Thursday, March 28, 2013

Mordechai Kedar: The Islamic Winter Blows into Jerusalem



 

by Mordechai Kedar
 


Read the article in the original עברית
Read the article in Italiano (translated by Yehudit Weisz, edited by Angelo Pezzana)

One of the biggest complaints of the Syrian regime against the involvement of Qatar in Syria during the past two years is that the Emir of Qatar has been utilizing all of his wealth in fighting the wrong enemy: instead of fighting Israel, which is the true problem of Arabs and Muslims, the Emir of Qatar uses his strength and wealth in a fight against the "resistance" regimes, mainly Syria and Libya, who take a strong stand against Israel and Zionism. Qatar does not usually respond to accusations of this sort, because everyone knows that Israel has always been used to hide the real problems of the Arab and Muslim world, which center around corrupt, rotten, cruel and illegitimate regimes.
However, the Syrian propaganda has ultimately succeeded. Last Tuesday [March 26], while the Jewish people celebrated the first day of the holiday of Freedom, the Arab League summit met in Doha, the capital of Qatar and took two important decisions: one was to arm the Syrian opposition, which also includes - as everyone knows - some al-Qaeda style jihadi groups, such as " Jabhat al-Nusrah", to oust Bashar Asad and his regime from the   institutions of the League and to make the Syrian opposition the official representation of Syria in these institutions. And indeed, behind the sign for "the Syrian Arab Republic" in the summit conference, sat Muath al-Khatib, head of the coalition of Syrian opposition organizations.

The second decision was to establish a fund of a billion dollars in order to strengthen the Arab and Muslim character of Jerusalem, and to add a sense of validity and resolve to this decision, Qatar announced that it is donating a half billion dollars to the fund. According to the decision, the fund will serve to finance projects and plans to strengthen the steadfastness of the residents of Jerusalem and to strengthen the Palestinian economy so that it will be able to free itself from dependence on the Israeli economy. "The Islamic Development Bank" was appointed to manage the fund. in parallel, the summit conference decided to form a delegation of ministers headed by the prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, and it will include members from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Egypt and Morocco as well as the secretary-general of the League. The function of this delegation will be to pressure the American government in the Palestinian matter in general and the issue of Jerusalem in particular.

 The question at the moment is whether to relate seriously to Qatar's intentions, especially in light of the fact that in about one more month we will mark forty six years of the unification of Jerusalem. This number is important, because in another four years the Islamic world will mark fifty years of the loss of Jerusalem and its return to the Jewish bosom, and an era of fifty years has a symbolic significance of permanence and perpetuity. Our assumption must be that Qatar relates to the matter of Jerusalem with total seriousness, for several reasons:

1. Islamic rule in East Jerusalem, and especially in the area of the Temple Mount, implies, according to Islam, the abolition of Judaism, and is supposed to prove the Islamic notion that Islam has come into the world in order to replace Judaism and Christianity. Muslims cannot tolerate Jewish rule on the Temple Mount because from their point of view it means that Judaism has again become a relevant religion after Islam had superseded it when Islam arrived in the world in the seventh century CE.

2. More than anything else, Jewish rule on the Temple Mount symbolizes the Israeli victories over the Arab world in the wars since 1948. This is an insult to the Arab honor and Islamic pride.

3. There is not and cannot be another interpretation in this matter: the Jews can live as "dhimmis" (a protected people) of Islam as long as they accept upon themselves the limits that the Muslim regime places upon them, and in no way can they be permitted to live as sovereign and ruling masters on the land and in the places that Islam has consecrated for itself such as the Temple Mount, which, since the end of the seventh century, has been called "the al-Aqsa Mosque".

4. Since the "Arab Spring" - which Qatar funded and promoted in many ways - is seen as a blood bath whose victims are Arabs and Muslims, Qatar must atone for its sins by using some of its resources against the ultimate historical rival, which is Judaism, and specifically, Israel. 

5. The fact that the president of the United States takes a conciliatory approach toward the Palestinians and their Arab brothers, means that there is a significant chance that the present administration will be sympathetic to the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic demands regarding Jerusalem.

6. Within the Arab and Muslim world there is an almost unanimous consensus that sees Jerusalem as Islamic property. This consensus allows Qatar to lead in a matter that almost everyone agrees upon, for a change.

7. The battle for Jerusalem is almost the only thing that all of the Palestinian streams agree on, and therefore it can be used as the basis for reunification of Fatah and Hamas.

8. In Israel there are more than a few "bleeding hearts" who think that giving up Jerusalem will appease the Arabs and Muslims and after that, they will let Israel live in peace. They call for "compromise", meaning that Israel should give up East Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, and Qatar can depend on them too in the struggle against Israel in this matter.

What Can We Expect?

A billion dollars is a large amount, very large, and Qatar can do many things with it in Jerusalem, all of which are allowed according to Israeli law: purchasing buildings and lots from Jews and Christians at an exorbitant price; acting to prevent Jews and Christians from purchasing buildings and lots; establishing civil social organizations and Islamic and general "charity" institutions together with Jews and Christians who particcipate, whether from naivete or malice; Supporting "maintenance" activities by the Wakf in the Temple Mount; support of activities for adults and youth in the Temple Mount organized by the northern and southern Islamic movements in Israel; issuing grants to  the Arab residents of Jerusalem for building, both with a permit and without one; issuing grants to Arab residents of Jerusalem for buildings that have been destroyed by the state or by the city; funding organizations that act to prevent the destruction of buildings; increasing the media coverage of al-Jazeera - the jihadi channel of Qatar - in Jerusalem, in order to renew awareness of "the occupation" after the events of the "Arab Spring" displaced it from the center of the world's attention; funding suits of individuals for restitution of property from individuals, the city and the Israel Land Authority; funding of suits to delay and cancel the city's development plans; international activities for increasing awareness of the Israeli "occupation" in Jerusalem; funding for convening international conferences on the subject of "the Judaization of Jerusalem"; activities against Israeli publications abroad that show Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; funding for appeals to international organizations and tribunals against the steps that Israel takes in Jerusalem; funding of the Arabic educational system in Jerusalem in order to prevent Israeli Ministry of Education from setting foot in it; funding for establishment and development of infrastructures (water, sewage, electricity, communications, roads, sidewalks and parks) in East Jerusalem; funding for the establishment of mosques in East Jerusalem; funding for Israeli NGOs such as "Ir Amim" and similar ones via the New Israel Fund or American funds such as the Ford Foundation; funding of Israeli politicians who support the division of Jerusalem; funding of international "understand the reality" delegations in Jerusalem; funding for "roots" journeys for people from the United States and Europe to Jerusalem; funding for books and publications about the Islamic past and the "dismal present" of Jerusalem; support for consolidation of Muslim foreign workers - and especially from Eritrea - in Jerusalem; funding an organization for demonstrations in Jerusalem in order to highlight its problems in the news media; covert funding of martyrs' families who have sacrificed themselves and those who will sacrifice themselves in terror attacks in Jerusalem.

These are only a few of the activities that Qatar will be able to fund, either openly or indirectly. Some of these activities are happening already!!! It's important to note that Qatar is capable of streaming money into Israel by way of funds, companies and organizations that act legally in Europe or the United States, and it is extremely difficult in a democratic country like Israel to put a stop to the flow of these monies and to stop the activity that is funded by them. 

It could be that the Israeli legislature will have to use the Basic Law on Jerusalem in order to widen the authorities of the state in a way that will be able to cope effectively with the threats of Qatar to bring an "Islamic winter" to Jerusalem that it has been supporting since December of 2010. Democracy does not have to allow jihad to be waged against it, even if this jihad uses means that appear to be legal. This is called "defensive democracy", and a democratic state that refrains from defending itself is a "suicidal democracy".
Qatar's support for anti-semites is not new: only a few months ago the Emir of Qatar visited the Gaza Strip and left the terrorist government of Hamas almost a half billion dollars, and not to fund a delegation of "Lovers of Zion" in the Strip. With this, Qatar has proven that it is a state that supports terror, and in the most official way. If the Jewish people and its Christian supporters do not wake up in time, we might find ourselves victims of the jihad that Qatar has declared on Israel in the matter of Jerusalem. The Israeli legislature must take immediate action in order to lay down the legal infrastructure for the Israeli and Jewish defensive battle for the capital of the Jews since 3000 years ago.

The Jewish and Christian world must use their political abilities and financial resources  to preempt the encroaching evil that is threatening Jerusalem, brought in by the desert tribes and funded by the monies from the black gold.

In November of the year 636 CE the Islamic siege of Jerusalem, which was then under the command of the Byzantine bishop Sopronius, began. Half a year afterward, toward the end of April, 637, after Khaliph Umar bin al-Khattab arrived at the gates of the city, Sopronius  surrendered and handed the keys of Jerusalem over to the cruel ruler of the desert tribes. The question that the world is now presented with is: will the keys of the holy city again be handed over to the tribes of the desert who enter on the wings of petrodollars from the Arabian Peninsula? Has the time not yet come to undo the legacy of criminal archaeologist, Moshe Dayan, who granted control over the site of the Temple to the Wakf so that he - Dayan - could secretly excavate it? Will the Jewish and Christian world allow oil monies to subjugate again the holy city and bring its residents to their knees?





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Dr. Kedar is available for lectures


Dr. Mordechai Kedar
(Mordechai.Kedar@biu.ac.il) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. He specializes in Islamic ideology and movements, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav with permission from the author.


Additional articles by Dr. Kedar

Source: The article is published in the framework of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. Also published in Makor Rishon, a Hebrew weekly newspaper.

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the author.

1 comment:

Pinchas said...

excellent article and Dr. Kedar is absolutely right in using terms like defensive democracy and suicidal democracy. but i wish he didn't list all the possibilities that the 1 billion dollars from Qatar could be used for--he has literally given these super rich clowns all kinds of ideas, many of which they might not have imagined. as for moshe dayan, we all know of his infamous abdication of the temple mount-- but what is the source for saying he hoped to secretly excavate it himself?

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