Sean’s piece yesterday about the Obama administration’s attitude towards Israel was superb, but I find it lacked a few key details. In the interest of balance, I feel morally obligated to point them out.
First up, Sean mentioned how Israel’s building homes was a grave provocation and insult to the peace process. To counterbalance Israel’s aggressive moves, one should really highlight what the Palestinians did themselves last week to demonstrate their commitment to peace — such as firing a rocket into Israel (fortunately, the Palestinians being as consistently inept as they are, no one was injured this time) and naming a public square in honor of a woman who led one of the deadliest terrorist attacks against Israel ever. Dalal Mughrabi’s 1978 attack left 25 Israelis dead — including 13 children.
And Sean also neglected to mention the respect Biden demonstrated for the Israeli government by showing up for a dinner in his honor a scant 90 minutes late.
These are obviously small potatoes (which were probably cold by the time Joe bothered to appear) compared to Israel’s horrific provocations as building homes and stating that the Tomb of the Patriarchs — where Abraham and several other of the very first Jews are purported to be buried — as kinda sorta important to Jews everywhere. But since that site is in the West Bank, the Palestinians rightfully demanded that Israel quietly pretend it’s purely a Muslim site, or they’ll launch another war.
All (well, most) sarcasm aside, it’s easy to see the Tomb of the Patriarchs as symbolic of a fundamental aspect of Islam: its covetousness. It craves the historical links and respectability the other two major faiths to come out of the Middle East (Judaism and Christianity), so it does whatever it can to graft on to and appropriate history, co-opt their credibility. In Jerusalem, the Temple Mount is hailed as the third holiest site in Islam, where the Prophet Mohammed bodily ascended into heaven. So it, obviously, must remain in Muslim hands.
This requires some seriously heavy lifting, as it demands that folks forget that the Temple Mount is the FIRST holiest site for Jews, and that Jerusalem — so prominently mentioned in Jewish and Christian religious texts, never once appears in the Koran. Ask a Muslim how they know that it was atop the Temple Mount that Mohammed last set foot on earth, and you’re asking to be beheaded.
Meanwhile, in the Dome Of The Rock atop the Temple Mount, Muslims are busily trying to erase all traces of Jewish occupancy up there and using the heights to throw rocks down at the Jews worshipping at the last surviving part of one of the Temples their ancestors built.
And don’t even get me started on the War On Cartoonists…
Islam today reminds me of nothing more than a small child — a child who has learned that throwing temper trantrums gets him his way. Whenever the world does something Islam doesn’t like, they threaten (or actually carry out) acts of violence until they are appeased.
Which lasts precisely as long as it takes for something else to happen that they don’t like.
That’s what we face today. That’s what Israel faces far more closely and clearly today.
And the Obama administration is standing there, telling Israel to just let the baby have whatever it wants so it stops screaming and breaking things.
Considering the maturity demonstrated by the Obama administration, it’s no great surprise which side they’re identifying with more.
