"We had about 500 bison back in 2005 and the population has been going down ever since, pretty much crashing." "It's not usual for a species like bison, which is a big, large herbivore, to have a decrease in population size that fast." "My results show ... without a shadow of a doubt, it's the hunting by First Nations that's the real problem here. It's just not sustainable." "Bison come out of the park and they go and feed in agricultural fields. They are attracted by the crops." "In some of these fields, they are causing a lot of damage. the landowners get annoyed, understandably. They would call the First Nations guys and say, 'There's bison on my land. Can you come and get them out of here?" Ricardo Simon, study co-author
"The Sturgeon River bison herd is unique in the sense it still has ... this traditional historic relationship with Indigenous people." "That's something that doesn't exist in other [plains] bison populations." Gord Vaadeland, executive director, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
"I know that it is Indigenous, First Nation harvesters that are contributing to the dangerous level that the herd is at." "A big part of that is education. Some people know that the herd has been there for a number of decades and some, I know, believe the herd is healthy. They are not aware of the danger that they are in." Anthony Blair Dreaver Johnston, Mistawasis Nehiyawak, Treaty 6 Saskatchewan Nation
It is obviously no mystery to Mr. Johnston whose national tribe is a signatory of the Buffalo Treaty, that the bison in Saskatchewan's Prince Albert National Park have been dwindling in numbers; he has heard that they have been over-hunted by area Aboriginals. His people, he has now declared, will be prepared to "share the sad news", and do their part in encouraging other First Nations to sign the Buffalo Treaty.
According to Simon, a doctoral candidate at Laval University in Quebec, three possible causes have been identified by himself and the university's Daniel Fortin, his supervisor; predation by wolves, disease, and hunting, to account for the dramatic reduction in bison herd numbers. The sheer magnitude of the reduction spells the practical end of these protected bison herds.
Their protected status as a heritage animal in the geography, however, is obviously at risk with the attitude among First Nations that their heritage hunting traditions must be respected. In keeping with their demands of federal and provincial governments, First Nations have the heritage right to fish and to hunt where none others may, without restriction. That 'right' has its consequences.
There are well-founded fears on the basis of what is glaringly evident that the herd could become extinct from over-hunting, despite their protected status. Bison haven't been persuaded that they are protected within the geographical confines of a park; as browsers they are attracted to the allure of vegetation to be found in adjacent farmers' fields. As animals anywhere in the world find their habitat compressed in size to regulated corridors they are under threat by expanding human habitation.
Mr. Simon and his supervisor conducted research into the free-roaming plains bison in the national park. The conclusion of their study has been published in the journal Biological Conservation, stressing that 120 animals have been left in a short period of time, out of a herd of 500 bison; obviously natural increase taken into account, such a herd should be expanding, not excessively contracting.
The constitutional right to hunt bison for Indigenous Canadians, along with their much-vaunted veneration of animals and traditional land reflecting their spiritual connection with both has not resulted in a healthily expanding herd; that much is settled. And while a few First Nations signed on to a treaty to return bison on reserve land and other lands co-managed in the United States and Canada, it seems evident that the agreement has its doubters.
Mr. Johnston has given his assurance that First Nations are prepared to work alongside landowners, municipalities, wildlife groups and other Indigenous groups in protection of the herd. Mr. Simon's own search for answers has resulted in the discovery that the crux of the problem is the number of bison being taken yearly by a handful of individuals in a few agricultural fields that border the western edges of the park.
Research into free-roaming plains bison in Saskatchewan's
Prince Albert National Park says the herd could go extinct from
overhunting in fields outside the protected area. Bill Graveland / The Canadian Press
"It shows a certain outcome under certain conditions. “A lot of those conditions are things we are already working on." "We
carry out prescribed burns within the area to try to improve habitat
throughout the park." "We try to meet with Indigenous communities so they
understand what’s happening with the population." Norman
Stolle, resource conservation manager, Prince Albert National Park
"[Three-day-old Amiad Ish-Ran had] managed to unite the nation of Israel [like few others had done before him]." "You brought so much light. And with all the light that you brought [Amiad Yisrael] we will extinguish their darkness." Rafael Ish-Ran, grandfather, Jerusalem
A
funeral was held in Israel for the child of Amichai and Shira Ish-Ran,
who were injured in a drive-by shooting on Sunday. The baby died after
being delivered prematurely. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)
"They were normal people standing at a bus stop." "Brand
new, young couple, have their own little place, they're renting --
everything you would think of for a nice, normal, young family to be." "And then it all got destroyed by this terrorist." Jordan Charness, Montreal lawyer
Wedding Day
Nothing normal, however. They were Jews. Jews living in Israel. Dual
citizens; Canadian-Israeli. Targets. Normalization is not viewed
favourably by the Palestinian Authority. Normalization means accepting
the presence of a Jewish state in an Islamic geography. Islamic theology
has it that land consecrated to Islam must never fall to another
religion; it is forbidden by Sharia law. Palestinians who sell land to
Jews can receive the death penalty. More likelier extra-judicial
penalties of immediate death, bypassing and dispensing with the annoying
interference of a trial.
The presence of Jews in territory that Palestinian Arabs claim as their
own although they also claim the territory on which Israel has been
established as their own -- represents an enormous abnormality. One that
must be 'resisted' as a hateful 'occupation' of Palestinian heritage.
The ancient biblical presence of Judea and the Israelite thousands of
years of residence in a geography whose history is chronicled through
many sources, both biblical and chronologically historical of the time
becomes meaningless and expendable in Palestinian claims of
pre-historically occupying the land.
Palestinians
throw rocks as Israeli soldiers conduct a search for suspects of a
shooting attack in the West Bank City of Ramallah, Monday, Dec. 10,
2018. (Majdi Mohammed/The Associated Press)
Before the Almighty revealed the final scriptures of sacred instruction
to the faithful, antedating Jewish regional history, it was all
consecrated to Islam. Jews, according to Arab Palestinian authorities,
have always been illegal occupiers, millennia distant to the present. So
when 30-week-pregnant Shira Ish-Ran with her hisband Amichai waited at a
bus stop outside a the West Bank settlement of Ofra along with a group
of other Jews it was only logical that they be ambushed by gunmen
opening fire at them from a moving vehicle.
The gathered crowd of Jews scattered immediately; recognition of an
impending atrocity comes easily to these people who have experienced so
many of these killing sprees either personally or through the personal
accounts of friends and family, for everyone has mourned those deaths
and the survivors' recoveries have become legendary. When the
23-year-old rabbinical student Amichai looked back to see his wife on
the ground, he leaped to shield her from the rain of bullets.
Shot three times in the leg, his wife, 21-year-old teacher-in-waiting,
shot in the back. They survived, hospitalized, sedated, undergoing
surgeries and a gradual recovery. Their son was delivered by Cesarean
section with the hope he would live, and he did, for three days. Their
baby, wrapped in a prayer shawl, surrounded by family, was last seen by
his parents from their hospital beds, then was buried at Mount of Olives
cemetery in Jerusalem.
The baby Amiad Yisrael was murdered by 29-year-old Palestinian Salah
Barghouti a member of the terrorist group Hamas. Salah Barghouti was
taught from the time he was an infant -- through school curricula,
through plays and television, through the 'normal' life of Palestinians
incited to hate Jews and to pledge their futures to the 'liberation' of
Palestine from the unworthy hands of Jews -- to become a martyr in
jihad, to restore Palestine in its entirety, that 'Palestine' that was
always associated with Jews called Palestinians. Now he has become one
such martyr.
Amichai Ish-Ran's brother, a member of the IDF, watched live via
surveillance footage as the shooting occurred, reacting by sending
emergency personnel urgently to the scene. "He didn't know it was his brother, because it's not that detailed a camera", explained Montreal lawyer Charness, both young men's Canadian uncle.
Shira and Amichai Ish-Ran(Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
"During the three days our baby lived, he united us —secular,
religious, ultra-Orthodox, right and left wing, who came to support us.
I'm proud to be part of this nation,"
"[The
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] rejects and disapproves] of the new State of
Israel proclaiming Israel a "Jewish" state by legislation which
contradicts international law]." "[The international community should] confront such a law and or other
Israeli attempts, aimed at perpetuating racial discrimination against
the Palestinian people." Saudi Foreign Ministry
"[The new law is] racist [it] enshrines the racism of this
entity [Israel] through an apartheid system that goes beyond the former
apartheid system in South Africa." "This Israeli law would not have been issued without the unlimited
support provided by successive U.S. administrations to this rogue entity. [The Trump administration’s recent relocation of
the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem] came as a green light [for Israel] to
pursue its aggressive policy and racism." Syrian Foreign Ministry
"[Adoption of the law] reflected the regime of racism and
discrimination against the Palestinian people." "[Israel clearly means to obliterate the Palestinians'] national identity and depriv[ing] them of their legitimate civil and
human rights on their occupied homeland." GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] secretary general
Abdullatif al-Zayani
Israeli flag..
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Amazingly, unpredictably, there are others in the Arab world of
diplomatic niceties who politely and vehemently feel threatened that a
clearly Jewish state which freely celebrates its home-coming in the
re-establishment of its heritage lands as a place of comfort, security
and haven for persecuted Jews worldwide, finally asserting its
preeminent position as the only country in the world where being Jewish
is not a reason to fear being yet again persecuted, oppressed,
threatened and violated adamantly presents itself in legal terms, as
Jewish.
The chorus of Arab condemnation of the new Israeli legislation that now enshrines the country as "the national home of the Jewish people",
has sung its outrage in a choir including the six-nation Gulf
Cooperation Council, comprised of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Israel, must be feeling utterly
devastated, disappointed, outcast and alone; its neighbours, in a
totally new move will surely now exclude the Jewish state from the
friendly and civil relations that prevail among all countries in the
Middle East.
How can Israel possibly live with this rejection and the loss of
comradely relations between it and its Middle East neighbours? Possibly
if it explains that the thousands of years of Jewish yearning to return
to its ancient homeland, to escape the recurring deadly hostility that
Jews have been subjected to; culminating from endless pogroms,
humiliations, expulsions, scorn, and victimization, Jews have felt worn
out from being forced to find a place for themselves where no country
would accept them.
Turning as a bright alternative to the ageless pledge to one day return
to Zion, they did, after the world extracted an exorbitantly horrendous
price, tasking the Angel of Death to hover over the Jews
of Europe while they were tormented and vilified, ghettoized and
anguished in preparation for mass annihilation as the ultimate assault
and insult to the existence of that people collectively refusing to
vanish from the face of the Earth.
Proclamation of Nationhood is read by Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
In the State of Israel, which considers itself the final refuge for
Jewish life, non-Jews were welcome to remain, and they did. Arabs
constitute 17.5% of the eight million population, with the Jewish
presence estimated at over six million, hosting as well Druze, Kurds,
Armenians, Africans and Bedouin among others such as European
Christians. Hebrew will now legally represent the only official language
of the Jewish state; Arabic downgraded to special status.
Saudi Arabia guards its citizenship, awarding it to Saudis exclusively;
it recognizes no religion other than Islam, and its concern for the
welfare of Palestinians has not excited it toward offering either haven
nor citizenship to them. It considers the Shiite sect of Islam false and
results in accusations of a heretical nature, leading to violent
enmity. The conflicts that result from sectarian hatred and violence
creates gross destabilization, military assaults, mass murder of
civilians, starvation, deprivation, refugees.
Syria's Shiite regime has waged an unrelenting war against its sectarian
majority population, viewing them as 'terrorists' for the unsupportable
crime of protesting against the unjust treatment meted out to them by
their dictator-president Bashar al-Assad. Millions of Sunni Syrians have
become both internally displaced and external refugees, crowding for
safety from the regime into Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt, flooding
Europe for asylum.
Iran has mustered the strength in numbers of the minority Shiites,
supporting their armed militias, creating non-state militias as
terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, with an agenda focused
solely on the destruction of the State of Israel, with a side-issue of
promoting Shiism over Sunni Islam, with all the attendant fury of
accusations, venom and threats that accompany a power struggle of one
over the other, each reaching to attain the coveted status of ultimate
power.
Israel, seeking to live in peace and security in its ancient homeland,
cradled in a geography that once held disparate indigenous populations,
all of which jockeyed endlessly for territory, has brought modernity and
democracy to the Middle East in a geography to which both were foreign
in a world stilled in the amber of quaint medievalism and backwardness.
Viewing Israel as an usurping intruder, the Arab world shudders at the
progress and civility Israel represents, challenging the brutality and
ignorance that suffuses their culture.
After an Arab air raid, bodies of dead Jews lie in the rubble along the Tel Aviv waterfront. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Custodial Responsibilities: Wilderness, Animal Species
"The [Peace-Athabasca Delta] depends on recharge of its lakes and basins in order to retain its world heritage value." "Currently, hydrologic recharge ... is decreasing. Without immediate intervention, this trend will likely continue." Environment and Climate Change Canada study
"There's literally hundreds of different studies going on with regard to the park or the oilsands or B.C. Hydro." "All these things are going on independently. No one had put it all together." "I don't think we have enough studies to pinpoint exactly where they [chemicals] come from. But we do know the types of contaminants that we're measuring are probably similar to contaminants that could be coming from the oilsands." "My intention was to determine if there was a problem at the park and not to point fingers at who caused it. I think everybody has some kind of effect." "There probably were periods in the past where it was good, or not so good [involvement of natural cycles]." "Without a doubt there's something going on." Don Gorber, consultant, lead author, study
The study looked at 17 measures of environmental health, from river flows to Indigenous use. It concludes 15 are declining.
Precisely what is going on is a marked deterioration in the environment of Canada's largest national park, Wood Buffalo National Park. The study just concluded presented a 561-page report setting out findings which points out that this protected, heritage site has been deliberately and with authorization been infiltrated by industry, dams, and other intrusions and that, added to natural cycles and climate change is inexorably destroying the integrity of the vast delta of the Peace and Athabasca rivers in northeastern Alberta.
The study focused on 17 metrics of environmental health, ranging from river flows to Indigenous use of the protected area, drawing the conclusion that 15 of the 17 are in decline. Decades of research were assessed leading the study to complete the most authoritative assessment on the region yet undertaken ... a region which just happens to be downstream of the largest energy developments in Canada, along with one of its largest hydro dams. Water, it appears, and quite precisely lack of it, is behind the major changes that have occurred in the park.
Ice jams that at one time flooded wetlands in the park no longer take place. Flow of the Peace River has declined by nine percent since the building of the Bennett Dam in British Columbia. And from the Athabasca River, flows have declined a whopping 26 percent. Little wonder there's a stark deficit of water in the park to alter its integrity and threaten its status and all that exists within. That would most certainly include shrinking bison habitat.
Wood Buffalo National Park covers almost 45,000 square kilometres of
grasslands, wetlands and waterways — one of the world’s largest inland
deltas. (Rob Belanger / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Moreover, invasive species have been replacing native vegetation and migratory birds now avoid areas where they flocked, at one time. Access to traditional territory of Indigenous people -- who depend on boats to arrive at many areas of the park -- is no longer possible. They have the boats but not the waterways to float them upon. Consequently they are shut out of those traditional hunting areas. Trappers who once brought in hundreds of muskrats seasonally no longer can, for the animals, without their habitat intact, have disappeared.
Chemicals similar to what is seen in the oilsands are now concentrating in the park, as a result of lower water levels. As well, heavy metals and toxic hydrocarbons have been identified in bird eggs, while minnows are showing a rise in mercury levels. "It confirms a lot of these threats, the concerns, that are causing the challenges in the delta", said Melody Lepine of the Mikisew Cree whose awareness of the dire situation predated the revelations brought by the study results.
Added to the fact that forestry and agriculture take place upstream, is the added concern of climate change causing drying out in the delta. Leading to migratory birds' flight path being affected. A new unaffiliated study has pointed out that governments the world over are proud of the protected status they give large swaths of land, yet fail to protect those areas, much less place them where they are needed, the end result being political gain and the surrender of responsibility in the vital urgency of custodial duty failing future generations' inheritance of wilderness areas and the animals that inhabit them.
An aerial view of Fort Chipewyan, Alta., on the border of Wood Buffalo National Park THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
"[Statements that Hamas was employing] peaceful resistance [against Israel represents] a clear terminological deception." "When you have weapons that are being wielded by men who were able to
prevent the strongest army in the region from entering the Gaza strip
for 51 days, and were able to capture or kill soldiers of that army — is
this really ‘peaceful resistance?" "When we talk about ‘peaceful resistance,’ we are deceiving the
public. This is peaceful resistance bolstered by a military
force and by security agencies, and enjoying tremendous popular
support." Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahhar
"Our people and our boys will surprise the entire world with what they have in store."
"Let them wait for our big push. We will take down the border and we will tear out their hearts
from their bodies." Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar
The United States Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, recognizing Jerusalem formally and legally as the capital of Israel. It also called for Jerusalem to remain undivided. Ever since, successive American presidents have duly pledged full implementation on their watch of this law, that would lead to the relocation of the American Embassy currently in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem. And each president since then, has made use of a mechanism for procedural delay, choosing to waive a final decision every six months, in preference to committing themselves to the Act.
Until now, that is. When, yesterday, American legislators and Israelis met together in a triumph of achievement in finally, under the current Trump administration, recognizing for fact what is a reality, that Jerusalem is indeed the capital of the State of Israel. The announcement of the intended move made back in January of this year, brought universal scathing censure down on the United States. From the United Nations to the European Union, African nations and Asian, the rote response was the final designation would only be legalized when a peace agreement was reached between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Palestinians have made that impossible, refusing one peace offer after another, unremittingly. The secret agenda, boldly stated in Arabic, covertly made evident to those supporting the Palestinians' aspiration to destroy the Jewish state by 'right of return' or outright conflict, or a combination of all, aligned with manipulating the membership of the United Nations with the influence of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to malign and slander and deprive Israel of legitimacy, leading to its delegitimization.
With the formal ceremony taking place on Monday of the opening of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem, Hamas orchestrated yet another massive 'peaceful protest' against Jerusalem falling to its original state as capital of Judea. Al Quds (Arabic for Jerusalem) was never in Jewish hands, claim the Arabs, and is Islam's alone. Hamas has convinced Gaza's Palestinian youth that their mission in life is to sacrifice themselves in a mass effort to cross from Gaza into Israel to pave the way for Palestinians to 'return' to the land they lost to 'colonialist' Jews.
The scheme is a tired one, to claim that Palestinians were forced from their land by incoming Jews when for most of the Palestinians who fled in 1948 after David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, announced the formation of the Jewish State did so on the advice of an invading force comprised of Israel's Arab neighbours who attacked the nascent state with the intention of destroying it, wracking up their first failed conflict with Israel.
But truth and reality have no place in the Palestinian narrative that insists Jews have no heritage in the Middle East, much less in Jerusalem. Their claims validated by UNESCO, which has given heritage status of religious-cultural-heritage ancient Judaic sites to the Palestinians who never existed in the geography in question, the original Palestinians being the Jews, not Arabs. Now Palestinians ardently proving t heir loyalty to the viral hostility they have been imbued with since childhood challenge the Israel Defence Forces protecting Israel's border from Palestinian incursion.
Ensuing deaths and casualties of Palestinians defying IDF orders to refrain from approaching the separating border fence, much less crossing it, plays right to Hamas's playbook. The violence provoking the Israeli military response overlooked by an international community which never has to face the vicious violence Israel's Jewish communities fear, condemn Israel for its 'disproportionate' response to 'peaceful' demonstrations. Behind the spontaneity of the burning tires, slingshots and Molotov-cocktail-carrying kites there are Hamas operatives attempting to breach the border.
What would those countries condemning Israel's response in view of past incursions ending with the death of Israelis, do themselves to protect their populations from threats of violence carried out with the barbaric zeal of collective psychopaths?
The Ultimate Rationale: Determination and Survival Equal Iron Will
"Israel’s space programme includes the capability to build, operate
and launch satellites into space. In 1988, only seven years after the
programme was established, Israel launched its first satellite, Ofeq-1.1
At that time, only seven countries had demonstrated an indigenous
capability to develop and launch satellites. Given the high costs and
risks involved in undertaking such an ambitious national project, it
might appear surprising that a small country like Israel – even taking
into consideration its acute security needs – would take on such a
burden. The Israeli leadership’s strategic rationale for doing so is not
obvious, inviting further consideration of the country’s
national-security decision-making and goals."
"Israel’s security concept is based on the understanding that it
suffers from a significant quantitative inferiority against its rivals.
To overcome this disadvantage, Israeli leaders have chosen to focus the
country’s efforts on the development of a qualitative edge. One of the
most significant elements of this strategy is the development of what
has been called the country’s ‘Iron Wall’, a concept intended to convey
to Israel’s enemies that the country is a regional power that cannot be
defeated militarily. Several aspects of Israel’s space programme contribute to the
realisation of the Iron Wall concept. Firstly, Israel’s space programme
provides significant tangible capabilities to deal with the threats
imposed by Israel’s enemies. Secondly, and equally important, a national
space programme that includes the ability to develop and launch
satellites into space signals a high level of national capabilities.
Israel’s achievements in space, whether civilian or military, project a
clear message of national might. They emphasize the qualitative gap
between Israel and its neighbours; contribute to the country’s
accumulated achievements aimed at deterrence; and reinforce the image of
the Iron Wall in the eyes of Israel’s enemies. All of this is
accomplished without articulating an explicit military threat, which
could provoke an unwanted chain reaction in the region." Isaac Ben Israel, and Deganit Paikowsky, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy August–September 2017
The AMOS 3 satellite (Photo credit: Spacecom via Tsahi Ben-Ami/FLASH 90)
If we're speaking deterrence and weaponry, it cannot be overlooked that the State of Israel has a nuclear arsenal, the only country in the Middle East that this can be said of. There is, of course, another country in the geography that aspires to match Israel's supremacy in having mastered the technology and designed nuclear devices. In Israel's case the nuclear arsenal serves as a kind of interior self-assurance that if all else fails ... but it is highly unlikely; in the realm of near impossibility that this weaponry was ever meant to, or ever will be used.
The same cannot be said for the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country whose ayatollahs and its Islamic Republican Guard Corps has been involved in training and arming terrorist groups and using them for the purpose for which they were formed; bellicose threats, violent attacks and conflicts enabling the Republic to widen its sphere of influence, though it is a relative minority sect within greater Islam, and even in the Middle East geography where Sunni Islam predominates. Iran's not-so-secret yet covert activities are geared toward the destruction of Israel, and at the same time the command of the Middle East.
At the present time, Iran represents Israel's greatest existential threat, with its support for Hezbollah its proxy militia group, and Hamas which administers Gaza, both of which are terrorist groups, both of which have the foundational belief that they are capable of administering the fatal blows that will destroy the presence of Israel. It is a fearsome combination of unalloyed hatred that Israel faces; Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran arrayed against it as absolute and dedicated hostile enemies who will never be placated by any overtures Israel might take to prove it has no hostile intentions against them.
Since its declaration in 1947 of an independent Jewish state reborn from ancient Judea, Israel has had to face the violent enmity of surrounding Arab populations. From the time of its immediate formation to the final, 1967 war mounted by Syria and Egypt against it, the tiny state was forced to defend itself from the determination of its neighbours to destroy its presence. Each time, from 1947 onward that Israel succeeded in routing the combined armies of its neighbours bent on its destruction it seemed a miracle that an outnumbered, tiny state could succeed in defending itself.
Israel planned from its very inception, on looking reality in the face; that it would need to inspire in its people an 'iron wall' of resistance and determination against greater numbers that would never be satisfied to accept the presence of a Jewish state. That iron wall in reality reflected an iron will to succeed in the re-establishment of Israel in the very place where three thousand years ago Jews lived and thrived and practised their monotheistic religion, only to see it co-opted by an Arab merchant in the 7th Century as the basis of a religion that he visualized would sweep the Bedouin population into conquest of the known world.
From then to the present not much has changed; Islam remains mired in its mission of creep-and-conquest, using the jihad of creeping numbers in invasions of immigrants and refugees into Europe and beyond, and the violence of terrorism when patience in awaiting overwhelming demographics runs thin, and the urge to commit mayhem and mass slaughter overwhelms the consciousness of the dedicated faithful to commit to martyrdom to further the cause of the universal caliphate. Whereas Israel has got on with its mission to present as a haven for Jews, to commit itself to a democratic order of equality and to benefit the world order by its presence and its standards of excellence in innovation, science and technology.
And while the world beats a path to Israel's threshold, eager to share in its inventive spirit and to take advantage of the enterprise of its society -- leading the world in research on a wide number of life-affirming fronts, it also continues to view Jews, and the presence of Israel on that world stage as a questionable anomaly in its differences, much less its ongoing struggle for survival within the landscape of Arab nations continually at war with one another. It takes a collective iron will to shrug off constant criticism and hostility even from purported friendly nations.
And in all indices of survival and contributions to the world at large Israel is succeeding to an amazing degree; all it takes is an iron will.
Launch of an Israeli Shavit rocket via Wikimedia Common
The "Impudent" U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. and the Statesmanlike Senior Palestinian Representative
"President Abbas declared the landmark Oslo Peace Accords dead. He
rejected any American role in peace talks. He insulted the American
President. He called for suspending recognition of Israel. He invoked an
ugly and fictional past, reaching back to the 17th century to paint
Israel as a colonialist project engineered by European powers." "A speech that indulges in outrageous and discredited conspiracy
theories is not the speech of a person with the courage and the will to
seek peace." "I ask here today, where is the Palestinian King Hussein? Where is
the Palestinian Anwar Sadat. If President Abbas
demonstrates he can be that type of leader, we would welcome it. His
recent actions demonstrate the total opposite." Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley speaks during a UN Security Council
meeting on the Middle East on December 18, 2017, at UN Headquarters in
New York. (AFP Photo/Kena Betancur)
"Nikki Haley needs to shut up and realize that the Palestinian
leadership is not the problem. Instead,
the problem is the Israeli occupation and the policies it continues to
pursue. I’m not saying that we don’t make mistakes; every society and
every government makes mistakes." "[The
goal of Israel and the United States is to] undermine the Palestinian
national project. American and Israeli officials are saying that any
Palestinian leader who
insists on East Jerusalem becoming the capital of Palestine and is
committed to the right of return, in accordance with United Nations
resolution 194, should be removed from power and replaced." "She called for overthrowing the democratically elected Palestinian
president. This is the president who led the peace process
and promoted the principle of the two-state solution. Now this [US] ambassador is accusing him of lacking
courage, and is calling for replacing him. The
Palestinian people are loyal to their martyrs, prisoners, wounded,
struggles, steadfastness, and heroism. This is the reality. The
Palestinians are the only ones who are entitled to hold their leaders
accountable." "The Palestinian leadership has told the Americans and Israelis that,
even after 1,000 years, they will not find any Palestinian who will
collaborate with their scheme. We will take Trump’s decision [to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of
Israel] to the International Court of Justice and we will seek
membership in more international agencies." "We don’t seek a confrontation or a fight with the US administration. On
the contrary — they are the ones taking several steps. The US
administration is itself saying that it’s not an honest broker in the
peace process. Therefore, we are seeking, together with international
parties, to convene an international conference for peace." PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat
PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat in his Ramallah office, November 23, 2015. (AFP/Abbas Momani)
Palestinians have been incited by their Palestinian Authority leaders
over the decades to resist any calls for 'normalization' with Israel
which might lead to diminished tensions. When matters become too calm,
intifadas are urged, to remind Israel and the Jews living there that
their time is numbered according to the Palestinian calendar. It is a
schedule spoken in Arabic. In English another schedule entirely appears;
one of a wish for the two solitudes to be reconciled to the reality of
two separate and sovereign nations.
In the Palestinian playbook, however, there is but one geography, from
the river to the sea, the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, and maps
produced for PA television and school curricula show that the geography
is absent the State of Israel; only the entire area marked "Palestine"
is honoured as the reality yet to be re-established. Short-circuiting
'peacekeeping' talks by appealing directly to the United Nations and its
various arms, firmly held in the control of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation and its Unaligned coterie, ensure a sympathetic hearing to
the Palestinians' plaints.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has reviled the United
States, spoken with utter contempt of the financial lifeline of billions
it has received in the past 70 years to keep Palestinian 'refugees'
afloat and their leaders in secret affluence, maligned the President of
the United States, slandered Jews and Israel, but this is his right as a
duly, democratically elected leader, even if subsequent elections after
the expiration of his mandate have been long overdue, somewhat reducing
the legitimacy of his authority.
It is typical of the Palestinians that they have the right through
divine entitlement to bellicosely threaten repercussions, to express
vengeful hatred of others, yet recoil in injured innocence when their
utterings are reciprocated. Erekat knows very well that the agenda being
pursued by the Palestinian Authority, after persuading the European
community that they seek peace, and abhor violence when the Arab
conspiracy of linked national military forces were unable to destroy
Israel, has become more subtly in line with the goal of destroying
Israel through sheer force of numbers.
Numbers of refugees, to succeed where the numbers of armies deployed
failed to. The original 700,000 Palestinians who fled as 'refugees' from
a 1948 theatre of war that guaranteed them a swift return on the ashes
of nascent Israel have since bloomed into an estimated five million
successors whose 'right of return' would overwhelm Jewish majority
status in Israel, rendering the Jewish State non-functional to its
original purpose; as a homeland-haven for world Jewry on the geography
of its original, ancient heritage.
A heritage that includes the exalted, sacred presence of the ruins of
the Temples of Solomon, the original, destroyed by Assyrians, and its
ancient replacement destroyed by Imperial Rome, each leading to
expulsions and a diaspora. The most sacred sites in Judaism, not merely
symbolic, but the heart and soul of the nation. Not only have the
Palestinians co-opted the term "Palestinian" whose authentic meaning was
descriptive of the original Jews living in the territory, but also
Judaism's saints and iconic historical sites commemorating Judaic events
and notables.
The immense Temple of Solomon seated atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
is symbolic of the never-ending story of Jewish persecution. Over the
ruins of the second Temple were built Islamic structures, the Dome of
the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, the elevation named by Arabs the Noble
Sanctuary from whence the Prophet Mohammad was said to have ascended on a
horse, up to heaven. When east Jerusalem was illegally occupied by
Jordan, its Jewish residents were killed or exiled. No Jews were
permitted entry.
Now, the PA insists there is no Judaic history nor heritage presence
there, despite the ancient presence of the Western Wall which is all
that is left of the Temple, and where Jews come to pray. Palestinians
will not permit Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, and their occasional
presence there becomes the occasion for threats, shouted insults,
rock-throwing and other incidents of vandalism and violence against
their presence. The PA's Mahmoud Abbas speaks of Jewish feet 'defiling'
the Noble Sanctuary, inciting Palestinians to attack and to kill Jews.
It is these vicious attacks against Jewish men, women and children
causing death by Palestinians urged to mount such deadly attacks that
the Palestinian Authority honours by speaking of "martyrs" deserving of
hero status, of having streets, buildings and squares named in their
honour, teaching impressionable children that they too, can grow to
become martyrs, and insisting that it is their right and sacred
obligation to guarantee generous pay-outs to the families of "martyrs",
the "wounded" and the "imprisoned" out of funds derived from
international sources for the upkeep of the Palestinians.
Insisting that East Jerusalem, the seat of Israel's original capital in
antiquity three thousand years ago, for which more than ample
archaeological and scriptural evidence exists, is really the birthright
of Arab Palestinians, the PA succeeded in persuading UNESCO to recognize
all Judaic historical sites and icons as those of historical
Palestinians, when the original Palestinians were Jews, in the process
transferring them by UNESCO decree to the proud heritage of Arabs.
That recognition has aided the Palestinian Authority's entitlement
claims to Jerusalem as a Palestinian state capital, leaving the Jewish
presence and historical claims of legitimacy in a state of reality being
trumped by political chicanery. The entitlements expressed by
Palestinian Arabs know no bounds, including the claims by Mahmoud Abbas
of a Jewish conspiracy to make the world believe that Jews ever lived in
the Middle East, much less that their Prophets, including Christ, was a
Jew.
They suffer, en masse, from a monumental psychological disorder that in
Yiddish is called 'chutzpah' portraying themselves as victims of Jewish
aggression, helpless and miserable under the heel of a Jewish conspiracy
to commit genocide against an entire people, by another people who
claimed they were victims of mass extermination by a fascist regime held
in high regard by Palestinians in the 1940s, to the present day.
"We
will not accept for the U.S. to be a mediator, because after what they
have done to us — a believer shall not be stung twice in the same
place."
"The deal of the century is the slap of the century. However, we’ll get back at them."
"Israel has killed Oslo. It has terminated Oslo. Now
we are an authority without any authority, and an occupation without
land, and we will not accept this."
"Damn your money!. He said, ‘I will give
you a peace deal.’ The deal turned out to be a mess. He said, ‘We will
not pay for the Palestinians because they stopped the negotiations.’
Where are the negotiations?"
"We are in a fateful moment of history. If we lose Jerusalem, what do you want to do? Have a state
with Abu Dis as its capital? This is what they’re offering now: Abu
Dis."
"They asked me to meet him. I said: ‘Him? No, I won’t
meet him.’ Not here, not outside the country, in Amman or Washington. I
will not meet this man."
"This is a colonial enterprise that has nothing to do with Jewishness. The Jews were used as a tool under the concept of the
promised land — call it whatever you want. Everything has been made up."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian
Authority, second from right, addressing the Palestinian Central Council
in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday.Credit
Majdi Mohammed/Associated Press
"If the Oslo process is dead,
as suggested by Abbas, it would follow that the Palestinian Authority
and its leadership are irrelevant."
"It’s
time to find alternative Palestinian leaders and
alternative peace plans that focus on building bridges between real
people on the ground instead of making people like Abbas rich and
famous."
Oded
Revivi, spokesman, Yesha Council, West Bank
"They think it means Palestinians will take the Israeli ID and live under an apartheid regime. But our idea is to have one democratic state, with no privilege for the Jews or for any other ethnic or religious group."
Radki Jarai, Popular Movement for One Democratic State
"I would never give citizenship to the masses of the Arab population in Judea and Samaria [West Bank]."
Yoav Kisch, Likud, Member of Knesset
"If the two-state solution dies, it will be the responsibility of Israel, not the Palestinians. But if the Israelis kill it, which they're in the process of doing now, unfortunately with the help of Trump's administration, then the only option will be for us to fight the apartheid system and bring it down, which means one state with equal rights for everybody."
Mustafa Barghouti, member, P.L.O. central council
As a member of the P.L.O. Mr. Barghouti, held in such respect by the international community as a man of peaceful mien, prepared to live with the State of Israel, as long as it is subordinate to the Palestinians' wish to dominate, seems totally, spectacularly unaware that the P.L.O envisages a one-state solution and always has, and is not prepared to accommodate in any measure the much-anticipated two-state solution. The Palestinian Authority, Fatah, part of the P.L.O. has long issued maps where Israel is absent and 'Palestine' occupies the entire geography.
Israeli negotiators, and particularly under the leadership of two previous prime ministers (see Ehud Barak), offered Palestinian negotiators all that they demanded, and it still was not persuasive enough to conclude a peace agreement resulting in two separate states side by side. The PA never failed to respond to agreement by Israel of its far-reaching demands by extending those demands, itself never once bothering to negotiate in good faith, let alone being prepared to sacrifice anything, but demanding constant sacrifice of Israel. The anxiety to conclude a peace agreement was entirely one-sided.
Now, with the latest negotiations that have been in limbo for years while Mahmoud Abbas refused to return to the bargaining table despite the ongoing appeals of Israeli officials, Abbas sloughs off any responsibility as he huffs and puffs in irate aggrievement, wallowing in the victimhood status so beloved of the Palestinians as they appeal to the international community to condemn Israel's apartheid occupation. Occupation? Self defence time and again fighting off Arab armies attacking Israel, the final conflict restoring Israel's heritage in Jerusalem where Jordanian rule had ostracized any Jewish presence. On the other hand, Abbas vowed he would allow no Jews to live in a Palestinian state.
Apartheid? There is equality and citizenship rights in Israel with an impartial judicial system guaranteeing rights of citizenship. Arabs have their own parliamentary representation in opposition, and are permitted to contest any laws and go so far as to support militant Palestinian violence, but are not prepared to leave Israel to live under Palestinian rule in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority wants a capital presence in Jerusalem? They've been given an offer, but not one that will give them control of the Old City, sacred to Judaism.
The offer to carve out those areas within Israel with majority Muslim populations for Palestinian rule was rejected by the Arabs living in those areas who prefer to remain under Israeli rule, and one unacquainted with what life is like under Palestinian rule might wonder why. That offer was contingent on the Palestinian Authority agreeing to transfer those areas to Israeli rule in the West Bank occupied by settlers, so neither would lose land, but that too was met with upturned nose.
The demand that Israel permit the 'return' of six million Arabs representing the offspring of the original 700,000 that left Israel to await the outcome of the first collective Arab Middle East military attack against the fledgling Jewish state, and were recognized as 'refugees' by the United Nations represents yet another effort to dilute the Jewish presence and render Israel an Arab, not a Jewish state. Those two sticking points; return and Jerusalem represented the most potent demands each of which would destroy Israel.
Underlying all of the negotiations were the assurances from the Palestinian leadership to the Palestinians that it was their intention to restore to the Arab Palestinians the geography that would become Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. To continue claiming victimhood status characterizing Israel as an aggressive oppressor in view of the violent attacks launched by incitement of the PA to ensure that Palestinians would never agree to 'normalization' of relations with Israel; painting Israel as the aggressor and Palestinians as victims is a classic Palestinian/Arab technique.
Lest Israel have any illusions about what life might be like for Jews under a single state dominated by Arabs they might cast their minds' eye back to recent history and pogroms, an importation from eastern Europe finding great popularity in the Middle East. And keep their eyes on Hamas in Gaza which has never deviated from its core goal and mandate to destroy the State of Israel and push its Jews into the sea. When Ariel Sharon ordered Israeli settlements and the Israeli military out of Gaza that experiment to return the strip to Palestinian control was ample demonstration of Arab goodwill.
The ongoing construction of complex, expensive tunnels burrowing from Gaza into Israel for the purpose of giving entry to terrorist fighters to Jewish villages and towns and military outposts speaks volumes of the hopelessness of any efforts for peace between intransigent, deadly Hamas dedicated along with Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria to the destruction of Israel.
An Israeli jeep drives near where Israeli forces said they had destroyed an attack tunnel from Gaza, December 10, 2017. Amir Cohen
"Canada is a steadfast ally and friend of Israel and friend to the
Palestinian people. Canada's longstanding position is that the status of
Jerusalem can be resolved only as part of a general settlement of the
Palestinian-Israeli dispute. This has been the policy of consecutive
governments, both Liberal and Conservative." Global Affairs Canada statement
Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to stand by Israel 'through fire
and water' and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
several times CBC
Under the previous Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Stephen
Harper, Israel could have no doubt whatever that Canada supported it in
every conceivable way, recognizing it formally and informally as a
counterpart democracy and a legitimate homeland for the Jewish people
restored to their heritage position in the Middle East. PM Harper had
little patience for the United Nations' constant sanctions against
Israel, ignoring the plight of people living under the deplorable
dictatorships of its neighbours in a powerful Islamic bloc that
continually slammed Israel for human rights abuses they themselves
regularly indulged in, but Israel did not.
Under the Trudeau administration, Canada has continued to block
resolutions brought to the Security Council and the UN Human Rights
agenda, condemning Israel for one contrived reason or another, charges
brought against it by the very same human rights abusers who have long
transformed the purpose of the United Nations in upholding universal
human rights and equality, into a forum for the world's most vicious
human rights abusers to stand in sanctimonious judgement of nations with
a stellar position on human rights. But the very fact that Canada
opposes corrupt resolutions is merely a reflection of the fact that it
should, that it is morally obligated to do so.
That it reflects a specific bias in favour of Israel is not in fact the
case. In very point of fact, Canada states its official position being
that of equal favour to both Israel and the Palestinians, neutral on the
issues that divide them, supportive only of the fiction that a
two-state solution is achievable, when the Palestinian Authority has
proven time and again, despite hypocritically claiming to the contrary,
that it has no intention of cooperating in the forging of a peace
treaty, nor officially arriving at an agreement that would result in two
separate, sovereign states.
The statement that the PA is so fond of, that it disseminates in Arabic to the Palestinians is a Palestinian State from the river to the sea;
from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, reflective of its official
map that has erased Israel from existence. Yet the Western fiction of
the Palestinians working toward peace and the establishment of two
states persists, enabling PA President Mahmoud Abbas to prosecute his
plan to achieve greater legitimacy of a Palestinian state in de facto
existence, giving it status in the United Nations and within its member
bodies.
Trudeau's Canada believes that there is a global obligation, reflective of a motion that was brought before the UN, to "promote the realization of the
inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to
self-determination, to support the achievement without delay of an end
to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and of the two-state
solution on the basis of the pre-1967 border." That
"occupation" resulted from an all-out conflict imposed yet again on
Israel, which it successfully repulsed, gaining the territories in
question, as a result.
The "occupation"
is one of self-protection, defense from constant violent attacks
inspired by the Palestinian leadership in the Palestine Liberation
Organization's Fatah movement and that of Hamas; the former aspiring to
achieve the downfall of Israel through furtively organic means including
incitement to popular violence, the latter directly and equally
infamously, through violent military offences. If the Palestinian
leadership were prepared to settle differences reasonably, there would
be no "occupation" because there would be no threat to the existence of
Israel. But the byword is to refuse "normalization"; recognition and
acceptance of Israel's existence.
Last December, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, China and
162 other UN member-nations gave their unequivocal support to UN
resolution 17/96, guaranteeing the
protections of the Geneva Convention to Palestinian civilians in the
occupied territories, when there is no real and actual threat to
Palestinian civilians other than those they themselves provoke through
incitement to violence, threats to destroy Israel, and never-ending
incidents of deadly violence.
Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital despite intense Arab,
Muslim and European opposition to a move that would upend decades of
U.S. policy and risk potentially violent protests. (Evan
Vucci/Associated Press)
The most recent resolution brought by Turkey and Yemen in the United
Nations to the general assembly against the American announcement by the
Trump administration that it was finally in favour of committing to
relocating its embassy now in Tel Aviv to the de facto capital of Israel
in Jerusalem, to impose pressure brought by the weight of the world
body's censure of the U.S. was beyond absurd. Jerusalem is Israel's
capital, despite the Palestinians claiming prior heritage status of the
ancient city, when it was the capital of Judean Zion thousands of years
before Arabs and Islam entered history.
As a sheer matter of principle, were it not for the governing Liberals'
pride in their 'progressive' values, reason and intelligence should have
ensured that Canada would vote "no" to denounce the resolution damning
America for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. While the UN body
daintily quibbles its outrage over Jerusalem, North Korea and Iran in
their industrious commitment to ICBMs and nuclear warheads threatening
world stability become a non-issue. Turkey's murderous assaults on the
Kurds, Syria's on its own Sunni population and Yemen's deadly civil war,
mere trifles.
In choosing to abstain, Canada has, in essence, allied itself with
countries such as Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Venezuela. The
result of the vote represented an exculpatory boost to the Organization
of Islamic Cooperation and the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas,
whose corrupt histrionics have been handsomely rewarded by the
Non-Aligned contingent and the European democracies which pride
themselves on their equanimity in the face of Islamist conquest,
alongside the craven inability of countries like Canada to face the
courage of the convictions they have mislaid along the way.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during an extraordinary
meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul,
Turkey, December 13, 2017.
(photo credit: REUTERS/KAYHAN OZER/POOL)
That area of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th
millennium BCE. In Biblical tradition King David conquered the city from
the Jebusites, establishing it as the capital of the United Kingdom of
Israel. His son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First
Temple, events which took place at the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE.
This is history. This is the history of Judaism as much as it is the
history of the tribes of Israelites that came together to form a single
ethnic, religious, social group.
The deliberately distorted history adopted by UNESCO under the influence
of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the sanctimoniously
entitled Palestinians claiming East Jerusalem which contains Judaism's
most sacred relic, that of the site of the Temple of Solomon in its
first and second incarnations, along with installations sacred to both
Christians and Muslims, both of which followed Judaism long afterward,
is safeguarded for all of humanity by the State of Israel. As steward of
the Holy City, Jerusalem is also once again recognized as the capital
of Israel.
When U.S. President Donald Trump fulfilled an election promise to have
the United States formally recognize the reality that Jerusalem is in
fact and purpose and in reflection of heritage and antiquity, the
capital city of Israel, the enemies of the Jewish state which are by
conviction anti-Semite Jew-loathers, were compelled to warn of the
dangers inherent in the move, giving once again impetus to the virulence
of Arab violent rejection of Israel, much less its reaction to the
restoration of its capital.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, alongside Turkey's Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and the Ayatollahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran have
revved their hysterical passions to overdrive in an effort to mobilize
the 57-member OIC and the Arab League to come to the defense of the
Palestinians who claim entitlement to Jerusalem -- and, for that matter
to all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, minus
Israel, to constitute the State of Palestine.
Jerusalem, Capital of Israel
Palestinians, fed a steady diet of propaganda of their obligation to
'resist the occupation' by employing lethal means to disrupt Israeli
society and in the process become martyrs to be honoured and revered,
answer the call to incitement they have been taught as their birthright.
From the teen years upward isolated attacks with whatever comes to hand
to kill and to maim, and with groups lobbing rocks at the police and
military to demonstrate the extent of their defiance, there is no
peace-loving entity for Israel to discuss peace with.
The Gaza-located terrorist Hamas Palestinians have called for mass
protests, along with the governing PA's Fatah party, while leaving it to
Islamic Jihad in Gaza to blast rockets over the border into Israel,
forcing Israel to self-protectively shut down the border crossings where
food and medical and building supplies are trucked into Gaza daily. A
new Palestinian uprising against Israel has been called for in reaction
to the Jerusalem announcement.
Turkey's emergency call for a conference of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation in Istanbul saw a handful of leaders of the 57 member-states
present themselves. Hateful rhetoric, however, threats and slanders
were, as usual, not in short supply. The Arab and Muslim leaders who see
nothing particularly amiss in their roles urging their militaries to
engage in sectarian bloodshed are themselves responsible for the deaths
of immense numbers of Muslims. Yet they falsely accuse Israel of
plotting genocide even as they themselves persecute religious and ethnic
minorities.
In the five decades that have passed since the 1967 Six-Day War when
once again and for the last time, assembled Arab armies failed to
succeed in destroying Israel, Jerusalem has been administered by Israel.
All the faiths whose sacred sites are located within Israel, from the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount,
and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque are safeguarded by Israel
ensuring that those for whom those places are holy can access them in
safety.
Only Israel alone, and Jews cannot have access to the most sacred of
sites, the Temple Mount, to pray lest their doing so enrage Muslims who
deny the pre-existence of Judaic places of worship on the Mount. To keep
the peace, Israel must disallow Jews access to their most sacred of
sites. Israel agreed to allow Jordan's Hashemite Monarchy to administer
the Temple Mount through its ministry of religious affairs. An
accommodation of great sacrifice which has never seen reciprocation but
which has occasioned threats and accusations of Jewish presence on the
Mount sullying and blaspheming a site sacred to Islam.
And from mosques all over the world, including in Jerusalem, Friday
prayers include injunctions to the faithful to proceed directly from
worship to take part in protests against the 'occupation' by Israel of
Jerusalem. These are by no means peaceful, civil 'protests', but
vehemently violent demonstrations of just how victimized the 1.2-billion
Muslims in the world are by the presence of 14-million Jews in the
world.
Israeli forces confront Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
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