There is ongoing incitement by radical Muslims and their supporters against Israel, using lies and deception to implement the concept of jihad—against “infidels” in general and the Jews in particular.
Recently, there has been a confluence of several factors that gave state sponsor of terror Iran and its proxy, Hamas, the miscalculated incentive to rally their oblivious supporters to try to liquidate the state of Israel and gain power.
The initial excuse for the Arab confrontation in Jerusalem involves two big lies:
- “The Jews decided to evict innocent Palestinians from their homes in Jerusalem.” The fact is that this dispute, surrounding the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, is related to a long-standing refusal of four Arab squatter families to pay rent to their Jewish landlords. This case was deliberated in the Israeli courts for many years, and now it seems that the courts, which had already ruled in the past to recognize the Jews’ ownership of the houses in question, clarified that the Arab tenants’ refusal to pay rent is against the law. There is a pending Supreme Court decision on whether the squatters should be removed,
- “The Israel Police decided to attack peaceful Muslim worshipers on Temple Mount.” The fact is that following violence by some radical Muslims and by a few radical Jews, Arab-Palestinian agitators and Hamas-supporters amassed firebombs, firecrackers and rocks on the Temple Mount and in the Al-Aqsa mosque, and used them to attack the Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall Plaza, about 70 feet below them. The police had to enter the Temple Mount complex in order to stop these terror attacks and riots, which spilled over into other locations in Jerusalem and other cities around the country.
Hamas gave an ultimatum to Israel on May 10 to leave the Temple Mount and Sheikh Jarrah, and release by 6 p.m. all Arab rioters who were caught and arrested. Israel ignored this insane ultimatum, and Hamas started a massive assault on Jerusalem and other Israeli locations, launching multiple rockets from within its own civilian population at Israeli population centers.
The terrorist organization that rules Gaza was hoping to involve even more of the brainwashed Arab citizens of Israel and many of their international supporters. Unfortunately, even many media outlets fell prey to these maliciously calculated terror waves.
Civilian casualties are horrible, but they’re even worse when caused by the malicious calculations of a terror organization that planned to create this human disaster. Some of the casualties were incurred despite Israel’s defensive efforts to destroy Hamas’s rocket launchers and other terrorist infrastructure. In addition, many Palestinian casualties were caused by misfired rockets aimed at Israeli civilians.
Encouraged, incited and financed by Iran, Qatar, Turkey and others, Hamas was also emboldened by the following:
- The complications surrounding the formation of a coalition in the wake of the March 23 Knesset elections led to the assumption that the Israeli government was weak and that it can be exploited.
- The right- and left-leaning Israeli parties tried to enlist one of the anti-Zionist Arab parties in the effort to form a coalition. This empowered some in the Arab sector who were hoping eventually to be able to control the Israeli government the way that Hezbollah controls Lebanon. Others wanted to prevent any collaboration between Jews and Arabs, as they were hoping to continue to exploit the hostility for their nefarious agendas.
- The new American administration, which unfortunately includes some vicious anti-Israel and anti-Semitic politicians, appeared to be very weak, as it gave in to Arab-Palestinian demands, allowing the reopening of the PLO offices in Washington and the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars, without making either conditional on stopping incitement in schools and the media; ceasing payments to terrorists and their families; and dismantling their terror infrastructure. In addition, the U.S. has allowed the transfer of billions of dollars to Iran, as it is trying to return to the irrational nuclear deal. This despite the fact that Tehran didn’t live up to any of its previous agreements; continued efforts to build nuclear weapons; and continues to support terrorism all over the world, and in the Middle East in particular. The combination of these political moves gave the impression to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority that the new U.S. administration would be less willing to support American’s long-standing loyal ally: Israel.
- Hamas was very upset with the P.A. over leader Mahmoud Abbas’s cancelation of the legislative elections that were supposed to take place at the end of May. The self-serving, corrupt Abbas and his cronies, who were elected to serve for four years, are still in power after more than 15. They were afraid that if they went for elections, Hamas would emerge victorious, the way that they did in 2006 in Gaza. The unrest that the group incited in Israel was an opportunity to show the residents of the P.A. that Hamas is their true leader.
As of today, even after launching well more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli civilians, Hamas (as well as the Arab-Israeli rioters) are miscalculating Israel’s resolve to stop terrorism and restore law and order in the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people for the benefit of all its citizens.
Hopefully, Hamas, the rioters and their supporters will realize that their violence will not enable them to destroy Israel. Once they realize this, hopefully, peaceful coexistence can be achieved among Jews, Arabs and all other peace-loving individuals.
Dr. Shmuel Katz was born in Hungary, raised in Israel. served as an officer in the Six-Day War, gained extensive trauma experience during the Yom Kippur War, is double-boarded in surgery, a fellow of the Israeli Surgical Society and of the American College of Surgeons and other medical societies. He is on the board of many pro-Israel organizations.