Who Cares What They Say?

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Yom Rishon

Sunday

16 Nisan 5782

April 17 2022

Quote of the Day

“I have demands of Mahmoud Abbas as the leader of the Palestinian people. To go to court in The Hague and call us an apartheid state is not right; to pay terrorists is wrong; to not condemn violence is unacceptable . . . so we have arguments, but the talks are respectful.”

“Defense” Minister Benny Gantz talking in an interview with Walla! News about his one-to-one dialogue with the Chairman of the PLO.

Why in the world should any person, much less an Israeli, much less an Israeli official have a respectful conversation with someone who goes to an International Court to brand Israel as apartheid or who pays terrorists to murder Israelis or who refuses to condemn the violence that his minions perpetrate against Israelis?

This mode of thinking is just plain lunacy—and reminds me of the idiotic “civil discourse”  that Reform Judaism in the United States introduced years ago to govern discussions about Israel. It was during one of those discussions that your humble servant simply got up, announced that the ideas being expressed deserved no respect, and walked out.

That course of action would never occur to Benny Gantz.

The News on the Israeli Street

Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . . 

There have been a number of stabbings and thwarted stabbings. For example, a 15-year-0ld girl in Haifa who self-identifies as a Palestinian stabbed a 47-year-old Israeli. During her interrogation, she brazenly stated “I wanted to stab a Jew.” Elsewhere, a knife-armed terrorist attempted to infiltrate Beit El but was fortunately spotted on the community’s surveillance system.

Despite dozens of terror attacks, a “situation assessment” was held last night led by “Defense” Minister Benny Gantz and with the participation of Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, GSS Chief Ronen Bar, along with the GSS Deputy Chief of Staff. In this meeting, Gantz unbelievably emphasized the importance of preserving freedom of worship for Palestinians, and so he decided that no closure would be imposed on Judea and Samaria.

To show the insanity of this decision, the group decided that one of the Crossings that would be opened was the Jalama Crossing beside Jenin. Shortly thereafter, a terrorist appeared at the Crossing and started to throw an IED at our soldiers. Fortunately, the bomb blew up in his hand and killed him.

TODAY’S BLOG:

Who Cares What They Say?

As we discussed in our last blog, all terrorist groups and terror-supporting countries are now competing with each other to show that they care more about the Al-Aksa Mosque than any other group or country. These comments come in the context of the appearance of Jerusalem Police on the Temple Mount in the last few days to quell violent riots.

Here is a sampling:

“The outbreak of al-Aqsa and the entry of the occupying forces into the mosque is a dangerous development and defilement of the holy places and is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people.”

Abu Ali, Senior Spokesman for PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas

The U.S. is deeply concerned about the violence in Jerusalem. All parties are called upon to exercise restraint.”

U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price

“Jordan strongly condemns the so-called Israeli police assault and special forces assault on the al-Aqsa Mosque and the attack on worshipers. These are a blatant violation and Israel must withdraw immediately.”

Haytham Abu al-Ful, Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman

Following this statement, the Jordanians actually demanded that the Israel Police not be allowed to escort any group of Jews to the Temple Mount unless it is accompanied by Muslims from the Islamic Wakf.

Your humble servant’s reaction to all of these comments is simply: Why in the world should we care about statements like these? 

The answer: We shouldn’t. The Har HaBeit is ours, and we will do what it takes to maintain order there.