Wetherhorn

The Media seems full of reports on murders, assassinations, and mass killings. I’m going to focus on just part of them.

I mentioned Shireen Abu Akleb in a previous post. The main change is that CNN decided to blame Israel after an investigation that consulted ONLY proponents of the Palestinian claims. Small wonder that they concluded Israel was guilty. They weren’t alone. Al-Jazeera has done the same thing. The Israeli side has been a bit weak in responding. There will probably never be an unbiased investigation, and Israel can only report that there was no INTENTIONAL targeting of the journalist by Israeli soldiers. It also appears that the area where the lady was killed was not a focus of Israeli gunfire in response to Arab snipers, but that isn’t considered newsworthy by the big media groups. It appears they are just looking for a way to blame Israel.

The second case is of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander who was killed IN IRAN. In this case, Israel might very well have been responsible, even though there are lots of other potential suspects. Opposition to the Iranian theocracy is fairly widespread inside Iran, and American concentration on getting some kind of signed agreement is probably a false hope. There is NO guarantee that Iran would abide by the terms of a new agreement any more than she did the last. I need to point out that Iran now has sufficient high grade material to make at least one bomb, and probably a few more. The item not under discussion is how to keep that material from becoming a deliverable weapon. American discussions with other countries failed dramatically to keep them from taking such steps. North Korea is the most glaring example. But don’t forget that India and Pakistan also have nuclear weapons despite attempts by others to keep membership in the nuclear club limited.

The last item I want to discuss is “Character Assassination”. The Palestinians constantly refer to Israel as an Apartheid state. But the laws about preventing Jews from owning or buying land in Palestinian controlled areas have NO counterpart in Israel. At a recent meeting of PA Supreme Fatwa Council, led by PA Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories and Supreme Fatwa Council Chairman Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the PA reiterated that a Palestinian selling land to Jews is not only a criminal offence but also forbidden according to Shari’ah law: 

“Palestine is kharaj land (i.e., land belonging to Muslims) and a waqf (i.e., an inalienable religious endowment in Islamic law; see note below) which, according to Shari’ah law, it is forbidden to sell its lands and its properties or facilitate its transfer to enemies. This is because in terms of Shari’ah law it is considered a public Islamic property and not private property…”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 25, 2022]

After reiterating the Fatwa (i.e., religious ruling), the Head of the Supreme Muslim Council and head preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Ikrima Sabri, added what exactly would happen to those who broke the law:

“Sabri emphasized the Fatwa according to which one who sells or mediates [the sale of property to Jews] will not be buried, will not be purified, and will not be prayed for, and that whoever interacts with them is a traitor…”

 [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 9, 2022]

The “Progressive” PA government of Mahmoud Abbas modified the original Palestinian Law referring to the sale of land in 2014 by reducing the penalty (apparently mandatory) from Death to Life imprisonment at hard labor.

This is , of course, part of the attempts by Arabs to keep Jews from even visiting, much less praying, at the site of the biblical temple. The Israeli Supreme Court recently found that ANY citizen, regardless of religious beliefs, (and by extension, even tourists) can visit the location without infringing on the ‘status quo’ agreements concerning administration of the site.

As a footnote we should remember that well over 90% of the Arab residents of Jerusalem, not just those with Israeli citizenship, prefer Israeli rule to that of the Palestinian Authority.

Final note: Please remember that the Hamas party still hasn’t signed an agreement (via Egyptian mediation, because Hamas does not recognize Israel) regarding cessation of armed attacks from Gaza into Israeli territory. That border is relatively quiet, but there is no formal document covering the situation.