Palestinian and Islamic Terrorists
Deserve No Quarter
© David Burton 2014
Palestinian and Islamic Terrorists
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Attempts at reaching a peace agreement between Israel and the Arabs living in the West Bank (Samaria) and Gaza have proven to be a fantasy and the prospects of a two state solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem are as far from reality as they have ever been in the 60-plus years since the founding of the State of Israel. In retrospect, the hope for an agreement being reached was naïve and the result of western nations, and even Israel, failing to fully understand the Arab/Islamic culture and the realities of middle-Eastern methods of dealing with “enemies” and of negotiating. Palestinian aspirations were encouraged by western, and particularly American, demands that Israel make more and more concessions in order to bring about a peace agreement. To the Arab way of thinking and the middle-East method of negotiation, such actions on the part of the west were simply a strong encouragement to avoid reaching an agreement in the belief that still more concessions could be obtained. Each concession offered was proof to the Arabs that by continuing to avoid a final agreement while falsely appearing to negotiate in good faith, they could obtain further concessions. The ultimate Arab objective was, and still is, the elimination of Israel and the establishment of a unified Islamic Palestinian state in all of what was once Palestine. To Islamic extremists, this “unified Palestinian state” would ultimately become part of an overall Islamic caliphate that would first envelop all the Arab countries and eventually the entire world. The West, including the United States, has never understood these facts and it appears that it still does not understand the reality of dealing with the Arab peoples of the middle-East. Israel, on the other hand, tried in the past, to reach an agreement with the Palestinians according to western standards of negotiation. They offered what, by western standards, could only be described as extremely generous concessions in a futile attempt to reach a final two-state peace agreement. The very painful Israeli concessions offered to Arafat and other Arab leaders have been well documented and then forgotten by America and the West. Instead, America and the European countries have continued to pressure Israel to make more and more concessions in the blind and irrational hope that such actions would ultimately lead the Arabs and Palestinians to reach a meaningful agreement. Again, the West and the United States simply do not understand, nor do they want to believe, that the Arabs ultimately want to eliminate Israel. And, they continue to blame the Israel-Palestinian stalemate for all the problems of the region so as to justify their pressuring Israel into making suicidal concessions. The Israeli-Palestinian problem is a red-herring – it is not the cause of radical Islam’s jihad against the west nor of the inherent problems of the tyrannical rule among the Islamic nations of the world. The Israeli-Palestinian problem is just an Arab/Islamic means of distracting attention away from the real issues that they and we face. The so-called Israeli-Palestinian problem will not end until the Palestinians and their Arab “friends” first come to the conclusion that Israel will not go away and state this fact in clear and unambiguous language – to the world and to their own people. Next, the West must make it totally clear to the Palestinians that they will not be supported in their dealings with Israel and that they, the Palestinians, must negotiate the best terms that they can with Israel. There can be no recognition of a Palestinian nation by the international community unless and until the Palestinians and the Israelis together reach an agreement on a Palestinian state. Recognition will come only after such an agreement is reached. To “help” the Palestinians along this path, the international community should notify the Palestinians that economic aid will be cut back or even eliminated if they don’t come to an agreement. It is important for the Palestinians to be convinced that the best deal that they can get is the one being offered now – future deals offered by Israel will only be less and less generous. The international community must understand that as long as the Palestinians and their Arab “friends” have even the faintest hope that the Palestinians can get more by not coming to an agreement now they will stall, obfuscate, lie and avoid in every possible way reaching a final agreement. Encouraging Arab and Palestinian recalcitrance is a sure-fire way to keep the flames of terror burning and guarantees that meaningful negotiations will never take place. Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said as much when he “criticized . . . the recent motions by several European countries to recognize a Palestinian state, saying they ‘pushed peace backwards.’ "Speaking at a joint news conference with {the} German Foreign Minister . . . , Netanyahu said such unilateral diplomatic steps carry a wrong message to the Palestinian Authority, not telling them that ‘they will have to make genuine compromises and take seriously Israel's legitimate security concerns. They merely award the Palestinians a prize.’ “ (Ref. 1) 5 Israelis - 4 unarmed orthodox rabbis praying in a West Jerusalem synagogue at morning services and 1 Druze policemen who came to their aid - were murdered on the morning of 18 November 2014 by 2 Arabs. Israel immediately promised prompt retribution for this despicable act of gross inhumanity. Almost simultaneously the bleeding hearts of the world, along with other less nobly inclined individuals and groups, raised cries for Israel to “act with restraint”, to abide by “internationally accepted rules”, etc. Among these was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, who urged Israel to act with restraint following the horrific murders. "There is irony in the latest attack. The synagogue was in Har Nof, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in West Jerusalem. The worshippers lived in internationally recognized Israel and almost certainly never served in the army. They would never approach the Temple Mount, the holy site where recent visits by Jews have supposedly triggered the latest wave of Palestinian violence, because they believe that God’s law forbids it. In other words, these worshippers should be among the least offensive to Palestinians." (Ref. 2) Mahmoud Abbas has clearly shown that he is no peace-loving moderate. He is quite simply another Arab terrorist who happens to be - for now - the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its militant wing (Fatah) which control the West Bank. He openly condones Arab terrorism and the murder of innocent civilians to his Palestinian subjects while tepidly denouncing the same acts for the benefit of western media whenever their condemnation becomes too strong – he speaks with a very forked tongue. But, his goals remain fixed - kill or drive out all the Jews in Israel and destroy the State of Israel. Following his statements supporting the recent spate of deadly attacks in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the West Bank, Palestinian West Bank president, Mahmoud Abbas, changed direction – at least for the benefit of western media – by condemning " ‘the killing of civilians from any side’ and ‘the whole cycle of violence,’ according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency. It was {Abbas’} first official condemnation of violence during the” {vicious terror attacks on civilians in Israel.} “. . . Abbas, other Fatah leaders, official Palestinian Authority agencies and media have for years consistently incited and encouraged violence against Israeli Jews and celebrated terrorists who undertake violent attacks against them. - - - “{Indeed,} the persistent and long-standing practice of Mahmoud Abbas, other Fatah officials, Palestinian Authority agencies and official media has been to incite and encourage violence against Israeli Jews and to celebrate the terrorists who perpetrate it. - - - “. . . Abbas has condoned and even encouraged the terrorism. [Emphasis mine] “For instance, . . . Abbas had sent a condolence letter to the family of Muataz Hijazi, the Palestinian who attempted to murder Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick. The Palestinian president wrote in the letter: “‘With anger and condemnation we received the message about the heinous crime committed by the murderous, terrorist gangs in the Israeli occupation army against Muataz Ibrahim Hijazi, who rose to heaven as a casualty in the fight for the Palestinian people's rights and for the holy sites ...’ “Similarly, last month, Abbas called for ‘all means’ to be used to ‘protect’ the Al-Aqsa Mosque. {It is clear what “all means” implies.} “As was widely reported, . . . Abbas had said: “ ‘It is not enough to say the settlers came, but they must be barred from entering the compound by any means. This is our Aqsa . . . and they have no right to enter it and desecrate it.’ “Palestinian Media Watch has compiled clips of Abbas' calls for violence . . . “{There have also been} recent calls for ‘Days of Rage’ by Fatah, Abbas' political party. As reported in Times of Israel: “ ‘Fatah calls to its fighters and to the masses of the Palestinian people to aid the Al-Aqsa Mosque and occupied Jerusalem’ . . . “WAFA also reported that the Fatah Mobilization and Organization Commission had ‘called to set tomorrow as a day of rage throughout the homeland and in countries which are home to refugees, to express the Palestinian people's opposition to any attack on the holy places and foremost among them the Al-Aqsa Mosque.... And to consider desecration of Al-Aqsa as a declaration of a religious war against the Palestinian people and the Arab Islamic nations.’ “U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry this morning referred to Fatah's calls for ‘Days of Rage,’ {by saying}: "‘To have this kind of act, which is a pure result of incitement, of calls for ‘days of rage,’ of just irresponsibility, is unacceptable,’ - - - ‘The Palestinian leadership must condemn this and they must begin to take serious steps to restrain any kind of incitement … and exhibit the kind of leadership that is necessary to put this region on a different path. This simply has no place in human behavior and we need to hear from leaders who are going to lead their people to a different place.’ - - - “ ‘The hands that held the axes are of the terrorists but the voice is the voice of Abu Mazen,’ declared {the Israeli} minister of strategic affairs, using an alternate name for Mr. Abbas. ‘Whoever calls on Muslims to defend the mosque in Al Aqsa using all the means against Jews bears direct responsibility for the horrific pogrom at the synagogue in Har Nof and all the attacks and deadly riots in Jerusalem.’ “ - - - “. . . there is no principled reason to ignore the complicity of Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement through their continued incitement. Prime-Minister Netanyahu was entirely correct when he accused Mr. Abbas of ‘fanning the flames’ of terror with lies about Israel supposedly seeking to change the status quo on the Temple Mount. “Mr. Abbas has referred to Jews who visit the Temple Mount as a ‘herd of cattle.’ He has harangued Fatah activists visiting him in his office: ‘We must prevent [Jews] from entering the Noble Sanctuary (the Arabic term for the Temple Mount) by all means.’ Plainly, he was heard and paid attention to. “Further, after a three-month old Israeli child was murdered . . . when a Palestinian . . . slammed his car into a crowd of people waiting at a Jerusalem light rail stop, Mr. Abbas said nothing in condemnation. “He said nothing even when his Fatah movement published a poster celebrating the killing: ‘The Silwan branch of Fatah honors the heroic martyr {the Palestinian who bravely murdered a three-year old child!} . . .’ “And he said nothing when a Fatah Central Committee statement referred to the ‘hero’ . . . Nor did he rebuke those who issued calls for attacks against Israelis. “His office did finally issue a grudging condemnation statement . . . in the wake of the Jerusalem synagogue massacre - but only after Secretary of State John Kerry’s stinging comments. [Emphasis mine] - - - “Then there’s the continuing PA lionization of deceased terrorists with laudatory public events, including the naming of public buildings and roads after them, along with granting stipends to their families. “There can be no denying that Mahmoud Abbas and the PA are integral to the current terror outbreak. [Emphasis mine]” (Ref. 3) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks out of one side of his mouth when addressing the West, out of another side of his mouth when talking to Israel and out of the third side of his mouth when talking to Palestinians and Islamic terrorist organizations such as Hamas. He recently accused Israel of leading the region toward a "religious war," saying that frequent visits by Jewish worshippers to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a site sacred to both Islam and Judaism, are creating clashes and can lead to a widespread outbreak of fighting. These inflammatory remarks evoked a quick response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Abbas was continuing to make the situation worse. " ‘Instead of calming tempers, he is inflaming them. Instead of educating his people for peace, Abu Mazen {another name for Mahmoud Abbas} is educating them for terror attacks,’ Netanyahu said . . .” (Ref. 4) Appropriately, Netanyahu announced that security forces had been bolstered and that he would begin imposing tough measures against violent demonstrators – the only response that Arab extremist understand. The tensions at the shrines have frequently boiled over into violent demonstrations and have provided the backdrop to a series of bloody attacks on Israelis by Palestinians. In a radio address “Netanyahu said Israel is ‘in the midst of a campaign of incitement and terror,’ and he vowed to use a ‘heavy hand’ to halt the violence. "He said Israel would destroy the homes of attackers, impose increased punishments against demonstrators who throw stones and firebombs at security forces, and impose fines on the parents of young stone-throwers. He also vowed to outlaw groups believed to be behind the demonstrations.” (Ref. 4) Interestingly, a day after the attack on the Jerusalem synagogue, “The Jerusalem municipality approve{d} the construction of 78 new homes for Jewish residents in east Jerusalem.” (Ref. 5) Also, “Israeli forces in the Arab east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan demolished the home of Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, the Palestinian responsible for the late October Jerusalem light rail attack that killed two. This is the first planned demolition of a terrorist’s home since the August demolitions that followed the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.” (Ref. 6) The razing of the homes of terrorists’ families had been abandoned by Israel. “Yet the policy seems even more critical now as a means of creating deterrence. And there is more than just a utilitarian justification. Parents and close relatives are often quoted in the media describing those responsible for terrorist acts as heroes and martyrs. Indeed, some parents are heard to say they regret not having more children to offer up for such martyrdom. This sort of incitement reflects a nurturing environment for acts of terror.” (Ref. 3) What needs to be done is to continue hitting the terrorists and their supporters where it hurts the most, and, to do it often! In addition to the families of terrorists, the advocates and facilitators of terrorism must also receive condemnation – and not just from Israel. As expected, the bleeding hearts immediately condemned Israel for demolishing the family home of the Arab terrorists. “Human rights groups say razing homes as a deterrent amounts to collective punishment and violates the rules that govern occupied territories, such as east Jerusalem – captured by Israel in 1967, along with the West Bank and Gaza. (Ref. 7) What these useful idiots won’t admit is that murdering four rabbis in prayer at a synagogue violates all rules of humanity and common decency. These murderers and those like them know no such rules and recognize no universally accepted rules of human behavior. Let these bleeding hearts show empathy for the victims and their families – not for the inhuman murderers and the families that spawned and have supported them and who call for still more murder of Jews! What has been so galling is either the utter stupidity or the outright anti-Semitism of western nations – especially the United States – in their continuing condemnations of any actions taken by Israel in self-defense and/or their mistaken attempts to get Israel to make more and more concessions to the Palestinians in order to keep alive their futile attempts to revive, resurrect, or continue the dead-at-birth “peace process”. There never has been a peace process! These western nations have never understood the Arab mentality. Negotiation is not a word that has the same meaning in their culture that it does in the west. What the Arabs do understand – and now so do the Israelis – is punishment, pain and retribution. The United States once understood this fact and responded accordingly after 9/11. It, and the other western nations, have chosen to forget or ignore this lesson, especially in regard to Israel and its Arab enemies. ISIS beheads innocent civilians who came to Syria to alleviate the suffering of the civilians caught up in the ongoing fighting there; Sudanese Muslims kidnap hundreds of young girls and sell them for sex-slaves or condemn them to forced marriages; Muslim fanatics conduct suicide bombings that kill and main thousands around the world; Palestinians murder Israeli citizens, including rabbis and 3-month old babies; Palestinian terrorists murder Israeli children, rabbis, and civilians - and how does the United Nations respond? It calls upon Israel to exercise restraint! Hamas fires thousands of rockets at civilians living in southern Israel and digs dozens of underground tunnels through which to Attack Israeli civilians and how do the western nations respond? They charge Israel with war crimes when Israel defends itself! These actions by the United Nations and the “civilized” western nations do nothing except encourage the murderers and terrorists to continue their rampages. Every time Israel is condemned, urged to show restraint, or encouraged to make another concession, the terrorist and murderers win and they are thereby encouraged to continue killing, torturing, raping, and beheading. And, those bleeding hearts who reward the terrorists by making demands on the victim - Israel, who urge more and more concessions from Israel, and who call for restraint on Israel’s part in defending itself, by their actions which reward and encourage the terrorists, are themselves complicit in these egregious crimes against humanity. Israel has come to understand that there can be no more negotiation with Arab and Palestinian extremists and is now acting appropriately – rockets from Gaza will mean overwhelming retaliation; murder by Palestinian terrorists will result in the attacker being killed or imprisoned and his family house being demolished; failure to negotiate in good faith will simply mean expanded “settlements” and less territory that can potentially be handed over to a future Palestinian state. For example, at the end of 2012, Israel announced {that} it “plan{ned} to build 3,000 housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, many of them in the large West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. Long-term plans call for the eventual construction of 5,000 units in the area. “Israel’s announcement came after the United Nations voted to upgrade the Palestinian Authority (PA) to nonvoting observer state status. By its action, ‘The United Nations General Assembly’s vote to make ‘Palestine’ a ‘non-member state’ of the UN has done no less than legitimize the two Palestinian regimes that promote terrorism and Israel’s destruction.’ . . . “The UN action once again demonstrated its bias in favor of Arab terrorists and against the democratic State of Israel. The diplomatic responses to Israel’s announcement of its intention to resume construction in the West Bank and in Jerusalem once again illustrated either a total lack of reality on the part of these countries or of latent anti-Semitism. Once more, all too many nations have chosen to close their eyes and to blame the victim.” (Ref. 8) “Anti-Semitism is once again raging all over the world and this vile ideology is being aided and abetted by any number of people. Some of those helping to stoke the fire of Jew hatred are active participants, some are the quintessential useful idiots and some are feeding the crocodile in hopes they won’t be eaten. - - - “. . . the cowards who seek to feed the crocodile in hopes they might not be eaten today as Churchill observed are the saddest of the lot. - - - “As usual, the bleeding hearts, the anti-Semites, and those ignorant of how Middle-East Arab politics work were furious that Israel had finally taken a hard-line stand against the eternally intransigent Arab demands on the Jewish State. For some 60-plus years, Israel has acceded to demands from the so-called civilized segment of the international community and given the Arabs and ‘Palestinians’ concession after concession. “Israel has properly responded to those idealists, bleeding hearts, anti-Semites and the uninformed who chastised Israel for announcing that it would proceed with its plans to expand settlements in the West Bank and build in Jerusalem. ‘Israel said . . . it won't bow to demands by world leaders to abandon plans for new settlements on Palestinian territory. "{The Israeli prime minister's office said that} ’Israel will continue to stand by its essential interests even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision that was taken.’ - - - “Today, things may have finally changed. Instead of giving the ‘Palestinians’ more and more, Israel may finally be telling the Arabs and the ‘Palestinians’ that the more they demand, the less they will ultimately get. The longer the Arabs and the ‘Palestinians’ wait to come to a real peace agreement with Israel, the less they will ultimately receive. The ‘Palestinians’ . . . will never get in the future what they can get now.[Emphasis mine] “The Israeli decision to proceed with construction demonstrates that ‘Israel isn't willing to lie down and accept the false narrative about the West Bank and Jerusalem that was swallowed whole at the United Nations. - - - {This} decision sends a necessary signal to the Palestinians lest they be deceived by their triumph in the General Assembly. " ‘What {Israel} has done is to show {that} Israel won't give up an inch of territory unless the Palestinians return to the negotiating table and even then only if they agree to end conflict for all time. " ‘{The Palestinians} may be under the impression that Israelis can be hammered into more unilateral concessions by means of foreign pressure. " ‘Had the Europeans behaved in a principled manner and rebuffed the UN upgrade as a clear violation of the Oslo accords, as they should have, it could have been argued that {Israel's} decision {to resume construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem} would have been a mistake. But since the Europeans abandoned the peace process that they had heretofore championed, it was necessary for Israel to remind {the Palestinians} that {they} should realize that the vote in New York wouldn't mean a thing on the ground in the Middle East.’ - - - “{The} United States {has continually} demonstrated its complete lack of comprehension of how things work in the Mid-East and in the Arab world. . . . {The U.S. has continually} urged concessions from Israel instead of telling the ‘Palestinians’ that the longer they delayed, the more they would lose. . . . The message sent to the ‘Palestinians’ by the U.S. was: ‘We urge Israeli leaders to reconsider these unilateral decisions and exercise restraint, as these actions are counterproductive . . .’ Balderdash! . . . - - - “Maybe, just maybe, we are witnessing the start of a new day in dealing with those Arabs who have no real desire for a just Mid-East peace, who want to destroy the State of Israel, who want only to kill all Jews and other ‘infidels’. . . . Maybe we are witnessing the end of the ‘land for peace fantasy’. Maybe we are seeing the beginning of a truly realistic approach, one of ‘applying the stick’, instead of ‘offering the carrot’. Every time a rocket or mortar falls on Sderot from Gaza, Israel should permanently annex a piece of Gaza and send the Arab occupants of the annexed land into the remaining Hamas controlled portion of Gaza. ‘For every terrorist attack on Israel, let the United States and other like-minded countries provide Israel with additional aid for defense, or maybe give Israel a modern tank or fighter airplane each time there is a terrorist attack.’ It’s time, long since due, to change from a doomed and obviously failed approach to a new one. It’s also time for the rest of the world to stop paying lip-service to the Israel-haters and the Arab apologists and to get solidly behind a new program – it’s certainly worth a try. Repeated failure is not an option, it’s insanity. “The time has arrived for Israel and the fair minded nations of the world to make the ‘Palestinians’ and their Arab ‘brethren’ understand that: They can no longer expect more and more by waiting – instead they will receive less and less the longer they continue their charade of ‘wanting peace’ while continuing to demonize Jews and attack the State of Israel with the announced intention of ultimately eradicating the Jewish nation. Maybe, just maybe, the Palestinians will finally get the message. Get serious about real peace with Israel now, or suffer the very painful consequences! Time is running out – if it has not already done so.” (Ref. 8) There are some in the West that understand that the only way that a meaningful peace agreement can be reached with the “Palestinians” is to convince them that they cannot destroy Israel, that they cannot receive support from the West if they continue avoiding meaningful negotiations with Israel, and that the longer they delay achieving a realistic negotiated settlement with Israel the less they will ultimately achieve. In France, the ruling Socialist Party is considering a proposal to recognize the West Bank and Gaza as a Palestinians state. This is part of a wider EU process to bypass the previously agree to direct negotiations between Israel and the “Palestinians”. Such actions only encourage the “Palestinians” to drag their feet and avoid the real and necessary direct negotiations with Israel that were previously agreed to. But, in the Arab world, that which was previously agreed to can be subsequently ignored. Too few in the West either understand this fact or deliberately choose to ignore it – for whatever reason. Recently, A “member of the French Parliament, told Israel’s Channel 2 News that he plans to meet with the French Prime Minister and express his anger at the {French} government’s initiative to hold a discussion to promote the recognition of Palestine: {He stated} ‘I protest against the decision. The decision harms the peace process. . . . I protest against the decision, a decision that harms the peace process rather than promotes it.’ ” ’I’m upset by the decision of the Socialist Party to recognize a Palestinian state. . . . I will meet with {the} Prime Minister . . . and other MPs in an attempt to dissuade them from this discussion. . . . This is a statement that we in France violate the agreements the sides signed off on. As there is no place for unilateral decisions, if the world supports decisions opposing these agreements, this is serious.’ “ ’The Socialists want to obtain the support of the Palestinians and the Muslims in France but this distances peace. . . . I remind members of the Socialist Party that some of the demonstrations support Hamas.’ . . .” (Ref. 9) The message should be getting clearer to the Palestinians. Israel is done attempting to deal with those who have no serious intentions of negotiating in good faith. In mid-November of 2014, “Israel . . . approved the construction of 78 new homes in two settlements on West Bank land annexed to Jerusalem, likely to aggravate Palestinian anger at a time when violence has flared, including a deadly attack on a synagogue. “Jerusalem's municipal planning committee authorized 50 new housing units in Har Homa and 28 in Ramot, a municipal spokeswoman said. Israel describes those two urban settlements as Jerusalem neighborhoods. - - - “The Palestinians have also been angered by a recent slew of plans Israel has advanced for about 4,000 housing units on West Bank land annexed to the city. “Israel, citing Biblical links to Jerusalem, says Jews have a right to live anywhere in the city. It regards Jerusalem, including parts of the city captured in 1967, as its ‘indivisible’ capital. . . . (Ref. 10) The western world urges Israel to make more and more concessions to the Palestinians while they fire rockets into Israel from Gaza, kidnap and murderer unarmed civilians and even enter Jewish houses of worship to butcher unarmed rabbis at morning prayers. “There is something particularly horrifying about an attack inside a place of worship – and with hatchets no less. {U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said,} ‘They were hatcheted, hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality and murder.’ - - - “Hamas, of course, which remains firmly in control of Gaza, lauded the attack and its members took to the streets of Gaza to celebrate the deaths with trays of candy. [Emphasis mine] “It is hard to fathom that level of hatred, but it is also hard to deny its existence . . . “Kerry did put at least part of the blame on the call by Palestinians for ‘days of rage’ – a campaign that has now succeeded in claiming four more lives in addition to six other Israelis killed in earlier incidents.” (Ref. 11) "In October, 2014, a 20 year old Palestinian terrorist . . . drove his car into a Jerusalem light rail station, killing a three-month-old infant . . . and injuring seven other people. “In the wake of this attack, Hamas launched a media campaign promoting terrorism and the murder of Israelis. Shehab News Agency, an online news agency linked to Hamas, posted {a} picture on their Facebook page. The text reads: ‘The accelerator is a weapon.’ Hamas continues to encourage the killing of Israelis by any means necessary. - - - “Hamas advocates violence and hatred through social networks. The terror organization indiscriminately aims to kill Israeli civilians, and uses the internet to spread their deadly mission.” (Ref. 12) There has been an uptick in the number of terror attacks in Israel in 2014. In addition to the attacks already described, other attacks perpetrated in this year are described below. A young Israeli woman was stabbed to death by a Palestinian resident of Hebron on November 10th. Two others were stabbed during the attack.[13] On the same day, an Israeli soldier died from stab wounds sustained while standing at a train station in Tel Aviv.[13] On November 5th, a Palestinian man drove his car into a light-rail station, killing an Israeli Border Police officer and leaving 14 others injured.[13] On June 30th, three young yeshiva students in Gush Etzion were abducted and murdered. Their murders ultimately led to Israel's Operation Protective Edge against the Hamas terrorist operating from Gaza.[13] A 19-year old Israel was stabbed to death by a Palestinian on May 2nd in a parking lot in Migdal Haemek.[13] On April 14th, an off-duty senior Israeli police officer was shot to death by Palestinian terrorists as he was on his way to a Passover Seder.[13] In 2014, in addition to the terrorist attacks listed above, several Israeli civilians were killed and others injured by rocket and mortar atacks launched from Gaza by the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas. "From the Oslo Accords (Sept. 1993) until September 2000 - nearly 300 Israelis were killed in attacks. During the Palestinian Al-Aqsa Intifada (Sept. 2000 - Dec. 2005) another 1,100 Israelis were killed. Since December 2005, Palestinian terrorist attacks have claimed at least another 153 Israeli lives." (Ref. 13) In spite of the vitriolic denunciation and animosity toward Israel by the Jew- and Israel-haters of the world, the State of Israel is undeniably the one country in the Arab and Islamic world where true democracy reigns and ethnic and religious diversity exists and is encouraged. “By the thousands they streamed to Yanuh-Jat, Israelis of every description making their way . . . to the remote northern Galilee district, where a fallen hero was to be buried with full honors. . . . From around the country, hundreds of black-hatted haredi (‘ultra-Orthodox’) Jews came on chartered buses, disembarking to join throngs of Arabic-speaking Druze in traditional white turbans, police officers in dress blues, and so many other mourners . . . “They had come to bid farewell to Zidan Saif, the Druze police officer who was the first responder on the scene of {the} massacre at a synagogue in Jerusalem. Saif had put himself between the terrorists and the worshippers, taking a bullet in the head and dying of his wounds that night. . . . “Like many of the Jewish state’s loyal sons and heroes, Saif wasn’t Jewish. That didn’t make him any less an Israeli, Just as Israel’s sizeable Arab and non-Jewish minorities don’t make it any less the sovereign Jewish homeland. . . . - - - “For all the savagery of the terrorism that has sent so many innocents over the years to early graves, though, the funeral of Saif is poignant evidence that peaceful coexistence is not only possible in the Jewish State, it’s a daily reality, woven into the warp and woof of Israeli life. [Emphasis mine] “Of course there are tensions, disputes, and resentments, just as there are in every imperfect democracy – and what democracy isn’t imperfect? Yet Israel from the outset has risen to the challenge of building a society held together by centripetal forces stronger than the centrifugal differences pushing it apart. Indeed, the Jewish State’s declaration of independence, proclaimed by David Ben Gurion in May 1948, explicitly implored the country’s non-Jewish inhabitants to remain ‘and participate in the building-up of the state on the basis of full and equal citizenship.’ A great number did remain - including many thousands of Arab Druze – and went on to share in the blessings of Israeli freedom, democracy, and equality.” (Ref. 14) Name me one Arab or Moslem country that can make the same claim! Those bigots who call Israel an apartheid state would do well to admit the truth and that they lie or are ignorant of the true facts. Israel is “still a work in progress, but largely a successful one. [Emphasis mine] The small Jewish state with the notable Arab minority not only survives but thrives, the implacability of its worst enemies and violent instability of its neighborhood not withstanding. Yes, terrorism is a grim plague. Yes, the toxic Palestinian political culture that incites it is growing worse. All the same, Israel manages to stand out as an oasis of pluralism, respect, and tolerance in a part of the world not known for these qualities. [Emphasis mine] (Ref. 14) The ultimate victims of the intolerance and hatred that emanate from the political leaders and rulers of the Arab/Moslem world are the Arab and Palestinian peoples who allow themselves to be driven by the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-western rhetoric spewed out by these hate-mongers. While many Palestinian officials were “welcoming the crime” committed in the Jerusalem synagogue, Hamas, in Gaza, was expressing jubilation over the murders and handing out candy in celebration of the crime. Some in the Arab world have begun to understand and recognize the inhumanity of these actions and are speaking out. As noted by Bahrain’s foreign minister, “those who will pay the price for the crime of killing innocents in a Jewish synagogue and for welcoming the crime are the Palestinian people.” (Ref. 14) “Moderate” Arab/Moslem leaders and governments are beginning to become aware that the excesses of Islamic fanatics threaten not just “infidels” but themselves as well. These Arab governments “know quite well that at a time when Muslims are being butchered and abused by fanatics across the Middle East, ‘mosques in Israel and the West Bank – including Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque – remain among the safest places in the Mideast for Muslims to pray.’ “That’s no small achievement, even if the world does take it for granted.” (Ref. 14) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- References:
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| 12 December 2014 {Article 206; Islam_15} |