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The PA has been waging a diplomatic campaign against Israel for the past two weeks over what it terms “provocations” on the Temple Mount
According to reports that have reached Israel about Fayyad’s meeting with the ambassadors, the PA prime minister described last Sunday’s clashes as “an assault by extremist religious settlers on the Temple Mount compound” and said it was “a provocation planned in advance that was aimed at sabotaging the peace process and derailing [U.S.] President [Barack] Obama’s peace initiative.”
Warning that the situation on the mount was flammable and could swiftly deteriorate, he added, “I remind you that this is where the Al-Aqsa Intifada began, after [Ariel] Sharon’s visit” to the mount in September 2000. “The Palestinians’ popular response stems from the Israeli aggression, and we are liable to lose control over events.”
Sounds like a threat to me.
Of course, if there is another “intifada”, just know that it won’t be a spontaneous outpouring of emotion, but something very deliberate and planned.
Meanwhile, even the Left wing Ha’aretz knows where the blame for this recent violence lies.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
10:50PM: Israeli television has shown pictures proving the Islamic movement had prepared for the riots, hiding rocks inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, contrary to Arab claims that Israel started the confrontation by denying Arabs entry to the Temple Mount.
As the Jerusalem Post reported:
Earlier Monday, Jerusalem police explained their decision to allow only worshipers over the age of 50 into the Temple Mount, revealing that wheelbarrows filled with rocks had been discovered throughout the Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday.
Palestinians had filled the wheelbarrows with stones and bricks in preparation for riots in the Old City, police assessed.
The discovery of the wheelbarrows, in addition to intelligence information and the call on Palestinians to “come and defend” Al-Aqsa, led the police to restrict entrance to the Temple Mount.
It’s 2000 all over again.
10:32PM: The PA continues to show its true colors, urging its people to “confront” Israel and imploring the world to stop us from worshiping our religion in Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority on Monday evening condemned Jerusalem’s decision to restrict entrance to the Aqsa Mosque compound, calling on Palestinians to confront Israel in light of the “Israeli aggression.”
“We call on the Palestinian public to confront Israel and its plans, that are intended to prevent the Palestinian people from fulfilling their aspirations of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied territories,” read a statement issued by the government of PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad in Ramallah.
The PA government publicly decried “Israel’s attempts to conduct Jewish prayer services in the Aqsa compound” and urged the world “to force Israel to halt is efforts to Jewify the city.”
Earlier Monday, Jerusalem police explained their decision to allow only worshipers over the age of 50 into the Temple Mount, revealing that wheelbarrows filled with rocks had been discovered throughout the Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday.
There is no chance of peace with a people who deny our thousands-year connection to the land of Israel and the holy city of Jerusalem, and will resort to violence at the drop of a hat.
3:50PM:
Palestinian women take part in a protest in Gaza City calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails October 5, 2009. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA POLITICS CONFLICT)
Palestinian women take part in a protest in Gaza City calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails October 5, 2009. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA POLITICS CONFLICT)
I’m thinking of conducting my own protest….calling for the release of palestinians from really bad photograph poses.
10:25AM: The latest Richard Goldstone interview with CNN.
Pay special attention to the following:
- Goldstone stating “We didn’t look at whether Hamas is entitled to use military force to gain independence for the palestinian people. We looked at what methods Hamas used,” (1:06) the implication being his acceptance of the notion that Hamas’ aim is solely to gain independence for the palestinians, rather than being its stated aim to rid the land of the Jews.
- Goldstone’s claiming a lack of time did not allow his team to find that Hamas did, in fact, operate out of civilian areas (1:20), despite the ease of accessing such evidence on YouTube.
- Goldstone stating definitively that the infrastructure to Gaza had no military justification, mentioning specifically the bulldozing of agricultural land (2:30). I am no military expert, but I can imagine military purposes such as establishing a buffer zone. Goldstone does not even entertain this prospect, and states his views as fact.
- Goldstone repeating the laughable idea that both sides (i.e. including Hamas) can now use the report as a roadmap for investigating themselves (5:55)
7:20AM: Our peace partners, the Jordanians, are doing the best to calm the situation on the Temple Mount.
By adopting the palestinian narrative of events, of course.
Jerusalem is a “red line” to Jordan, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said here on Sunday.
“UNSC permanent members are urged to act immediately and shoulder their responsibilities, so as to halt Israeli unending violations,” Judeh told reporters, adding that Israel must be pressured in order to actually commit to achieving peace and re-launching negotiations.
“Dangerous violations, such as allowing Jewish extremists to barge into courts of Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as continuing excavations in Muslim holy places, destroying houses and displacing the Arab population in a bid to alter the demographic landscape in East Jerusalem are all condemned and rejected,” Judeh stressed.
Earlier today, Judeh, in a meeting with EU Middle East representative Marc Otte, warned against the Israeli escalation and violations in occupied East Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque.
In a related development, the Jordanian foreign ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador in Amman and handed him an objection note over unremitting violations on Muslim and Christian holy places in East Jerusalem.
“All Israeli procedures are illegal, as they signify a breach to Israel’s commitments in its capacity as an occupying force in the West Bank,” a ministry statement said.
Such procedures, the statement carried on to say, represented a major obstacle before efforts to launch serious negotiations that would result in achieving the two-state solution, and eventually, inclusive peace.
