Terror Attack - Media Gets It Wrong

Another tragedy of terror strikes Israel. Why? The terrorist Nimer Mahmoud Ahmad Jamal, a father of four is from the Palestinian village of Beit Surik. The man is said to have had a valid work permit allowing him to enter Jewish settlements in the West Bank. 

The Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) issued a statement saying Jamal had significant personal and family problems, including a history of domestic violence. The statement added that his wife had fled to Jordan several weeks ago, leaving him to care for their four children.

Har Adar Resident Drora Bardizchev, who had employed Jamal in her home, said in an interview to a local news agency that she was shocked by the attack. She said she had enjoyed a very good relationship with him, often spending time alone with him in the house and drinking coffee together during breaks. She said the man, whom she referred to as Nimer, had been under stress in recent months due to a domestic dispute with his estranged wife. 

None of this information is reflected in the international news reports.

a) the UK  Daily Mail’s Mail Online, uses scare quotes around the words “terror attack” appearing to question whether this was actually what occurred.

b) CNN in a headline "3 Israelis killed in shooting at West Bank crossing", claims the attack took place at  a West Bank security crossing, which is not true,  rather than the entrance to a civilian community. By implying that the location was the equivalent of a border crossing or checkpoint, CNN has not only committed a factual error but has also changed the context of the attack in the mind of the reader.

c) Whilst the New York Times‘ reported the attack, including welcome context concerning the peaceful nature of the area and the coexistence between Jewish and Arab communities, both the headline and the story referred to the attack taking place at a “West Bank checkpoint.” - totally untrue

Where Do your Taxes Go? The Palestinian Terrorists of Course

In a recent MEMRI report 22 August, and following the passage of legislation in the U.S. Senate suspending aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) because of the PA's extensive support for Palestinian prisoners and the families of Palestinian "martyrs" and wounded, it is being claimed in the PA that the payments and aid given to the prisoners and the families of martyrs are the same as welfare benefits given to needy families. This argument is based on the reasoning that in both cases, the family wage earner cannot work and the family is reliant on aid.

However, a look at the payments to the Palestinian incarcerated and released prisoners and their families, and to families of martyrs and wounded clearly shows that these payments are in no way comparable to welfare allowances such as those provided to needy families.

The prisoners and released prisoners, who are considered a "fighting sector," and the families of the martyrs and wounded do not receive welfare; they are paid what is referred to as a "monthly salary" or a "monthly allowance." Needy families receive what is referred to as "monetary aid," which is paid out only every three months, or quarterly, as well as "non-monetary aid."

The payments to the prisoners and families of martyrs are much higher than those to needy families, which are paid out by the PA's Ministry of Social Development.  The maximum monthly payment to a needy family is NIS 600 shekels per family – less than US $170 – while the maximum monthly payment to a prisoner is at least 20 times higher: it exceeds NIS 12,000 – currently about US $3,340. Furthermore, the monthly payments to prisoners and their families, released prisoners, and the families of martyrs and wounded are paid out regardless of the recipient's socioeconomic situation.

Furthermore, the prisoners and released prisoners receive a monthly allowance for themselves alone, not for their families, and its level increases in direct proportion to the length of their sentence, which obviously reflects the severity of the crime for which they are serving time. Thus, the highest payments go to prisoners who are responsible for terror operations in which people were killed (above NIS 12,000 monthly). Likewise, released prisoners who were incarcerated for over a decade also receive monthly salaries.

For full report see here

Palestinian Hypocrisy? No, it’s worse, far worse!

It’s incitement to Murder!

Falseness, deceit, dishonesty, mendacity, pretense, duplicity – take your pick – can describe some of the Muslim world’s predictable knee-jerk reaction to Israel installing metal detectors placed outside at the entrance to al-Ḥaram al-Qudsī al-Šarīf, (“the Noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem”), or as referred to by Jews as the Temple Mount – but it is far worse.

It is incitement to murder and all those hypocritical counties supporting the PA’s nefarious position – it is nothing less than complicity of the same charge.

With a pretense of “holy sensitivities” – as if God; any God – would not support an action that saves lives, the PA, and their fellow merchants of death, have come up with the argument that metal detectors are “an instrument of the occupation”.

What a spurious ‘argument’; how disturbing that it finds traction with those same countries – including the PA – that have those same metal detectors to save lives at their holy shrines and sites.

Metal detectors are not political, they are devices to save lives – the lives of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and atheists, heterosexuals, gays and our animals, who are not party to politics or religion but are all equally – creatures of God.

Whether to Laugh or Cry?

Whether to laugh at the obvious stupidity of hypocritical leadership or cry at the potential tragic results, one must ask – Why the sudden outcry?

Thousands of Palestinians pass daily through metal detectors at shopping malls and state institutions, such as the Post Office, Railway Stations, the National Insurance Institute, hospitals, and medical centers. They don’t complain because they know it’s for their personal safety. If they staged such protests at any airport in the world, they would not be allowed to fly anywhere – including to Mecca on Hajj!

Yes, in Mecca, the Saudi Arabia government has made compulsory the wearing of electronic bracelets by the millions of pilgrims as a security measure.

The only reason for the outrage is another means to galvanise support to undermine Israel.  If lives are lost, they don’t care; they invite it for they are the Merchants of Death. And the audacity to assume that God supports this murderous venture and to expect countries who all have introduced these same security measures, is beyond belief.

Who among the international community are likely to sign off on this?

• Surely not the Saudis as noted above

• Surely not Bangladesh, where Security Magnetometers were placed at the entrance to the National Central Mosque in its capital Dhaka, at the end of 2016 after a terrorist attack killed 20 people.

• Surely not in India

Security Magnetometers at the entrance

to a Mosque in New Delhi, India.

• Surely not Egypt where it installed Security Magnetometers in 2016 at the mosque in Giza

• Surely not Kuwait which installed Security Magnetometers at the entrance to its mosques in 2015 and 2016 after numerous terror attacks that took place in mosques in the kingdom at that time.

• Surely not Dubai which started in 2015 to install walk-through security gates with metal detectors and CCTV at all gates with a source saying at the time:

• Surely not Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population than any other country in the world and has installed metal detectors at the entrance to a Catholic church in Jakarta to protect the lives of Christian worshipers.

• Surely not France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe and where there was no outcry when in November 2015 manual security checks for worshipers were conducted to those entering a mosque in Paris after the combined attack in the French capital in which 130 civilians were murdered.

• Surely not the USA who is trying to restrict easy entry of citizens from certain Muslim countries even entering the country.

In truth, surely not any country in the world with a responsible government.

Israel installed the Security Magnetometers at the entrance to al-Ḥaram al-Qudsī al-Šarīf or Temple Mount ONLY after two Druze Israeli policemen standing guard were shot by weapons that had been smuggled inside earlier because there were no metal detectors. The tragic result was that the policemen who were looking outward were attacked by surprise from the inside. Where is the Palestinian outcry about this MURDER or the incitement that has followed with three elderly Jewish civilians being murdered in a bloody knife attack.

Is this what the PA is asking the world to endorse – the right to murder?

Lies and Deception

The PA, Jordan and Turkey are accusing Israel of violating the status quo by installing metal detectors. This could not be further from the truth.

The Israeli government did not take the decision to install the metal detectors to alter the status quo or stop Muslims from praying; on the contrary, they took it precisely to preserve the status quo in a secure and safe environment.

Why did they protest the plan? No brainer – the Palestinians were afraid that their violence, harassment and amassing of weapons to attack Jewish visitors and police officers would be captured on camera.

It is this same thinking as to why they oppose the metal detectors – they want to be free to murder Jews.

In the same manner as measures to secure holy sites in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Indonesia, the Emirates, France and nearly everywhere in the world, it should apply no less than in Jerusalem that has built into its name – shalom and salaam – PEACE.

The world needs to bring some sanity to the PA leaders that they are not free to incite murder!