Today has seen at least another two episodes in the ongoing assault on Jews in their historic homeland of Israel, as a Palestinian mob torched the Jewish holy site of Joseph's Tomb (or according to CNN, it just "caught fire"), and a jihadist posing as a photographic journalist stabbed an IDF soldier in Hebron.
These acts and the others that have preceded them in recent days have been inspired by religious clerics issuing religious decrees which have been taken up by devoutly religious Muslims. And yet still we have been forced to read tiresome pieces in the mainstream media which don't mention any of this, and which push neutralised platitudes about "violence increasing" in the region, as if "violence" has just sort of happened of its own accord, or as if it is generally two-way violence, when it is in fact a surge of murderous terror attacks by one side only.
That's why it was refreshing to read this honest, informed take on the matter by Richard L. Cravatts over at The Times of Israel. Confirming my recent observations about the Arab-Israeli conflict here, Cravatts delves into the Hamas charter and the Islamic ideology of the Palestinians to demonstrate that these attacks are about religion, and not about land or about "resistance" to any kind of occupation.
As Cravatts correctly points out, the recent wave of attacks owes a lot to the constant conspiracism that Muslims have always directed towards Jews. In this case, the conspiracy theories arise from "systematic and mendacious incitement regarding the Temple Mount - incitement by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and the Islamic Movement in Israel," in the words of Israeli PM Netanyahu.
This conspiracy-mongering is a constant of Islamic history. Just a few examples:
- In the earliest Islamic sources, the Jews who lived at the time of Muhammad are depicted over and over again as malevolent schemers, outwardly offering polite greetings to Muslims while inwardly subtly cursing them. This culminates in the allegation that after the Muslims attacked and conquered the Jews of the Khaybar oasis (628 AD), one of the vanquished Jews is supposed to have served Muhammad poisoned meat, leading ultimately to his drawn-out, painful death (Sahih Bukhari v.3, b.47, no.786).
- Early Sunni Muslim legend, as articulated, for example, by the Muslim historian Tabari (d.923) holds that Abd Allah b. Saba, a Yemenite Jew, was responsible for deliberately fomenting the schism between Sunnis and Shi'ites as part of a ploy to destroy Islam.
- In thirteenth-century Iraq, after a Jew named Sa‘d ad-Daula was made a high-ranking official by the Mongol emperor Arghun, a wave of false allegations were made against him by Muslims hostile to the appointment of a Jew to a senior position, including claims that Sa‘d had advised Arghun to cut down trees in Baghdad and use them to build a fleet to attack Mecca and convert the Kaa‘ba (the holiest place and structure in Islam) into a heathen temple. These accusations led to the execution of Sa'd and the arrest and murder of many other Jews in the region.
- In the 1920s, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, successfully incited pogroms of Jews in Hebron by claiming that a Jewish religious gathering near the Western Wall was actually part of a plot by the Jews to take over Muslim holy sites.
- In the modern day, Muslim conspiracism leads to enemies of Israel making the most ridiculous accusations that the Jewish state is using various animals as spies and weapons against innocent, oppressed Muslims.
As Cravatts observes, there can only be one inevitable outcome to all of this:
It is no surprise that in a culture marinated in Jew-hatred, where Jews are debased, portrayed as a subhuman species, bacteria, a disease, fomenters of wars and strife - in fact, are portrayed as the enemies of Allah and mankind - the extermination of Jews, especially in defense of Islam and its holy places, would therefore become not only a reasonable goal but a desired outcome. Who would not murder Jews if they pose such threats to mankind and Islam specifically? Who would ever make peace with the eternal enemies of Allah, let alone negotiate a peace and borders for a new Arab state with them? And would not those jihadis who willingly sacrifice themselves to murder Jews in the name of Allah be celebrated as shahids, martyrs, and have town squares and summer camps named for them and their bravery, exactly as they are by Palestinian leadership now?
If Jews are the most wretched of humans, and the “liberation” of all of Palestine - including the Temple Mount, including Jerusalem, including all of Israel - is considered a sacred duty and religious obligation, then the murder of Jews must, and will, continue in this millennial apocalyptic struggle in which devote [sic] Muslims see themselves playing a central role.
Do be sure to read the whole article.
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