What Stands Behind the New Palestinian War Against Israel? | Opinion
OF course, it's opinion, but it gives some data points on which one can do some research and fact checking.
By the way, H_A need not post here. Thanks.
OF course, it's opinion, but it gives some data points on which one can do some research and fact checking.
For the past two days, on an hourly basis, the attacks on Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza and the attacks on Israeli Jews by Israeli Arabs grow worse. What on Sunday was a story limited to Arab violence against Jews and Israeli police in three main focal points in Jerusalem, as well as a few dozen rocket launches against southern Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza, had by Tuesday night been transformed into a full-on war.
By Wednesday, Hamas had launched more than 1,000 rockets, mortars and missiles at southern and central Israel—including 137 launched toward the south in just a five-minute span on Tuesday, and a hundred rockets lobbed toward central Israel in just over an hour on Tuesday night. By midnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, three Israeli women had been killed by rocket attacks that struck their homes. Schools were closed throughout southern and central Israel, and millions of Israelis spent Tuesday night huddled in bomb shelters.
Starting Monday night, many Israeli Arabs began burning Jewish schools, synagogues and cars in mixed Jewish-Arab cities. Jewish bystanders were subjected to attempted lynchings by Israeli Arabs in Jerusalem, the Galilee, Lod, Ramle, Haifa and Acre. After a night of rioting, a few dozen Arabs from Ramle arrived at the emergency room of a local hospital. They threw rocks at medical staff and patients—forcing the hospital to evacuate the ward—and threatened to murder the Israeli Arab doctors and nurses, whom they accused of "collaboration" with Israel. The anti-Semitic violence in Lod on Tuesday was so extreme that the government was forced to impose a curfew on the city for the first time since the 1960s.
So, how did we arrive at this point?
There are two sources of the violence. The first is Palestinian incitement. The second is the support the Palestinians receive from the Biden administration.
Several weeks before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began four weeks ago, the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) launched a campaign of incitement across its media organs.
Israel, Fatah and the PA claimed, was defiling and threatening the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is the site where both the Jewish Temples stood. It is the single holiest site in Judaism, and it is also the third-holiest site in Islam.
Fatah's incitement campaign served two purposes. First, it deflected public attention away from PA President Mahmoud Abbas's decision to cancel the recent elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and to the PA presidency. Abbas is now in the 16th year of his four-year term—the last PLC elections were held in January 2006. Pressured by the public, Abbas had announced that elections would finally be held beginning this month. But since all the opinion polls since 2006 have shown that Hamas will win any new PA election, Abbas set out to find a way to blame Israel for his refusal to hold elections. He insisted that Israel agree to permit Jerusalem Arabs to vote in Jerusalem itself. Israel refused, maintaining that Jerusalem Arabs could vote in either the PA-controlled areas or online. Abbas then canceled the elections and promptly blamed Israel.
At the same time, Abbas began stirring up passions by disseminating lies about alleged Israeli encroachments on Al-Aqsa and inciting terrorism. By doing so, Abbas was able to ratchet up his standing with the broader Palestinian public.
Hamas, for its part, wasn't going to abandon the incitement stage to Fatah. So it joined in the incitement about Al-Aqsa and then opened a new incitement front pertaining to a 50-year property dispute in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in northeastern Jerusalem.
In 1875, the chief rabbis of Jerusalem purchased buildings in the neighborhood and registered their purchase with the Ottoman—and later, British—authorities. In 1948, with the Jordanian conquest of the neighborhood, the buildings were listed under Jordan's "Register of Enemy Property" and leased to local Arabs. After Israel liberated and unified Jerusalem in 1967, the Jewish landowners registered their buildings again with the Israel Land Authority and began a process that has dragged on ever since of attempting to restore sovereign control over their properties. The Arab tenants, for their part, recognized the Israeli Jewish ownership of the buildings in a 1982 lawsuit. But in the ensuing 39 years, they have appealed every court ruling requiring them to vacate the premises.
In February, the Jerusalem District Court upheld a lower court ruling that required the Arab tenants to vacate the premises and the properties to be transferred to the Jewish owners. The Arabs appealed to the Supreme Court of Israel, which was initially set to hear the appeal last week.
.....
By Wednesday, Hamas had launched more than 1,000 rockets, mortars and missiles at southern and central Israel—including 137 launched toward the south in just a five-minute span on Tuesday, and a hundred rockets lobbed toward central Israel in just over an hour on Tuesday night. By midnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, three Israeli women had been killed by rocket attacks that struck their homes. Schools were closed throughout southern and central Israel, and millions of Israelis spent Tuesday night huddled in bomb shelters.
Starting Monday night, many Israeli Arabs began burning Jewish schools, synagogues and cars in mixed Jewish-Arab cities. Jewish bystanders were subjected to attempted lynchings by Israeli Arabs in Jerusalem, the Galilee, Lod, Ramle, Haifa and Acre. After a night of rioting, a few dozen Arabs from Ramle arrived at the emergency room of a local hospital. They threw rocks at medical staff and patients—forcing the hospital to evacuate the ward—and threatened to murder the Israeli Arab doctors and nurses, whom they accused of "collaboration" with Israel. The anti-Semitic violence in Lod on Tuesday was so extreme that the government was forced to impose a curfew on the city for the first time since the 1960s.
So, how did we arrive at this point?
There are two sources of the violence. The first is Palestinian incitement. The second is the support the Palestinians receive from the Biden administration.
Several weeks before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began four weeks ago, the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) launched a campaign of incitement across its media organs.
Israel, Fatah and the PA claimed, was defiling and threatening the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is the site where both the Jewish Temples stood. It is the single holiest site in Judaism, and it is also the third-holiest site in Islam.
Fatah's incitement campaign served two purposes. First, it deflected public attention away from PA President Mahmoud Abbas's decision to cancel the recent elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and to the PA presidency. Abbas is now in the 16th year of his four-year term—the last PLC elections were held in January 2006. Pressured by the public, Abbas had announced that elections would finally be held beginning this month. But since all the opinion polls since 2006 have shown that Hamas will win any new PA election, Abbas set out to find a way to blame Israel for his refusal to hold elections. He insisted that Israel agree to permit Jerusalem Arabs to vote in Jerusalem itself. Israel refused, maintaining that Jerusalem Arabs could vote in either the PA-controlled areas or online. Abbas then canceled the elections and promptly blamed Israel.
At the same time, Abbas began stirring up passions by disseminating lies about alleged Israeli encroachments on Al-Aqsa and inciting terrorism. By doing so, Abbas was able to ratchet up his standing with the broader Palestinian public.
Hamas, for its part, wasn't going to abandon the incitement stage to Fatah. So it joined in the incitement about Al-Aqsa and then opened a new incitement front pertaining to a 50-year property dispute in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in northeastern Jerusalem.
In 1875, the chief rabbis of Jerusalem purchased buildings in the neighborhood and registered their purchase with the Ottoman—and later, British—authorities. In 1948, with the Jordanian conquest of the neighborhood, the buildings were listed under Jordan's "Register of Enemy Property" and leased to local Arabs. After Israel liberated and unified Jerusalem in 1967, the Jewish landowners registered their buildings again with the Israel Land Authority and began a process that has dragged on ever since of attempting to restore sovereign control over their properties. The Arab tenants, for their part, recognized the Israeli Jewish ownership of the buildings in a 1982 lawsuit. But in the ensuing 39 years, they have appealed every court ruling requiring them to vacate the premises.
In February, the Jerusalem District Court upheld a lower court ruling that required the Arab tenants to vacate the premises and the properties to be transferred to the Jewish owners. The Arabs appealed to the Supreme Court of Israel, which was initially set to hear the appeal last week.
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By the way, H_A need not post here. Thanks.
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