Bad Words?

Israeli soldiers use white paint to cover graffiti after Jewish settlers scrawled bad words on the walls of a mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on November 20, 2008. Jewish settlers angry at an Israeli court order for their eviction from a house in Hebron desecrated a mosque and tombs in the flashpoint West Bank City before dawn today, witnesses said. The settlers scrawled “Mohammed is a pig” and “Death to the Arabs” on the front of a mosque and drew the Israeli emblem, the Star of David, on several gravestones in a Muslim cemetery, the witnesses said.

For the record, the “bad words” seem to be Hebrew for “Do not fear, Emmanuel, House of Jacob…” Sounds like a quotation from the Tanach, but I am not sure. The last two words are hard to make out, but they do not seem to be insults or referring to Mohammed.

Furthermore, out of all the photos showing the graffiti, I cannot spot one which shows the offending words comparing Mohammed to an oinker, or saying “Death to Arabs.” Just saying.

(For the record, if it turns out that Jewish residents of Hebron are responsible for this graffiti, I unequivocally condemn their actions. Spraying graffiti on a mosque is not right, no matter what the content of the words. It is also really stupid).

Update: Elder fills in some of the blanks in a mail:

It is a partial quote from the end of Alenu (that no one says) putting two verses together.

??-????, ???? ?????;    ?????? ?????, ?? ????  from Mishlei (Proverbs 3:25)
???? ?????, ???????; ?????? ????? ????? ?????, ??? ?????? ??-? from Yeshaya (Isaiah 8:10)

Update: Commenter Shy Guy fills in the remaining blanks:

The 2nd scrawling might say “Beit Ya’akov Lechu V’neilcha” (“House of Jacob, go forth and we shall proceed”) – Isaiah 2:5, whose acronym is “BILU”, the original Zionist movement’s name.

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