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By Vic Rosenthal

Muslim protests about the repair work and excavation near the Mughrabi gate are not abating; indeed, they’re heating up.

Some people do not understand why it’s not possible to simply explain that this work is far from the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and can’t possibly damage the Temple Mount in any way. Of course the reason is that Muslim authorities everywhere are saying that it’s a Zionist plot to destroy the mosque and replace it with a third temple; and if you were a Muslim, whom would you believe?

There are several reasons that they are doing this. One is to make the point that Jerusalem and the Temple Mount don’t belong to the Jews — Muslims decide what happens there. The Islamic Waqf’s recent excavations of the actual Temple Mount and construction of a huge underground mosque in the Solomon’s Stables area — which should have been protested by Israel for archaeological reasons but was not, for political ones — also made a statement of this kind.

Israel has so far resisted pressure to stop the work, apparently understanding that doing so would represent a weakening of her claim to sovereignty over the area. We can expect this pressure to increase, as worldwide reverence for Muslim sensitivity kicks in, and Muslims threaten sympathetic disruptions in other places. It’s the Danish cartoons all over again, except even more irrational.

Israel needs to defend her sovereignty and the world has to stand firm against blackmail. It has to be made clear that:

• Facts — in this case the fact that the work is harmless — must override agitation that trades on ignorance and prejudice.

• Israel is sovereign over Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, and her respect for the rights of all religious groups to worship in Jerusalem must not be interpreted as weakness.

• Muslim leaders must not be allowed to blackmail the world at will with threats of violence.

Technorati Tags: Temple Mount, Al-Aqsa, Mughrabi Gate, Israel, Muslims, Jerusalem, Danish cartoons

By Murray Farber

Murray Farber is a retired reporter and editor who lives in Fresno.

The crazy declarations coming out of Iran reinforce our obligation to never forget the Holocaust. It prompted me to think back over the years and reflect on a Jew named Lipman.

In 1939, he was studying at a seminary in Poland when the Germans invaded, seized him and sent him to Buchenwald as a slave laborer. In December of 1942, this young Orthodox Jew was forced to sing Christmas carols to the cheers of German soldiers who rewarded him with food for his barracks.

Some months later, Lipman was among Jews being loaded onto a truck when a soldier recognized him and remembered the Jew with the tenor voice. The soldier conferred with an officer and they ordered Lipman back to the barracks.

None of the Jews aboard the truck ever returned.

As editor of my newspaper’s religion page in 1957, I met Lipman when he came to the New Jersey community where I worked. His arm was tattooed by the Nazis with the number F6580. He arrived to serve as the cantor of the local synagogue’s high holiday services.

Technorati Tags: Holocaust

From YNet:

“Israeli Apartheid Week” will take place for the third consecutive year starting next Monday through to Saturday.

Israeli-Arab MK Jamal Zahalka was invited to speak at one of the events marking the week in Montréal on Thursday.

“Calling the occupation apartheid isn’t an overstatement, it’s an understatement,” Zahalka told Ynet, “The Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are worse than apartheid.”

“Israel Apartheid Week” will be comprised of several events including lectures, informational booths, cultural events, film screenings and demonstrations held at various North American and European campuses.

This is normal. This is the way they make their case, over and over again.

Suppose I decide that next week will be “Palestine Murder Week”, and hold events all over world with speakers describing various ax-murders, shootings and bombings of Jews perpetrated by Palestinians. There could be films dramatizing events that occurred over the years, going back to, say, the massacre in Hebron in 1929; reconstructions of wedding halls and pizza parlors. Of course, we’d need to have serious academic-sounding lectures as well as intimidating mass demonstrations. We’d distribute literature about the need for the US and EU to divest from funding terrorist militias like Fatah and Hamas.

We would not have to exaggerate. We wouldn’t have to bend language, such as the way the Palestinians and their supporters use the word ‘apartheid’, when we could use the simple word ‘murder’ to describe what they do.

The only thing we wouldn’t have is a Jewish member of the Palestinian parliament to denounce it.

Ha’aretz reports that Hamas and Fatah have signed a deal for a unity government. Hamas has agreed to ‘respect’ previous PA agreements with Israel; as we’ve discussed before, this is a compromise formulation that does not mean the same thing as ‘accepting’ them. Hamas also stated that the agreement follows the principles of the “prisoners’ document” and does not imply recognition of Israel. There is no mention in the article of a renunciation of terrorism against Israel (the prisoners’ document does call for a renunciation of violence between Palestinians).

If the agreement is as described the Ha’aretz article, this will not be adequate to meet international requirements to restart the flow of money to the Palestinian Authority — unless it’s decided to pretend that it is.

Update [8 Feb 2202 PST]: The Jerusalem Post reports that Saudi Arabia has promised $1 billion (that’s with a ‘b’) in aid to the unified PA.

The two parties also agreed that the political platform of the unity government would not require Hamas to abide by previous agreements signed between the PLO and Israel, one of the three conditions the Quartet had set for granting the Hamas government legitimacy.

Instead, the unity government has been asked to “honor” the agreements with Israel, as well as resolutions of the United Nations and Arab summits pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Moreover, the Fatah-Hamas agreement does not require the unity government to explicitly recognize Israel’s right to exist or Hamas to renounce violence, which was another of the Quartet’s requirements.

So it is more or less what we expected. The Saudi financing means that there is no need for the PA to make concessions to the quartet, reducing US leverage. It also seems to mean that the Palestinian movement will be taking orders from Riyadh rather than Teheran. And finally, it’s highly unlikely that this will provide a framework for a peace deal with Israel.

Technorati Tags: Palestinians, Israel, unity government, Hamas, Fatah

Ha’aretz reports today that Minister of Defense Peretz has asked the PM to stop the work on the approach to the Mughrabi gate “for fear of escalation and deterioration in the defense situation.” Mention is made of the importance of avoiding problems at this critical time when the Palestinians are meeting in Mecca (!) and Condoleeza Rice is about to come to the region for a summit.

There have been protests all over the Arab and Muslim world including Syria, Jordan, Iran, etc.

Obviously it’s not difficult to convince Muslims that Israel is trying to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque, regardless of the facts. The question is, why?

The answer is simple. To make the point that Israel is not sovereign in Jerusalem. If the Arabs can dictate what Israel can and cannot do near the Temple Mount, then they are the true rulers, not Israel. I am expecting that the government of Israel will agree with them. We’ll see.

Update [8 Feb 1501 PST]: A good picture and more explanation here on Israpundit.