ARE YOU SERIOUS

By Simon Fischler

The outlandish prevarication from the Palestinian/Muslim side of the Arab-Israeli conflict has become explosively provocative.

"A sacrilegious act of profanation of the holy Islamic site," This is a quote from The Organization of the Islamic Conference concerning the outbreak of violence on the Temple mount this Friday the 6th of March.

Israeli Police were forced to stop Muslim worshipers from throwing rocks down on Jews praying at the Western Wall. That is the “sacrilegious” act? That is the “profanation?” How is it possible they “forget” that this started because Muslims tossed rocks down on Jews praying at the Western Wall? They also neglect to mention that the “Islamic” site they refer to is, in fact, the most holy site to the Jewish Nation, and was long before there was a religion called Islam. FACT

This is the sterling example of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim “religious freedom.” What will happen to Jews when a Palestinian State has been created and Israelis wish to visit the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron? If this is what we can expect when our country controls these sacred Jewish religious sites, what will happen when some of them are turned over to the authorities of a Palestinian State? Massacre is the first word that pops into my mind. Denial of Access is another.

These sites have always been Jewish. The Temple Mount was the Temple Mount long before Mohammad came along. The Cave of the Patriarchs is the resting place of the central characters of Judaism, not Islam.

It is enough that we the Jews must live with the fact that Arab Muslims got away with totally desecrating our most holy site by building both Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. Now they tell us we cannot designate the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s tomb as Jewish Heritage sites? How sick and ridiculous is this?

This nasty nonsense is clearly an attempt to usurp and/or erase Jewish history. This is nothing new; the Palestinians -- and Muslims in general – have tried to erase the histories of the peoples and places they have conquered and occupied, for centuries. Remember the Taliban blowing up two Buddhas that had been standing in Afghanistan for 1700 years?

What is even more distressing is how the international community has handled the situation. They just do not seem to get it. There will be no peace without Israeli agreement. No matter how much they placate and appease the Arabs, it will do nothing if Israel is not on board. You cannot force an agreement on Israel. Israelis will never agree to anything if they see the world is ready to strip them of their history, just to get a piece of paper in return.

Wake up and smell the coffee! If you want to demand that Israel respect the Palestinians, then you must demand that the Palestinians respect Israel and the Jewish nation’s history and rights.

President Obama, you want Israel to move forward in the direction of Peace? Then you must demand that the Palestinians stop their provocative efforts to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist and to end their denial of her historical and religious heritage.

The world keeps making demands of Israel, while the Palestinians keep lighting the gunpowder under the powder keg. At this very moment the Palestinians are suffering from their typical memory loss of their last disaster with the Second Intifada and are inciting violence on a daily basis.

Now, sadly, they are being encouraged and assisted by totally misguided organizations such as the ISM. For ISM protestors this is fine; when things get scary, they can fly home to their pampered lives in America. For those of us who can’t run off to our coddled life in America things are different.

To prevent another disaster from happening here, someone must quickly demand that the Palestinians/Arabs/Muslims stop their incitement against Israel and the religious sites that are an integral part of her history.