UPDATES 5 pm Israel time, Saturday, October 18 2014:
**The U.S. State Department wasted no time yesterday attacking Naftali Bennett for his denunciation of John Kerry’s absurd connection between recruiting for the Islamic State and the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
State Department Spokeswoman Marie Harf dissembled: “Israeli leaders, in plural, did not agree with what they thought the Secretary said – we know that emotions run high in politics, but either that particular minister didn’t read what the State Secretary said, or someone is trying to distort it for political reasons. This is an inaccurate reading of the Secretary’s comments, period.”
What they thought Kerry said? An inaccurate reading of the Secretary’s comments? Bennett is trying to distort it for political reasons?
How about John Kerry stuck his foot in his mouth for the thousandth time and is depending on his spokespeople to reinvent what he said.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Just imagine for a moment the situation in reverse.
What if Benjamin Netanyahu had attended a rally for the Temple Mount Faithful in Jerusalem yesterday and had declared that Muslims should be prevented from being on the Temple Mount “by any means”, and had added that “Muslims have no right to enter it and desecrate it.”
What do you think would have happened?
There would have been riots in the streets of Cairo, Amman, Tehran, Jakarta, and hundreds of other Arab cities.
There would have been calls for “a holy jihad to attack the Jewish infidels in Jerusalem” by every imam from Rabat to London to Riyadh.
There would have been a hundred speeches on the floor of the United Nations condemning Netanyahu, Israel, and every Israeli.
Pope Francis would have decried the Israeli attempt to deny Muslims the right to worship on the Mount.
Catherine Ashton would have taken the podium to say that the European Union is increasing sanctions on Israel.
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President Obama would have immediately appeared at the White House to castigate Netanyahu and Israel and apologize to Muslims everywhere.
John Kerry would have been on the first plane to Ramallah.
And on and on.
And yet yesterday, when Mahmoud Abbas, said exactly the same thing about Jews–that they have no right to enter the Temple Mount and desecrate it and that they should be prohibited from entering the Mount by any means, no one said a word.
Not Barack Obama, not John Kerry, not the United Nations, not the European Union, not anyone.
Abbas made his comments on a day when 5000 Muslim worshipers were on the Mount worshiping Allah, but those comments should come as no surprise to anyone. This is the same Abbas who has often stated that all of Judea and Samaria should be free of Jews.
Once a hater of Jews, always a hater of Jews: Israel’s “partner for peace” Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah (photo:EPA).
Perversely, this is the same Abbas who has championed religious freedom and guaranteed that should the Palestinians be given control of the Old City that every Christian, Jew, and Muslim will have unrestricted access to their religious sites.
Some days you just want to scream at the world to wake up and see the Palestinians for what they really are.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.