Tag Archive for: Yassir Arafat

Another Temple Mount Intifada?

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The Jewish religious calendar of the Days of Awe started with Rosh Hashanah, continued with  Yom Kippur and the harvest festival of Sukkot  ending with Simchat Torah-the celebration of Ha Shem’s gift of the torah.  In Israel  it has been the scene of daily violence and pitched battles on the Temple Mount between rock and Molotov cocktail throwing Palestinian protesters and Israel security and border police. This period of Jewish religious observance sorrowfully culminated in a murderous Palestinian spectacle in both Samaria and yesterday in Jerusalem.

Naama and Rabbi Eitam Henkin

Naama and Rabbi Eitam Henkin

Thursday, Palestinian terrorists committed a random drive by shooting murdering Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin z”l (of blessed memory)  from the community of Neira in their car while traveling on the road between Itamar and Elon Moreh in Samaria. She was killed instantly by the wanton gunfire. Rabbi Eitam Henkin  heroically opened his door to shield the couple’s four sons, ages  9 to less than three months  in the back seat,  later succumbing to his  mortal wounds. When the vehicle with its flashing emergency  lights  and a door open  was approached  by an Israeli paramedic one of the older Henkin surviving boys screamed, “they murdered my parents. “ Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin were American Olim from a respected Orthodox family.

The One Family Fund began an emergency appeal for support of the four orphaned and traumatized Henkin boys who are now in the care of their grandmother.  The Palestinians ‘celebrated’ this heinous crime.  Israel National News reported that Friday, October 2, 2015, thousands attended the funeral s of Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin who were interred in Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot Cemetery  located near the western entrance to the capital city.

From  New York,  Prime Minister Netanyahu excoriated Palestinian President Abbas, condemning him for his silence. This was in the wake of a speech by Abbas suggesting that Israel hadn’t implemented the Oslo Accords in effect  justifying non –observance of prevailing agreements. Of course, the UN  lent its tacit support by agreeing to raise the flag of the Palestinian Authority at the UN.  The PA  has never been admitted as a full member , although it holds observer non-state status, enabling it to avail itself of membership in a number of UN organizations and treaties including access to International Courts.

Rabbis Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Bennett z”l

Rabbis Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Bennett z”l

Then Saturday, we had another burst of Palestinian terrorism. The murders of two Rabbis Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Bennett near the Lion’s Gate in Jerusalem stabbed to shouts of “allahu akbar” all while recorded on security cameras. A news release from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted what occurred:

At around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday evening (October 3, 2015), a knife-wielding Arab attacked Rabbi Aharon Bennett, his wife, their 2-year-old son and baby daughter who were on their way to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City. Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, an Old City resident and IDF reserve officer, went down with his gun to try and save those wounded by the Arab terrorist in the attack, but the terrorist stabbed him and seized his weapon. Border Police forces stationed nearby shot and killed the attacker. ?

Israel Hayom reported, “15-year-old Moshe Malka sustained moderate wounds in another Jerusalem stabbing attack.”   The State Department issued a statement requesting calm by all parties involved.

In the wake of Saturday’s  murderous events in Jerusalem  PM Netanyahu scheduled a meeting with his Security Cabinet for Monday.  From New York he said:

Israel is waging an all-out war on Palestinian terrorism. This battle must be fought with determination and focus. We are increasing our prevention and punitive measures. We all feel outraged, but we have to let the IDF, Shin Bet and police fight terrorism, and no one should take the law into their own hands.

Could we be witnessing another Temple Mount Intifada?  Saeb Erekat, PA senior negotiator said it looks like the beginning of a Third Intifada, so did the perpetrator of the Jerusalem murders.  The Times of Israel (TOI) reported, 19 year old Muhannad Halabi posting the day before the attack on his Facebook page, “The Third Intifada is here”.

As Israel Hayom noted, Israel security officials made references to an all out campaign against Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria akin to Operation Defense Shield during the Second Intifada:

A source privy to consultations held by top government officials over the past few days said that if the Palestinians “want a third intifada they will end up with a second Operation Defensive Shield. Steps will be taken on the ground to undermine Hamas infrastructure.”

Operation Defensive Shield, waged in 2002, was a large-scale military campaign targeting Palestinian terrorist infrastructure across Judea and Samaria in an effort to stave off increasingly deadly attacks.

Following Saturday’s attack, which came amid growing tensions in Jerusalem and a series of violent riots on the Temple Mount, the defense establishment decided to limit access to Al-Aqsa Mosque to Muslim worshippers aged 50 and over, who will be allowed to enter the compound through the Lions’ Gate only. No restrictions have been placed on Muslim women’s access to the compound.

Access for Jews and Muslims alike to the volatile holy site is often restricted for security reasons.

The Second or Temple Mount Intifada was fomented by the late Yasser Arafat emboldened by two events in 2000: the pell mell IDF withdrawal from the Southern Lebanon Security zone creating a vacuum for Shia Hezbollah to move in and his rejection of a peace deal at Camp David proposed by then PM Ehud Barack with the support of former President Clinton. Arafat triggered the uprising to coincide with the visit by the late PM Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount on September 28, 2000.

Operation Defensive Shield began in earnest after the March 27, 2002 suicide bombing by Hamas of the Park Hotel in Netanya hosting a Passover Seder with largely elderly holocaust survivors. 30 civilians were killed and 140 were injured, the most casualties in the worst single event during Operation Defense Shield. It began on March 29, 2002 with Israeli tanks mounting a siege of Yasser Arafat in the Mukata in Ramallah. The IDF engaged in urban warfare in Palestinian major towns in the Samaria and the West Bank, withdrawing in May 2002 with cordons of these communities remaining during the Second Intifada. In one operation alone in Jenin 23 IDF soldiers were killed in close quarter attacks with armed Palestinian terrorists. The Second intifada went on for nearly five years. Arafat, the first PA president died in a French hospital before the end of the Second Intifada in  November 2004. He was succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas elected for a four year term in 2005 now serving in his 11th year.  According to the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism  Israeli casualties during the Second Intifada were 731 civilian and 231 IDF service personnel. The Israeli security fence  was constructed resulted in reducing terrorist attacks from the disputied terroritories.

The rise of murderous Palestinian terrorism during the Days of Awe comes amidst the entry of Iranian Revolutionary Guards units and Russian forces in neighboring Syria and cross border exchanges with Assad regime forces on the Golan. There are also allegations that some of the current Palestinian terrorist actions may involve Fatah, Hamas and Iranian proxy Palestinian Islamic Jihad.  A further complicating element has been the castigation of Israel security and border police  actions on the Temple Mount by Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the patron of the Jordanian religious leaders of the Waqf that control the Al Aksa Mosque complex. The late Moshe Dayan in the immediate aftermath of the liberation of Jerusalem in the June 1967 Six Days of War granted control of the Mosque complex atop the temple Mount to the Jordanian Waqf.  Adding  his voice to the chorus of fundamentalist  Muslim objections to Israel controlling security of the Temple Mount was Ayatollah Khamenei objecting to the ‘Zionist enterprise’ defending the security and access to this spiritual center of the Jewish nation of Israel.  Stay tuned for developments.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

Landmark Victory In New York Federal Court for U.S. Victims of Palestinian Terror

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Credit Nitsana Darshan -Leitner of Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Center) and US co-counsel for today’s verdict award by Federal Judge Daniels in a case brought against the Palestinian Authority arising from terrorist funding activities during the Second Intifada fomented  by the late Yassir Arafat of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. Newsweek reported:

In the first ruling of its kind, a U.S. court has found the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization liable for damages suffered by 10 American families whose relatives were injured or killed in attacks in Israel.

The six shootings and bomb attacks in question took place between 2002 and 2004, during the second intifada, or uprising, killing 33 and wounding more than 450. The lawsuit was filed in 2004 and was tried in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.

“This historic verdict against the defendants will not bring back these families’ loved ones nor heal the physical and psychological wounds inflicted upon them but it truly is an important measure of justice and closure for them after their long years of tragic suffering and pain,” Israel-based law office Shurat HaDin, which worked on the case, said in a statement after the verdict on Monday.

The plaintiffs argued that the two organizations supported the attacks—whether via direct involvement or assistance in the form of material support or training. They also allegedly paid those who carried out the attacks and continue to compensate perpetrators who were imprisoned as well as the families of those who died.

Since the plaintiffs are all U.S. citizens, the case was tried in the country under the Antiterrorism Act signed into law by then President Bill Clinton in 1996, which gives American courts jurisdiction over acts of terrorism that harm U.S. citizens abroad.

“We are truly grateful that an American court has heard the evidence against the Palestinian Authority and the PLO and determined that suicide terrorism was indeed their official policy during the Second Intifada,” said the statement from Shurat HaDin sent in an email to Newsweek. It continued:

We started out more than a decade ago with the intent of making the defendants pay for their terrorist crimes against innocent civilians and letting them know that there will eventually be a price to be paid for sending suicide bombers onto our buses and into our cafes. The defendants have already been boasting that they will appeal the decision and we will never collect on the judgment. We will not allow them to make a mockery of the US court process, however, and we continue to pursue them until it is paid in full. If the PA and PLO have the funds to pay the families of the suicide bombers each month, then they have the money to pay these victims of Palestinian terrorism.

The New York Times Breaking News report places both incumbent President Mahmoud Abbas and the Administration in a quandary, as the Netanyahu government has withheld $100 million in monthly tax revenue remittances used to fund the PA operations  because of the latter pursuit of claims of war crimes brought before the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands. Perhaps the award of $218.5 million might be paid as compensation to Israeli and US victims of Palestinian terrorism from those taxation remittances witheld by Israel.  Kol Hakavod to Ms. Leitner and the team at Shurat HaDinand US co-counsel. Their motto is: “Bankrupting Terrrorism, One Law Suit at a Time.”

Below is the New York Times report:

Jury Awards $218.5 Million in Terrorism Case Against Palestinian Groups

The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization were found liable on Monday by a jury in Manhattan for their role in knowingly supporting six terrorist attacks in Israel between 2002 and 2004 in which Americans were killed and injured.

The jury in Federal District Court in Manhattan awarded $218.5 million in damages, a number that is automatically tripled to $655.5 million under the special terrorism law under which the case was brought.

The verdict ended a decade-long legal battle to hold the Palestinian organizations responsible for the terrorist acts. And while the decision was a huge victory for the dozens of plaintiffs, it also could serve to strengthen the Israeli claim that the supposedly more moderate Palestinian forces are directly tied to terrorism.

The financial implications of the verdict for the defendants were not immediately clear. The Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, had serious financial troubles even before Israel, as punishment for the Palestinians’ move in December to join the International Criminal Court, began withholding more than $100 million a month in tax revenue it collects on the Palestinians’ behalf.

The verdict came in the seventh week of a civil trial in which the jury had heard emotional testimony from survivors of suicide bombings and other attacks in Jerusalem, in which a total of 33 people were killed and more than 450 were injured.

READ MORE »

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

Israel’s “Long War”

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Tom Jocelyn, the American counter terrorism expert and Senior Fellow at the Washington, DC-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies is the editor of The Long War Journal. It is a chronicle of the global Islamic jihad in the 21st Century, now in its 13th year. The global jihad was sparked by what the US State Department has taken to calling “core Al Qaeda”, most dramatically with 9/11. Subsequently it has metatisized driven by the Salafist doctrine seeking to replicate the great barbarism of the first jihad that burst out of the Arabian peninsula 14 Centuries ago. In many instances it has been a long war against indigenous populations, both Muslim and not. In the later case, it has witnessed the self-declared Caliphate of the Islamic State, formerly ISIS, confronting non-Muslims with the choice to convert, be subjugated, leave or be killed. It is sacralized barbarity emboldened with arms and advanced military technology abandoned by fleeing armies. It is financed by extortion and billions in booty, money seized in conquered territories and oil resources.

Mideast Israel Palestinians

Israeli Merkava tank leaving Gaza staging area August 5, 2014. Source: The Guardian.

Virtually alone and surrounded by these Jihadist forces is the Jewish nation of Israel. Israel has conducted a long war of its own over the 21 years since the conclusion of the 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinian Authority. An agreement orchestrated by former President Clinton between Israeli Prime Minister, the late Yitzhak Rabin and the late Yassir Arafat, first President of the Palestinian Authority. Arafat went on to ignite the Second Intifada in September 2000 using the excuse that the late Israeli PM Ariel Sharon had made an unauthorized visit to the Temple Mount. That intifada saw thousands of Israeli causalities, both dead and wounded,  that morphed into a seemingly unending series of military Operations. It began with Operation Defensive Shield following the bloody Park Hotel Passover suicide bombing in March 2002 that killed many Holocaust survivors. It culminated in the siege of Arafat in the Mukata in 2004 in Ramallah. A brief hiatus following the demise of Arafat saw Israel build a security barrier in the disputed territories that virtually brought to a close the Second Intifada. The late PM Sharon left Likud to found a new coalition party, Kadima, on the strength of a letter in 2004 with former President Bush giving Israel permission to defend itself with US assurances.

That led Sharon in 2005 to order the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza of 9000 settlers and 10,000 IDF personnel under the misguided pretext that it would make Israel more secure. The Bush Administration was preoccupied in the Long War in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It sought to foist the myopic view that the Islamist world could be transformed into budding western style democracies. This despite the rise of anti-democratic Muslim Brotherhood elements in Gaza, Egypt and other adjacent Muslim countries. They had been kept in check by autocracies supplied with both US and Russian military assistance and aid. Thus, the Bush Administration thought it had a willing peace partner in Arafat’s successor, the long serving PA President, Mahmoud Abbas. The Bush Administration prevailed upon Israel to relinquish its control over the strategic Philadelphi corridor along the Egyptian Gaza frontier installing Fatah bureaucrats. 2006 saw the one vote, one time election in Gaza of a Hamas dominated Palestinian Legislative Council. That  lead to the June 2007 ejection and literal defenestration of Fatah from Gaza, leaving Hamas virtually in control. Israel was forced to engage in a series of air assaults that resulted in assassinations of Hamas leaders, co-founder Sheik Yassin and Dr. Rantisi. Hamas took over the Rafah border with Egypt through which arms, rockets and missiles were infiltrated along with huge infusions of cash from foreign Muslim charities and backers, Iran and Qatar.

In 2006 Israel was embroiled in the Second Lebanon War with Iran proxy Hezbollah supplied by the former with thousands of rockets. That conflict was triggered by a kidnapping of two IDF soldiers followed by massive  Hezbollah artillery rocket barrages. The 34 day War with Hezbollah saw more than 4,000 rockets rain on Israel setting a pattern that was copied by Hamas in Gaza in 2009, 2012 and 2014. In that first clash with Hezbollah saw Israel’s population in the north sweltered in crude shelters or displaced to the central Mediterranean shore. It also sparked the development of technical countermeasures to protect the both Israel’s population and IDF defense. Those developments included the now recognized Iron Dome system of batteries equipped with Tamir anti-rocket missiles, and the less well known, Trophy system, used effectively in the most recent 2014 Operation protecting armored vehicles against anti-tank rockets and missiles. Just prior to the Second Lebanon War, a cross border raid by Hamas operatives kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, holding him hostage until released in an October 2011 exchange for 1,027 Palestinian terrorist prisoners held by Israel.

In June 2009, President Obama made a dramatic speech at Cairo University extending outreach, many believed that emboldened Islamist elements in the Muslim ummah. In December,2011 the self-immolation of a fruit vendor in Tunisia sparked the so-called Arab Spring that erupted in North Africa and the Middle East. Autocracies in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt were overturned. The latter witnessed the ousting of strongman Mubarak with rise of the Muslim Brotherhood that saw the election of one if its prominent leaders, Mohammed Morsi as its President in June 2012. Morsi was backed by a National Assembly  composed of dominate Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist parties. They sought to impose Sharia law on women, secular elements and the country’s ancient minority Coptic Christian community. Virtually, a year later, Morsi and thousands of Muslim Brotherhood leaders were ousted, jailed and killed during a coup by his Defense Minister Gen.Abdel- Fattah El-Sisi. He was engaged in a counter terrorism campaign against Hamas linked Salafist terror groups in the Sinai.

The overthrow of the Libyan strongman Qadaffi, with aid from the US and NATO, spawned chaos with warring tribal and jihadist militias. That culminating in the Benghazi attack that killed the US Ambassador and three other Americans, a communications aide, and two CIA-contractors on 9/11/2012.

Meanwhile, Israel was concerned about security on its southern border with Egypt in the Sinai. Following cross border attacks near the Red Sea resort of Eilat it constructed a 200 mile security barrier seeking to prevent intrusion, only to be left exposed to rocket attacks. On Israel’s north eastern Golan frontier a raging civil war in Syria, now well into its third year, saw the Assad regime forces ranging across the Golan frontier fighting opposition rebel groups. These included al Qaeda affiliates the Al Nusrah front and the extremist Salafist spinoff, the Islamic State, formerly ISIS.

The latest IDF Operation Protective Edge that began on July 8th with barrages from Gaza from both homemade and Iranian supplied long range rockets covered fourth fifths of Israel. It was triggered by a botched kidnapping by Hamas operatives and that resulted in the murder of three Jewish yeshiva students, whose remains were discovered on June 30th. The Palestinian Authority in late April had announced a unity government with Hamas that scuppered any chances of a possible final stage agreement sought by US Secretary of State Kerry. Hamas is a foreign terrorist group so designated by the US, Canada and the EU. Its 1988 Charter, had sought not only the destruction of Israel but the killing of Jews globally. Israeli PM Netanyahu and his coalition cabinet had no choice but to call up what ultimately would be a massed IDF force of 80,000 elite brigades and reservists to conduct the ground phase of Operation Protective Edge. That culminated in the launch of ground operations in Gaza that ended with the seventh truce on August 5th that is holding for the moment. That truce occurred ironically on the Jewish Fast Day of Tish B’Av commemorating historic catastrophes that have befallen the Jewish people over the millennia.

Jocelyn’s FDD Long War Journal had this entry:

Israel

Israel accepted a Gaza ceasefire plan that will start with a preliminary 72-hour truce beginning tomorrow morning. Israeli officials will work out further details of the ceasefire over the next few days in Egypt. As of Aug. 1, at least 2,909 rockets had been fired at Israel from Gaza and 66 Israelis had been killed. In the first fatal attack in Jerusalem in three years, a Palestinian construction worker drove an earthmover into a bus, flipping it over and killing one Israeli and wounding five more. PM Netanyahu’s spokesman said Israel’s military campaign to destroy the Gaza tunnels is coming to a close, but that the overall operation will not cease until Israel experiences an extended period of quiet and security.

Jonathan Spyer, of the GLORIA Centre in Herzliya, published an assessment of Israel’s Long War in a PJ Media article, “Netanyahu’s Long War Doctrine.”  In it he paid tribute to Netanyahu’s cautious, but resolute position, overwhelmingly supported by Israelis, to bring to a conclusion the Hamas genocidal threat to the Jewish nation. A threat backed and financed by Qatar, a wealthy gas-rich emirate, a supporter of Muslim Brotherhood and extremist Salafist al Qaeda spinoffs. Qatar and the terrorist Salafist groups it funded and gave sanctuary to, including Hamas leaders, are viewed by Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia as a dire threat to their regimes. That created a coalition of interest with Israel tacitly condoning the latter’s war against Hamas. The Administration in Washington and the UN were desperate to end hostilities seeking to engage MB supporting regimes in Turkey and Qatar to convince Hamas to stand down. Newly elected Egyptian President El-Sisi, who had ousted MB President Morsi and closed Gazan smuggling tunnels, had endeavored to broker several cease fires during the 28 day Operation Protective Edge. It became evident that Hamas had been seriously degraded, nearly three dozen terror tunnels neutralized, sustaining an estimated $5 billion in destruction of buildings and infrastructure in the 25 mile square area of Gaza. All while the world media falsely portrayed Israel as perpetrating mounting civilian casualties most graphically at UNWRA- run schools and refuge centers where over 180,000 Gaza residents had sought shelter. These schools were reported to have held rocket caches, that enabled Hamas rocketeers to launch barrages some of which misfired resulting  in civilian casualties. This barbaric strategy was confirmed in a captured combat manual of Hamas uncovered by the IDF in Gaza City.

As to Israeli PM Netanyahu’s conduct of Operation Protective Edge Spyer observed:

Netanyahu, in stark contrast to his image in Europe and to a lesser extent in North America, is deeply cautious when it comes to the use of military force.

Indeed, the record shows that Israel elected to begin a ground campaign on July 18th only when it became clear from its actions and its statements that Hamas was not interested in a return to the status quo.

Netanyahu’s caution derives, rather, from his perception that what Israel calls “wars” or “operations” are really only episodes in a long war in which the country is engaged against those who seek its destruction. In the present phase, these forces are gathered largely under the banner of radical Islam.

Spyer concludes his assessment of Netanyahu:

Netanyahu’s vision is a chilly one, though it is not ultimately pessimistic. It aims to provide firm, durable walls for the house that the Jews of Israel have constructed. Within those walls the energies of Israeli Jews will ensure success — provided that the walls can be kept secure, thus believes the Israeli prime minister. It is from the point of view of this broader strategic picture that the current actions of Israel need to be understood. Operation Protective Edge — like Cast Lead and Orchard and Lebanon 2006 and the others — is intended as a single action in a long and unfinished war.

The Tish B’Av truce concluding Operation Protective Edge saw IDF forces leave Gaza, remaining ready if the truce is broken to return, if recalled. The current truce may still hold, but, will not last, unless and until Gaza is demilitarized and its leadership dispatched.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on the New English Review.

Documentation on Palestinian Incitement of Hatred

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The late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had two instructive quotes on peacemaking with the Palestinians:

You don’t make peace with friends. You make it with very unsavory enemies.

I believe that in the long run, separation between Israel and the Palestinians is the best solution for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel has plenty of unsavory enemies in the roiling Middle East and elsewhere, these days. However, when your enemies disavow your existence, let alone your legitimacy as a sovereign power, you cannot make peace even the one defined by Rabin. This is why Israeli PM Netanyahu has pushed the importance of recognition of Israel as a Jewish nation.  The current diplomatic shuttle campaign for a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA)  by US Secretary of State  Kerry is grappling with this issue.

Today’s release  by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office of documented evidence of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas orchestrating a propaganda campaign  to incite hatred towards Israel and Jews.  There is evidence of Abbas” duplicity of saying comforting things about peace at the UN versus anti-Semitic blood libel to his fellow Palestinians at home.

However, the evidence of Palestinian promotion of Jew hatred is just one of a number of issues that ultimately could bring the current round of final status negotiations crashing down.   An example  is  the issue of UN Res. 242 of November 1967 ensuring Israel is entitled to secure and defensible borders. Instead,  Kerry  offered  up a hoary proposal of the current US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power  placing a detachment of US and international troops in the strategic Judean hills overlooking the Jordan Valley approaches to enforce  a final status agreement between the PA and Israel. Then there is questionable matter of ‘sharing’ Israel’s eternal capital of Jerusalem, a fact recognized by the US Congress in a law passed in 1995 requiring a move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.     That move has  been avoided by a succession of US Presidents; Clinton, Bush and now Obama on the grounds that a final status agreement hasn’t been reached between the PA and Israel.  Then there is the matter of so-called land swaps to establish borders based on the pre- 1967 June War, the 1949 Armistice Line.  No other sovereign nation has entered into such negotiations that threaten its existence.

The evidence of Palestinian incitement to hate is reflected in documentation released by Israel’s PM Netanyahu,  a reflection of Islamic Qur’anic doctrine. A doctrine  that states  Allah has endowed the world as a Waqf or trust for Muslims  in perpetuity for all conquered lands. Hence the argument that the Jewish nation of Israel is illegally occupying the space between “the river and the sea”.  That is evident in the propaganda imagery  of the late Yassir Arafat wearing his checkered kaffiyeh allegedly  draped in the shape of Palestine. It is also reflected in monuments of the Palestinian Authority, one of which was cloaked to hide it from the view of President Obama during a visit to Ramallah in  March 2013, while police restrained hundreds of protesters.  There is also evidence of hatred reflected in PA  videos of preschool children being indoctrinated in hatred, spouting classic Qur’anic suras depicting Jews as pigs and sons of apes or an EU-sponsored PA youth TV program  saying that Israelis in Jerusalem are ‘crows and rats”.   Palestine Media Watch (PMW) has documented much of this over the past decade.  PMW published a  a video, today,  of a Syrian TV interview  with Zaki Abbas, a close associate of PA President Abbas,   discussing a plan for the destruction of Israel saying:

Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the ’67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages.

Prime Minister Netanyahu drew attention  to this defining  issue on Sunday in his remarks following a two hour cabinet meeting on Palestinian incitement towards Israel in a Jerusalem Post report, “Netanyahu: Palestinian incitement spurs Mideast conflict”:

This is a very grave phenomenon. True peace cannot exist without stopping the incitement against Israel and educating for peace. The refusal of the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish People and declare the end of national demands – this is the root of the conflict. This is also the reason why we are insisting on significant security measures, so that we will be able to defend ourselves by ourselves in any situation.

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, whose agency is responsible for maintaining an “incitement index”, drew attention to the role of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas:

We must not ignore the fact that the Palestinian educational system and media, under the patronage of Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] and during the negotiations, are educating and inciting – on a daily basis – for the destruction of the State of Israel.

Watch this IMRA Youtube video containing the Israeli Government report  on Palestinian leadership and schools inciting hatred of the Jewish nation of Israel:

Notice the hateful Qur’anic catechism from Palestinian pre-school children, the adulation and quotations from  Hitler, and the Nazi-style salute by members of the PLO Al Aqsa Brigade . Then there was  a similar event at Al Quds University in November 2013.  The last event  caused Brandeis University President Frederick Lawrence to suspend its  partnership with  Al Quds University and its Harvard educated Chancellor, Sari Nusseibeh. Nusseibeh allegedly during the First Gulf War in 1991 was caught passing target information to the regime of the late Saddam Hussein for launch of SCUD missiles against Tel Aviv.

Why would any rational person persist in trying to reach a peace agreement  in the face of the duplicitous taqiyyah by the PA leadership and its educational system perpetuating hate against Israel. With not the merest scintilla of likelihood that a final status agreement between Israel and the PA could be achieved in the remaining four months, why is the Administration persisting in this effort when the Middle East is aflame with fundamentalist Jihad warfare on all of Israel’s borders.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.