An Israeli father whose daughter narrowly escaped being murdered in the suspected Palestinian bombings on Wednesday in Jerusalem issued a powerful <a href="https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1595535393209962496.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter thread</a> in which he delineated his feelings after the attack.
Uri Pilichowski, whose op-eds have appeared in the Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel, wrote about the experience of his daughter Naomi.
“This wasn’t a day we ever dreamed of…even in our nightmares. A🧵on today&#8217;s terror attack and our daughter,” he began.
“Early this morning, our 18-year-old daughter Naomi walked to her regular Jerusalem bus stop to commute to her national service job in Beit Shemesh. As she approached the stop, a Palestinian terrorist detonated a bomb packed with nails and other shrapnel. One of the pieces flew at Naomi, hitting her, but not seriously. She felt ringing in her ears but wasn’t hurt,” he continued.
“Naomi texted our family WhatsApp group that there’d been a bombing and she was fine. There hasn’t been a bombing in years, I was sure she was mistaken. None of the news sites had the story, but her next text said she was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital,” he wrote. “Aliza and I met Naomi at the hospital, saw the wound wasn’t serious, and waited while she was interviewed by doctors, Shabak, the police, social workers, and psychologists. After 6 hours Naomi was released and we drove home, thankful that Naomi was OK.”
He said his family all went out to dinner after his daughter was released from the hospital.
“One of my teachers, Dr. Gil Troy, sent me an email suggesting our family go out and celebrate immediately. We thought that was a great idea, and other than one daughter who was in transit to New York, we all agreed to meet in Jerusalem for a celebratory dinner,” Pilichowski recalled. “At dinner each member of our family spoke about what they were grateful for that day. Naomi’s words of being grateful for a supportive family really came home for all of us. Each of her parents and siblings quickly realized that just being ourselves was a big help to Naomi.”
After noting the family decided to celebrate the date, which was the eve of the new Hebrew month Kislev, to offer thanks to God, he noted, “Very conscious that all too many of our friends commemorate annual yahrzeits of their terror victims, we’re grateful to be able to celebrate annually.”
Pilichowski noted that he had been inundated with media requests, adding, “I wasn’t going to do any of them, but Aliza thought it was important I humanize the attack for people. I had seen victim’s families provide the nation with encouragement and I wanted to try to help our nation.”
“I felt sad because of what had happened and angry at those who caused it,” Pilichowski wrote. “Most of all, I felt terrified. Not the terror of what could happen in the future, but of what I almost lost. Terror sweeps over me and overwhelms me. I cry and can’t breathe. It’s indescribable.”
“Today could’ve been much worse,” he asserted. “A nail flying an inch or two higher or lower and I’d have been sitting shiva tonight instead of offering thanks at a celebratory dinner. I’m grateful I’m celebrating instead of mourning tonight.”
After pointing out the kindness of Jews including nurses, doctors, family, friends, &amp; strangers, Pilichowski stressed, “Israel is a safe country. Yes, the headlines are scary, but while 1 was killed today &amp; 22 were injured, 9 million Israelis were perfectly safe. They were safe yesterday, today &amp; they’ll be safe tomorrow. Don’t be taken by headlines, Israel is a wonderful and safe place.”
Then he addressed the murderous terrorists who had tried to take the life of his daughter.
&#8220;There are people who planned this attack. They scouted the bus stop for days; they saw my daughter waiting every day &amp; aimed to kill her. These people are celebrating tonight. I might sound harsh, I don’t care. I want them dead. Not tried, not jailed. Executed. ASAP,” he said.
He blasted the Arab governments who are supporters of terrorism: “This attack took expertise, training, and planning It was expensive, it took funds and support. It took a world willing to look away from Palestinian, Iranian, and Qatari funding of terror, to find a small amount of terror acceptable. The world must shut them down.”
“This attack had nothing to do with occupation, a state or apartheid,” he pointed out. “Arab terror and attacks occurred before 1948 and before 1967 and continue today. These attacks are caused by antisemites who hate the Jewish people and want Jewish people dead. Don’t be fooled.”
“Naomi will be fine. Our family will be fine. Our people will be fine. The Jewish State will be fine. The Jewish people will grow and flourish. Hashem will protect us and keep us safe. Our enemies will be defeated, and we will be the ones to defeat them,” he concluded, adding, “Thank you to all those who reached out today. I’m sorry if I couldn’t return every message, but your words meant the world to me and to our family. We’ve never felt so loved and supported.”

ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-JERUSALEM-CONFLICT-BLAST

‘I Might Sound Harsh. I Don’t Care’: Israeli Father Whose Daughter Narrowly Escaped Death In Bombings Expresses His Fury

Israeli Father Whose Daughter Narrowly Escaped Death In Bombings Expresses His Fury

Bombings

Israel

Jerusalem

Palestinians

World

Suspected <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/palestinian-terrorist-murders-3-israelis-palestinians-celebrate-religious-zionism-party-leader-time-to-move-from-the-defensive-to-the-offensive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Palestinian terrorists</a> used remote-controlled bombs to murder a Jewish teen from Canada and wound at least 20 others Wednesday, according to authorities, in a pair of attacks immediately praised by Hamas.
The teen, identified as Aryeh Schupak and described as either 15 or 16, was killed when a bomb went off near the western edge of Jerusalem. The child was mourned by hundreds who attended his funeral hours later, where the principal of the yeshiva where he studied recalled the dedicated Aryeh insisting on studying Wednesday despite feeling ill.
“There is not a single person in the entire class who can say that he ever saw anger in this child — with Aryeh, he did not know what anger was,” the principal <a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/363297" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>. “How awful it is to accompany a young boy, who was bar mitzvahed not long ago, a mere child, who finished elementary school just a year ago together with my grandson.&#8221;
&#8220;He was raised in a very special family, good parents, righteous, with good characters, an amazing family,&#8221; the grieving educator continued. &#8220;He came to yeshiva, was there one year, and now we are accompanying him to his eternal resting place. Oy, it is so much pain.”
Another dozen people were injured in that attack, which was followed by another bombing in the neighborhood of Ramot, where seven people were treated for injuries, <a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/363273" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israel National News</a> reported.
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This is the teenager Palestinian jihadi terrorists murdered today. Aryeh Schupak was just 16. Totally heartbreaking. There should be global condemnation of the Palestinian leadership that foments terrorists. May Aryeh’s memory be an eternal blessing. <a href="https://t.co/RU3JPsBRsx">pic.twitter.com/RU3JPsBRsx</a>
&mdash; Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeldickson/status/1595392984882765824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2022</a></blockquote>
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While Aryeh was being mourned, Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad ghoulishly celebrated the attacks.
&#8220;The operation in the occupied city of Jerusalem is a natural response to the occupation, its terrorism, and its criminal practices against the defenseless Palestinian people  and their holy sites,&#8221; <a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/palestinian-territories/1669195826-palestinian-islamic-jihad-hamas-hail-jerusalem-terrorist-attacks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Islamic Jihad said in a statement</a>.
Hamas issued a statement saying that the &#8220;Zionist enemy&#8221; was &#8220;paying the price today for its crimes and aggression against our people,” JNS <a href="https://www.jns.org/explosions-at-two-jerusalem-bus-stops-being-investigated-as-terror-attacks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
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Two bombs went off in separate terrorist attacks at two bus stops in Jerusalem this morning, killing one and injuring 18.
Mothers, fathers, children on their way to school. 
There are no words.
&mdash; Tamar Schwarzbard 🇮🇱 (@TSchwarzbard) <a href="https://twitter.com/TSchwarzbard/status/1595316367129194496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Last week, a Palestinian terrorist killed three Israelis and wounded at least three more in a stabbing and car-ramming attack near the city of Ariel in Samaria. Among the victims of the terrorist, who reportedly had been given a work pass permitting him to enter Ariel, was Tamir Avihai, a father of six children.
Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionism party that gained 14 seats in the Knesset and has strong positions regarding Palestinian terrorism, and which has been vilified by the leftist press in <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-11-11/ty-article/.premium/israels-far-right-leader-set-sights-on-top-defense-job-with-an-explosive-agenda/00000184-6290-dbff-a1e6-fbffef830000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israel</a> and <a href="//3BD622DF-AA78-48A0-9829-93C7C8BA7DCE/v" target="_blank" rel="noopener">America</a> while the Biden administration has reportedly evinced a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/02/israel-elections-ben-gvir-netanyahu-biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">desire to marginalize them</a>, <a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/flashes/591613" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> after the stabbing attack that Israel must “move from the defensive to the offensive.”
“We have to put an end to all of this. And in order to achieve that, we must move from the defensive to the offensive, we must pursue terrorists and all those who dispatch them, and act decisively and with energy against terrorism,” he said at a meeting of the party.
Smotrich <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-wake-of-ariel-attack-right-wing-politicians-vow-to-restore-security/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> the attack “a painful reminder of the most important and pressing issue in front of us — we must restore security to all Israeli citizens, and restore the deterrence that has been eroded.”
“I want to say here in a way that is not ambiguous: the most dangerous security threat today to the State of Israel and its citizens is the threat from home, posed by the nationalist elements among the Arabs of Israel,” Smotrich said in September. “The hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons that will be directed at the moment of truth against the citizens of Israel constitute a potential for great damage and are much more complex to deal with than the Iranian threat.”
Related: <a href="applewebdata://3BD622DF-AA78-48A0-9829-93C7C8BA7DCE/v"> Palestinian Terrorist Murders 3 Israelis. Palestinians Celebrate. Religious Zionism Party Leader: Time To ‘Move From The Defensive To The Offensive’</a>

Jerusalem bombings

‘Oy, It Is So Much Pain’: Suspected Palestinian Bombs Kill Canadian Boy, Wound 20 As Terror Groups Cheer

Suspected Palestinian Bombs Kill Canadian Boy, Wound 20 As Terror Groups Cheer

Murder

Australia&#8217;s new leftist government announced Tuesday that it was reversing the decision by the previous conservative administration to recognize Jerusalem as Israel&#8217;s capital city.
Australia&#8217;s Labor Party government <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/australia-says-no-change-to-2018-recognition-of-west-jerusalem-as-israels-capital/">said</a> that it would recognize Tel Aviv as Israel&#8217;s capital and demanded that Israel determine the city&#8217;s status in peace talks with the Palestinians. The capital of Israel is all of Jerusalem, not just the western part of the city.
&#8220;Today the Government has reaffirmed Australia&#8217;s previous and longstanding position that Jerusalem is a final status issue that should be resolved as part of any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people,&#8221; Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/global-affairs/penny-wong-reverses-decision-to-recognise-west-jerusalem-as-capital-of-israel-with-the-australian-embassy-to-remain-in-tel-aviv/news-story/8a9d096976b207a89eff3d5598d15656">said</a> in a statement. &#8220;This reverses the Morrison Government&#8217;s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.&#8221;
Wong claimed that Australia would not waver in its support of Israel even though the country was doing just that in announcing the reversal.
&#8220;I regret that Mr Morrison&#8217;s decision to play politics resulted in Australia&#8217;s shifting position, and the distress these shifts have caused to many people in the Australian community who care deeply about this issue,&#8221; Wong added.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid responded to the news in a statement questioning the very core of Australia&#8217;s government.
&#8220;In light of the way this decision was made in Australia, as a hasty response to an incorrect report in the media, we can only hope that the Australian government manages other matters more seriously and professionally,&#8221; Lapid said. &#8220;Jerusalem is the eternal and united capital of Israel and nothing will ever change that.&#8221;
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Prime Minister Lapid: &quot;Jerusalem is the eternal and united capital of Israel and nothing will ever change that.&quot;
&mdash; Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) <a href="https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1582231234754682880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Hours before announcing that Australia was no longer recognizing Jerusalem as Israel&#8217;s capital city, a spokesperson for Wong <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/australia-says-no-change-to-2018-recognition-of-west-jerusalem-as-israels-capital/">claimed</a> that there had been “no decision to change that has been made by the government.”
Yet hours later Wong was accusing former Prime Minister Scott Morrison of trying to manipulate the Jewish vote in Australia by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel.
“You know what this was? This was a cynical play, unsuccessful, to win the seat of Wentworth and a by-election,” she claimed without evidence.
The Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/international/article-719854">reported</a> that Israel&#8217;s Foreign Ministry summoned Australian Ambassador Paul Griffiths to Jerusalem to be reprimanded over the matter.
&#8220;The timing of this morning&#8217;s cabinet decision was clearly media driven,&#8221; the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said. &#8220;The status of Jerusalem is an important foreign policy issue and it is demeaning for Australia to have its international position changed in such a shoddy manner&#8230;[It is] a gratuitous insult to a key economic and strategic ally, with no countervailing benefit for Australians. This is no way to treat an ally whose intelligence-sharing with Australia has prevented at least one terrorist attack against Australians that we know of.&#8221;

Israel, Jerusalem (Yerushalayim), old town, Temple Mount, Dome of Rock or Mosque of Omar

Australia’s New Leftist Government Reverses Recognition Of Jerusalem As Israel’s Capital, Israel Responds

Australia

Snow fell in Jerusalem this Thursday as winter storm Elpis swept across the region. Elpis reached Israel Wednesday morning with heavy rains in northern Israel and along the coast, as snow fell all day on Mount Hermon and the northern Golan Heights. The storm gradually migrated south in the afternoon to central Israel. Jerusalem received between <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/snow-blankets-jerusalem-transforming-city-into-winter-wonderland/">3 &#8211; 6 inches</a> of snow overnight.
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion canceled school for all students on Thursday. Most residents of the city made the most of this rare snow day to play in the snow. However, there were those who took advantage of the snow for more nefarious purposes.
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✡️❄️ — WATCH: Snowing at the Western Wall in Jerusalem now. <a href="https://t.co/5Gee5gGx4U">pic.twitter.com/5Gee5gGx4U</a>
&mdash; Belaaz News (@TheBelaaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBelaaz/status/1486408843697573891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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✡️❄️ — VIDEO: The Western Wall covered in snow Thursday morning. <a href="https://t.co/mqxeksq2JB">pic.twitter.com/mqxeksq2JB</a>
&mdash; Belaaz News (@TheBelaaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBelaaz/status/1486578798908825601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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🇮🇱❄️ — PHOTO: Israeli President Yitzchok Herzog having a good time in the snow this morning at the President’s residence in Jerusalem. <a href="https://t.co/jZkPajXhSu">pic.twitter.com/jZkPajXhSu</a>
&mdash; Belaaz News (@TheBelaaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBelaaz/status/1486787349178720262?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/22-arrested-as-police-clash-with-rioters-in-east-jerusalem-during-snow-storm/">Times of Israel</a> reported that police were attacked Wednesday evening by Arab rioters in East Jerusalem. Police said that rioters threw ice, rocks, and debris at officers, lightly wounding one policewoman. 22 were arrested.
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ניידת משטרה נרגמה באבנים וחפצים בידי מתפרעים בשכונת א-טור במזרח ירושלים<a href="https://twitter.com/SuleimanMas1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SuleimanMas1</a> <a href="https://t.co/Qx8jE6gvz0">pic.twitter.com/Qx8jE6gvz0</a>
&mdash; כאן חדשות (@kann_news) <a href="https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1486445185567531011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Cars were attacked by a large group of Arabs throwing snow-covered stones at the Armon Hanatziv Promenade in Jerusalem. Gila Kadosh, whose car was attacked, told <a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/321271">Arutz 7 News,</a> &#8220;We felt very threatened and my husband suggested we drive back home, but when we started driving they threw stones at us from all directions, smashed the windshield, broke the front mirrors and a large stone shattered the rear window. Where were the police? How is it possible for this to happen in the heart of Jerusalem without a police response?&#8221;
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ערבים תקפו ניידת משטרה סמוך לכניסה לאוניברסיטה העברית בהר הצופים, כשבתוכה שוטר. חשוד אחד נעצר<a href="https://twitter.com/SuleimanMas1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SuleimanMas1</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/VeredPelman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VeredPelman</a> <a href="https://t.co/27DCC8nafu">pic.twitter.com/27DCC8nafu</a>
&mdash; כאן חדשות (@kann_news) <a href="https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1486721032274599936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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תגובות במייל בלבד. <a href="https://t.co/n5DlkdyV9B">pic.twitter.com/n5DlkdyV9B</a>
&mdash; ידידיה אפשטיין 🇮🇱 (@yedidya_epshtei) <a href="https://twitter.com/yedidya_epshtei/status/1486832101345406976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/321271">Arutz 7 News</a> reported that similar attacks were committed against Jews who entered the Old City of Jerusalem through the Damascus Gate. The attackers threw snowballs at them, pulled off their hats, and shouted insults and curses at them.
Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, many who ascended today to commemorate the memory and 80th anniversary of the assassination of Commander and Founder of the Freedom Fighters of Israel (Lehi), Avraham Stern, were pelted by snowballs by groups of Arab youths. Police, whose job it is to protect the Jewish pilgrims on the Temple Mount, reportedly did nothing to stop this. The Temple Mount is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-temple-mount-is-judaisms-holiest-site-and-it-always-has-been-heres-everything-you-need-to-know">Judaism&#8217;s holiest site</a>.
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לפני זמן קצר בהר הבית ערבים זורקים אבנים וכדורי שלג על יהודים לא ראיתי שום גינוי של עמר בר לב. <a href="https://t.co/JWBot7tPvn">pic.twitter.com/JWBot7tPvn</a>
&mdash; ידידיה אפשטיין 🇮🇱 (@yedidya_epshtei) <a href="https://twitter.com/yedidya_epshtei/status/1486662845450407939?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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זריקת כדורי שלג ואבנים לעבר יהודים שנכנסו בדקות אלה להר הבית. <a href="https://t.co/OJbyGC79ys">pic.twitter.com/OJbyGC79ys</a>
&mdash; Tom Nisani (@NisaniTom) <a href="https://twitter.com/NisaniTom/status/1486657686129328133?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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An eyewitness and regular visitor to the Temple Mount said that the Arab youths were yelling “Allah hu Akbar” while throwing the snowballs at the group, yet the police did not react. Later, the witness was again attacked by Arab youths throwing snowballs with rocks hidden in them while leaving the old city. He sustained a minor head injury. One rioter was detained by the Israeli Police.
Further taking advantage of the lack of police response, Arabs on the Temple Mount built a snowman in the shape of an M-75 rocket, a Hamas-produced rocket with a range of up to 75 kilometers, which encompasses the Temple Mount itself. The terrorist organization&#8217;s flag was wrapped around the snowman by Arabs. This was in addition to other snowmen adorned with Hamas flags.
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أحد المجسمات التي صنعها الشبان بالثلوج في الاقصى <a href="https://t.co/lD5w1CTQme">pic.twitter.com/lD5w1CTQme</a>
&mdash; AlQastal القسطل (@AlQastalps) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlQastalps/status/1486600813493501955?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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رجل الثلج الفلسطيني في باحات المسجد الأقصى هذا الصباح<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%AB%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AC_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B3?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ثلوج_القدس</a> <a href="https://t.co/YrlGKKzSHr">pic.twitter.com/YrlGKKzSHr</a>
&mdash; AlQastal القسطل (@AlQastalps) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlQastalps/status/1486579184046678018?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Tom Nisani, Director of Beyadenu, an organization that advocates for Jewish freedoms on the Temple Mount, stated, &#8220;Throughout the day, we saw riots by Arabs, who are utilizing the snowy conditions to challenge the police by throwing snowballs and rocks at police officers and at Jewish worshipers on the Temple Mount. The Police need to ensure that the snow does not provide coverage for riots against the Jewish worshipers on the Temple Mount.&#8221;

MIDEAST-JERUSALEM-SNOW

Snowballs Hiding Rocks: Jews Attacked In Jerusalem On Rare Snow Day

Snow

President Biden is reportedly planning to unilaterally impose the opening of a U.S. consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem despite the Israeli government’s opposition, with some members of Israel’s Foreign Ministry calling the move an &#8220;introduction to the division of Jerusalem.&#8221;
Former Foreign Ministry Director-General Dr. Dore Gold, asked by <a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/10/22/the-battle-for-the-us-consulate-in-jerusalem/">Israel Hayom</a> in their comprehensive report if the opening of an American consulate for the Palestinians in Jerusalem was a move that annuls American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel&#8217;s capital, pointed out, “It could lead there or it could pave the way. One has to remember that there is the Vienna Convention of 1963 which both Israel and the United States are signatories to, and according to which the agreement of the host state is required to open a consulate. To do so unilaterally without Israel&#8217;s agreement would be breaking the rules.&#8221;
“The building housed the US consulate in Jerusalem until about two years ago when it was closed by President Donald Trump; it functioned for many years as the American representative office to east Jerusalem and the territories of the Palestinian Authority and Gaza and was subject to the auspices of the US State Department and not to the embassy in Tel Aviv,” Israel Hayom noted.
<a href="https://palwatch.org/page/29246">The Jerusalem Post</a> noted that the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister views the opening of the consulate as tacit recognition that Jerusalem is divided:
<blockquote>American law is quite clear. The US “Jerusalem Embassy Act” repeatedly stresses the unity and indivisibility of Jerusalem as Israel&#8217;s capital: “In 1967, the city of Jerusalem was reunited during the conflict known as the Six-Day War … Jerusalem has been a united city administered by Israel… Jerusalem should remain an undivided city… recognized as the capital of the State of Israel.”
The PA sees opening the Consulate in Jerusalem as a rejection of all these statutes of American law. Explaining the international implications of the US reopening the Consulate in Jerusalem, PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh <a href="https://www.palwatch.org/page/29184">stated</a> that the move is “important” for Palestinians because “the message from this [Biden] administration is that Jerusalem is not one [united Israeli] city and that the American administration does not recognize the annexation of Arab Jerusalem by the Israeli side. We want the American Consulate to constitute the seed of a US embassy in the State of Palestine.” </blockquote>
Israel Hayom recalled, “In January, almost immediately after the Biden administration moved in, the title of the U.S. ambassador in Israel was changed on the embassy&#8217;s Twitter page from ‘U.S. Ambassador to Israel’ to ‘U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.’ Public criticism led to a rapid turnabout and a return to the old title, but the trend was clear for all to see.”
Former Jerusalem mayor Likud MK Nir Barkat told Israel Hayom:
<blockquote>Having two diplomatic delegations in one city means the division of Jerusalem. There is no other possible meaning. It is a finger in Israel&#8217;s eye. If the Americans take such a unilateral measure, it will not only be a violation of the Vienna Convention, but also an American message that the great United States is not capable of respecting its most loyal partners. It is liable to have a very strong effect on relations with the Americans. …
There are no words to describe the size of the catastrophe if we do not act to prevent this. As soon as the United States unilaterally opens a consulate for the Palestinians, other countries could take similar measures, and then we will have lost the ability to stop such a process in the future.</blockquote>

President Biden Addresses The Situation In Afghanistan From The White House

Biden Counters Trump, Plans U.S. Consulate For Palestinians In Jerusalem: Report

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

The latest round of violence between the State of Israel and Hamas has been primarily attributed to the issue of control of the Temple Mount. Despite Israel’s efforts to accommodate Muslim worship on the Temple Mount and despite preferential treatment of Muslim worship there, Hamas alleges that Israel is seizing the Al-Aqsa Mosque from worshipers.
The &#8220;Temple denial ideology,&#8221; which has permeated all Palestinian social strata, maintains that no Jewish Temple ever existed in Jerusalem, hence, Jewish claims to the Temple Mount have no validity. However, data – both biblical and archaeological – contradict this assertion.
The following is a brief outline of the events that link Jewish presence to the Temple Mount, which is called in the Bible, Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah represents to a Jew the physical location of God&#8217;s Divine Presence and is considered the holiest site for Jews, as well as the ideal place for worship.
The Bible (II Samuel 24 and repeated in I Chronicles 21), chronicles Jewish ownership of the Temple Mount starting from the 10th century B.C.E. when King David purchased it from Araunah the Jebusite. According to Chronicles (2 Chr. 3), the sanctity of Mount Moriah preceded this acquisition, as Mount Moriah was believed to have been the site where Abraham intended to sacrifice his son. Traditionally, even earlier, Cain, Abel, and Noah offered sacrifices here. Following David&#8217;s death, his son Solomon constructed the Temple at this location (I Kings 5-9 and I Chronicles 6-8).
The Temple was central to Jewish life throughout the First and Second Commonwealths. During the reign of King Asa (c. 908-868 B.C.), the Temple treasures were augmented with silver and gold (1 Kgs. 15). Asa’s son Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. 17, ruled c. 868 to 847 B.C.), added a new courtyard to the existing Temple courtyard, which had become too small to accommodate the many pilgrims coming to Jerusalem. As king, Hezekiah’s (c. 725-697) first act was to renovate the Temple, enlarging the courtyard and building storage chambers on the enlarged Temple Mount (2 Chr. 31). In 586 B.C., Zedekiah rebelled against the Babylonians, which triggered the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem (2 Chr. 36). These events are verified by the City of David excavations over the last century.
The Jews returned to Jerusalem soon thereafter (c. 536 B.C.) and by the edict of Cyrus II (c. 559-529 B.C.) rebuilt the altar. Construction began on the foundation of the new Temple in 535 B.C. However, due to Samaritan opposition, construction was later suspended by Cyrus’s successor, Cambyses II (529-522 B.C.). One year later, the original edict was reaffirmed by King Darius (522-486 B.C.), and construction, led by the prophets Haggai and Zachariah, resumed. The opening of the Second Temple era commenced with the completion of the Temple in 515 B.C. (Ezra 1). In 457 B.C., King Artaxerxes dispatched the prophet Ezra to renovate the Temple, and thirteen years later (444 B.C) Artaxerxes granted a new royal commission for the construction of the Temple to the prophet Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2). Once again, the Temple became the hub of Jewish religious and political life.
The Temple remained in Jewish sovereignty until 175 B.C., when Antiochus IV Epiphanes succeeded the Seleucid Kingdom (which included Judea). Antiochus plundered the Temple treasury (1 Maccabees 21) and rededicated the Jewish Temple as a Temple to Zeus. This audacious act led to the outbreak of a holy war between the Hasmoneans and the Syrian Greeks. In 164 B.C., after three years of bloody fighting, the Hasmoneans captured the Temple Mount (1 Macc. 4) and reinstated the daily service in the Temple (1 Macc. 52). Their victory and subsequent rededication of the Temple is still celebrated on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The fighting finally ended in 141 B.C. with the capture of the Akra Fortress by Simon Maccabee. Simon razed this fortress and incorporated it into the Temple Mount platform.
In 40 B.C., the Romans ousted the ruling Hasmonean dynasty and the Roman Senate proclaimed Herod the Great as Ruler of Judea. Approximately 20 years into his reign, Herod began his grandiose project of renewing the Temple (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 4a). Although the original platform of the Temple Mount was left intact, by extending the platform to the North, South, and West, the Temple Mount was now twice its previous size. These distinctly recognizable stones are still visible today on the Temple Mount&#8217;s Western wall, and parts of the other three walls. The magnificence of Herod’s reconstruction of the Temple is reflected in the Talmud: “He who has not seen the Herodian Temple has never seen a beautiful building in his life” (BT, Bava Batra 4a). Josephus described the renovated Temple as “a structure more noteworthy than any under the sun” (Antiquities 15). However, this magnificent edifice stood for less than a hundred years.
In the First Jewish Revolt (66 C.E.), Jerusalem’s Jewish population rebelled against the Roman Empire. Four years later, in 70 C.E., Roman legions led by Titus destroyed the Second Temple and much of Jerusalem. Josephus described the catastrophe when hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the siege of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country. Many thousands more were sold into slavery (War 6). Thus ended the Second Temple period.
Despite the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews maintained an uninterrupted connection to the Temple Mount, including several futile attempts to rebuild the Temple site. Throughout the centuries, Jews have prayed for their return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple. To this day, when Jews pray, they stand facing the Temple Mount, directing their prayers there.
The Talmud (BT Makkot 24b) recounts a visit to the Temple ruins by Rabbi Akiba (c. 50-135 C.E.) and other leading rabbis. Visitation was not limited to rabbis; the masses also visited the Temple Mount as recorded in the Talmud (BT, Berakhot 58a), &#8220;Ben Zoma (c. 2nd century) once saw a large crowd on one of the steps of the Temple Mount.&#8221;
In 130 C.E., Emperor Hadrian visited Jerusalem and committed to rebuild the Temple. When Hadrian’s intentions of building a Temple to Jupiter were revealed, the Jews’ intense anger set off the Second Jewish Revolt in 132 C.E. Led by Simeon bar Kokhba, Jewish guerrilla forces overwhelmed the Roman garrisons and banished them from the area. The Jews then established an independent state governing most of Judea. However, two years later, the revolt was quelled. Hadrian, in an act of revenge, renamed Judea as Syria Palaestina and barred Jews from entering Jerusalem.
After Hadrian’s death, the decree to bar Jews was periodically suspended and they were permitted to ascend and pray on the Temple Mount. The Pilgrim of Bordeaux, who visited Jerusalem in 333 C.E. reported that every year Jews would come to the Temple Mount on the 9th of Av (the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction) and lament the destruction on the site of the former of the Holy of Holies. “There is a perforated stone, to which the Jews come every year and anoint it, bewail themselves with groans, rend their garments, and so depart.”
In 361 C.E., the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate lifted the ban on Jewish entry to Jerusalem and may have even allowed the Jews to rebuild the Temple. Jews flocked in droves to participate in the construction. Unfortunately, the project was canceled in 361 C.E. after Julian was succeeded by Jovian. Once again, in 438 C.E., the Empress Eudocia granted permission to Jews to pray at the Temple Mount for the Sukkot holiday. However, due to pressure from local Christians, the permission was revoked. Nonetheless, there are indications that despite the imperial ban, Jews continued to pray on the Temple Mount through the fourth and sixth centuries.
The Umayyad Caliph Umar, reportedly with the help of Jewish troops, conquered Jerusalem from the Byzantines in 638 C.E. In appreciation for their support, Jews were granted the right to reside in Jerusalem and a synagogue may have been built then on the Temple Mount. Many documents uncovered in the Cairo Geniza relate to the Jewish freedoms enjoyed on the Temple Mount at that time. Hebrew writings found on the internal walls of the Golden Gate are believed to have been written by Jewish pilgrims in that era.
In 692 C.E., Caliph Umar completed the construction of the Dome of the Rock over the “Rock of the Foundation,” once the floor of the Holy of Holies in the Jewish Temple. According to Moslem tradition, the location of the Temple was transmitted by the local Jewish elders. In an attempt to connect Jerusalem to Islam, the Umayyads also built the Al-Aqsa Mosque at the south of the Temple Mount in 715 C.E., invoking a vision of Mohammed recorded in the Quran, which ended in his ascent to heaven from the “distant mosque” which was now associated with this site.
The Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099 C.E. and barred Muslim and Jewish worshipers from the Temple Mount, which they had appropriated as a Church and fortress. Yet despite the danger, Jews continued to ascend the mount even during the Crusader period. Maimonides visited the Temple Mount in 1165 and prayed there, and Benjamin of Tudela who visited Jerusalem sometime between 1159 and 1172 reported that “Jews prayed in front of one of the remaining walls of what was formerly the Holy of Holies.”
In 1187, Saladin captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders and permitted Jews to worship on the Temple Mount. Thereafter and in the following years of the Mamluk rule of Jerusalem, there are many records of Jews visiting and praying in the Temple Mount.
In 1516, with the Ottoman conquest of Jerusalem, Sultan Suleiman I prohibited all non-Muslims from entering any part of the Temple Mount. A site for Jewish prayer was set up in an alley at the foot of the Western wall of the Temple Mount, known today as the Western Wall, the “Kotel.” Yet, Moslem court records show that there were still some Jews that somehow managed to ascend the Temple Mount. The Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in that period, Rabbi David ben Zimra (1479-1573), even issued a responsum delineating which Temple precincts would be permissible for Jewish entry.
After the Crimean War (1856), the Temple Mount was once again open to Jews. Prominent Jewish visitors, including Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron Edmond de Rothschild, were able to visit the Temple Mount. This freedom of entry extended under British rule (1917-1948), until Jordan captured the Old City of Jerusalem in Israel’s War of Independence (1948), and expelled the Jews.
On the morning of June 7, 1967, the 55th Parachute and Jerusalem Brigades of the IDF entered the Old City of Jerusalem through the Lion’s gate and liberated the Temple Mount. Col. Mordechai (“Motta”) Gur proudly proclaimed, “Har HaBayit BeYadenu! The Temple Mount is in our hands!” The focus of centuries of Jewish longing was now under Israeli control for the first time since the Second Commonwealth.
After the Six-Day War, while Israel retained security control, the administration of the Temple Mount was entrusted to the Jordanian Waqf as a gesture of goodwill. As a result, the non-Muslim public is now allowed to visit the Temple, but with restrictions in place aiming to preserve the site’s status quo. In recent years, the number of Jews ascending the Temple Mount has increased exponentially, despite the official Moslem control of the site.
For centuries, Muslims took great pride that their mosques on the Temple Mount were built on the location of the Temple of Solomon (who is considered a prophet in Islam). This pride is reflected in official publications issued by the Waqf. Following the Israeli conquest of the Temple Mount in 1967, this approach changed dramatically, leading ultimately to the total denial referenced in the start of this article.
The importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish people cannot be overestimated; it represents the hopes and dreams that have sustained them in spite of virtually insurmountable odds throughout the thousands of years of their history.
When Jews go to the land of Israel, they say they are making “aliyah,” meaning to spiritually ascend, as the Holy Land represents the most holy area on earth. And within that land is Jerusalem, the holiest city; and within Jerusalem is the Temple Mount, the holiest spot on earth.
As the Jewish people gave the world the concept of one God; as they gave the world the idea that one day the world will be rectified with all men as brothers, as they looked to the land of Israel to one day shine its beacon of truth to illuminate God’s eternal presence, the Temple Mount represents the font from which all these will pour forth, and thus must be acknowledged as the beating heart of Judaism and the Jewish people.
Rabbi Yehuda Levi is a Biblical scholar and researcher based in Jerusalem, Israel, who specializes in Jewish historical sites.

Mateh Irgun Hamikdash

The Temple Mount Is Judaism’s Holiest Site, And It Always Has Been. Here’s Everything You Need To Know.

Temple Mount

Israeli MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party, has said he plans to walk the “full route” of a planned march celebrating Jerusalem Day whether or not the police agree to watch over the event.
Ben-Gvir said in a statement Tuesday that he would march on Thursday despite the Israeli government and police postponing the event until next Tuesday, calling the postponement a “surrender to Hamas.” Hamas, a U.S.-recognized terror group, signaled earlier this week that it would lash out at Israel should the flag march take place.
&#8220;The postponement of the march is a surrender to Hamas and a fold in the face of a terrorist organization. Hamas has ruled that Jews will not march through the Old City on Thursday. The Government of Israel and the Israel Police surrendered,” Ben-Gvir said, according to a translation of his tweet.
“The police are not ready to make a commitment to the organizers who will march at the Nablus Gate. On Thursday I will arrive in the Old City of Jerusalem and march with Israeli flags – I will not accept the disgrace,” he added.
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דחיית המצעד היא כניעה לחמאס והתקפלות בפני ארגון טרור. החמאס קבע שיהודים לא יצעדו ביום חמישי ברחבי העיר העתיקה. ממשלת ישראל ומשטרת ישראל נכנעו.
המשטרה לא מוכנה להתחייב בפני המארגנים שיצעדו בשער שכם. ביום חמישי אגיע לעיר העתיקה בירושלים ואצעד עם דגלי ישראל &#8211; לא אשלים עם הביזיון.
&mdash; איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) <a href="https://twitter.com/itamarbengvir/status/1402341927987593224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The Jerusalem Day march, known as the Flag March, has happened annually since Israel reunified Jerusalem during the <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/Jubilee-years/Pages/1967-The-Six-Day-War-and-the-Historic-Reunification-of-Jerusalem.aspx#:~:text=1967%3A%20The%20Six%2DDay%20War%20and%20the%20historic%20reunification%20of%20Jerusalem,-GovXDescriptionImg&amp;text=In%20June%201967%2C%20Israel%20was,to%20fight%20for%20its%20existence.&amp;text=Jerusalem%2C%20Israel's%20capital%2C%20was%20reunited,could%20access%20their%20holiest%20sites.">Six-Day War</a> in 1967. Israel defeated Jordan to take control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the Old City and Temple Mount. Israel also defeated Egypt to take the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, and Syria to capture the Golan Heights.
While Jerusalem Day took place on May 10 this year, the Flag March was canceled at the last minute after Hamas launched a series of rocket attacks on Israel resulting in the latest bout of military conflict between Israel and the terror group. The Flag March was rescheduled for June 10. Earlier this week, Hamas leaders issued statements encouraging Palestinians to “protect the al-Aqsa mosque from the malice of the Zionists and their schemes” should the Flag March take place.
Ben-Gvir has pushed to keep the Flag March on Thursday despite the threats, arguing that to choose another option would empower Hamas to dictate Israeli policy. Ben-Gvir has pledged to march whether or not the Flag Day walk is sanctioned or not, and as a member of the Knesset has the right to go anywhere in Jerusalem and to be protected by a police detail.
In light of the threats from Hamas, the Jerusalem police and members of Israel’s government, including Defense Minister Benny Gantz, began backing off from holding the march. Other Knesset members immediately accused Gantz and the police commissioner of allowing Hamas to dictate Israelis&#8217; conduct in their capital city.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is poised to lose his prime ministership for the second time in his career, pushed for the Flag March to take place. He requested the police provide alternate solutions and routes for the marchers to travel. On Tuesday, the Israeli government agreed to postpone the march until next week, according to <a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/307716">Arutz Sheva 7</a>.
Netanyahu is on the verge of being ousted as Israel’s prime minister after 12 consecutive years in the office. A shaky left-right coalition has agreed to form a unity government set to be voted on in the Knesset on Sunday. If the vote comes through for the unity government, Naftali Bennett, head of the New Right party and a late arrival to the unity coalition, would replace Netanyahu as prime minister.
Next Tuesday’s planned Flag March is set up to be the first test of the unity government, which would include members of the Arab-Islamist party Ra’am.

Itamar Ben-Gvir

Israeli Lawmaker Defies Hamas Threats, Promises To Hold Jerusalem Day Flag March

Hamas

Jerusalem came under attack on Monday, which is also Yom Yerushalayim Day in Israel, as Hamas launched rockets at the city.
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Shocking footage out of Israel &#8211; children and their mothers scramble for shelter as rocket sirens go off. 
In the last hour alone, more than a dozen rockets have been fired from Gaza, including at Jerusalem. <a href="https://t.co/IBMjVvHO0t">pic.twitter.com/IBMjVvHO0t</a>
&mdash; StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) <a href="https://twitter.com/StopAntisemites/status/1391786509263638532?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
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BREAKING: Seven rockets have apparently been fired from Gaza toward Jerusalem. The Iron Dome air defense system intercepted one.
&mdash; Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AviMayer/status/1391778107355447297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
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VIDEO: Hamas fires multiple rockets toward Jerusalem and central Israel.<a href="https://t.co/9N9krg6GPP">pic.twitter.com/9N9krg6GPP</a>
&mdash; Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AviMayer/status/1391779905411686406?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
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An inhabited building was hit in a community outside of Jerusalem
&mdash; Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) <a href="https://twitter.com/AAhronheim/status/1391773788178722819?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Fires are currently raging in several areas near Jerusalem due to the Hamas rocket fire from Gaza. Emergency services are on the scene.
&mdash; Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AviMayer/status/1391805810095886338?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Yom Yerushalyim celebrates the Jews taking Jerusalem back in the 1967 Six-Day War. It commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City, where the Temple Mount is located.
A fire broke out on the Temple Mount near the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Temple Mount is the site of the two ancient Temples of Israel and the current site of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The fire was apparently started by fireworks.
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Dramatic images of the Western Wall Plaza being evacuated as a tree catches fire outside Al Aqsa Mosque, apparently as Palestinians shoot fireworks there. <a href="https://t.co/AI7ait6IJb">pic.twitter.com/AI7ait6IJb</a>
&mdash; Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) <a href="https://twitter.com/EylonALevy/status/1391807185412362242?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
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🔴Jerusalem 
Moment when the fireworks (central right part of the screen) that were launched by Palestinians near the Al Aqsa mosque had caused a fire <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Israel?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Israel</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Gaza?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Gaza</a>
 <a href="https://t.co/DCymzWAHsF">pic.twitter.com/DCymzWAHsF</a>
&mdash; Gabriel Hébert-Røuillier (@Gab_H_R) <a href="https://twitter.com/Gab_H_R/status/1391811688844963843?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Tree on fire on the Temple Mount <a href="https://t.co/tTAmClOWVT">pic.twitter.com/tTAmClOWVT</a>
&mdash; Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) <a href="https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1391806216112910336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Video of the fire on the Temple Mount <a href="https://t.co/6NX9D5QE40">pic.twitter.com/6NX9D5QE40</a>
&mdash; Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) <a href="https://twitter.com/manniefabian/status/1391807053967069184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2021</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
Many different factors have been at play in Israel in recent weeks, including a canceled Palestinian Authority (PA) election. The PA was supposed to hold elections on May 22, but after it became clear to PA President Mahmoud Abbas that he would lose control to Hamas, elections were canceled. Abbas <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-abbas-set-to-announce-postponement-not-cancellation-of-palestinian-election-1.9759709">blamed Israel</a>, saying, “We have decided to postpone the election until the participation of our people in Jerusalem is guaranteed.”
“Since the elections were announced, divisions within the Fatah party had emerged, there were dozens of tickets to vote for, and Hamas was likely to do well. So Abbas pulled the plug, blaming Israel for his decision on the ground that it would not permit voting in Jerusalem,&#8221; Elliott Abrams, former Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/after-postponement-palestinian-elections-now-what">wrote</a> on April 30. &#8220;This is an old ruse, useful whenever Fatah leaders decide to call an election off.&#8221;
Ghaith al-Omarim, the lead Palestinian drafter of the Geneva Initiative, wrote in an <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/vote-or-not-vote-implications-postponing-palestinian-elections">article</a> for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy that Abbas had thought the elections would strengthen him but realized he could lose power. “Fatah…will be in deep political crisis,&#8221; al-Omarim wrote. &#8220;Abbas will inevitably be blamed for the cancellation, further eroding his already abysmal standing (68 percent of the public wants Abbas to resign). He will also face unprecedented challenges within Fatah. The call for elections exposed and operationalized long-simmering fissures within the movement, and those will not return to dormancy once the elections are canceled …”
The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-middle-east-elections-religion-government-and-politics-e88636bc919f8aab455e01fbbd4b4391">Associated Press</a>, which noted that Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, reported: “The last elections, held in 2006 with international support and Israeli cooperation, saw Hamas win a landslide victory after campaigning as a scrappy underdog untainted by corruption. That sparked an internal crisis culminating in Hamas’ seizure of Gaza the following year, which confined Abbas’ authority to parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/turkey-qatar-elections-ismail-haniyeh-campaigns-c748ed6d65f3e30fb3e7eaf47deda7a7">Hamas’ popularity has fallen in the years since</a>, as conditions in Gaza have steadily deteriorated.”
Meanwhile in Sheikh Jarrah, which to Jews is known as the Shimon Hatzaddik neighborhood and lies in Jerusalem just north of the Old City, trouble has arisen. The tomb and its compound were purchased in 1876 and settled in 1891 as a Jewish neighborhood. &#8220;In 1936, the neighborhood was attacked by Arab rioters and later conquered by the Arab Legion in 1948, before being annexed to the kingdom of Jordan in 1950,&#8221; <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/op-ed-contributors/we-all-live-in-shimon-hatzaddik">The Jerusalem Post</a> noted. &#8220;The Jordanian conquerors allowed Arab families to occupy abandoned Jewish homes, in violation of the rights of the property owners.”
After Israel retook Jerusalem in 1967, the Jewish committee that had purchased the land began to resettle the area with Jews by showing deeds for the properties before Israeli courts. Last Thursday, a member of the Israeli Knesset, Itamar Ben Gvir, trying to protect the Jews in Sheik Jarrah, set up offices in Sheik Jarrah. A law prevents police from stopping him from going anywhere and makes them responsible for protecting him.
“Some 200 Palestinians and 17 police officers were injured Friday night after clashes broke out in East Jerusalem over a land dispute in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood,” <a href="https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/1620468498-pm-s-office-reportedly-warned-ben-gvir-to-leave-east-j-lem-after-threat-of-hamas-rocket-attack">Israel 24</a> reported.
On Monday, Hamas issued an ultimatum for Israel to remove police from Jerusalem or they would fire rockets from Gaza.

Political Unrest In Jerusalem, Gaza And Israel

Jerusalem Under Attack As Rockets Are Fired By Hamas

Israel is pushing President Joe Biden to refrain from involving the United States in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying Biden’s meddling would likely make the situation worse.
Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat, after hundreds of Palestinian rioters clashed with Israeli police Monday morning on the Temple Mount. During the conversation, Ben-Shabbat told Sullivan that Biden and other countries should let Israel handle the conflict, according to <a href="https://www.axios.com/israel-jerusalem-clashes-biden-administration-f52605e7-445d-44e4-be13-2ca4ce7dcd24.html">Axios</a>.
Ben-Shabbat told Sullivan that “international intervention is a reward to the Palestinian rioters and those who back them who were seeking international pressure on Israel,” an Israeli official told Axios.
The Biden White House left off any mention Ben-Shabbat’s reported comment in its own <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/05/09/readout-from-nsc-spokesperson-emily-horne-on-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivans-call-with-israeli-national-security-advisor-meir-ben-shabbat-regarding-the-situation-in-jerusalem/">readout</a> of the phone call. According to the White House, Sullivan expressed concern over the violence and highlighted U.S. officials’ work with “senior Israeli and Palestinian officials and key regional stakeholders to press for steps to ensure calm, deescalate tensions, and denounce violence.”
Palestinian rioters hurled stones and firebombs at police on Monday morning at the Temple Mount. Police moved to suppress the unrest with stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets. Previous concerns over unrest had already prompted authorities to close the area to Jews before the violence began, according to <a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305875">Israeli National News</a>.
“A short time ago, hundreds of rioters began throwing stones at the Mughrabi Bridge. Following this, police commission Yaakov Shabti ordered police forces stationed at the scene to enter the Temple Mount and to push the rioters back, using crowd dispersal methods. Israel Police forces are continuing to operate at the scene,” an Israeli police spokesperson said.
Twenty-one officers were hurt, including three who were hospitalized because of the violence, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-israel-jerusalem-076a9ec7e2bd9c065882c64a4ab820a1">The Associated Press</a>. Hundreds of rioters also sustained injuries.
Israel had a strained relationship with the United States during former President Barack Obama’s administration, in which Biden served as vice president. The Obama administration often <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-leaks-info-about-israel-the-obama-biden-administration-was-infamous-for-that">leaked</a> information it received on and from the Israeli military in attempts to dictate the smaller country’s actions. The Biden administration appears primed to continue that tactic.
During his campaign for president, Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-ill-reverse-trump-start-sending-money-to-palestinians-again">pledged</a> to roll back Trump-era policies and take a much more pro-Palestinian view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During a May 2020 interview with Israeli media, Biden stated: “A priority now for the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace should be resuming our dialogue with the Palestinians and pressing Israel not to take actions that make a two-state solution impossible. I will reopen the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem, find a way to reopen the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Washington, and resume the decades-long economic and security assistance efforts to the Palestinians that the Trump Administration stopped.”
Decades ago in 1982, Biden took an aggressive stance toward Israel while berating then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin about his country building settlements in Judea and Samaria. Then-Sen. Biden threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Israel. Begin hit back:
<blockquote>Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-campaign-website-hell-oppose-bds-leftists-ignore-bidens-other-anti-israel-stances">Biden Campaign Website: He’ll Oppose BDS. Leftists Ignore Biden’s Other Anti-Israel Stances.</a>

Israel Tells Biden To Back Off After Palestinian Rioters Attack Police

Jews

Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, has announced that it dropped its long-standing arrest warrant for the woman behind the 2001 terrorist bombing at a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/international/interpol-drops-arrest-warrant-for-sbarro-bomber-ahlam-al-tamimi-661918">reported</a> that Interpol dropped the warrant against Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi, who was convicted of the bombing that killed 15 people, including eight children. The outlet noted that Interpol made the announcement on March 8 in a letter stating that Tamimi was no longer “subject to notice.” Tamimi’s husband, Nizar, who is also a convicted terrorist, wrote on Facebook that his wife was no longer wanted by Interpol, saying “With this legal victory, her name was removed from the wanted list of Interpol, praise be to God,” according to multiple media outlets.
As the Post reported:
<blockquote>Tamimi was arrested and imprisoned for her role in the bombing, and was sentenced to 16 life sentences. However, she was freed in 2011 during the prisoner swap to free captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Tamimi has reaffirmed her lack of remorse for the deaths she caused in multiple interviews since her release. 
Following her release, she hosted a weekly show for nearly five years, between 2012 and 2016, which was filmed in Jordan and jointly produced by Hamas and Jordan&#8217;s Muslim Brotherhood.</blockquote>
In addition to the weekly show, Tamimi has also appeared on numerous other programs, including one hosted on the BBC’s Arabic-language channel. After a backlash from the families of Tamimi’s victims, the BBC apologized for allowing her on one of its programs. As the Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/bbc-apologizes-for-broadcasting-appeal-of-convicted-hamas-terrorist-646673">reported</a> at the time, the program “glossed over key elements of Jordanian-born Tamimi&#8217;s story, reporting that she had been ‘accused’ of the Sbarro terror attack but not that she had boastfully pled guilty to the charges in an Israeli court – or that she had said she would be happy to carry out such an attack again.”
A BBC review found the report did not meet its editorial standards.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Tamimi in 2013, with the Trump administration years later offering $5 million for her capture. In response to Interpol’s decision to drop the warrant, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish global human rights organization, issued a statement saying the move “would encourage further terrorism and deny justice and closure for the victims and survivors.”
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-taps-staffer-who-described-palestinian-suicide-bombing-as-last-resort-of-a-desperate-people">reported</a>, a staffer scouted by the Biden administration, Reema Dodin, had previously justified Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis as “the last resort of a desperate people.” Dodin made the remarks in 2002, months after Tamimi’s attack. Dodin’s remarks were made during the Palestinian uprising against Israel known as the Second Intifada. Tamimi’s attack was one of those made during this uprising. The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-activists-for-palestinians-threaten-your-college-campus-will-be-scene-of-intifadas">noted</a> all the attacks that took place during the Second Intifada:
<blockquote>According to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Institute_for_Counter-Terrorism">International Institute for Counter-Terrorism</a>, during the Second Intifada, 887 of the 1,137 Israelis murdered in attacks from Sept. 2000-2005 were civilians. Just between May 2001 and May 2002 there were these massacres: five Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the HaSharon Mall in May 2001; 21 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the Dolphinarium Discotheque in June 2001; 15 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at Sbarro’s Pizza in August 2001, including six children and a 31-year-old woman who was the only child of her parents and was five months pregnant; 11 Israelis murdered in a bus bombing on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem on Dec. 1, 2001; 12 more Israelis murdered the very next day in a Haifa suicide bombing; 11 more Israelis murdered in a bus attack 10 days later in Immanuel; six Israelis murdered in an attack at a bas-mitzvah in January 2002; 11 more Jews killed in an attack on a yeshiva in March 2002, including a five-month-old child; 11 Jews murdered in a bombing at Café Moment in March 2002; 30 Israelis killed as they celebrated Passover in Netanya on March 27, 2002; 16 Israelis murdered in a suicide bombing four days later at the Matzah restaurant, and 16 Israelis murdered in Rishon LeZion in May 2002.</blockquote>

Sbarro bombing

International Law Enforcement Agency Drops Arrest Warrant For Terrorist Who Bombed Jerusalem Sbarro Restaurant In 2001

Terrorism

It takes time for attitudes to change, and changing attitudes in the Middle East is a tough proposition. Moving the Europeans may prove harder.
An Israeli general once told this story (I was there):
<blockquote>The Israeli general commanded a unit that crossed the Suez Canal in 1973 after repulsing Egypt’s surprise Yom Kippur War attack. In his headquarters, he received a message that purported to be from an Egyptian general, telling him to come — alone — in a jeep to a certain spot in the desert and “hear something.” The general told the group, “I was sure I was going to die, but I did it.” The Egyptian proved to be the chief of the Egyptian general staff and he, too, was alone.
The Egyptian said, “The war is over.”
The Israeli general said, “Yes. I know.”
The Egyptian general sighed, “Not this war. In 1948, Egypt was within 11 miles of Tel Aviv and you pushed us back. In 1956, you drove through Sinai — but it wasn’t fair because you had the French and the British. In 1967, you did it again — by yourselves. Now you have crossed the Suez Canal and are 99 kilometers from Cairo. I’m here to tell you that you won’t get any closer. The war is over.”
He got back in his jeep and left.
The Israeli returned to his headquarters and told the story to the general staff in Tel Aviv. “No one believed me,&#8221; the Israeli said.</blockquote>
But it was true. The Egyptian government had determined that fighting, losing, and regrouping was not a plan. In 1979, Anwar Sadat went to Jerusalem, and in so doing met Israel’s primary condition for peace — recognition of Israel as a legitimate and permanent state in the region, entitled to “secure and recognized boundaries, free from threats or acts of force” (the language of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242). Today, Egypt and Israel cooperate on energy, security (including for the Gaza Strip), and trade.
In the broader Arab world, it is taking longer. Unable to countenance Jewish sovereignty in the region, the Arabs went to war in 1948 to erase it. They failed. They tried again in 1967. They failed again. After that war, an Arab League Summit convened in Sudan and issued what became known as the Khartoum Resolution: &#8220;No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.&#8221;
Then there were the conflicts of 1973 and 1982, intifadas, and rocket wars with Gaza.
President Trump called them on it in announcing his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-donald-trumps-vision-for-the-middle-east">“Vision” for the Middle East</a>. “It is time for the Muslim world to fix the mistake it made in 1948, when it chose to attack instead of to recognize the new state of Israel. The Palestinians are the primary pawn in this adventurism, and it is time for this sad chapter in history to end.” Three Arab ambassadors were in the room.
The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/arab-league-holds-emergency-meeting-trump-plan-200201105251740.html">Arab League hastily convened a summit</a>, responding to the flat rejection of the plan by Palestinian Authority strongman Mahmoud Abbas, who had declined to read or even discuss it. This was not a “three noes” meeting. While the bloc as a whole rejected the Vision, the head of the Arab League said that there was time only for an initial study of the plan, adding that the Palestinian response would be key in shaping a &#8220;collective Arab position.” It should be noted that a day after announcing it would scrap security cooperation with the U.S. and Israel, the Palestinian Authority announced that, in fact, it <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinians-wont-halt-security-ties-with-Israel-US-Ramallah-officials-616503">would not do so.</a>
<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/oic-hold-emergency-meeting-trump-middle-east-plan-200203064919675.html">Al Jazeera</a> wrote, “The announcement of Trump&#8217;s plan drew mixed responses from Arab states.” While joining in the vote, Egypt and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-jewish-journal-saudi-arabia-is-now-more-pro-israel-than-the-democratic-party">Saudi Arabia said separately that they “appreciated”</a> Mr. Trump’s efforts and called for renewed negotiations. Sudan’s leader announced a “principled stance on the Palestinian issue and the right of its people to establish its independent state &#8230; in accordance with the Arab consensus and Arab League decisions,” even as in a bit of irony — having hosted the Khartoum Declaration meeting — it established a mechanism for <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israel-Sudan-set-up-normalization-teams-616526">opening diplomatic relations with Israel.</a>
OK, yes, the <a href="https://www.memri.org/reports/qatar-qatar-backed-international-union-muslim-scholars-blast-trumps-peace-plan-it-belongs">International Union of Muslim Scholars</a> (IUMS) consigned the Vision to the “dust heap of history,” but the IUMS is a creation of Qatar and Qatar is a puppet of Iran.
And speaking of Iran, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Josip Borrell met with Iranian leaders and shortly afterward tried to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/eu-reportedly-blocked-from-resolution-condemning-trump-plan-annexation/">ram a condemnation</a> of the Vision though the EU. But EU statements have to be unanimous and, of its 27 countries, six refused — including Italy, Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Borrell then issued the statement in his own name.
The interim commissioner-general of UNRWA said, “The plan … is extremely unsettling for the Palestine refugees living under occupation, under blockade and through conflict after conflict and crisis after crisis, hoping for justice and human rights. The international community must send a clear message to Palestine refugees and to the world at large that the international community stands firmly behind them.”
Rightly, Israel chose to <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/04/israel-harshly-criticizes-eu-over-rejection-of-trump-middle-east-peace-plan/">respond more harshly</a> to the EU and <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/03/israel-slams-unrwa-head-for-attacking-trump-peace-plan/">UNRWA</a> than it did the Arab League.
It has been hard for Arab states to move on from decades of adamant rejection of Israel to talk and trade, and generally accept the nation-state of the Jewish people. That is the reality, not an excuse. But for the EU and UNRWA, to encourage Palestinians in outmoded, fanatical, and dangerous thinking is inexplicable.
Except it isn’t.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

President Trump Meets With Israeli PM Netanyahu At The White House

BRYEN: The Arabs And Europeans React To Trump’s Middle East ‘Vision’

Egypt

Europe

European Union

Foreign Policy

Iran

Middle East

During my recent trip to Israel, an Orthodox rabbi took me to see something that most outsiders do not usually see. It was Friday night (Shabbos, the Jewish Sabbath), and he wanted to go to pray at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem. Before that, he took me to see Kotel Katan — an older, smaller, less well known section of the Western Wall located within the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem&#8217;s Old City — and from there we went to one of the gates that serve as an entrance to the Temple Mount.
Walking through the Muslim Quarter, the air was thick with tension. Since I am a Christian, nobody bothered me. But there were people who went out of their way to bump into and shove my friend, who is easily identifiable as a Jewish rabbi. They were trying to start a fight. So I was surprised, upon arriving at the gate to the Temple Mount, to find a large gathering of Jewish students. There, deep within the Muslim Quarter, these Jewish students were protesting about how they are not allowed to pray at Judaism&#8217;s holiest site. Armed guards were there to keep Jews out. This is what he wanted me to see.
The Temple Mount, of course, was the site of the first and second Jewish Temples and where — according to the faithful — the third Temple will be built. I had some understanding about the rules governing the Temple Mount. According to the Times of Israel, &#8220;Under the current 52-year-old status quo at the site, Muslims can pray at the site while Jews are allowed to visit — under heavy restrictions, in a predetermined route and only for several hours on weekdays — but not pray there.&#8221;
I wanted to know more about these students, who are brave enough to fight for change. So I was told to contact Tom Nisani, the Israeli-born leader of &#8220;Students for the Temple Mount&#8221; and head of campus activity in the <a href="https://imti.org.il/en/about-us/movement/">Im Tirtzu</a> organization. I interviewed him briefly:
Mitsotakis (SM): What is happening on the Temple Mount and why?
Nisani (TN): The Temple Mount was liberated by the Israel Defense Forces in 1967. [There was] a total lack of interest among the Israeli public, and due to various historical realities that caused the national consciousness among the average Israeli, and even among the political leaders and military personnel of Israel, to be drawn simply to the Kotel (Western Wall) — despite it being only a retaining wall for the Temple Mount. The Mount itself was forgotten and the Jordanian Waqf that abandoned it during the battles was brought back to administer it by the State of Israel itself! Today, more than even 50 years later, basic freedoms such as prayer and freedom of movement are still ignored for all those ascending the Mount who are not Muslim. The Temple Mount is a place where these basic human rights and others are trampled on in the most outright and direct way. And this is happening in the holiest place for the Jewish people in the Jewish state! And just like in the other holy places for Jews in Israel, improvement is a process we are trying to hasten — but at this stage on the Temple Mount, there are clear human rights violations and infringements of the rights of all non-Muslims.
SM: What is your organization, why do you do what you do, and what do you hope to change?  
TN: Our organization was established about five years ago and includes students and young Israeli adults — secular, religious, and so forth. We are from all over the nation of Israel. We want to return the Temple Mount to its fitting place in Israeli society. This means, practically, that we work towards normalizing the Temple Mount under full Israeli sovereignty and once it is, all other challenges, problems, and difficulties will cease. It would be beneficial to all involved parties for the Temple Mount to be under complete Israeli sovereignty. Today, as the Jordanians, Qataris, Hamas, and so many more, all attempt to influence what happens on the Temple Mount, we all lose. Peaceful tourists are routinely assaulted, Jewish worshippers are restricted and oppressed, and even the Muslims suffer from the corruption of their leaders — including the Jordanians and the senior Waqf members. We will not rest until we change this situation, and we have already begun seeing change.
SM: I am told that your group is secular. Yet this is an issue of enormous religious significance. Is the religious community supporting you?
TN: In our movement, we have members who are from all the types and stripes of Israel. And this is the beauty in our movement, &#8220;Students for the Temple Mount.&#8221; We reflect the Israeli public and understand the import of our mission. The Temple Mount is a place for all of the nation of Israel and so too will it be in the future. Even the most secular among us, or those who would be considered less religious, are connected to our faith and Jewish nationality and see those as important aspects of our identities. In fact, it is the Temple Mount that connects us the most.

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