Temple Mount: Israel damned if it does; damned if it doesn’t
February 9, 2007, 1:12 pm |
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By Andrew L. Jaffee
As today’s Palestinian riots prove, Arabs/Muslims are drunk on, and addicted to, virulent hatred of all things Jewish. When Arabs controlled Jerusalem, Jews were not allowed to visit the Wailing Wall (Temple Mount). Since Jews have controlled Jerusalem, Arabs/Muslims have been allowed to visit their “third-holiest shrine,” the Noble Sanctuary (Dome of the Rock). Muslims reach the Noble Sanctuary via a “centuries-old ramp” which was “damaged in a 2004 snowstorm.” Jews are repairing the ramp so that Muslims can safely reach their shrine. But all the anti-Jewish brainwashing of Arabs/Muslims leads them to see Jewish conspiracies everywhere, including in a repair project meant to keep Muslim worshipers safe.
Here are some of the shrill Muslim reactions to Israel’s repair work — an act of common decency:
…”This is an aggression against the mosque,” Mohammed Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem, said by telephone from inside the walled compound. “I don’t know what impact this aggression will have on the Palestinian territories, but past experience has shown that every time there were clashes at the mosque, it engulfed the other parts of the West Bank and Gaza.” …
“This is a great danger. We can’t remain silent,” said Nizar Rayan, a Hamas leader, at a celebration of a power-sharing agreement Hamas signed with the rival Fatah faction in Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
“We ask God to unite the Palestinians, with their rifles and tunnels, to be able to cleanse Al Aqsa of the … excavations,” Rayan said.
The tunnels he referred to are tunnels Palestinian militants use to smuggle weapons into Gaza. …
Threats of violence against common decency?
In fact, Israel is damned if it does, and damned if it doesn’t. If Israel chose to ignore the faulty ramp, and it collapsed under the weight of Muslim worshipers, then the Jewish state would be condemned for culpable negligence, and accused of conspiring to hurt Muslims. As we see today, if Israel proactively takes steps to protect Muslims, she is accused of conspiring to hurt Muslims, even though the Muslims can provide no evidence of such connivance.
Related: Israel, Palestinians, Anti-Semitism