30-Oct-14: Violence on Jerusalem's streets rises while poll shows support among Pal Arabs for more of it is growing

Arab 'protestors" on Jerusalem's streets in September [Image Source]

A motor-cycling gunman rode up to the political activist, Rabbi Yehuda Glick, on the streets of Jerusalem last night (Wednesday) and shot him in the chest at point-blank range.

Glick, 50, was shot in his upper body by a motorcyclist during an annual event organized by the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement. Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated him to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in critical condition with injuries to his chest and abdomen. He was operated on and was in stable condition. Doctors said he will have to undergo an additional operation in the morning. [Ynet]

Sometime in the morning hours today, the shooter appears to have been killed in a police chase:

Mu'taz Hijazi had spent 11 years in Israeli prison. Some witnesses say there was an exchange of gunfire with police.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) October 30, 2014

Given the steady drumbeat of calls to violent acts in Jerusalem from Palestinian Arab quarters, and from key people in the PA itself, over the past six weeks in particular, how surprised should we be by an assassination attempt mere meters from the gates of the Old City?

Not very, as a public opinion survey released on Tuesday by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, a Palestinian Arab organization from East Jerusalem, shows. Some key findings:

• A majority of Palestinian Arabs (52.4%) still assert that they believe in the value of peace negotiations with Israel, the proportion of them who favor armed conflict with Israel rose from 31.5% to 42.7 percent in October. War moves public opinion, only not the way we usually think.
• In a further sign that open terrorism offers a winning political hand in this demographic, a clear majority (57%) say they believe Hamas won the war they fought against Israel in June/August. The heavy Arab losses, including massive infrastructure, housing destruction and photos of wailing Arab women and pristine children's toys carefully placed in the center of news photographs of destroyed apartment buildings and mosques, does not seem to affect their judgement on this.
• Moreover, support for Hamas overall rose from 17% before the disastrous fighting to 26% after it. That's a significant jump.
• Backing for Fatah, which is fronted by the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas (serving "the 10th year of a four-year term") and routinely called "moderate" in parts of the news-reporting industry, went from 41.7% before the great summer "victory" to 35.1% after it. So whether it's truly in favour of peace, moderation and just getting along, the Palestinian Arab street wants it less now that they have had their smashing win on the battlefield.
• Support for firing still more rockets at Israelis remains sky-high: 80% of all Palestinian Arabs, and 72% of Gazans. This raises an interesting dimension: Avi Issacharoff ["Large rise in Palestinian support for armed struggle against Israel", The Times of Israel, October 28, 2014] points out that "In general, on all questions and matters of current affairs, the residents of the West Bank showed a more extreme point of view compared to those in Gaza." Keep in mind it's those Palestinian Arabs living in the so-called West Bank who live closest to us, who work among us in many cases, and who are seen as the keystone for the two-state-solution so beloved of observers far away from here, who hold the hardest-line pro-violence opinions. The fact that support for Israel-pointing rockets runs slightly less (though still sky-high) among the Gazans whose homes, bodies and children act as human-shields for the rocket men and their vast arsenals should not surprise. What should - if the Arab world were a more rational place - is why ordinary Gazan Arabs seem so comfortable with and accepting of the idea that when those rockets are fired from their residential neighbourhoods, their own leaders are safely tucked away in tunnels, hospital basements and luxurious residential suites in Qatar and Dubai, safe from Israeli fire.

Polls like this week's - which when you analyze them are very, very upsetting for those of us yearning for peaceful relations - reflect reality. Op eds from Paris, London, New York and Tel Aviv that demand we Israelis should love peace and harmony even more - and therefore embrace the terror-addicted people on the other side - do not.

Our prayers are with Rabbi Yehuda Glick for a full and rapid recovery from his critical injuries (and note that the attack on him led to Arabs dancing in the streets and handing out celebratory candies). Our hopes are also with our readers and their friends that they should understand even better what it means to have an enemy who loves terror more than it wishes for life itself.

23-Apr-08: Stop Playing with Puppets

An opinion piece written by one of this blog's two authors is published today on the FrontPageMag website. The full text of Frimet Roth's article is reproduced below.

Stop Playing with Puppets
By Frimet Roth
The Palestinian Authority makes a special award for valor to the murderer of my daughter | FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, April 23, 2008

We are all familiar with PA President Mahmoud Abbas' game. There was no need for more evidence that he is far from the "moderate" that the West has dubbed him. Arafat's loyal apprentice would be a more apt epithet though Abbas has even surpassed his mentor: Arafat never garnered the unflinching support and admiration of the West that his successor has.

Nevertheless, Abbas has provided yet more incontrovertible proof that President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and our own Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are hawking a fantasy.

Last week's announcement that Abbas is awarding the Palestinian Authority's highest medal, the Al Quds Mark of Honor, to two convicted female terrorists currently serving terms for murder in Israeli prison left me trembling with rage.

One of them, Ahlam Tamimi, murdered fifteen men, women and children in the terror attack on Jerusalem's Sbarro restaurant in August, 2001. Among the victims was my own fifteen year old daughter, Malki.

True to form, Abbas felt which way the western winds were blowing and realized he'd better do a hasty 180. The following day, he canceled the awards.

As always he has managed to convey one message to the Arab world – that terrorist are heroes – and precisely the opposite to the West – that he will not actually confer any honors on them. Once again, his reputation escaped unscathed.

My wrath is not directed at Abbas, of whom I had no other expectations, but at all the Western leaders who by now should know better. Breathless from their propping, buttressing, bolstering and even kissing and hugging of that duplicitous Palestinian, they seem blind to his brazen support of terrorism.

Western leaders will no doubt praise Abbas for canceling the awards and ignore the message conveyed in the original announcement.

Unable to withstand foreign pressure, Israel's own leaders have been touting the "moderate Abbas" fantasy with equal zeal.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar last week, Foreign Minister, Livni said that Israel is negotiating "with the pragmatic Palestinians, who recognize Israel's right to exist, who seek to realize their national rights but choose the path of peace over terrorism. With such partners, who support the two-state solution, peace can be attained."

There seem to be no limits to the risks Israel will take to pump life into this farce. One of the many is releasing convicted terrorists, the most famous being Marwan Barghouti. He too has been billed a "moderate" and essential figure, despite damning evidence to the contrary.

We have watched a steady succession of of Israeli politicians jump on the "Free Barghouti" bandwagon. Yossi Beilin, who hitched up the wagon was the first. Then over a year ago Minister Meir Shitreet suggested that Barghouti will likely be released as part of future peace negotiations. Not to be outdone, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres declared in June, 2007, that he would sign a presidential pardon for Marwan Barghouti if elected to the Israeli presidency. More recently Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer declared that if Israel was interested in achieving peace it had to recognize that "only the release of Barghouti could change things around." And last week Amir Peretz magnanimously promised to visit all of Barghouti's victims' families after Passover to enlist their support for his personal "free Barghouti campaign".

What do we know about Barghouti? Start with the fact that he was convicted by an Israeli court in May 2004 on five counts of murder, one of attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and activity and member ship in a terrorist organization.

But for a more intimate glimpse of the man, Yossi Beilin is, surprisingly, an objective source. Shortly after Barghouti was sentenced to five life sentences, plus 40 years, Beilin had this to say to NY Times reporter, Steven Erlanger:

"Barghouti told me that he wanted to continue the use of violence...he thought he could control the violence he unleashed and end the intifada in a few weeks.." In 2005, Beilin wrote: "The evidence that he was responsible for directing terrorist acts was overwhelming and his punishment was determined accordingly."

Notwithstanding this bleak report card, Beilin does not stop hankering for Barghouti's release stating in 2007:

"In spite of the fact that Barghouti was responsible for the Second Intifada... we are nonetheless talking about the most important elected parliamentarian and the most pragmatic and influential on the Palestinian street. His arrest was a big mistake and an act of stupidity. .. not releasing him would be an even larger mistake."

This week we learned the results of a poll conducted by the Palestinian organization, the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. 1,190 West Bank and Gazan Palestinians were surveyed by the center between April 8-13, 2008. The results prove that even the Palestinian on the street doesn't buy Beilin's hype about Barghouti's indispensability. His popularity fell from 14.3% in November, 2007 to 12.8%. During that same period, Abbas' ratings dropped from 18.3% to 11.7%.

It is not likely that the above statistics will alter the course of events in this region. These moderate marionette puppets serve many political careers too well. The beaten and battered Bush and Olmert have undeniably won a transfusion of support on the back of the Annapolis negotiations. But they are traveling a dangerous path offering only short term rewards.

Terror groups in Hamas-ruled Gaza are stronger and better equipped than ever. And Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak cautioned just three weeks ago: "We need to keep in mind the possibility that after all we have done, Hamas will take over the West Bank, not only by force but even in the upcoming general elections".

But apparently everybody was too busy planning the next Olmert-Abbas tete-a-tete to listen. Above all else, the puppet show must go on.

...
This article first appeared in Front Page Magazine on 23rd April 2008.

Frimet Roth, a freelance writer, lives in Jerusalem. She and her husband founded the Malki Foundation in their daughter's memory. Malki Roth was murdered at the age of fifteen in the Sbarro Jerusalem restaurant massacre in 2001. The foundation in her name provides concrete support for Israeli families of all faiths who care at home for a special-needs child.

21-Apr-08: What the Palestinian-Arab silent majority really thinks

An opinion poll of Palestinian-Arabs has reported that as of this month, April 2008, more than half of Palestinian Arabs are in favor of suicide bombings of Jews. What this means about the silent majority of Palestinian Arabs who secretly yearn for peace with their neighbors is anyone's guess.

We're speaking of a poll conducted by a respected Palestinian Arab organization, the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. Its survey covers 1,190 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and was conducted between April 8 and 13, 2008.

There are no signs of the poll's findings in the English-language section of the JMCC's website. The news report of the survey comes via the invaluable Khaled Abu Toameh of the Jerusalem Post. As we've mentioned before, he's a courageous Palestinian Arab journalist who has a track record of shining bright lights on the things we need to know about terrorism among the Palestinian Arabs even when many consider them politically not correct. (Let's see how widely this latest report of his gets covered outside Israel. A Google News search just now shows the Jerusalem Post as the only source in the global media world that's reporting the story at present.)

Among other results of the survey:

• The percentage of Palestinians who support "resistance operations" against Israeli targets rose from 43.1 percent in September 2006 to 49.5% at present.
• Support for "resistance" is highest in the Gaza Strip, at 58.1%, with 24.5% in the West Bank agreeing.
• Palestinian Arabs who support bombing attacks against Israeli civilians rose from 44.8% in June 2006 to 48% in September 2006. In April 2008, it stands at 50.7%. That is, a majority of the men, women and children walking the streets of the Palestinian-Arab villages, towns and cities are comfortable with one of the modern world's most barbaric activities. Something to keep in mind when their representatives appear on news and analysis programs in your community.
• Support for suicide bombings is higher among Gazans (65.1%) than among the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank do (42.3%).
• Regarding the thousands of rocket attacks delivered onto Israel in the past several years, 39.3% find them "useful" to Palestinian national interests. 35.7% see them as harmful.
• Support for Mahmoud Abbas fell from 18.3% in November 2007 to 11.7% in April 2008. Remind us again why such enormous risks are being taken to prop up the Abbas regime?
• Support for Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas dipped from 16.3% in November 2007 to 13.3% in April 2008. A catastrophic number for a politicians, but it still makes him more popular than Abbas.
• Support for Marwan Barghouti (a convicted murderer serving his sentence in an Israeli prison) which stood at 14.3% in November 2007 has now descended to 12.8%. Makes us wonder yet again why such energetic efforts are being made by failed politicians on Israel's left including Amir Peretz, Joseph Beilin, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, Naomi Hazan and others to have him pardoned and released immediately. (What powers of insight and understanding do such politicians have that let them see things the rest of us somehow cannot?)
• Fatah's support among Palestinian Arabs decreased from 40% in November '07 to 32.5% in April '08.
• Hamas's popularity went down from 19.7% to 17.8%. (Reminder: When people speak about the allegedly-democratic decision of the Palestinian Arabs to elect a Hamas government, it's this 17.8% party they're referring to.)

There's little point in discussing whether any of this is good or bad for peace. It's reality, and it needs to be analyzed and understood. Unlikely that that will happen, based on past performance.

9-Jul-06: Some of What We're Up Against - Part 2

A Palestinian Arab poll released today has found wall-to-wall support among Palestinian Arabs for kidnapping of the kind that led to the murder of an Israeli teenager two weeks ago. And a member of the Israeli parliament - an Arab member, it goes without saying - has no difficulty publicly expressing support for the same viewpoint and for the people who hold it.

The Jerusalem Media and Communication Center says that Palestinian Arab support for abductions of Israelis exceeds 77% based on a poll whose results it published today. Less than a third of the Palestinian Arabs polled rejected such actions as being harmful to the Palestinian cause. As to their views on the deliberate, daily firing of Palestinian missiles into civilian areas of Israel, a mere 36% said they reject them and find them harmful to the Palestinian national interests. The majority thought this was just fine. People polled came from all parts of Gaza, Judea and Samaria.

Wasil Taha (pictured above, standing beside the acting chairman of the Knesset chamber in an archive photo) is an elected representative of the Balad Party in the Knesset. In that capacity, he enjoys all the privileges of a member of the Israeli parliament, including the privilege of expressing support for kidnapping soldiers of the country to which he has sworn alliegance. This is a privilege he chose to exercise on the Islam Online website this weekend, explaining to chat-room participants that the word "kidnapped" was inaccurate in describing Corporal Gilad Shalit's abduction two weeks ago, and that the word "captured" was more fitting.

Perhaps you need to be a legal expert but on the face of it, the definition of the word "treason" seems to fit his viewpoint and circumstances well. We Israelis are in a shooting war with a determined and brutal enemy and where you align yourself in a war of this kind has practical, immediate and real implications. Taha is a graduate of Haifa University and lives in Kfar Kana, Israel.