they have taken to believing themselves, that Israel occupies their land.  

The aggressive  behavior of the Palestinians has proved conclusively that Israel daren’t allow an independent Palestinian entity on the West bank highlands overlooking the Israeli central coastal plain, which would place it  under threat of destruction.

And America  claims that Israel must make serious concessions to the Palestinians so as to encourage the Saudis to improve ties with Israel?. Surely it’s the Palestinians who must make huge concessions to Israel?

Charles Smith, Shoresh  

 

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The Real Origin of the ”Palestinians” Catastrophe

 Video Of The Week - "David's Sling" Missile Defense System kicks in - https://tinyurl.com/ask85xkk

For the full Article  By Jeff Jacoby Globe Columnist go to - https://tinyurl.com/3n22f26r

The real origin of the Palestinians’ catastrophe: They rejected a two-state solution with Israel in 1948 and have paid the price ever since. 

May 15 is the anniversary of Israel’s birth in 1948. It is also the date on which Palestinians in recent years have commemorated their “Nakba,” or “catastrophe.” 

The events of 1948 were indeed catastrophic for the Arab refugees, as many as 700,000, who fled their homes to escape the war that raged after Israel proclaimed its independence. But the Nakba was self-inflicted. Contrary to the mythology promoted in many quarters today, the war that created the refugees was not launched by the infant Jewish state in order to drive the Arabs out. It was launched by the Arabs to smother that infant in its crib.

The contemporary Nakba narrative is a masterpiece of ahistorical distortion and antisemitic propaganda. It casts the events of 75 years ago as a monstrous crime successfully committed by Jews against Palestinians. The opposite is closer to the truth.

In November 1947, the United Nations concluded that the only way to bring peace to Palestine was to divide it between the two populations that had “irreconcilable” claims to the land. By a lopsided majority, the General Assembly voted to partition the land — which had been under British rule since 1917 — into “independent Arab and Jewish states.” The Jews agreed to this two-state solution. The Arabs, as they had in the past and would in the future, refused. They immediately commenced a campaign of murderous aggression to prevent a Jewish state from becoming a reality. On May 15, 1948, the Zionist leaders, in accordance with the UN resolution, proclaimed Israel’s independence. Within hours, bombs were falling on Tel Aviv. Arab armies from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, and Egypt crossed Israel’s borders. “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre,” promised Azzam Pasha, the secretary-general of the Arab League, “which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.”

They had every expectation of a quick victory. How could Israel, with a minuscule population of 600,000, hope to withstand the combined might of Arab nations that numbered in the tens of millions? “It does not matter how many [Jews] there are,” Azzam said. “We will sweep them into the sea.”

But Israel survived the Arab onslaught, albeit at a steep price — fully 1 percent of its population was killed in the fighting. Across the Middle East, meanwhile, antisemitic fury erupted against Jews living in Arab countries. “Jews In Grave Danger In All Moslem Lands” reported The New York Times. Within months, pogroms, expropriations, and expulsions had driven as many as 850,000 Jews to flee. Most made their way to Israel, which accepted them as new citizens. Over time, the traumatized and impoverished refugees rebuilt their lives, dealing with their shock and loss as best they could, starting over in a new country and moving on.

No one today speaks of the Jewish “Nakba” of 1948. That is because Israel strove to absorb the Jewish refugees into mainstream society. By contrast, many of the Palestinians who fled Israel were housed by the surrounding Arab states in permanent refugee camps, barred from citizenship, deliberately not integrated into the societies where they had ended up. With cruel cynicism, three generations of Palestinians have been encouraged to see themselves as victims of an unspeakably terrible calamity — and to believe that it is only a matter of time until the Jewish state is eliminated and replaced by an unpartitioned Palestine, the world’s 22nd Arab nation.

It is hard to overstate just how abnormal and unhealthy this is. In the years following World War II, scores of millions of human beings became refugees. At least 12 million ethnic German civilians, to take one example, were expelled from their homes in Central and Eastern Europe. The 1947 partition of India and Pakistan turned 14 million Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims into refugees, unleashing a wave of ghastly violence that left as many as 2 million dead. Nearly all wars produce refugees, and refugees’ best hope nearly always lies in resettlement — not in clinging to fantasies of return, fueled by hatred and channeled into terrorism.

“Palestinian nationalism,” Edward Said told an interviewer in 1999, “was based on driving all Israelis out.” That attitude is the true Palestinian catastrophe.  For 75 years, Palestinians have paid a painful price for their refusal to grasp the hand of friendship that was offered to them. Will it be another 75 before they are ready to live in peace with their neighbors? The catastrophe of 1948 was self-inflicted. It doesn’t have to be self-perpetuating.

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What are the Palestinian Arabs thinking?

Video Of The Week -Arab Children's Lives are Saved - https://tinyurl.com/7836fsct

A new poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), provides a fresh view of Palestinian Arab opinions.

For the full article by Maurice Hirsch go to - https://tinyurl.com/mtu7wrm9

• 71% of Palestinian Arabs support the cold-blooded murder of Israeli brothers Yagel and Hallel Yaniv while they were driving on a main road through Hawara

• Only 27% of Palestinian Arabs support the so-called “Two-State solution”
• 63% of Palestinian Arabs view the PA as a burden and 52% of Palestinian Arabs believe that the collapse or dissolution of the PA is in their interest
• 77% of Palestinian Arabs are dissatisfied with the performance of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and want him to resign

A newly published poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), provide an interesting view of the thoughts and opinions of the Palestinian Arabs regarding different subjects. Several provide an insight into how the Palestinians see both Palestinian-Israel relations and internal Palestinian Arab issues. While the United States and the European Union often present what they believe the Palestinians are thinking, the reality is far different.

Palestinian-Israeli relations

• Palestinian Arab support for terror

According to the survey, the Palestinian Arab support for terror against Israel is multi-faceted and includes, inter alia, substantial support - 71% of the population - for the cold-blooded murder of brothers Yagel and Hallel Yaniv, aged 19 and 21 respectively, by Hamas terrorist Abd Al-Fattah Kharousha, while they were driving on a main road through Huwara.

In addition to supporting the cold-blooded murder of Israelis, substantial parts of the Palestinian Arabs (68%) support the creation of armed terror groups to attack Israelis and 83% of them are against the surrender of existing terror groups.

87% of Palestinian Arabs believe that the PA Security Forces do not have the right to arrest members of these armed groups to prevent them from carrying out attacks against Israel. A majority of 63% say it supports the ending of security coordination with Israel.

When asked about the most effective means of “ending the Israeli occupation and building an independent state,” the report says that 77% of Palestinian Arabs chose violence. 54% chose armed struggle - i.e., to engage in all-out terror similar to the PA-launched 2000 – 2005 terror campaign. 23% chose “popular resistance” – i.e., the PA euphemism that includes sporadic terror attacks like shootings, stabbings, and car rammings. Only 18% of the Palestinian Arabs chose the path of “negotiations.”

These statistics are particularly significant since they reflect a rise in support for violence and a decline in support for negotiations, compared to a similar survey conducted a year ago, as exposed by Palestinian Media Watch. Then, support for violence stood at 68% while 25% of Palestinians supported negotiations.

• What political solution do the Palestinian Arabs support?

According to the survey, only 27% support the so-called “Two-State solution”. Most Palestinian Arabs (74%) appear to have embraced the PA propaganda, and believe that the two-state solution is “no longer practical or feasible due to the expansion of Israeli settlements”. This, notwithstanding the fact that all the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were evacuated in 2005, that there are no Israeli settlements in areas A or B of Judea and Samaria (which together make up 40% of the area), and that the Israeli settlements in area C cover no more than 2.5% of that area.

The same percentage (74%) also believe that the chances of creating a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel in the next five years are slim or nonexistent.

While they are skeptical about the possibility of creating a Palestinian state, 75% of them are opposed to the suggestion of Mahmoud Abbas to demand one Israeli-Palestinian state.

Interestingly, in a question about the main problem confronting Palestinian society today, 26% say it is corruption; 21% say it is unemployment and poverty; while only 20% say it is the continuation of the Israeli “occupation and settlement construction.”

Regarding the Arab residents of Jerusalem, who the PA considers “Palestinians”, a separate recent PCPSR study, found that 38% of the respondents believe that East Jerusalem should be under Palestinian sovereignty, 19% would prefer Israeli sovereignty and 14% do not want anyone to have sovereignty over the city. The remainder want the city to be under 25% international sovereignty (25%) or Islamic/Arab sovereignty (3%).

The findings are significant when compared to the same PCPSR survey conducted in 2010, in which 52% of the respondents supported Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem and only 6% supported Israeli sovereignty.

A similar trend was also identified in the preferences of the Jerusalem Arabs regarding citizenship as part of a permanent political solution. In the current study, 58% of the Jerusalem Arabs said that they would prefer Palestinian citizenship (down from 63% in 2010) while 37% said they would prefer Israeli citizenship (up from 24% in 2010).

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Nablus, Hub of The Terror Triangle

Video Of The Week - Into the "Lions’ Den” - https://tinyurl.com/m9c2svhx 

The Terror Triangle: What You Need to Know About the West Bank City of Nablus

Akiva Van Koningsveld, HonestReporting.

 For the full Article go to - https://tinyurl.com/yjket6t9

An elite Israel Defense Forces soldier died on October 12 after being shot near the community of Shavei Shomron in the northern West Bank. Staff Sgt. Ido Baruch, 21, was attacked by gunmen who opened fire from a passing vehicle as his unit was “conducting operational security activity in the area,” the IDF said. 

A relatively unknown Palestinian armed faction operating out of the nearby city of Nablus, the Lion’s Den, soon claimed responsibility for the killing of Baruch, warning Israel that “the volcano of our operations has begun and only God will extinguish it.”  Tuesday’s deadly shooting was the latest in a string of recent attacks carried out by terrorists from Nablus that targeted Israeli security forces and civilians. On October 2, the Lion’s Den in two separate West Bank shootings injured an Israeli taxi driver and a soldier. 

Nablus (identified with the ancient Jewish city of Shechem) is home to about 150,000 people, making it the second-largest locality under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction.  Nablus’ history as a hub for anti-Jewish terrorist activity far predates the founding of the modern State of Israel. In a 1921 report, a British Mandate official already denounced the Nabulsi attitude as “fanatic” and “bigoted,” citing, in particular, the city’s “hostility to the Jews.” Notably, the bloody Arab riots of 1936-39 were in part triggered by the slaying of two Jewish men near Nablus at the hands of Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam supporters.

Soon after the attack, on April 20, 1936, the Arab National Committee of Nablus declared a general strike and boycott of Jewish goods, a call heeded by Arabs throughout the Mandate’s territory. During the six-month strike, some eighty Jews were murdered in terror acts, with a total of 415 Jewish deaths recorded during the entire 1936-1939 Arab Revolt period.  Together with Jenin and Tulkarem, Nablus comprised what London at the time dubbed the “Triangle of Terror” or “Triangle of Fear.”

When Palestinian arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat set up Fatah terror cells in the West Bank after the Arab armies’ ’67 defeat, he chose Nablus as the location for his first secret headquarters, before relocating to Ramallah.  Some of the most horrific terror attacks during the Second Intifada (2000-2005) were likewise carried out by Nablus residents, including a December 2, 2001, bombing of a Haifa bus that killed 15 Israelis and injured 40. The day after the attack, thousands of Hamas followers marched through Nablus in support of suicide bomber Maher Habashi.  The explosive belts used in the March 2002 Passover massacre (30 dead) were also produced by Hamas in Nablus.

During Operation Defensive Shield (March-May 2002), IDF troops uncovered hundreds of rifles and improvised firearms in Nablus, in addition to 18 explosives laboratories and a factory producing Qassam rockets.

Fast forward 20 years, the successes of Operation Defensive Shield have apparently been undone, and Nablus’ reputation as an epicenter for Palestinian terror has been firmly re-established.  Nablus initially resurfaced in the international press on February 8, 2022, after IDF forces neutralized three Palestinians during an operation in the al-Makhfiya neighborhood. Israeli officials said the targets belonged to a terror cell that had conducted shooting attacks against Israeli military positions and personnel.

Six months later, following a Palestinian terror wave that left 19 Israelis dead, Israeli troops during a raid killed Ibrahim/ Nabulsi, the fourth member of the cell suspected of being a commander of the terror group’s Nablus brigade. Nabulsi was wanted for numerous attacks in the West Bank, including shooting attacks against Jewish worshippers visiting Joseph’s Tomb just outside of Nablus.  After Nabulsi’s death, a cadre of young Palestinian terrorists took it upon themselves to carry on his violent legacy. This summer, Ibrahim Nabulsi helped found a new coalition of armed groups modeled after the Jenin Battalion; Areen al-Usood (the Lion’s Den). According to Israeli data, the number of drive-by shootings targeting Israeli military positions near Nablus has more than doubled since 2021.

The Lion’s Den has also attacked civilians, for instance by firing at the Jewish community of Har Bracha, located south of the Palestinian city. On September 9, Israeli security forces thwarted a large-scale attack in Tel Aviv, arresting an operative linked to the Nablus group. All in all, the group is estimated to consist of some 100 Palestinians under the age of 30. Although the alliance includes members of Fatah, PIJ, Hamas and the PFLP, it has no clear affiliation with any specific terror organization.

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Why a Two-State Solution Won't Work

 Video Of The Week -Lebanon Border Deal, Who Gains and Who Loses?- https://tinyurl.com/2p9am6xf

For the full Article by Dore Gold, go to https://tinyurl.com/3bxn6ht4

Prime Minister Yair Lapid's support for the “two-state solution” during his UN General Assembly address re-opened the Israeli debate over the merits of this policy. It was never a part of the key documents that provided the diplomatic basis for the Arab-Israeli peace process in the past.

It sounds fair but however it sounds, the two-state solution is not drawn from binding legal commitments made by Israel in the past.

 

In October 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gave his final address to the Knesset weeks before he was assassinated. In the speech, he outlined the components of a final peace settlement with the Palestinians. He did not make any reference 1o the two-state solution. His backing of Palestinian statehood by itself was at best lukewarm. He spoke only about an entity which was “less than a state.”

 

Another problem with the terminology of the two-state solution is the expectation that if the Palestinians' grievances are fully addressed and resolved, the wider Arab-Israel conflict will come to an end. Diplomats embraced the “two-state solution” as a kind of magic key that would solve the Arab-Israel conflict. There is no indication that this was ever true.

 

If the considerations of the Palestinian Arabs were paramount for the Arab world, then why wasn't a Palestinian state established in Judea and Samaria when the Arab world had the chance because it already held those areas?The Palestinian Arabs tried briefly to set up a mini- state in the Gaza Strip, known as the All-Palestine Government, but it never acquired wider backing through international recognition.

 

Israel needs to design an approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that keeps in mind the true dimensions of the wider conflict. The Arab-Israel conflict has resembled an accordion that can expand or contract according to international circumstances.Today there is a risk that if the two- state solution becomes popularized again,Israel will come under rising international pressures to adhere to its terms, even if they do not apply. It risks stripping Israel of its right to secure boundaries which is an integral part of Resolution 242.

 

What recent events demonstrate is that a very different Middle East has arisen. Diplomacy remains vital in this new period, but i1 will only yield results if it addresses the vital interests of the parties. That is the lesson of the Abraham Accords, which produced four normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states.The two-state solution is just a nice-sounding mantra that will lead diplomats off course. This should be the message of the State of Israel the next time an Israeli prime minister addresses the UN General Assembly.

 

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Nakba? Arab Regimes Told "Leave Your Homes"

Video Of The Week -Shireen's Death - "BLAME" Israel - https://tinyurl.com/yt4ss76f

For the full Article by MEMRI go to: https://tinyurl.com/sh4hzaw2

On Nakba Day this year (May 15, 2022), Ibrahim Al-Madhoun, a Gazan journalist affiliated with Hamas, published an article on the Hamas website palinfo.com discussing the reasons for the Nakba and for the situation of the Palestinians today.

The following are translated excerpts from his article:[1]

"We are now marking 74 years since the loss of Palestine and the dispersal of its people across the world in what is known as the Nakba [literally, the catastrophe]. This [is how we refer to it] because of the torments and the [harsh] consequences that have been suffered by every Palestinian for decades, which we could not have imagined would ensue. The Palestinian people is a living people that adheres to its identity and its land, is rebellious by nature, makes sacrifices and is capable of defending its land. However, the loss of Palestine for all this time raises many questions and queries.

"When our parents left their lands, their cities and their homes [in 1948] they left their money, belongings, clothing and jewelry behind, and took with them only the deeds to their homes and their keys, because [they thought] they were leaving only temporarily. Had they realized it would last [longer, even] for a single year, they would have preferred to die in their homes, their orchards and their fields.

"Sadly, the armies of several Arab regimes had a hand in persuading the people and the villages to leave and to abandon their homes, on the pretext of protecting [the villages] and fighting the Zionist gangs. The Palestinians believed and trusted them and the families left, hoping that the Zionist gangs would be defeated and their strength would be broken…

"Palestinians sold their wives' jewelry to buy a single rifle to defend their village, but the Arab armies collected their weapons and promised them they would fight on their behalf. They took the weapons and sent the [Palestinian] fighters away, and then they withdrew without putting up a fight.

"Had the Arab leaders only supported the Palestinian fighters with weapons and funds, or refrained from interfering and let them to do as they chose, Palestine would not have been lost. But they did not do that. [Instead] they interfered, planned, came together -- and then simply handed over the country [to the Jews].

"Today the ball and idea are back in the same court and the Arab regimes are playing the same role of colluding with the occupation. These regimes are besieging our people, fighting it and treating to it with hostility, and pressuring it to surrender its weapons and surrender to "Israel." The Arab regimes condemn our Palestinian people in Gaza for possessing weapons and insisting on manufacturing rockets and building tunnels. They [are trying to] convince it to hand over all of this, but today our people are [more] aware and experienced, and thus the Nakba will not recur as long as our people is armed and as long as the jihad fighters build their tunnels.

"The occupation gambled on the Palestinians surrendering of losing their sense of identity. Its leaders said: The adults will die and the younger ones will forget. But the next generations of Palestinians are [even] more attached and committed to their land. The Zionist idea was defeated to the core, as was the occupation's plan to diffuse the Palestinians and destroy their identity.  We are moving closer to Jerusalem with every rocket produced by a member of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades [Hamas' military wing], with every tunnel built in the east of the [Gaza] Strip, with every knife and explosive belt in the West Bank, with every intellectual, pen and voice in the Triangle [the concentration of Israeli Arab towns and villages in northern Israel] and the Galilee, and with every voice and key in the refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Today there are more than seven million Palestinians in historic Palestine between the [Mediterranean] sea and the [Jordan] river, and another seven million outside [Palestine]. Not even one of these Palestinians who has forgotten his rights or his land or who considers forgetting Palestine or renouncing his right to return.

Today, 74 years after the Nakba and one year after the Sword of Jerusalem Campaign in Gaza [i.e. the May 2021 Hamas-Israel military conflict], and after the heroic operations carried out by individuals and by organizations in the West Bank, the ribat [mobilization on the frontlines] of the residents of Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa Mosque, the fidelity of the '48 Palestinians [i.e. the Israeli Arabs] to their national identity, the struggles of the Palestinians outside Palestine, their longing to return and their direct participation [in the struggle] – we are closer to victory and liberation. We are on the verge of the return that we discern from afar, and here we come."

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Stockpiling Rocks and Ammunition in Mosques-the New Religion?

Tension on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount isn’t new. The site of both the First and Second Temples in ancient times and al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine today has the potential for friction built-in.

But what we are increasingly seeing are cynical attempts to exploit the holy site for a different purpose, for propaganda  rather than peaceful religion. The Palestinian rioters who desecrated the site by throwing rocks and firecrackers at police and on the Jewish worshipers gathered at the Western Wall below the Mount, did not go to the area Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) or al-Aqsa compound for a spiritual Ramadan experience.

Video footage of clashes between Israeli police and security forces and Palestinian rioters at the site have gone viral and are often difficult to watch. There certainly seem to be cases of police overreacting and attacking Palestinians who appear to be unconnected to the violence. Nonetheless, what needs to be kept in mind is cause and effect.

The Muslims who stockpiled stones, rocks, logs and firecrackers in al-Aqsa did not do so for religious purposes. They prepared for a riot – to attack police and Jewish worshipers – not for prayers. Police did not storm al-Aqsa Mosque to “conquer” it. They broke in to arrest the rock throwers who had barricaded themselves inside after Friday prayers. Some of the masked Palestinians waved Hamas flags and praised arch-terrorist Muhammed Deif as they tried to bombard the Jewish worshipers who had come to pray at the Western Wall at the start of the Passover holiday.

With their unholy actions, the rioters are disturbing the freedom of prayer of everyone, including other Muslims. The vast majority of the 50,000 or so Muslim worshipers in the al-Aqsa area on Friday came with the peaceful intention of prayer at Islam’s third holiest site. The fact that so many thousands were able to gather there shows that Israel is intent on protecting freedom of worship for the Muslims.

It is Jewish worship that is limited at Judaism’s holiest site. The Muslim extremists object to any Jewish presence on Temple Mount and now refer to the entire area as “al-Aqsa” and yesterday they threw rocks at buses traveling to the Western Wall. Jews who ascend Temple Mount note, however, that part of the area serves as a soccer field, far from serving religious needs.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority have all accused Israel of carrying out “provocations” and an “assault” at the site. They are hoping to turn it into a battle cry. It is easy to rally Muslims everywhere around the lie that al-Aqsa is in danger and needs defending. The terrorist organizations are hoping that this becomes as self-fulfilling prophesy.

Stockpiling rocks and weapons in a mosque is a desecration, not a way of elevating its religious status; similarly, launching rockets in the direction of Temple Mount does absolutely nothing to “protect” it. On the contrary.

The Temple Mount is significant to all three monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Thousands of Muslim worshipers were able to pray at al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday, during Ramadan, as a few hundred Jews also went up to Temple Mount, on Passover, while Christians could be seen celebrating Easter in Jerusalem.

Israel cannot allow a minority of violent rioters to desecrate the holy site. Anyone who supports freedom of religion and truly cares about the Temple Mount should condemn the Arab rioters, not the police.

 

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Israel and Abraham Accords: A Tale of two Parallel Universes.

 Video Of The Week - Israeli-Arab Summit in the Negev - https://tinyurl.com/2xcn7kwt

For the full article by David M. Weinberg go to https://tinyurl.com/2p8bw8k8

Israel seems to exist in two parallel, contradictory worlds. One is a false, hackneyed, out-of-date, and threatening universe where recalcitrant and violent Palestinian leaders are venerated, and admirable Israeli leaders are criminalized. The other universe is real, promising, forward looking, and stabilizing, and is marked by a peace dynamic that runs from Jerusalem to Dubai, Manama, Rabat, Cairo and Amman; and from Jerusalem to the most important leaders in the world.  Consider the following very recent happenings.

GENEVA and NEW YORK: A new UN Human Rights Council (HRC) report this week accused Israel of apartheid, just in time for the annual debate on “Agenda Item 7,” the permanent council item reserved for Israeli “human rights abuses” against Palestinians and other Arabs.

“The political system of entrenched rule in the occupied Palestinian territory which endows one racial-national-ethnic group with substantial rights, benefits and privileges while intentionally subjecting another group to live behind walls, checkpoints and under a permanent military rule… satisfies the prevailing evidentiary standard for the existence of apartheid,” said the ugly report.  The report was the latest in a litany of one-sided, baseless reports, vilifying Israel and engaging in a full-scale lawfare assault on Israel’s very existence as a Jewish state.

Saleh Higazi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International praised the HRC report as “an important and timely addition to the growing international consensus that Israeli authorities are committing apartheid against the Palestinian people.” In February, Amnesty International released its own tendentious report accusing Israel of apartheid.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett conducted two days of discussions this week to solidify their new regional alliance for peace and security. They discussed energy, market stability, and food security, as well as development of a regional radar security umbrella against Iran.

The Crown Prince also unfroze $10 billion in investments in Israeli companies that he promised former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The UAE’s large sovereign funds will divide the investments between them. The first fund to enter the Israeli market is the ADG (Abu Dhabi Growth) Fund, which plans on investing $200 million in 2022 in Israeli companies, and a similar sum each year over 10 years.

Also this week, Sheikh Mansoor Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum visited Israel’s national pavilion at the GISEC Global cybersecurity fair in Dubai; an Emirati think tank published book on Zionism written by Tel Aviv University researchers; the UAE-based retail giant Lula began talks on operation in Israel; Morocco signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for a joint research and engineering center; and the Israeli navy took part in another joint Red Sea naval drill with the US, UAE, and Bahrain, under auspices of the US Fifth Fleet (which is headquartered in Bahrain).

UNFORTUNATELY, Israel seems to exist in two parallel, contradictory worlds.

One universe, dominated by so-called Western “progressives” in cahoots with Arab/Islamic radicals, disses rather than embraces the Abraham Accords and is stuck in a time warp where Israel is an evil actor.. It is a tragic, forlorn universe.

The other universe – real, promising, forward looking, and stabilizing! – is marked by a peace dynamic. The discourse about Israel in corrupt international institutions and in some aspersive Western campuses and capitals couldn’t be more different than the discourse in Arab capitals and other calm and considered decision-making centers. It’s confrontation versus cooperation, demonization versus solidarity.

 

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