by Hugh Fitzgerald
Which will prevail?
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Hillel Frisch several years ago exposed the lies the Palestinians tell themselves, and others. His piece, which can be found here, is enduringly relevant.
As they [the Palestinians] vilify Israel for its supposed treatment of Muslims regarding the Temple Mount, they stress that hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshipers have come to protect the site in past years—a fact documented by Palestinian-supported media sites. But if Israel is so intolerant and harsh toward Muslim worship, how are these hundreds of thousands managing to assemble in the area?”
Another contradiction. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have intermittently come to “protect” the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) from non-existent Israeli impingements on Muslim worshipers. But Frisch asks pointedly: how is that possible when the Palestinians tell us that the Israelis severely restrict those same Muslim worshipers? There are no restrictions on how Muslims conduct their worship. Before October 7, there were, at times of great tension, some age restrictions put temporarily in place by the Israelis, to prevent the younger, and historically more violent, Muslim males from entering the Temple Mount, where they have been known to attack Jewish visitors and to throw rocks down on Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall below. But as soon as the tension lifted, so did that temporary restriction.
And as they vilify Israel for religious intolerance, the P.A., Hamas and most of the other factions cannot stand the sight of religious Jews visiting the Temple Mount or praying and sharing the space with Muslim worshipers. At the graves of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the Palestinians often describe visits by Jews to the site as “pollution” (tadnis) by “herds of settlers.” Simultaneously, the P.A. and Hamas take pride in the innate tolerance of Islam, Islamic society and the many and varied Islamic entities of the past.”
It is the Israeli Jews who bend over backwards to accommodate the intolerant Palestinian Muslims. Israeli law forbids Jews from saying prayers – or even silently mouthing prayers – on the Temple Mount. No religious literature of any kind can be brought by Jews onto the site. Thus are Jews severely restricted in their religious observances – there are none allowed — even at the holiest site of Judaism, so as not to offend the volatile and violent Muslims.
At the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the second holiest site in Judaism, when the Muslims held the city between 1949 and 1967, no Jews were allowed to visit. Now that Jews control the site, it is open to people of all faiths. The Jews continue to be vilified by the Palestinians for daring to exercise their right to visit the site. And several years ago, when the Israeli government announced it was building an elevator that would permit the disabled, elderly, and pregnant – who formerly were unable to visit the site as they could not climb the stairs – to now be able to do so, the Palestinians raised holy hell, claiming that this elevator, which is also to be used by Muslims, was part of a plot to take over the Cave of the Patriarchs for the exclusive use of Jews. No matter how many times the Israeli government explained that the elevator was to be used by people of all faiths, the Palestinians continued to insist otherwise.
Here is Hillel Frisch again. Once again, he wrote this several years before the October 7 attacks, but nevertheless, his point is important for the present situation:
Israel is accused of laying siege to Gaza to destroy its economic and demographic foundations. At the same time, Hamas threatens Israel with rockets if it does not extend more power lines to the Strip to meet its growing energy demands. If Israel is attempting to impoverish Gaza, how is it that there is so much demand for energy? And if Hamas has liberated Gaza from the Israeli yoke, why does it want to increase its dependence on a state (to control coronavirus, to get hospital treatment for family members of Hamas officials, and so on) whose destruction it seeks to the point of threatening terrorism if it refuses such dependence?…
Not only did Israel not wish to destroy Gaza’s economy, but it was Israel that sent Mossad chief Yossi Cohen several times to Qatar to ask the Qataris to renew their financial aid for Gaza, which before October 7 amounted to $30 million a month. Israel had become the chief fundraiser for Gaza, though that was something Hamas preferred not be known. Israel did not wish to impoverish Gaza, because if its economy collapsed, it would lead to chaos and violence that Israel will have to deal with; the Israelis did not want to have to re-enter Gaza if they can possibly help it. Of course, the October 7 attacks made that re-entry unavoidable. Meanwhile, Palestinians who had unusually difficult-to-treat diseases were accepted in Israeli hospitals. Even Hamas leaders, the same ones who denounced Israelis as monsters, had their own relatives treated in Israeli hospitals, where they knew they would receive excellent treatment. A good example of this occurred in 2014. Shortly after a 50-day war between Hamas and Israel had ended, the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had his daughter sent for treatment to Israel’s Ichilov Hospital for an undisclosed ailment. Haniyeh, who spent his days and nights denouncing Israelis as murderers, knew perfectly well that his daughter would receive the best possible medical attention from the Israelis, and she did.
The Palestinians should learn from the master of this technique. Goebbels’ evil, triumphant as it seemed in the 1930s and early 1940s, was nevertheless short-lived. Somehow, truth prevails in the end.
It was not the “truth” that prevailed over Goebbels’ lies, but the armed might of the U.S., the U.K., and Russia that undid him and the regime he served. Now it looks as if the same fate has come for the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Hugh Fitzgerald
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/palestinian-lies-and-the-truth/
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