Arab violence in Jerusalem, West Bank, and Galilee

This writer is momentarily interrupting the series on Peace: the road that leads to War in order to address the ongoing Israeli Arab violence against Jewish Israelis in Jerusalem, later in the West Bank—biblical Judea and Samaria—and most recently in the Galil (Galilee).

The root of this violence goes back to the night of June 12 this year when three teenagers, Gilad Sha’ar, aged 16, Naftali Fraenkel, also aged 16, and Eyal Yifrach, aged 19, went missing from a hitchhiking station where they were trying to get rides home after finishing classes on religious studies in their schools in the West Bank—biblical Judea and Samaria. (The full story can be read in a series of earlier posts titled: The fallout from premeditated Barbarianism).

On June 30 searchers found Naftali Fraenkel’s eyeglasses in long grass and eventually found the decomposing bodies of the boys partially buried under rocks. Israeli politicians across the board—apart from the Arab members of Israel’s parliament—called the murderers “animals.”

Upon the news of the murder of the three Israeli teenagers, two or three unruly rightwing demonstrations involving Israelis took place, some demonstrators called for revenge. Israeli police arrested a number of the protestors who had gotten into violent scuffles. Several Israeli Facebook postings contained incitement against Arabs, one of which showed IDF soldiers in uniform also calling for revenge and seven soldiers associated with the page were arrested and placed under detention.

Two days after the bodies of the Israeli teenagers were brought to Jerusalem for burial, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy, Muhammed Abu Khdeir, was abducted by three Israelis outside of his home as he prepared to go to the mosque for morning prayers. Within an hour of being notified, the Israeli police, using the boys cellphone tracking system, traced the Palestinian teenager to the Jerusalem forest where the boy was found dead. He had been murdered in the most monstrous fashion. An autopsy showed inflammable material in his lungs which showed that he had actually been burned alive after being stunned by a blow to his head. The police called the murder the worst case of murder in Israel’s history.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the Arab boy’s parents to express his heartfelt condolences for the “despicable” and “heinous” crime committed against the boy. Widespread condemnation came from Israeli politicians who condemned the atrocious crime in no uncertain terms. The mother of Naftali Fraenkel, one of the murdered Israeli teenagers, telephoned the Khdeir family herself, empathizing with its pain and sent her own family’s condolences. Netanyahu called for a fast-tracking of the investigation and within days three Israelis were apprehended and they confessed to the murder and were dealt with according to Israeli law. At the time of the Arab teen’s murder this writer opined that the Jewish murderers were no less animals than those who had murdered the Israeli teenagers.

The murder of young Abu Khdeir was the catalyst for an outbreak of Arab violence that has only grown in intensity as the days, weeks, and months pass by. On July 6, following some days of rioting by Jerusalem Arabs, who predominantly hold Israel citizenship, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said:

“Israeli Arab rioters cannot on the one hand throw petrol bombs and rocks, destroy property and call for the destruction of the state, and on the other hand enjoy the benefits of child allowance and National Security Insurance payments.”

Hundreds upon hundreds of Israeli Arabs have now been arrested by Israeli police for participating in violent confrontations; these may well have jeopardized all their state benefits, especially in light of Netanyahu’s November 7 instructions to the interior ministry to evaluate the rescinding of citizenship for those convicted of violent offenses against the state of Israel.

Despite Palestinian eagerness to live within Israel’s borders, primarily in order to receive state benefits, which no other Arab population in the world enjoys, a multitude of those to whom Israel has granted citizenship and equal rights—approximately 1.2 million at this time of writing—cheer and celebrate whenever missiles and rockets are launched at Israel. It matters not whether the death raining from the skies came from Iraq during the reign of the late Saddam Hussein, or most recently from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, or from Hizb’allah terrorists in Lebanon, or whether it comes from the Jihadists now fighting against Bashar Assad in Syria, or from any one of a hundred other Jew and Israel-hating Islamic groups. Many Israeli Arabs openly admit that they want to see Israelis suffer and die; hundreds will hand out candies, dance in the streets and on their rooftops when disaster strikes Israelis. Readers of this blog would be well advised to see Chapter 2 of this writer’s book Philistine: The Great Deception for an in-depth exposé of the Arab mind and how it works.

Several times since this writer began his blog in June of this year he has endeavored to point out that Arabs live in a fantasy world. To say such a thing is in no way a racist remark, nor is it intended to demean Arabs, although those who do not understand the Arab mentality are sure to think those thoughts and label this writer a racist, someone who hates Arabs. The truth of the matter is, as has been stated, Arabs live in a fantasy world; it is a world where imagination and hate far outweigh fact and reality. Arabs who have read this writer’s book Philistine: The Great Deception tend to giggle over some things that describe their fantasy world.

Thus, we have ever increasing violence that began with the horrible murder of Abu Khdeir, which the Arabs patently feel is justified in order to avenge the Khdeir’s killing. When it is pointed out that three Israeli teenagers were brutally murdered by Palestinians beforehand, the Arabs say that it never happened, that it was merely a story made up by Israelis. This is merely an example of Arabs living in a fantasy world where imagination outweighs fact and reality.

Israeli police are having to contend with rioting mobs of Israeli Arabs who do not just throw rocks that can split heads open, take out a person’s eye, or break bones, but they also throw firecrackers that can cause blindness, petrol bombs and pipe bombs that can kill or critically injure. Three Palestinians have been shot and killed when Israeli police have feared for their lives, and each death launches another avalanche of violence and hatred. Violence breeds violence. The Arabs hold to the story, which is repeated ad infinitum, that those Arabs who have been killed were shot and killed by Israelis in cold blood without provocation. Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), president of the PA (Palestinian Authority) is egging the demonstrators on by saying that “the innocent victims” of Israeli brutality are “martyrs” for the cause of Palestine.

On October 29 a Palestinian, Mu’ataz Hijazi, a member of the Islamic Jihad terror group who was employed by Israelis in a restaurant at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, shot Rabbi Yehuda Glick four times at point-blank range, critically wounding him. Glick had just given a speech at the center and Hijazi told Glick that he did not agree with what he had said. So, the Palestinian did his best to murder him. It never ceases to amaze this writer that when a Japanese man loses face he kills himself, but when an Arab loses face he kills someone else.

The day following the shooting of Rabbi Glick a police anti-terror unit, acting on information supplied by the General Security Service, shot and killed Hijazi after the unit surrounded the building he was in and called on the terrorist to come out. In response to that request

Hijazi opened fire and was killed in an exchange of fire with the Israeli security forces. A motorcycle, used by Hijazi to flee the scene after shooting Glick, was found next to the house. Hijazi was a released prisoner who had served time in jail for terror activities. Glick, aged 50, still remains in a very serious, but stable condition at Sha’are Zedek hospital in Jerusalem. Doctors say he is progressing, but that his life is still in danger.

Abu Mazen’s (Mahmoud Abbas) Fatah movement called for a “Day of Rage” on Friday, the day following the shooting of Hijazi. The head of Fatah in Jerusalem said that to every response by the Israelis, there is a counter response by the Palestinians.

In a condolence letter sent by Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) to Hijazi’s family on November 1, Abu Mazen declared that Hijazi would go to heaven as a martyr:

“With anger, we have received the news of the vicious assassination crime committed by the terrorists of the Israeli occupation army against son Mu’ataz Ibrahim Khalil Hijazi, who will go to heaven as a martyr defending the rights of our people and its holy places.”

Killing a would-be murderer is a “vicious assassination”? With such legitimacy and praise given to terrorists by Abu Mazen, the leader of the Palestinians and Israel’s supposed “peace partner,” what chance is there for peace ever alighting in the region and finding a foothold? Abu Mazen does not want peace, he wants Israel out of the Middle East and will take every opportunity to stir up violence against Israel because he knows that the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel international community, along with the United Nations, will work with him for Israel’s demise. With Abu Mazen as Israel’s “peace partner” this post apparently belongs under the title, Peace: the road that leads to war.

On the shooting of Rabbi Glick by Hijazi, Hamas’s armed wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, welcomed the shooting and said that Jerusalem will be the trigger for “the battle of liberation.” Abu Obaida, spokesman for the Izaddin al-Qassam, said in a statement: “We salute the sacred hands that pulled the trigger of dignity and fired the bullets of revenge toward the Zionist criminal.” Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Abu Mazen’s Fatah are all all calling for an intensification of the violence against Israel.

In the past three weeks (at the time of writing on November 9) there have been three terror attacks against Israelis by Palestinians using cars and and a van to ram into crowds waiting at the stations of Jerusalem’s light rail—four Israelis have died and more than two score have been wounded. Also, three Israeli soldiers standing on the side of the road near the Palestinian city of Ram’allah were deliberately struck by a van and seriously injured. Police later found the van; some time later the police apprehended the driver and he is now in custody.

The spate of vehicle attacks is the new form of “suicide attack;” those carrying out the attacks do not expect to live—police shot and killed the three terrorists who drove into the crowds waiting for the light rail. Islamic Jihad official Fouad Al-Razam said that the fourth vehicle terror attack in Jerusalem “brought back prestige and honor to the Palestinian people.” Hamas and Palestinian leaders are calling for all Palestinians with vehicles and heavy machinery to carry out attacks against Israel. Obviously, there will be more terror attacks and Israeli security forces will have to take forceful action to put this violent outbreak down. Palestinian and Iranian leaders are attempting to ignite a third intifada by calling repeatedly for Palestinians to confront Israel with guns and violence. The situation today is such that every Palestinian with a vehicle is a potential terrorist and could strike without a moment’s notice. Concrete barricades are being placed around the most popular bus and light rail stations in order to give some semblance of security to travelers.

Israeli cars, vans, buses, and the light rail cars are bing targeted daily with rocks, and occasionally a molotov cocktail (fire-bomb); 30 percent of the light rail cars are out of commission due to the damage they have sustained. Cars, whose windshields are smashed by rocks, sometimes go off the road; women and children are being injured by the rocks, some seriously.

On November 7 police say they went to the Israeli Arab town of Kafr Kanna in the Galilee to arrest 22-year-old Khdeir Hamdan on suspicion that he threw a stun grenade at police. Police say that Hamdan attacked them with a knife and was shot by a policeman and who later died of his wounds. An edited video of the purported incident shows Hamdan trying to break windows in a police car with something long that looked like a knife, before running off. A policeman quickly exits the car and shoots Hamdan who is next seen writhing on the ground before being dragged to a police van. The video does not appear to sustain the police version of events that they fired warning shots into the air. An investigation has been ordered into the incident and police chief Yohanan Danino has called for an emergency meeting on the situation. The shooting of the young man has ignited riots in the Arab Israeli town; and if the investigation shows that he was shot while running away and no warning shots were fired, the rioting in the Galilee is going to get a lot worse. Unfortunately, Israel’s security forces are not staffed by angels; when a police officer does act against established orders it is usually the Israeli populace that has to pay the piper.

Meanwhile, dozens of students gathered outside Tel Aviv University demonstrating against what they termed “the desecration of the holy sites,” which was a reference to recent incidents at the Temple Mount that involved the al-Aqsa mosque. Some 100 plus demonstrators held a similar protest at Haifa University, calling for a third intifada.

The ongoing and expanding violence is beginning to take its toll on some nerves. Cracks are appearing in Netanyahu’s governing coalition. On November 6, amid Israeli Arab riots in Jerusalem neighborhoods and following three terror attacks in the state’s capital, Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party, made a petty verbal attack upon the government of which he himself is a part. Bennett said that the government had “no right to exist” if it could not ensure security in its capital. “A government that does not know how to regain deterrence and sovereignty and provide security for its citizens in their capital does not have a right to exist,” he said. Bennett expects to garner the number two spot in any government formed following the next elections.

Almost every politician in Israel wants to be prime minister—each one knows more than the incumbent prime minister. And almost every European politician knows far more than any Israeli leader about what is needed to bring peace between Israel and the Arabs. So, let all the wannabe prime ministers and the know-it-all Europeans sort it all out, and then hold them responsible for the chaos they will create.

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