I did an interview with my Clarkstown High School classmate, John Sakowicz, host of KMUD’s Heroes and Patriots radio show. We discussed Israel’s judicial coup and tension it’s causing regarding Israeli government relations with the Biden administration:
Israel’s brutal attack on worshippers at the Al Aqsa mosque has one purpose, and one alone: to provoke a military response from Hezbollah and Hamas. This in turn permits Netanyahu to order Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. This series of tit-for-tat military escalations will, he believes, destroy any momentum of the pro-democracy. In other words, the Israel-provoked violence in Jerusalem is a cynical plot to diminish the overwhelming power of the millions of Israelis who oppose the coup plotters plans to eviscerate Israel’s judicial system.
Another ploy used is the promotion of the hashtag-like phrase: Achim Anachnu (“we are brothers”). This tweet is from the media advisor to Almog Cohen, one of the most vicious. violent MKs in the Knesset. It’s a naked attempt to suggest that while we may be on separate ends of the divide regarding the judicial coup, when the homeland is under attack, we must unite against the common external enemy. This is a no less cynical ploy intended to delay reckoning and obfuscate the real issue, which is the propagation of fascism in Israel.
This weekend will show whether the strategem worked. From my view of Israeli Twitter, it will fail. There is no decrease in the fervor of protestors for their cause. They see through Bibi, his lies and cynicism.
A key element in this project is Netanyahu’s use of Itamar Ben Gvir’s savage police thugs to brutally beat the worshippers and arrest hundreds of them. The police minister is Bibi’s useful idiot-terrorist. If you want to burn a house down, you need to find a man with matches. That’s Ben Gvir, burning down the house. In this sense, the inclusion of most violent, terrorist Parties in his governing coalition is useful, even indispensable to his remaining in power.
הנה מעגל הדמים והנה עוד למדינה שעושה הכל, כדי להמשיך ולייצר את אותו מעגל הדמים.
שוב ושוב.
זה מה שקורה כשנכנסים למקום הכי קדוש לעם המוסלמי ומפרקים שם את כולם במכות ומעצרים.
ומה שהכי עצוב בטמטום הזה של מדינת ישראל, משטרת ישראל וצה”ל?
שהם אשכרה חושבים שזה מרתיע מישהו (4/4) pic.twitter.com/xy6z3cUSVK— Barak Avi (@barak_a_m) April 6, 2023
זוכרים את הסרטון של “מיטב בנינו” במשטרה ובצה”ל חובטים עם אלות וקתות הרובים במתפללי מסגד אל אקצה ששוכבים על הרצפה לפני יומיים?
הנה חלק מתוצאות.
בהמשך תוכלו גם לראות סרטון הובלת 400 עצורים מאותם המתפללים, (1/4) pic.twitter.com/aBeDyYXvjH— Barak Avi (@barak_a_m) April 6, 2023
This is the image (right) to which Twitter attempts to restrict access. In all its shameful detail.
Many of you have seen the video of Border Police brutally smashing their clubs into the skulls of the worshippers. I don’t have the heart to include it here. Though if there are readers who want me to embed it here, I would consider it. I will feature images of some of those Palestinians and the injuries they sustained.
It is shameful for Twitter to slap a “sensitive content” warning on these images. They serve as critical evidence regarding events of global significance. Forcing a user to click on the screen before permitting access, only protects Israel from the outrage that its savagery elicits.
I am outraged that the US government vetoed a Security Council resolution which would have decried this naked violence. As usual, protecting Israel from accountability for its criminal behavior. Jordan’s King Abdullah, the supposed guardian of the Haram al Sharif, has been useless and spineless in offering opposition. In that sense, he’s betrayed Palestinian Muslims and all Islam. I also await even a word from the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it will advance the case against Israel for its crimes going back to the 2014 Operation Protective Edge.
It is peculiar that when the IAF bombed Lebanon it deliberately targeted empty fields and some infrastructure, avoiding populated areas. This usually means that Israel is sending a warning, while not intending to inflict real damage. Whether Hezbollah will “get the message” depends on whether Israel in turn gets the message regarding the mayhem at Al Aqsa. So far there have been two straight nights of this. If it continues, all bets are off. Then we will revert to the May 2021 massive Israeli assault on Gaza in which 250 Palestinians were murdered.
As many pro-Palestnian Twitter users have noted, global media coverage of the Al Aqsa attacks has repeatedly used euphemisms and neutral phrasing to describe them. They are not “clashes.” Israeli desecration of the holy shrine and the rivers of blood which ensue is not a “raid.” They are an invasion, a defilement, a desecration. Call things by what they are. Not with language determined by fear of offending Israel and its apologists.
Further, the notion that Israeli forces have any right whatsoever to assault Al Aqsa because of what its worshippers do inside it, is offensive. If they want to barricade themselves inside to defend it from the desecrators, that it their prerogative. Would non-Jewish thugs have any right to determine how Jews govern the Kotel? Or would they have the right to defile a synagogue on Yom Kippur by breaking into it, because Jews have locked themselves inside? The answer is obvious.
Not to mention Israel’s restrictions on access to Haram al Sharif. Muslims have the right to worship there, period. They have the right to free, unrestricted access there. Do not ever permit pro-Israel apologists to boast about freedom of religion. There is only one religion in Israel that enjoys such freedom. And it isn’t Muslims or even Christians (whose churches are under virtually constant assault).
They are not “clashes.” Israeli desecration of the holy shrine and the rivers of blood which ensue (sic) is not a “raid.”
No Richard, Israel is not trying to force a war, nor was the assault on the Al Aqsa compound a ‘pogrom’.
What happened is this.
Muslim activists over-reacted to an imagined threat of renewed animal sacrifices on the Temple Mount and barricaded themselves inside the compound.
The activists came armed with stones and fireworks and used same when Israeli police forced open the barricades.
Violence was met with violence.
The Palestinian Red Crescent in Jerusalem said at least 12 people were injured during clashes in and around the mosque, and at least three of the injured were transferred to hospital.
Two policemen were injured.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/05/middleeast/israel-al-aqsa-mosque-clash-intl-hnk/index.html
What was the Palestinian reaction to the police incursion?
Rocket fire from Lebanon and Gaza. The shooting deaths of two Jewish Israeli Jewish and the murder and injury of tourists out for a walk by the beach in Tel Aviv.
Where’s the photos of the two dead sisters or the interview with their mother, now laying injured in hospital?
I don’t understand: even if the Palestinians ‘barricaded’ themselves in al-Aqsa mosque why would the Israeli police force open the barricades. Are you telling us they wanted to pray too ?
@Deir Yassin
I don’t know why you’d make light of the violence. Innocent people are dead.
Nonetheless, I will attempt an answer.
The al-Aqsa mosque compound was barricaded by armed militants, and those barricades preventing peaceful worshippers and opportunity to go inside and pray.
Also, the police had a reasonable fear that the militants barricaded inside had fireworks and stones and were planning to use them to attack or disrupt Jewish worshippers coming to pray and celebrate their holiday at the nearby Kottel.
A cynic might say that the mosque was barricaded by the militants in order to provoke a confrontation with Israeli authorities in order to bolster the standing of Hamas.
Those Hamas rocket attacks that were launched from Lebanon were fired within 24 hours of the police ‘storming’ the al=Aqsa compound. Perhaps those rockets, which seemed to have been carefully aimed not to hit Israeli population centers in the North, were part of a carefully laid Hamas plan.
Hamas would never have spontaneously launched the rockets without having received approval from Hezbollah. Rockets require some time to prepare for firing.
:Lastly, Hezbollah is a fully committed Iranian proxy army, while Hamas and Iran frequently aid one another, especially when it suit both their interests.
A blessed Ramadan and Easter to all..
Is that the new hasbara spin: militants barracading al-Aqsa and preventing peaceful worshippers from going inside to pray ?
I’m not even going to waste my time with you, you’re clearly some hasbara-bot.
@ Jay:
Oh do spare us the concern trolling. Israelis are not “innocent.” Israel and its citizens are responsible for war crimes against Palestinians. Under international law, a people has the right of self-defense. If you murder 7 innocent Palestinians for every “innocent” Israeli then you’re getting the better end of the deal. So stop whining about whose death is innocent.
If they were barricaded (not trusting your word at all) they had every right to be. For reasons I’ve explained in other comments here.
I am so touched by your concern for the other imaginary Muslim worshippers purportedly locked out of Al Aqsa. Funny, I never heard anyone say they were denied access to the mosque. So are you claiming that the heavily armed police broke down the doors, fired tear gas & stun grenades, beat the worshippers to a pulp and arrested 400 of them, because they wanted to restore the right to worship to these imaginary Muslims denied access? You’re not really trying to say that, are you? Because if you are, you’re more a damn fool than I thought.
If the worshippers were barricaded as you claim in the mosque, how would they throw fireworks at the Jewish settlers coming not to pray, but to stake a claim of sovereignty over a Muslim holy site? There is no possible way for anyone to throw anything at anyone at the Kotel from inside the mosque. Not only that, I’ve read numerous accounts from all sides about the attacks and NO ONE has ever made your claim that they intended to attack the Kotel. You have invented that out of whole cloth.
I’m quite a cynic when it comes to anything you say. But Ben Gvir and his terror army are the ones itching for a fight.
Because you’re so attuned to the internal politics of Palestine? You know that Muslim worshippers at Al Aqsa were under the guidance of Hamas. Because Hamas is itching for another war. Not only are you delusional, you’re an ignorant fool when it comes to understanding what motivates Palestinians.
The IDF claims Hamas fired rockets from Lebanon. Pardon me. But the IDF lacks any credibility when it comes to anything it says or does. So I believe these claims like I believe the claim the earth is flat.
And perhaps you’re full of s*. Much more likely the latter than what you’re peddling.
Again, I could care less what Hezbollah is or isn’t. Any nation Israel threatens has a right to defend itself by any means necessary. Iran has proxies just as Israel does. But unlike Israel’s proxies which are totally dependent on Israel for their existence and would disintegrate if Israel didn’t prop them up, Hezbollah is a political movement participating in Lebanese politics. It’s political support comes from Lebanese and not from the barrel of an Israeli gun like Israel’s proxies.
Don’t you dare, you Islamophobic phony. Don’t you dare address Muslims here ever, and pretend you’re their friend.
NOTE: 3 propagandists have had their say in this thread defending the Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa. I will not permit any further defenses of Israel’s approach to this. I will delete any further such attempts.
@ Chad: I find your comment repulsive.
Itamar Ben Gvir has said repeatedly that he supports maximum force against Palestinians. That is inciting a war.
What a flagrant lie. Hundreds of heavily armed police invaded a holy site with stun grenades, tear gas and whaled on worshippers. It was worse than a pogrom. It was state-sponsored terrorism.
No, what you claim happened is different than what actually happened. I don’t trust you to tell me what happened so don’t bother.
Nor do you have the right to tell me what Palestinians did, or thought or felt; or what motivated them to act as they did.
You think the Israeli threat to Al Aqsa is imagined? When Smotrich and Ben Gvir explicitly wish to destroy it and replace it with a Temple? No, the threat is very real and Muslims have every right to treat it very seriously; and as a grave threat.
Frankly, I don’t care what they came armed with. It is a Muslim holy shrine. Their shrine. Not yours, not mine, not Ben Gvir’s. They have every right to defend it in whatever way they find necessary.
Israel has a monopoly on violence. Palestinians respond to actual Israeli mass violence. They respond. Even attacks which kill Israelis are responses to prior Israeli wanton violence.
Palestinian allies have every right to defend them when they and Muslim holy places are desecrated. Again, I have no problem with anyone defending themselves from wanton Israeli violence and aggression.
Yeah, you know why they were killed? Because nearly 100 Palestinians have been murdered since January. That’s SEVEN times more than the number of Israelis who were killed. So I mourn 7 times more for Palestinians than Israelis. Which is more than the 0 times you mourn for, or care about Palestinian murdered.
So don’t peddle your sob stories. I’m not interested. If Israel wanted to solve this conflict it would. But it doesn’t. So the price you pay is those dead bodies in Tel Aviv and amongst settler-colonists. They paid for their lives for your sins.
I’ll go you one better, and accuse the Palestinians of War Crimes.
Their responses here, rockets, murder and terror, were disproportionate to the Israeli ‘crime’ of entering the Al Aqsa compound and beating a few armed protestors.
” the principle of proportionality seeks to limit damage caused by military operations by requiring that the effects of the means and methods of warfare used must not be disproportionate to the military advantage sought.”
https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/proportionality
@ Pamela: You’re a pro-Israel propagandist. No one here credits any judgment you make about Palestinian actions. As I just commented, the Palestinian defense of Al Aqsa and Palestinian response to 100 murdered so far this year is actually less proportional than it should be. When as many Israelis die as Palestinians, then things will be proportionate.
Israelis should know where racial and religious persecution leads to. As an in habitant of formerly occupied territory in Europe during the WW2 I remember what persecution looks like. I remember the language used. It is what Israel does now.