TO DISFIGURE YOUR FACES

BACKGROUND TO THE WAVE OF PALESTINIAN 'POPULAR RESISTANCE' MURDERS

As with the rest of the world, the past 30 years saw Palestinian politics increasingly driven by religious fundamentalism. All fundamentalism, be it religious, scientific, materialistic or atheistic, share a common feature. It involves the constant introduction of fresh interpretations of old obligations which adherents must comply with in order for it to maintain a core of exclusivity. In fundamentalism there is no difference between getting the latest iPad, starting to wear the veil, arguing against evolution, arguing for evolution and praying on the Temple Mount. It is all driven by the basic need of belonging to the elect, something carried over from a childhood need for parental attention - and it is equally irrational and infantile - and dangerous.

Fundamentalism saw Muslims, including increasing numbers of Palestinians embrace a religious cult which calls for death and is proud of the murders it commits - Palestinians are now ideologically closer to Daesh than to the Arab nationalism of Yasser Arafat. They can no longer conceive of Israelis as humans but dehumanizes, by dealing with a collective - the IDF soldier, the Israeli settler etc. If this only happened in Israel it would be valid to attempt justification by claiming it is due to the disgrace of occupation or the loss of 'face' through administrative detention. As it has been happening all over Islam the argument falls away. Palestinians have embraced the constantly changing, and increasingly religiously demanding, fundamentalist Islam.  

The objective of the current wave of Palestinian violence is religious and not nationalistic and all because of an event Muslims believe happened long, long ago . . . 

One night in 621 CE when Jerusalem was still under Persian rule, the Prophet Mohammed levitated from al-Masjid al-Haram (the 'Sacred Mosque') on his flying horse Blinky, to al-Masjid al-Aqsa (the 'Farthest Mosque'). He tied Blinky to the outside wall, now the Western Wall, and went up onto the mount. Showing his supremacy he was the one to lead Jesus and Moses and all the other prophets, in prayers in the al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque had originally been built by Adam, then by Abraham, Solomon and Herod - but had been destroyed. (At the time of the night journey there might have been a small synagogue on the Temple Mount but little more.) The Prophet then went to heaven by jumping from the rock of 'Dome of the Rock' fame, leaving behind a footprint which can still be seen. After having tea, he came back. Allah then blessed the precincts and this makes the Masjid al-Aqsa a holy place of prayer for Muslims.

Besides explaining the 'night trip', Surah 17 explains the sins and punishments of the Jews. The major sin of the Jews is their unwillingness to share their wealth with the suffering Palestinians. Everything they do they do for themselves, so Jews deserve to be punished by the Palestinians and so killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah (Broadcast by Hamas al-Aqsa Television, 2012). Their punishment is the disfiguring of their faces with the blade as Titus did at the time when he destroyed the al-Aqsa Mosque in 70 CE. The 'disfiguring' is not only about killing but it is about disempowering, and it is the work of Allah - for this reason the Palestinians use knifes. Stabbing one Jew with a knife takes away the power of the entire Israeli government, military, people etc.

The history of the mount according to Islam has Joseph, the son of Jacob, growing weary of hard work and hungry for the fleshpots of Egypt and he went there to do contract work. When the other Jews saw how well he was doing they also went to Egypt giving the keys of al-Aqsa to the Palestinians. The Jews, greedy for money, stayed in Egypt for 400 years working as slaves and became very wealthy until Moses made them come back. As they had bags full of money they bought all the best properties in Jerusalem and ignored the poverty of the Palestinians who had been looking after al-Aqsa. So they deserve to be killed.

Saeb Erakat, a Palestinian leader said Prime MinisterNetanyahu prevents Muslims from entering the Haram al-Sharif between 7 and 11 every day and he is saying that he will not allow ministers and MKs (members of the Knesset) to enter. But at the same time, he is allowing every other extremist to enter and pray in the al-Aqsa Mosque. The important thing about the statement is the use of two names. 'Haram al-Sharif' means 'the Sacred Sanctuary' and it came into use during the Crusades as a nationalistic battle cry. This was never popular with fundamentalists who regarded it as an 'innovation' - it wasn't in the Koran like Medina and Mekka. To give Jerusalem importance as a Palestinian nationalistic site it came back into use around 1920. In the 1980's the Palestinians started using the name al-Aqsa.

On 17 September the UN Security Council used the name 'Haram al-Sharif' after immense pressure from Jordan who had been on the on the Council 2014/2015. In general, 'al-Haram' is used to make the Temple Mount of nationalistic importance and 'al-Aqsa' to make it religiously significant. By using the term 'al-Haram al-Sharif' the UN Security Council, knowingly or not, recognized the Old City and East Jerusalem, as Palestinian territory - as it was under Jordanian rule. Erekat, in using both names, gives the Palestinian nationalistic ambitions a religious motivation to equal the claim of Israel.

Technically al-Aqsa is the mosque on the mount but in Fundamentalist Islamic religious terms, it is the entire Temple Mount area. Based on the Prophet Muhammad having fulfilled the messianic promise (according to Judaism), fundamentalist Islamic belief is currently hardening to include the right to rule Jerusalem (the Old City). The Jewish Messiach had to establish a kingdom which will consume all the evil kingdoms and stand forever, as according to Daniel 2: 44. All the Jewish rulers failed, but Muhammad succeeded and in accordance with Matthew 21: 43 he was not a Jewish 'cornerstone' - he is in Islamic understanding, if not words, the messiah. The entire Old City is therefore eternally part of an 'Islamic State' and 'defending' it is a religious obligation.

Religion needs a physical space to enact the defense of Allah. So defenders of al-Aqsa are the defenders of Allah and the mount is a sort of 'horcrux' which needs defending as it can be destroyed by 'evil' forces. Those who fall are martyrs and they will go straight to heaven and every drop of their blood is holy. In Islam, the importance of the mount is enhanced by the blood spilt fighting over it - the mount increases in holiness.

Since 1187, prayer on the Temple Mount by non-Muslims has been prohibited but in 1967 at the end of the Six Day War, Rabbi Shlomo Goren led prayers on the mount. His prayers, in Islamic pseudo-scientific religious belief, interfered like radio signals with the efficient 'radar' of Muslim prayers. The Muslims believe the twin minarets of the Mosque of Omar neutralize the prayers from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This bizarre 'science' presents a plausible reason for choosing the Twin Towers as a target - it blocked prayers from New York

When Mahmoud Abbas on 16 September 2015, 'explained' how the al-Aqsa is ours and they have no right to defile it with their filthy feet he was giving the fundamentalist 'scientific' interpretation of Sura 5: 6. Here it clearly states the face and hands must be washed and then it says; Rub your heads and your feet to the ankles. Extremists interpret it to mean, 'rub the head with water and wash the feet' even though the Koran says nothing of the sort. As extremism has grown, washing of feet has become an insane obsession. If a 'believer' touches the ground, for example on the mount, where an 'un-feetwashed' person walked, the prayers of the 'believer' is neutralized and made null and void.

After the initial 1967 spate of Jewish prayer, Moshe Dayan very quickly put a stop to it and the status quo on the mount was reaffirmed with prayer by non-Muslims prohibited. In recent years there has been a steady increase in the number of Jewish and Christian tourists who wish to pray on the Temple Mount and they quite correctly believe they do have such a right. But it is not an absolute right.

In the 'Temple Mount Case' heard in the Israeli high/supreme court in 1969, all the judges ruled Jews have the right to pray on the Temple Mount. But, the court ruled against Jews praying on the mount because of an established status quo from old (British mandate) court rulings and the principle of religious freedom not being an absolute right in a secular state. If there is a chance prayer would lead to public disorder, it is prohibited. The judgment is considered part of the Israeli 'constitution'. The permissibility of prayer is no small matter - pagan prayers outside a synagogue in Caesarea led to the 70 CE war, which destroyed the Temple.

Arab/Palestinian/Islamic groups possibly understand the high court ruling better than ultra-religious Jews. They know Jewish prayer can be prevented through public disorder. It is simple. The police are obliged to prohibit Jewish prayer on the mount, if the Arabs kill Jews.  

Judged by activity on the internet there are more people who want to kill Jews than defend them. There is little real cause for this desire but this does not curb their enthusiasm. Murdering Jews are not done in response to circumstances - it is done as soon as favorable conditions for murdering prevail. And it is not something unique to Palestinians or a recent phenomenon.

In the book of Esther everybody's life was protected by the Persians king and his soldiers. Haman received permission to remove the protection of the king from the Jews for one day - he did not get permission to use the army. He knew there were always people willing to kill Jews. All President Abbas (and the sheiks and muftis) has to do to unleash the Palestinians is to say he will not condemn those who murder - remove the moral condemnation and there will be those willing to kill Jews. Something used by Hajji Amin al-Husseini and Hitler and many others before.

The 'official' and common understanding is the attacks are carried out by 'young lone terrorists' - 'lone wolves'. This is based on the failure of older people to grasp what Facebook and other social media is all about. Terrorists with Facebook are never alone. They function within a 'community' structure and they are part of organizations. These organizations are completely invisible and use fake internet identities - there are more fakes on Facebook than real people. The largest group of internet 'friends' is operations of intelligence services of countries like Iran, Russia and Pakistan, and organizations like Daesh, Hezbollah, the PLO and al-Qaeda. They don't want money - they are phishing for minds. Western nations (and Israel) have no idea how to counter the recruitment, incitement and directing of the 'lone wolves' by these organizations.

Due to religious warping, the Palestinian leadership, and seemingly the Palestinian people, is unable to change course. By continuing their violence against Israel, they are self-destructing and will soon be irrelevant. Giving any form of encouragement to them is support for fundamentalism - and is no different than support for Daesh or Saudi Arabia. In a world fighting for freedom in the face of Islamic oppression, the fear of being politically incorrect is no longer an option so it must be said; religious rights are not absolute for the Jews or the Christians - and neither is it for Islam. In the Western world and Israel, Muslims do not have the right to murder in the name of Allah.