1.On ‘Day of Rage,’ Palestinian mob torches Joseph’s Tomb

Some 100 people riot outside Jewish holy site in Nablus, firebomb its main access, courtyard • Compound, which was empty, heavily damaged • Yisrael Beytenu leader: Incident shows Palestinian Authority is no different than the Islamic State group. By Efrat Forsher, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

On ‘Day of Rage,’ Palestinian mob torches Joseph’s Tomb

3.How Buying Guns for Oppressed Jews Built the American Jewish Establishment by Daniel Greenfield

Posted: 13 Oct 2015 09:06 AM PDT

Ben Carson’s comments that armed Jews might have saved lives in the Holocaust by resisting Nazi terror have been met with condescending mockery from the left. The Jewish establishment, a network of wealthy non-profit organizations that claim to represent Jews without ever being chosen by them and while working against their interests, has reacted in the same way as their liberal brethren.
But this establishment has forgotten that it was built on providing guns to Jews.

Jewish Parade of Protest Against Anti-Jewish Outbreaks by Russia

Historical Revisionism is what the left does best. American Jewish history in the last century is a revisionist history in which the heroes are the “establishment”. The truth lies buried in old papers and lost documents. And it’s a deeply compelling truth of how the left suppressed Jewish self-defense.
The Jewish Defense Association was the first time that uptown establishment German Jews and downtown Eastern Jewish immigrants came together. The JDA’s goal had little in common with the empty rubber chicken dinner agendas of what the establishment that grew out of it would become.

Instead the Jewish Defense Association’s mission was simple. Buy guns for Jews.
Its agenda, as reported by the New York Times was, “New massacres are preparing. Our people must be possessed of arms to defend themselves and their honor.”
The year was 1905. The slow bloody beginning of the Russian Revolution was underway. Much like the Syrian Civil War, brutal militias aligned with different factions from the left to the right would arise out of the violence. Like the Christians in Syria, the Jews were an isolated minority. Xenophobia allowed both Communists & Czarists to score populist points by massacring the Jews in violent pogroms.
The Jewish Defense Association responded with a call to arms. Its motto took a part of Hillel’s credo, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me.” Its membership encompassed the left and the right, Zionists and anti-Zionists, religious and secular Jews.
A march of 200,000 Jews to Union Square included 5,000 former Russian soldiers, the volunteer Zion Guards in blue uniforms carrying rifles and the young men of the Manhattan Rifles, begun in the Lower East Side’s Educational Alliance as the Alliance Cadets, which had been formed in imitation of the Jewish Lads Brigade, a group that had put thousands of Jewish boys in the UK through military training.
The final resolutions declared that, “Eternal vigilance is the price of the Jew’s life, and that we urge our people to take up arms against their assailants, and if need be to sell their lives most dearly.”
It concluded with the ringing challenge, “We call Jews everywhere toward the defense of the Jewish people.”
In the words of the New York Times, “A ripple went through the crowd like wind rising to a hurricane which roared “Aye!”
It was undoubtedly the most heavily armed Jewish rally in American history. The sight of all those guns, not to mention early versions of the Israeli flag, would give any modern establishment leader a fit.
And yet the JDA included key establishment figures like Judah Magnes and Louis Marshall. Branches of the organization quickly emerged around the country from Los Angeles to Cincinnati showing how popular the message of Jewish self-defense was.
“In underlining the word ‘Self’ it expresses its conviction of the futility of all kinds of Jewish demonstration which appeal to others,” Rabbi Israel Friedlander, a co-founder of Young Israel who would later be murdered by Communist thugs, wrote.
“The modern Jew, who is otherwise ready to boast of his liberalism… anxiously watches every nod of a king and every smile of a prime minister. The old ‘Shtadlan’ still exists in the form of the ‘influential Hebrew’ who on the backstairs often begs what as a representative of a free nation he ought openly to demand. In times of danger the modern Jews… appeal to the Spirit of Humanity, Modern Civilization or Brotherhood of Mankind, without themselves moving a finger in their defense.”
“Attacks of bloodthirsty beasts cannot be beaten back by appeals to Humanity and Civilization,” he wrote.”Surely the Self-Defense of the Jews will not at once stop all further bloodshed. Some Jews may still be slain, be destroyed and be beaten. But they will certainly not be put to shame. They will meet violence with violence and teach their enemies the value of a Jewish life.”
But of course it was not to be.
The “Shtadlans,” the institutional establishment figures who had taken over the JDA, would abandon and dismantle it, recreating its corpse as the American Jewish Committee. The AJC would default to exactly the kind of aimless political begging that Rabbi Friedlander had condemned because that made power brokers like Marshall and Magnes feel important. Their goal was not to empower Jews, but to disempower them. The establishment robbed Jews of their power and offered them a chance to donate to a corrupt network of organizations whose only real purpose was making their leaders feel important.
Meanwhile the leftists tore apart the JDA by refusing to work with the Jewish “religious and capitalist elements” of the JDA.
Leading the charge against the JDA were the Bund, an anti-Jewish Marxist organization, and the Forward, a radical left-wing paper that continues to spread hate against Jews and Judaism today.
While the Bund and the Forward’s mendacious Abe Cahan had initially supported the JDA in order to take advantage of Jewish outrage over the pogroms, the Bund’s position firmly opposed self-defense along “national lines” as a distraction from class consciousness and class warfare. And armed Jews, especially Zionists, might end up shooting some of the Bund’s favorite “workers mobs” at a pogrom.
Jewish self-defense threatened the Marxist agenda. The Marxists were willing to exploit Jews through front groups, but were determined to deny them any ability to defend themselves. For its Communist collaboration, the Bund earned the dubious honor of being the last non-Bolshevik Jewish organization allowed to operate on Soviet soil. Eventually it was purged and its members were shot. Others found their way into the Yevsektsiya, the Communist Party’s Jewish Section, tasked with wiping out Judaism by shutting down synagogues and Jewish institutions, and organizing the murder of Rabbis and Zionists.
Despite the interference of the Marxists, Jewish self-defense groups in Russia, such as the Giborei Zion (Heroes of Zion), assembled their own weapons or smuggled them in to resist attacks.
The Communist takeover led to the end of Jewish self-defense groups in Russia. Those who stayed behind were shot or sent to gulags. Many others made their way to Israel where they helped defend Jews against Muslim terror and fought for the independence of the Jewish State. Others played a key role in the resistance to Nazi occupation during WW2 in the Warsaw Ghetto and elsewhere.
The self-defense organizations that had failed in Russia, succeeded in Israel. They did it even though the establishment continued to undermine them by entering into a shameful collaboration with the USSR.
The JDC and the establishment spent most of its money on Soviet agricultural colonies in which Russian Jews were supposed to find a “new life” and a “happy future”. Newspapers were filled with glowing accounts of how happy the resettled Jews were. The scam eventually collapsed when the Communists had gotten enough money out of their useful anti-Zionist idiots. Those Jews who had been resettled, were murdered by the Nazis. Local JDC employees were shot or imprisoned.
At a crucial period, the establishment had starved Jewish settlers of funds that could have been used to dramatically transform Israel. But the pro-Communist left had its own agenda. The eagerness of the JDC to collaborate with the Communists could be found in their cover-up of the murder of Rabbi Friedlander.
Rabbi Friedlander, who advocated Jewish self-defense, had been in the Ukraine as a JDC emissary. He and two other Jews were murdered by the Red Army. The Forward feverishly engaged in a cover-up while the JDC stayed silent to avoid offending the Bolsheviks and their fellow travelers at the Forward.
Jewish self-defense was popular with Jews, but unpopular with the establishment and the far left. The establishment wanted Jews to be dependent on their political access, but refused to use that access to protect Jews by challenging the left, whether that meant standing up to the USSR over its persecution of Jews or to FDR over the Holocaust.
The far left had done everything in its power to suppress a “national solution” to the Jewish question. That is still what it is doing today. Its fight against Israel has nothing to do with the fake nationhood of the “Palestinian” terror groups, but is part of a longstanding campaign to shut down any independent Jewish consciousness because that might interfere with its class consciousness and class warfare.
American Jews are blamed for their apathy to the Holocaust or to Israel. But the good intentions of ordinary Jews were hijacked and continue to be hijacked by a corrupt establishment for its own political agendas. The establishment put FDR first and the left put Stalin first. Today it puts Obama first. It is a parasitic entity that hijacked Jewish self-defense and concerns while costing countless Jewish lives.
Armed Jews alone would not have stopped the Holocaust, but the awareness rising in Jewish circles in 1905 could have led to a movement that would have built a secure Israel and evacuated Jews from danger zones long before the Holocaust. Guns are only the final element of self-defense. Self-defense begins with awareness and mobilization. It’s what you do to prepare for the worst that really counts.
Very little has changed today. The establishment continues to undermine Israel, pursuing left-wing causes at Jewish expense, while pretending that it cares about the Jewish State, even as it undermines its efforts at self-defense. The left wants to destroy Israel. And the establishment helps make it happen.
The establishment ridicules the idea for which those 200,000 Jews gathered, armed and unarmed, over a century ago. Such contempt is fashionable in liberal circles. And yet that old message continues to resound today. “Our people must be possessed of arms to defend themselves and their honor.”

Daniel Greenfield is a New York City based writer and blogger and a Shillman Journalism Fellow of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. How Buying Guns for Oppressed Jews Built the American Jewish Establishment by Daniel Greenfield

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, President of Shurat HaDin. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

4.Fighting terrorism on all fronts, an Israeli rights group is now suing Facebook for serving as a platform for Palestinian incitement to terrorism and hatred. Oct 15, 2015 The Shurat HaDin Law Center, a Israel-based human rights group, has launched a class-action lawsuit against Facebook, saying the social media network has become a “paradise” for the spread of Palestinian incitement and terrorism.

Shurat HaDin launched an online petition on Thursday, urging signatories to join a lawsuit against Facebook, charging that it is acting as an accessory to terror.

The lawsuit demands that Facebook be ordered by a US court to shut down any and all pages that encourage incitement and terrorism, and that it implement tougher standards to keep such content off its network.

“Facebook has become a paradise for terrorists, where they can advertise their acts of terror, gain respect, friends, and support, and instructions on how best to kill Jews,” Attorney Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, chairperson of Shurat Hadin, stated.

Nitsana Darshan Leitner, founder, Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center. (blog.camera.org)

“The company could easily stop this if it wanted to. Facebook has said on occasion that it is willing to participate in the fight against terrorism, but these many pages advocating terrorism remain on the site. We must do everything possible to end this,” she added.

As an example, Shurat Hadin pointed to a recent incident in which Facebook became a platform for terror.

Muhannad Halaby, who murdered Aharaon Banita-Bennett and Rabbi Nechemia Lavi in Jerusalem’s Old City almost two weeks ago, stated on his Facebook page prior to the attack that he “wanted to be a martyr” and that “the third intifada has started.” Halabi received many “likes” and messages of support for his message, and the next day he carried out his murderous attack.

“Facebook has a responsibility for human life, and has chosen to ignore this,” Shurat Hadin stated. “It has the ability to monitor and remove pages and profiles that are involved in incitement – but chooses not to do so.”

“We at Shurat Hadin have decided to put an end to the terror which has gone wild on social media,” the lawfare organization said, calling on all to join the lawsuit.

The phenomenon of Palestinians using social media for the spread of hatred is not new, but has significantly increased in the past weeks in tandem with the wave of Palestinian terror attacksagainst Israelis.

In another instance, Israelis complained to Facebook about a page calling for the stabbing of Israelis and demanded it be removed. Facebook declined to do so until it came under heavy public pressure, after which it obliged.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel

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Fighting terrorism on all fronts, an Israeli rights group is now suing Facebook for serving as a platform for Palestinian incitement to terrorism and hatred.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls out Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for spreading falsehoods • Netanyahu: Palestinian incitement is to blame for current wave of terrorism • Only way to fight lies is to “tell the truth,” PM says.

Shlomo Cesana, Daniel Siryoti, Yori Yalon, Efrat Forsher and Israel Hayom Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the media, Thursday

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said Palestinian incitement is to blame for the wave of terrorism that has swept over Israel in recent weeks.

Speaking at a press conference for foreign media, Netanyahu said, “The current terror campaign in Israel is a result of continuous Palestinian incitement. First, on the Al-Aqsa mosque and the outrageous claims that we are changing the status quo there or intend to destroy it, and now we have a new big lie.

“That new big lie is that Israel is executing Palestinians. Yesterday, [Palestinian Authority] President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of putting to death, executing, an innocent Palestinian boy.

“First of all, he’s not dead — he’s alive. Second, he’s not innocent — he tried to kill, murder, knife to death an innocent Israeli youngster, 13 years old, riding a bicycle. This Palestinian terrorist is now being treated in Hadassah hospital in Israel.

“The only way that we can fight this big lie and all the other lies that are hurled at Israel and spread in the Palestinian social network and from there to the world, is to tell the truth. This is what we will do today. We expect all our friends and anyone concerned with the facts and the truth to look at these facts, to see the truth and not to draw a false symmetry between Israeli citizens and those who would stab them and knife them to death.”

Earlier on Thursday, pictures and videos were published showing Ahmed Manasra, the Palestinian teen who Abbas lied about, alive and receiving treatment at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem. Dr. Asher Salmon, deputy director of Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, said, “[Mansara] is hospitalized with us in light-to-moderate condition. He is being well taken care of. From a medical standpoint, I believe we can release him in the coming days.”

President Reuven Rivlin said Thursday, “Truth is not relative. You can’t turn murderers into victims and blame the victims for defending themselves. We are a state of law and justice. Israeli democracy is based on law and justice. The State of Israel will never compromise law and justice.”

A Palestinian Authority official told Israel Hayom that following his speech on Wednesday, Abbas spoke by phone with a number of Arab leaders, including Jordanian King Abdullah II, Saudi King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Abbas wants the international community to pressure Israel to stop its “violent acts and crimes against the Palestinian people,” the Palestinian official said.

The Palestinian official went on to say, “The current wave of violence is not a third intifada, as it is not being guided by leaders. Rather, it consists of spontaneous actions on the ground organized by activists on social networks.”

Netanyahu slams Palestinian leader for ‘big lie’

What do the lone-wolf terrorists who perpetrated attacks across Israel in recent weeks have in common? Many of them have been exposed to the inciting, ludicrous messages put out by the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah.

Ala Raed Ahmed Zayud, who ran over and stabbed four Israelis near Hadera this week, doesn’t answer to any leader. The teens and young adults coming out of the Shuafat refugee camp, which has essentially been overtaken by Hamas, to stab and run over Israelis over the last week also don’t have any leadership. Even the murderers who came out of the east Jerusalem neighborhoods of Jabel Mukaber and Sur Baher weren’t affiliated with any particular organization.

And yet, the face of this ostensibly faceless evil — lone-wolf, spontaneous, popular terrorism — is very clear. Ever since Rosh Hashanah last month, all the branches and affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel and the region have been waging a coordinated, systematic campaign to brainwash the Arabs living among us, using lies and false data concerning Al-Aqsa mosque.

At the helm of this campaign are two key movements: Hamas — a well-known proclaimed terrorist organization — and one that still operates under the confines of Israeli law: the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, headed by Sheikh Raed Salah.

Just like the dispute surrounding the Western Wall 90 years ago, this Islamic campaign of incitement revolves around the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” libel everyone is talking about in recent days — false allegations that Israel is planning to take over Al-Aqsa compound, or the Temple Mount as the Jews call it. Over the last 20 years, Salah and his movement have become the chief agents and prominent disseminators of this lie.

On Sept. 11, Ahmed Zayud, the perpetrator of the terrorist attack near Hadera, was among the thousands of Muslims who attended the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” festival in Umm al-Fahm. The event was orchestrated by none other than Salah himself, the high priest of Al-Aqsa alarmists of our day. At the event, he yelled hysterically that Muslims are willing to die and become shahids (martyrs) to protect Al-Aqsa. And it wasn’t the first time he made such remarks.

The crowd responded rhythmically, loudly: “With spirit and blood we will redeem Al-Aqsa!”

After the event, Salah’s remarks were widely distributed on Arab media outlets and on Hamas networks, presented in a way that was even more extreme: to the sound of military marches, accented with drums, adorned with pictures of terrorists, terrorist attacks and victims. The message was as sharp as a knife.

Ahmed Zayud from Umm al-Fahm, 13-year-old Ahmed Manasra from Shuafat who went on to stab a 13-year-old Jewish boy in Jerusalem this week, and 19-year-old Zubahi Ibrahim, who stabbed a Jewish seminary student in Jerusalem a week ago, were all exposed to this incitement on Hamas websites. They, and many others, were quick to grab a knife and do what it takes to “die for Al-Aqsa.”

Buses full of incitement

For some reason, Salah is not in prison yet. His deputy Kamal Hatib, who refused to condemn this week’s terrorist attacks, is also still walking free. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently floated the idea of outlawing the Islamic Movement in Israel, but the notion is not a new one. Netanyahu and his predecessors have already tried to legislate laws against the movement, but failed. Jailing Salah under administrative detention (without trial) or deporting him were also considered, but it never happened. The man, whose father and two brothers served in the Israel Police force, was only recently indicted over some of the most egregious incitement ever heard in Israel.

Salah combined the “Al-Aqsa is in danger” tale with the story of “Palestinian blood” that still clings to the Jews’ hands “on their doorways, in their food and in their beverages.” In a sermon he gave in Jerusalem, he tried to resurrect the sick and twisted old blood libel that has hounded the Jews about “bread dipped in children’s blood.” He even described his biggest dream: an Islamic caliphate with Jerusalem as its capital that would “control the entire Middle East.”

The Israeli justice system operates slowly. Salah was convicted by the court and sentenced to 11 months in jail, but he appealed the sentence. Two days ago, he openly declared at the Jerusalem District Court that even if he is put in jail, he will continue on his current path and that “with spirit and blood we will redeem Al-Aqsa!”

In the meantime, Salah is free. He is causing extensive damage. He does not censor himself and even challenges the state’s authority to make decisions regarding Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa. Several of his movement’s members maintain active ties with high-ranking Hamas activists, be it in Judea and Samaria, Gaza or abroad.

Some 12 years ago, Salah was first convicted of contacting a foreign agent over similar relationships. Since then he has been careful. Five years ago he was sentenced to nine months in prison for assaulting a police officer. Last year he was convicted again for interfering with police work, but only given a suspended sentence.

In the Shuafat refugee camp, residents parade models of Al-Aqsa mosque through the streets and almost openly trade in weapons, drugs and stolen property. But in Umm al-Fahm and other Israeli Arab towns in the so-called Triangle region there is an entirely different, no less alarming phenomenon. Over the last several months, a particularly colorful bus has been driving around, decorated with symbols and paintings pertaining to the “captive,” “desecrated,” “downtrodden,” “stolen,” mosque. The bus has been given a name: “Al-Aqsa — my responsibility.”

There is no shortage of money. As long as the Northern Branch isn’t declared illegal, the funding keeps coming in and the brainwashing continues. In Istanbul, for example, the Waqf al-Umma for Al-Aqsa has been established, which directs funds to Jerusalem. Who is behind this initiative, you ask? You guessed it: Raed Salah.

The “International Jerusalem Institution” that operates in Beirut and supports suicide terrorist attacks and “resistance to Israeli steps” also contributes money to activity either organized by or affiliated with Salah.

Another organization active in Jerusalem, which brings the women of the Murabitat (women who systematically assault Jews on the Temple Mount) to the mount, is called the “organization of the flags.”

Throughout the years, the organization of the flags transported the Murabitat to the Temple Mount. The women were picked up in rotation from the villages of the north, the central towns and from the south and Jerusalem itself. Sundays were the day of the northern villages. Wednesdays were usually the day of the southern town of Rahat. Incidentally, just this week, the head of Rahat’s northern chapter of the Islamic Movement in Israel was arrested on suspicion that he had been involved in riots in the south.

Hundreds of buses were used for transport, as needed. Fifteen buses were purchased with donated funds. The organization of the flags had far-reaching plans: Not only to provide housing for the Murabitun at hotels near Al-Aqsa, but also to start the “Omra” — a project promoting a Muslim pilgrimage to Al-Aqsa instead of to Mecca. This is a religious innovation designed to aggrandize Al-Aqsa more and more to the point of competing with Mecca and Medina for the title of holiest site in Islam. The project was inspired by Salah.

Years ago, Salah tried, and almost succeeded, to import water from the Holy Zamzam Well (a well located within the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca) to the Temple Mount. The plan was to elevate the status of Al-Aqsa, and of course his own status along the way.

Searching for Israel’s soft underbelly

From time to time, the Shin Bet security service discovers another source of funding, another channel of support. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has already outlawed several of these organizations. But as these institutions close, new ones, with different names, open weeks later. It is a game of cat and mouse. As long as the Islamic Movement in Israel is still legal, there is no way to prevent funds from being funneled into it. The only thing left to do is to attack the source of the money.

Hamas is one of the organizations that take advantage of Salah’s legal status to advance their own objectives. Unsurprisingly, Salah is one of the most popular characters on Hamas-affiliated networks and websites. For years he has provided Hamas with (verbal) ammunition, which is now being backed by action — terrorist attacks and riots.

At last year’s 19th “Al-Aqsa is in danger” conference, Salah described the Israeli “occupation” as the “worst oppressor on earth,” which uses its power and its weapons to destroy Al-Aqsa. He called for popular resistance among Israeli Arabs and stressed that if the circumstances were better, “Muslims would march en mass toward Al-Aqsa and cross every barrier and obstacle in their way. Even a nuclear bomb would not stop them.”

But the current circumstances are “limiting,” he said. “The people in Gaza can’t help, nor can the people in the West Bank. Everything is up to us,” he urged Israel’s Arab citizens. “Women and men in the Triangle, in the Galilee, in the Negev, in Kafr Kanna, in Jerusalem itself and in the rest of the towns, like Haifa and Sakhnin.”

Dr. Ronit Marzan, an expert on Israeli Arab society and Palestinian society, has been studying Salah and his sermons for years. She notes one sermon in particular in which Salah said that anyone who completes three tasks — jihad (holy war), ribat (fortification) and istishhad (martyrdom) — in Al-Aqsa compound, will be repaid by Allah 500 times more than those who complete the tasks elsewhere. She notes that the head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel now publicly defines the Murabitun he has sent to the Temple Mount as juhadeen — fighters against the infidels. “He tells them to prepare for jihad, and the implication is clear — to die on the altar of the Temple Mount,” she says.

“When you speak to this man on a personal level, he is nice enough and polite,” she says. “But if you put a podium in front of him, he enters a sort of madness. Something in his personal biography, maybe the fact that his father and brothers served as police officers, brings him to adopt these decibel levels and to reach these intensities. In my opinion, he is trying to cleanse that dishonor from his family’s history.

“He is trying to incite the entire Israeli Arab sector to launch a multi-participant intifada [uprising]. Salah is a megalomaniac who is trying to inflame the region and wants to be perceived as a protector of holy places. He is trying to lead his movement to overtake the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee. The path is Al-Aqsa. For years he has been searching for Israel’s soft underbelly — sometimes it is the Bedouin in the Negev, sometimes it is the mixed cities, but above all it is Al-Aqsa.”

Marzan reveals a lesser-known affiliation — the relationship between Salah and his movement and former Israeli Arab MK Azmi Bishara, who fled Israel after being suspected of spying for Hezbollah, and Bishara’s former party Balad.

“Bishara, who was born Catholic, takes Arab nationalism and attaches it to Islam. Arab nationalism and radical Islam magnify political power,” she says. “To him, the objective is to remove the colonialist-Zionist regime and advance the idea of one state. Raed Salah joins Bishara and says: ‘Islamic caliphate.'”

The Al-Aqsa story serves this union well. The attempt to generate a provocation at a holy site is an attempt drag the mainstream Israeli Arab population into subversive activity, even though the majority has no desire to take part in any kind of intifada.

“Many among the younger generation,” Marzan remarks, “stayed home and didn’t take to the streets. Only a few hundred people went out into the streets, and the majority is very angry with them, as the mayor of Nazareth expressed this week.”

Sleeping on the job

Like many “Al-Aqsa is in danger” agents around the world, Salah also relies on an incident that occurred on the Temple Mount in 1969, when a mentally unstable Christian tourist from Australia set fire to the mosque. The incident set off a wave of riots across the Muslim world. The arsonist, Denis Michael Rohan, was hospitalized at a psychiatric institution and was later deported back to Australia where he remained committed until he died. Israeli authorities managed to extinguish the physical fire at the mosque, but they could not douse the flames of hatred and lies that followed the incident. To this day Salah still blames the State of Israel for burning the mosque. He says that the materials used to set the mosque on fire could only have been Israeli. He also invented in his imaginative mind a story about Israel detaining fire trucks that came from the West Bank in hopes that the mosque would burn to the ground. This never happened.

The “Al-Aqsa is in danger” tale, which has become a mental terrorist attack leading to tragic bloodshed, has countless manifestations: horrible cartoons depicting snakes, dragons, bulldozers or Jews dressed in ultra-Orthodox garb choking, demolishing, digging or slithering underground to destroy Al-Aqsa; illustrations featuring Israeli heads of state of past and present hacking the dome of the rock with axes; and even delusional stories of chemical agents that Israel has infused into the ground under the mosque in an effort to topple it.

Dr. Taysir al-Tamimi, a clergyman from the Palestinian Authority, has asserted repeatedly that “the foundations of Al-Aqsa have been removed and chemical substances were injected into its stones to melt them. That is why the mosque is hanging in the air.”

Yasser Arafat, the late leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, at one time received an official report on alleged plans hatched by Israeli scientists at the Weizmann Institute to set off an artificial earthquake that would bring Al-Aqsa down.

Does Salah believe his own lies? In October 2000, during the first days of the Second Intifada (the Al-Aqsa Intifada), which lasted several years, there was a wave of violent riots and incidents instigated by Israeli Arabs. Twelve Israeli Arabs were killed in those incidents, and the Israeli government appointed an investigative committee to look into the deaths. The committee, dubbed the Or Committee, also investigated the Islamic Movement in Israel and Raed Salah’s role in the riots.

The three committee members, including Arab judge Hashem Hatib, unanimously concluded that “it is inconceivable that Sheikh Salah actually believes that the Israeli government plans to demolish the mosques and build the Temple in their stead, as he claims.”

They wrote that there was no possible conclusion other than that he made these claims to gain political power, to recruit supporters and to generate conflict. His calls to liberate Al-Aqsa with blood, especially as they were made in the mass rallies he organized, served to “escalate the already tense atmosphere among the Arab sector on the eve of the October events.”

Not much has changed since then. Salah continues to incite, and the state is asleep on the job. Many of the terrorists — stabbers, car rammers and shooters — who killed and wounded Jews in recent years, did so because they truly believed that Al-Aqsa was in danger. Fifty years ago, the State of Israel, the home of the Jewish people, deposited the Jews’ holiest site in the hands of a competing religion, Islam, which reveres the site as only the third holiest. Israel relinquished Jews’ right to pray there, limited Jews’ visitation rights and agreed to the construction of two more mosques there (Al-Marwani mosque in Solomon’s Stables, built by Salah’s associates, and the ancient Al-Aqsa under the well-known upper Al-Aqsa).

But Salah and his followers never let the facts get in the way of their imagined reality. Now they are clinging to the Jewish wish to exercise one of the components of the status quo agreement, which left the Jews with only the right to visit the site. They incite again and again that Al-Aqsa is in danger, that the Jews are desecrating the site with their “filthy feet,” and that they are making Jerusalem “impure.” Prominent figures in the Palestinian Authority and Hamas and many others often repeat these claims.

Saladin’s heir

The new-old “Al-Aqsa is in danger” ethos is integrated into the education system, from toddlers all the way to high school students. But in schools, another motif is introduced into the campaign: recreating a significant event from the Muslim history of Jerusalem — Saladin’s victory over the Crusaders in the Battle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187. The express hope is that a modern-day Saladin will arise and liberate Jerusalem and its holy sites from the Jews.

A manual written by Jamala Natour, a resident of Jerusalem born before 1948, states that “the end of the Zionist state will be similar to the fate of the Crusader kingdom” and that “all we are missing is a modern-day Saladin.”

Recently, a Palestinian writer living in Gaza wrote an op-ed under the pen name Sama Hassan describing her joy when her daughter informed her that she wished to become a martyr and murder Israeli soldiers. “I was overjoyed to see my young daughter shed tears as she held her new mobile phone and used the most advanced technology to watch a video about one of the martyrs [who died recently] in the Al-Aqsa events,” Hassan wrote, according to MEMRI.

In the Triangle region, Israeli Arab youngsters are reciting texts that are alarmingly similar to those investigated by the Or Committee: “The lantern on Al-Aqsa could go out, but we are ready to relight Al-Aqsa with blood, because that which is lit with blood will never be extinguished.” Salah himself believes that even today, any position that asserts that Jews have any kind of right to the Temple Mount is tantamount to a declaration of war on Muslims everywhere.

In Shuafat, in northern Jerusalem, which bred several of this week’s terrorists, the reality is a little more complicated. The “Al-Aqsa is in danger” lies are well integrated there as well, but the camp has also become a kind of no man’s land in recent years. With the separation barrier separating the camp from the Jewish neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev, it has become a walled-off island of crime, drugs, neglect, poverty and now thousands of guns that are handed over from one person to the next.

Shuafat is the only Palestinian refugee camp situated inside sovereign Israeli territory. It was erected by the Jordanians several years before the Six-Day War in 1967. The initial residents were refugees who fled from various parts of modern-day Israel and settled in 1948 on the ruins of the Jewish Quarter. Sewage runs along the alleyways and the stench of garbage, which is not often removed, is strong. The municipality, the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA have failed to provide solutions. It is into this void that Hamas and criminal elements insinuate themselves and take root.

Between the camp and the Jewish neighborhoods there are checkpoints, fences and walls, but there is no barrier between Shuafat and the adjacent West Bank. That is where the guns and drugs come from. That is also the source of the criminal elements, including criminals fleeing from the Palestinian Authority.

The police and the Shin Bet have been avoiding the necessary “thorough cleansing” of the camp, despite the residents’ repeated requests. It is sensitive and dangerous, Israel’s defense establishment argues, and in the meantime no one is willing to take responsibility. One of the residents told us this week that if security forces were to enter the camp and confiscate all the weapons roaming around (a move suggested by former police commander Aryeh Amit in an interview last week), “World War III would erupt.”

In the meantime, the police and security forces are only attempting localized actions. After every terrorist attack whose perpetrators come from the camp, they go to the terrorists’ homes and inquire: Did their families know? Did they cover up? This week it emerged that a demonstration of how to stab Jews was distributed on a social media site to which the camp’s children have access. The children and teens often use social media to exchange information and praise various terrorist attacks in the region.

Many of the adult residents openly support the terrorists and the terrorist attacks, and take pride in them. Photographs of car rammers and stabbers from the slightly more distant past adorn the walls of many homes in the camp, alongside pictures of Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock. The kidnapping and murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a resident of the camp, by Jewish assailants, served to distill the residents’ hatred toward the Jews even more. Only a handful will have the courage to say aloud what perhaps others also feel — that it is time for dialogue and real government action to clean up the camp.

On the other side of the fence, in Pisgat Ze’ev, Jewish residents are demanding closures on east Jerusalem neighborhoods, as the mayor of Jerusalem has demanded. On Tuesday, the government authorized the police to impose closures. The Shuafat refugee camp should be first, the Pisgat Ze’ev residents have said, praying for the recovery of the 13-year-old Israeli boy who was critically wounded in a stabbing attack on Monday and is still fighting for his life.

The man who lights the match-Sheikh Raed Salah By Nadav Shragai

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace branch, boasts the facility is the “tip of the iceberg” of the Guard’s military might • Iranian broadcast says facility is one of hundreds of underground missile bases around the country. By Yoni Hersch, Erez Linn, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened the doors of a secret underground missile base to state TV on Wednesday, showing off medium- and long-range missiles, a day after Iran’s parliament passed a bill approving its nuclear deal with world powers.

The station aired footage of long tunnels with ready-to-fire missiles on the back of trucks. The broadcast said the facility is one of hundreds of underground missile bases around the country.

It did not disclose the location but said it was 500 meters (1,600 feet) underground.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Guard’s aerospace branch, boasted that the facility is the “tip of the iceberg” of the Guard’s military might.

The broadcast appeared aimed at showing that the Guard will continue its missile program despite U.N. Security Council resolutions and despite Iran’s nuclear deal with the West.

On Sunday, Iran said it successfully test-fired a new precision-guided ballistic missile.

“We’ll obviously raise this at the United Nations Security Council as we have done in previous launches,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters, noting the test appeared to be a violation of U.N. Security Resolution 1929.

He and White House spokesman Josh Earnest both said the issue was separate from the deal Iran struck in July with six world powers, which seeks to curb Tehran’s atomic program in return for having sanctions against it eased.

Ballistic missile tests by Iran are banned under Resolution 1929, which dates from 2010 and remains valid until the July 14 nuclear deal goes into effect.

Once the deal takes effect, Iran will still be “called upon” not to undertake any ballistic missiles work designed to deliver nuclear weapons for a period of up to eight years, according to a Security Council resolution adopted in July.

The resolution says that when the deal is in effect countries will be allowed to transfer missile technology and heavy weapons to Iran on a case-by-case basis with Security Council approval.

However, at the time the resolution was drafted, a U.S. official called this provision meaningless and said the United States would veto any suggested transfer of missile technology to Iran.

The new Iranian missile, named Emad, appears to be Tehran’s first precision-guided weapon with the range to strike Israel.

A total of 220 of Iran’s 290 lawmakers praised the missile test on Wednesday, announcing their full support for measures that “strengthen Iran’s defense capabilities.”

Iran shows off underground missile base