What makes a 'right wing activist'?

What does it take to be labeled a 'right wing activist'? Radical ideas? Hardliner beliefs? Violence? 

In the case of Rabbi Yehuda Glick, it seems a long beard and a yarmulke were enough.

On Wednesday last week Rabbi Yehuda was shot four times by an Arab terrorist at close range in Jerusalem. He was badly wounded. As I was writing these lines, he was operated four times, and now, it seems, he's recovering. The media, reporting on the (political) assassination attempt was quick to label Glick 'a right wing activist', as if explaining to the readers: "this is all his fault, the poor Arab terrorist had no choice". But is it fair to label Glick thus? Let's look at the facts, and examine his actual activity.

Photo from Yehuda Glick's official Facebook page.

Yehuda Glick advocates for the right of Jews to visit and pray on the holiest place for Jews - The Temple Mount. As it currently stands  Jews are allowed to visit the sacred site only a number of hours a day, excluding Fridays. Saturdays and Muslim Holidays. They, much like the tourists, can enter the Mount from one specific entrance alone, but unlike the tourists they are subjugated to meticulous security checks to make sure they're not carrying any Judaic items. They are also strictly forbidden from praying, and are usually accompanied by a Jordanian Waqf member, who makes sure they don't even mutter anything or appear to be praying at heart.

Let me repeat that: Jews are not allowed to pray in the holiest place for Jews in the Jewish state. Most of the time they're not even allowed in. Furthermore, the single entrance allowed to Jews is often closed depending solely on the mood of the Arabs (1, 2, 3, 4).

Apartheid, anyone?

The Arabs, who also claim The Mount to be a (third most) holy place to them, on the other hand are free to enter the Mount from any entrance at any time. Entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, that are located there, is barred from all non-Muslims. This discriminatory status-quo is kept in order to "keep the peace" and to "avoid provocation". Many believe in all seriousness that this is "the most inflammable / explosive / tense place in the Middle East / the entire world" and that "it would start for sure The Third Intifada / World War III" (!). The moronic notion the Second Intifada started because of then PM Ariel Sharon's visit to The Temple Mount (!) still prevails in the Israeli mainstream.

These absurd claims are, of course, overblown beyond belief. No serious comparative, academic study can actually compare or connect The Temple Mount, and the violence it might have "ignited", to the rivers of blood being spilled right now in the Middle East, let alone the world. No sane person would ever buy into the "it's all Sharon's visit's fault". Still, if IQ isn't your top feature, there is now a multitude of evidence revealing Yasser Arafat's careful pre-planning of the Intifada (1, 2). And yet, Israeli governments tiptoe around the Temple Mount issues, perpetuating both the racist and the religious discrimination against its own people. Status Quos seem to be an addiction.

By the way, if you support these Status Quos, you're either: A. An Anti-Semite - believing a "Judenrein" policy is the best way for peace. B. A racist - "understanding" and thus - enabling and encouraging senseless and violent Arab behavior, the likes of which you wouldn't tolerate from anyone else on the planet. C. Both.

Congrats!

In the meantime Arabs destroy archaeological relics in their "holy site", pile garbage at their "holy site", allow kids to play soccer at their "holy site", stockpile rocks and fireworks to riot violently and attack Jews with inside their "holy site".

The sad state of things at the Muslim administered "holy site".

In the meantime that infamous, much feared "Third Intifada" is already raging for months in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. No matter how silent will the media be, or what euphemisms will it come up with to describe the situation, forgetting that "Intifada" is in itself a euphemism for "terror war".

As Churchill is commonly paraphrased:
"You were given the choice between war and dishonor.
You chose dishonor and you will have war."

So coming back to my original question and to Rabbi Yehuda Glick. What was he doing to deserve 4 bullets? Was he indeed a "right wing radical"? Was he indeed "provoking" the Muslims? Was he "inflaming" the entire Middle East, as all the radical Muslim Facebook pages shout, and the "liberal" media cheerfully repeats? Was he, perhaps, calling to destroy the Muslim holy sites and replace them with Jewish ones? Was he indeed "the most dangerous man in the Middle East"(!) ?

A photo taken from a radical Islamic Facebook page.
Tagline says in broken Hebrew: "Death to you soon".

Not at all. Not even close. His message is a message of peace, coexistence and unity. Just check the videos below. This has always been his message both in Hebrew and in English. Even those videos on YouTube with incitement in Arabic over them prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Yehuda is a man of peace. A Human Rights activist advocating for freedom of religion, not a "right wing activist".

He, on the other hand, was often a victim on The Temple Mount of verbal and often physical abuse.

Rabbi Yehuda Glick. Judge for yourselves.

Furthermore, Rabbi Yehuda is as apolitical a person as one could get. He never goes into any of the issues I described above. He always makes it his point not to pass judgement on any politicians or any government decisions. In one of the Temple Mount conventions he arranged, that I visited (a convention much like the one after which he was shot), some of the speakers were, for example, quick to call for the resignation of the Internal Security Minister, in light of the growing and violent unrest in the capital. Not so Yehuda. He publicly pronounced in the very beginning of the conference he has no criticism to pass on any politician, nor on the work of the police. Just a deep belief that All is One and a dream of a Prayer House for All Nations, a center for all monotheistic religions.

Rabbi Glick's ideology put to practice on The Temple Mount.
Sharing a prayer with the Muslims in Arabic and later in Hebrew in good spirits.

And this is, of course, the reason he was targeted by the radical Islamists. Not because he's a radical, but because he's a moderate. Because he's the epitome of moderation. And that's scary to the Arab extremist. That is much more dangerous to the radical, militant Islam than any far-right oponent, because The Temple Mount must remain a "scary" place for the Jews. Rabbi Yehuda is bringing the Temple Mount to the mainstream consciousness of the Jewish people, where it belongs, and he does it without violence or extremism. And if that happens, if The Temple Mount will return to the mainstream of the Jewish people, the entire "indigenous Palestinian" narrative will collapse as the fallacy that it is.

Glick's humorous reaction to a shoe, thrown at him by a Muslim woman on The Temple Mount.

And that's what it's all about. This is why the enemy positions The Temple Mount as the heart of the conflict and gives it so much weight in their propaganda. We, the "enlightened" and the "civilised" in Israel and in the West, can fool ouserves that it's about the "67 borders", or "the occupation", or "the two state solution", or whatever. It's not. It's time for all to realize, The Temple Mount is not a sideline issue for the fanatic and religious, but the very heart of our national conflict.

As a Western, liberal, atheist, I'd like to add that I would expect my country, as a free, democratic country that it is, to equate this religious site to all other religious site, of which our tiny land has an abundance of. No reason whatsoever to treat The Temple Mount with "special needs". Visiting hours should be, if not the same then, similar to the visiting hours of the Jewish Western Wall or the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Access should be opened to all without exception, like it is on the Jewish Western Wall or the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Finally, a site so obviously filled with history, should have archaeological works on it 24/7. 

Those of you who pray, pray for Rabbi Yehuda Glick's speedy and full recovery.

Those of you who don't, keep using your brains.

Yours truly at The Temple Mount earlier this year. 

A "right wing provocation", isn't it?

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History as farce

In 2002 Israel had to stop the, so called, "Second Intifada" - a bloody, terror war, waged against all Israelis by suicidal Arab terrorists. Israel launched operation Defensive Shield in the Arab towns and cities of Judea and Samaria. The operation along with the construction of the Security Barrier were eventually successful. Suicide bombings were practically entirely stopped. During the operation a tough battle took place in the, so called, "refugee camp" - really, a town just like any other, of Jenin. The Arabs made a huge international media uproar, claiming a "genocidal massacre" took place in the town, with the IDF "slaughtering" some 500 unarmed people. A propaganda "documentary" was even made by a prominent, successful Israeli Arab actor Mohammad Bakri, and naturally became a hit in film festivals.

The UN took the cries of the "oppressed, occupied Palestinians" very seriously and launched an investigation. The results? The claims of "massacre" turned out to be "slightly" exaggerated; 52 Arabs, not 500, were killed, most of them gunmen. Israel lost 23 soldiers in that battle, if anyone cares.

In 2008 Israel had to stop an increasing barrage of rockets, fired at Israeli civilian population from the Gaza strip. Israel launched operation Cast Lead to block the terrorist shelling on its villages, towns and cities. With the highest death toll since The Six Day War, the media uproar was higher than ever. Yet another UN Fact Finding mission was erected. Its conclusions, known as The Goldstone Report, were an absolute PR catastrophe for Israel, suggesting both parties might be guilty of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.

Alas, to the dismay of the Antisemites all over the world, Judge Richard Goldstone publicly retracted his report two years later, especially those parts vilifying Israel.

And now it's 2014, and it's rockets from Gaza again, this time with terror tunnels, and it's operation Protective Edge. It's seems the operation is already practically over, but the death toll is alredy higher than that of Cast Lead. The Arabs with the omnipresent help of the bleeding hearts both from Israel and outside of it, are already drafting their statements, collecting their "evidence" and preparing the ground busily for their next day in court.

More than 1,800 Gazans were killed by the time I was typing these lines. Leading news outlets from all over the world claim that more than 80% of these victims are civilians, which immediately paints Israel as a bloodthirsty, trigger-happy monster in the eyes of the everyman. The world media is quick to take the word of official Gazan bodies on the matter, bodies with fancy, important-sounding names like "The Gaza Health Ministry" and "Gazan police". Both of these bodies are under the jurisdiction of... You got it! Hamas!

Your local media is cheerfuly citing Hamas as a credible sourse! Terror group Hamas, in case you were wondering, isn't exactly known for its truthfullness and honesty.

"The Independent" is independent from objectivity.

Now, lets play along for a second with the "official" data from Gaza, and assume it is actually accurate.

First of all, even with the ratios presented by Hamas, Israel would do better than the apparent norm of warfare.

Now, if indeed the goal of Israel was to "slaughter as many Gazans" as the Arab-leftist coalition tries to convince you, then the IDF, with its advanced weapons and powerful building-destroying missiles is not doing a very good job at all, is it? With the operation continuing for almost a month now, Israel's weapons in densely populated areas (and we've all heard the shameless "Gaza - the most densely populated city in the world lie"!), could achieve this amount in less than a day. In fact, the numbers presented by Gaza unwittingly prove Israel's restraint and care for civilian life. Don't get me wrong, every civilian casualty is a tragedy, and every Israeli would agree with me. But, here you have a country that's breaking world records in the extremes it takes to prevent the loss of civilian life, against an enemy that deliberately uses civilians as human shields, that considers every civilian death a victory to parade in front of the cameras.

If we take for granted Hamas data, then the unfortunate death of some 1,440 civilian casualties in an entire month of fighting is an astonishing, admirable, achievement of humanity on the part of the IDF.

Now, lets look at some more credible data. Until the fighting isn't completely over, we won't have fully accurate data, of course, but some agencies have already tried to name the dead. And I'm not talking about Israeli sources, don't jump! First, there's Al Jazeera, the well-known Arabic news outlet, and then there's The Palestinian Centre For Human Rights. Al Jazeera belongs to Qatar, that among other terrorist groups also funds Hamas, and the The Palestinian Centre For Human Rights... well, is just that. Not exactly "Zionist propaganda mouthpieces", are they? Now if you use the futuristic, unbelieavable, undoubtedly unavailable to any self-respecting, liberal journalist, tool of Excel, like the excellent team of CAMERA did, on the casualties names and ages presented by these bodies, you will notice a number of interesting patterns.

A graph of the male fatalities by age. The x axis is age, the y axis is the number of fatalities at the corresponding age. Graph produced by www.camera.org.

For example that fascinating jump in the number of male casualties, when they reach 17 that goes strong all the way to 39, when statistically this demographic numbers roughly 16% of the strip's population. Female casualties number less than 10% of all casualties, while they're roughly half of Gazan population. Teens under 17 and children represent about 20% of casualties. A tragedy, no doubt, but it is important to remember that in reality kids make up almost half of the population of Gaza.

Statistics on Palestinian society taken from the 'Palestinians at the end of 2013' report, 

produced by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. 

Now, while this analysis doesn't necessarily prove that the large chunk of young, able men of combat age are all terrorists, it certainly proves beyond a reasonable doubt Israel does NOT fire indescriminately and does NOT commit genocide. It also certainly raises way more than just a reasonable doubt on the "80% civilians" claim.

They say, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. If The Goldstone Report was a tragedy (and for Israel, it certainly was), then this impending future International Investigation into "Israel's crimes" by all means will be a farce, and first and foremost a farce for the UN, who once again allowed itself to be fooled by the "Palestinian Cause".

If useful idiots would ever use their brains, they wouldn't have been useful idiots.

Use your brains! Don't be a useful idiot!

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"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"? Think again!

On thursday night three Israeli teens went missing on their way back from school in Judea and Samaria. It was pretty clear from the very beginning they were kidnapped by Arab terrorists. Today it's known for a fact. Now whether it's Hamas or Fatah (under their new, whitewashed name "The Palestinian Authority"), their main bodies or some rogue factions, or indeed some completely different Islamic insanity group, is of absolutely no importance. Security importance, sure (where to look, who to press, who to arrest, etc.), but not political. Even less political importance should be given now, when the new "wonderful unity of the 'Palestinian' people" government emerged.

In the meantime the only thing more deafening then the initial world media silence was the vile Anti-Israeli framing of the incident that followed. "What? Three Israeli kids have been kidnapped by terrorists, how can they possibly present it in an Anti-Israeli light?!" - you'll probably think. Well, the leading news outlets had managed to do just that. Whether by focusing on the IDF search and the measures it has to take to try and locate the kids like the BBC did, or making sure everyone knows the teens are not just innocent, kidnapped human beings but are first of all "settlers" like The Guardian and The Independent did (regardless of your stand on the disputed Judea and Samaria territories, technically only one of the three teens lives beyond the Green Line), or unmistakably recognizing "the cause of the destabilization of the Israeli-Palestinian relations" like the NY Times did.

With such disgusting attempts to manipulate reality, I wonder when was the last time these "progressive, liberal, freedom championing" newspapers blamed rape victims for "dressing up provocatively" and "asking for it"!

The kidanpping crisis and the media's treatment of it, has brought me to analyze the cliché phrase from the headline of this post. It has turned into one of those idiotic aphorisms, that insufferable know-it-alls throw at you every now and then with a calm, smug expression of an enlightened guru. Well, guess what? They're dead wrong! Legitimate resistance fighters fight the oppressive mechanisms, i.e. the armed forces of the occupier, just like the Jewish resistance groups fought the British occupying forces at the dawn of the state of Israel. Legitimate resistance fighters don't target civillians deliberately, just like the Jewish resistance groups didn't when they fought the British armed forces for the Israeli independence. Want to be called legitimate "freedom fighters"? Be my guest, attack army bases and police stations! You'll still be my enemy, and I'll hate you, but at least when the "pro-peace" world media would call you "resistance", I wouldn't need to fight a gag reflex. Want to kidnap innocent teenagers, on their way back from school, cheer and give out candies for their abduction and start a vile, gloating celebration campaign on the social media to "honor" it? Think again! You're nothing, but a filthy, terrorist scum!

And you'll ask me: "So, you acknowledge the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit was a legitimate act of resistance?"

And I'll tell you: The act itself, if could be viewed as a stand alone act, all by itself, could be called a legitimate resistance act. Unfortunately, the Shalit abduction didn't take place in a vacuum, but in the real world. The gang who took Shalit, the Al-Qassam Brigades, is the military wing of Hamas. They are the same people who for a decade targeted Israeli civillians with missiles, and for two decades exploded Israeli buses and restaurants. If Shalit's abductors were to differ themselves from the rest of the terrorists, perform operations exclusively against the military and condemn their fellow Arabs for the attacks on civillian population - we'd have an armed resistance group. Since obviously nothing of the sort ever happened, the Shalit abduction can't be put in a vacuum, and is an act of terror. In fact, today the IDF fights nothing but terror - there are no legitimate Arab resistance groups.

Got the difference?

Good! Keep using those brains!

P.S.

The "Bring Back Our Boys" social media campaign is touching and heartwarming. However, I don't believe it to be useful. If anything it can do more harm than good. No terrorist would ever be dissuaded or convinced to bring the boys back because of the campaign. If anything, the opposite is right. They'd get reaffirmation to hold them for as long as possible, and encouragement to demand as many murderers in return for them as possible. It's hard to believe citizens of the world would be persuaded as well. After all they have such "objective and unbiased" media to inform them. So, what can a simple citizen, who wants to raise awareness to these tragic events, do? Here's an alternative. All those of you who do social media and care, share the hashtag #AbbasIsHamas. It's simple, informative and non-emotional. Hamas is recognised as a terror organization in most of the Western world, in Egypt as well. Help expose the world to the true nature of the "wonderful Palestinian unity government". Thank you!

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Jerusalem Day - Who's the real occupier?

The mainstream media will tell you a bizarre story about Israel "occupying" places called "The West Bank" and "East Jerusalem" in 1967. It'll tell you this story with a straight face, without blinking once. Not for a second will it touch such "minor" details like, west of what is this "West Bank" to be called thus, or whom did Israel "occupy" these places from? Nor will it naturally, mention the "West Bank's" historic names - Judea and Samaria. If it did, a significant percentage of viewers might have actually risen an eyebrow, because the idea of JEWS "occupying" a place called JUDEA sounds a little bit weird.

The real story, however, is surprisingly simple and quite recent:

1. In 1947 the UN issued the Partition Plan for The British Mandate of Palestine to divide it into two separate states: A Jewish one and an Arab one.

*Notice how it was perfectly clear to all just a few years back, that Jews ARE a people, treated in the same context as the Arabs, unlike what some post-modern "thinkers" will tell you today. 
Notice also there's no mention of a "Palestinian" people, only an Arab people. Instead, Palestine is mentioned simply as a geographical region.

2. The Jews said "Yes!", the Arabs said "No!".

3. The Jews went on to establish an independant state in 1948 in what little was given to them. The Arabs attacked the tiny, newborn Jewish state with overwhelming powers of 5 Arab countries.

4. The Arabs, to their great surprise, lost (bringing upon themselves their infamous "Naqba", but that's a different story altogether). That first war of self-defence ended in 1949, with Israel prevailing and improving its border position.

5. Jordan ended up occupying the "West Bank" in that war of Arab aggression (hence the name, referring to it from Jordan's point of view). That occupation was almost unanimously viewed upon as illegal, even by the Arab League, since Jordan never had any legal, historical or other claim on the territory.

7. Israel was left with an indefensible border, only 9 miles long (!), so it had to go into battle once again in the triumphant Six-Day War of 1967, liberating Judea and Samaria from the illegal Jordanian occupation.

*Notice how the infamous, disputed "67 borders" from today's discourse, should actually be called the "49 borders". Or at least the "pre-67 borders".

And that's pretty much it. Jerusalem was once again, after some 2,000 years, a united capital (no such thing as "East Jerusalem", the city is united) of the Jewish people. This is the holiday of Jerusalem Day. Only the Jews, not the Arabs, were ever historically independent in Jerusalem. Only the Jews, not the Arabs, had Jerusalem for their capital. Only the Jewish Bible, not the Muslim Quran, mentions Jerusalem hundreds of times. Only the Jews prayed for "next year in Jerusalem", not the Muslims.

And yet, this Jerusalem Day, is particularly sad. To appease the Arabs control of the Temple Mount, the holiest Jewish site, was given away to Jordanian Waqf. They limit the access of non-Muslims (that includes tourists) to the site for three to four hours a day, 5 days a week, while Muslims are free to visit whenever they want. They shut the entrance to non-Muslims entirely whenever they feel like rioting, or just have a bad mood. Like today on Jerusalem Day.

And you'll ask me: "But isn't the Temple Mount sacred for the Muslims as well?" "Shouldn't they have control because of it?" "Shouldn't we respect their ancient traditions?"

1. Muslims turn their asses to Jerusalem when they pray. Their true holy city is Mecca.

2. When the latest conflict escalated they shot missiles upon their "holy city" of Jerusalem.

3. The Western Wall is sacred to the Jews, yet access is free to all. The Church of The Holy Sepulchre is sacred to the Christians, yet access is free to all. Why do you want to hold the Muslims to a different standart? Are you some kind of a racist?

This shocking video was taken only a month ago. Not 47 years ago when we didn't have Jerusalem, not 66 years ago when we didn't have a country, not 75 years ago in Europe. Now. Here. In Jerusalem. Only a month ago. A crazed, Arab mob attacks a Jewish family (with little kids). The police could hardly protect them.

Apartheid anyone?

The only way for peace, quiet, full human and religious rights to all is through full Israeli sovereignty.

Until that is realized by all, it's more like "next year in Jerusalem" all over again.

Happy holiday!

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