Beginning The Third Intifada

"This is a drastic measure that's being taken in order to make sure there are no further attacks during the Jewish festival, where you can see thousands of people visiting the Old City."
Mickey Rosenfeld, spokesman, Israeli Police

The Associated Press    Israeli soldiers patrol during a search for the suspected Palestinian killers of two Jewish settlers in the West Bank city of Nablus

 

The self-elected Fatah President of the Palestinian Authority ventured to the United Nations to speak acidly of "filthy Jewish feet" polluting the Noble Sanctuary. Those filthy Jews had no wish to impose their feet on the Noble Sanctuary; they sought instead to be in the noble presence of the Temple Mount, where in antiquity the most sacred site in Judaism stood in its first and second incarnations, the Temple of Solomon.

The late-comer to the Middle East's monotheistic trifecta of god's worship on Earth took advantage of its conquest of Jerusalem to build upon the sacred Temple Mount, Muslim structures to efface the very presence of a predecessor-religion. This an especial talent of Islam, to pounce upon any opportunity to destroy another religion's sacred presence, claiming in the process that the other religion, and nor its artefacts simply never existed.

When Israel defended itself during yet another collective Arab military assault on its status as a Jewish State back in 1967 it managed to wrest from Jordan's hands old Jerusalem and with it the sacred site of the Temple Mount and the Wailing Wall which Jews had been forbidden by Jordan to approach. With Israel as custodian of all the sacred sites, Judaic, Christian and Muslim, no one was forbidden entry, all were welcome to worship at the sites they revered.

All, that is, but the Jews. Muslims would permit Jews to pray at the Wailing Wall, but no Jews were to be allowed to mount the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount and there to pray at the foremost sacred site in Judaism. Israel, to maintain peaceful relations with Jordan, agreed to have Jews abstain from any action that might be interpreted as praying while on the Temple Mount; they could, under escort travel there and briefly look with reverence upon the site of their most sacred heritage, but not pray.

The more that Israel accedes to Palestinian Arab demands, the greater the demands. Muslims throughout the world would prefer Jewish presence not to contaminate the third-holiest site in Islam. That Jews are permitted to mount that elevated site at all sits poorly with the Islamic community. Their ire turns from annoyance to violence with what they perceive as provocation; the presence of Jews, period.

And so the urban legend has gone the rounds convincing Palestinians of nefarious plans on the part of orthodox Jews to actually defy Muslim demands that they desist. From praying at the sacred site to conspiring to defile Islam's third holiest site, and a minute leap of the imagination becomes viral reality, that Jews plan to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and replace them with Temples.

A conviction that the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas in particular, incites the faithful to believe, and to react to. And in the spirit of 'resistance', Palestinian youth have assembled within their mosque to lob rocks and firebombs at Jews, tourists and police escorting them. From there to deadly violence, where a young out-of-uniform Israeli soldier walking with his family of two infants and wife, was attacked and knifed to death.

A rabbi hearing the cries of distress and terror ran to the scene to intervene and was himself knifed to death alongside the soldier. Responding security succeeded in stopping the 19-year-old Palestinian from any more deaths in his killing spree by putting him permanently out of commission. The young man, Mohannad Halabi was studying law at al-Quds University; shot dead at the scene of the murder he committed to.

His father, Shafeek stated his pride in his son. "He was a very smart kid with a strong personality. He wanted to be a lawyer to defend the Palestinian people against Israeli brutality", said the father, as his other children hung a banner of the Islamic Jihad Palestinian terrorist group across the entrance to the family house, scheduled for retaliatory destruction by the IDF.

There are, needless to say no instances whatever of crude Palestinian brutality, only Israeli brutality. The Palestinians distinguish themselves in committing to outright murderous attacks because hatred is so much a distinct part of their national psyche. So Israel is proceeding with its brutal agenda by barring Palestinians from the Old City for two days, in the wake of the deadly attacks.

Clashes erupt in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)