A Christian tourist from France was assaulted by Muslims atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Tuesday after waving an Israeli flag at Judaism’s holiest site.
Video footage of the incident showed the Christian man being mobbed by at least four assailants who beat him about the head with stones. His life was likely saved by Israeli police forcibly intervening and escorting the bloodied tourist from site.
The victim was taken to a local hospital and reported to be in stable condition. He now faces charges for disrupting public order. Jews and Christians are forbidden to express their faith in any way, shape or form while visiting the Temple Mount for fear of violent Muslim backlash, just as happened on Tuesday.
Four assailants, including a member of the Islamic Trust that oversees the Temple Mount, were arrested for taking part in the attack on a Christian visitor.
The Temple Mount is “purely and exclusively sacred to Muslims,” declared former Jerusalem mufti Sheikh Ekrima Sabri at a press conference presenting the “Blessed Aksa Mosque Document.”
The following is a guest post by a leading Palestinian analyst and commentator.
The following are partial counts of building materials that entered Gaza as of July 6, 2015 for the purpose of reconstruction after the devastation of the latest war:
- 3,281 trucks carrying 131,240 tons of cement;
- 353 trucks carrying 12,355 tons of steel;
- 3,380 trucks carrying 135,200 tons of gravel;
- 276 trucks carrying 11,040 tons of cement for the Qatari projects;
- 19,628 trucks carrying 785,120 tons of gravel for the Qatari projects.
It is clear from these counts that the Gaza regime was able to coordinate and obtain the approval of the Israeli side to allow into Gaza 142,280 tons of cement through the Karm Abu-Salem passage in order to facilitate the projects for the reconstruction of Gaza.
It is well known that the Gaza Strip experienced in the last few days the movement of large quantities of cement that drew much attention, but after checking as to who is receiving these large quantities of cement, it became clear that these shipments went to storage facilities of merchants who work under the influence of Hamas.
As of this writing, not a single person of those who need these supplies have received any, and Gazans began wondering about Hamas’ intentions regarding these large quantities of cement.
There is speculation that no one can even get one bag of cement because they are all going to Hamas for the building of bunkers and death tunnels. It is well-known in Gaza that Hamas is getting ready for another confrontation with the IDF, so we wait for more devastation, more victims, and more deaths.
When we interviewed some of those whose homes were destroyed in last year’s war, their answers were very revealing:
- One person when asked about his hope for his home to be rebuilt and how long it might take, said, "Hamas brought us war and we said ok. We were threatened that we would be dealt with as collaborators if we evacuated our homes, so we didn't evacuate, and our homes came crashing on our heads. It is only by God's mercy that we were not killed, and we said ok. But we reached a point where we have to buy building materials on the black market at extremely high prices while Hamas leaders and members enjoy a comfortable life and have their homes rebuilt without having to account to anyone. This is the ultimate shame brought by what the so-called resistance that brings more destruction. So I dream today of a civil administration that I can provide a better life for my sons."
- Another man said, "we were proud that [Hamas] provided us protection during the war, but the tragedy is that this protection came at a high price: the confiscation and destruction of our homes. Today they enjoy a comfortable life while we suffer with nobody caring about us. We are still waiting on the promises of [the Palestinian Authority] and Hamas, but it is becoming clear that they all lie, so today we only wait for God's mercy", and he broke down crying from the pain of missing his son and his destroyed home that is no longer safe to live in.
If you walk around in Gaza to gauge the true meaning of corruption, you will find it at the government in Gaza. Unfortunately, UNRWA remains silent and avoids confronting Hamas about its corruption and its excesses both in regard to reconstruction and other matters.
As a result, the residents of Gaza do not trust anyone to solve Gaza’s problems, especially with regard to reconstruction and electricity. The phrase most often heard among the residents of Gaza is: "we wish the Israeli Civil Administration would return."
News flash for Obama: With or without a nuclear deal, Hizballah’s Iranian missiles threaten Tel Aviv
President Barack Obama missed the point when he warned the 22 Jewish leaders he invited to the White House Tuesday, Aug. 3, that if Congress strikes down the Iranian nuclear deal, …”Hizballah rockets will rain down on Tell Aviv” – not on New York - and that Iran would… “arm and land proxies on Israel’s borders.”
Both these menaces have been fully active for years, and never related to any kind of nuclear diplomacy.
For nine years, from the 2006 Lebanese war and up to the July 2014 Gaza operation, missiles and rockets supplied by Iran have repeatedly rained down on Israeli population centers.
As time went by, the missiles became more precise and sophisticated. Terrorist attacks staged by Hizballah at Tehran’s behest are not unknown either.
Therefore, Obama’s warning to the Jewish leaders does not stand up to the test of logic or reliable intelligence.
Furthermore, as the president spoke, the contention that the nuclear accord will keep Israel and the Middle East at large safe, including from the danger of missiles, was belied.
Hizballah units under the command of Iranian officers were firing heavy Iranian Zelzal 3 surface missiles at Syrian rebels barricaded for more than a month in the Syrian town of Zabadani, just 200km from Tel Aviv and even less, 140km, from Israel’s heavy industrial town of Haifa.
Zelzal, a proud product of Iran’s munitions industry, has an optimal range of 200km, which can be extended to 250km, by reducing its payload from 600 to 500 kg.
Israel is familiar with the deadly capabilities of the Zelzal, because it was fired by Hamas on Nov. 20, 2012 the last day of the last Gaza operation. It exploded and razed a whole built-up street in Rishon Letzion, a town situated 14 km south of Tel Aviv and 9.3 km from Israel’s only international airport at Lod.
On Jan 18, this year, Israel’s air force struck a group of Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah officers as they prepared to set up military quarters and missile pads on the Syrian Golan within shouting distance of IDF border defenses.
The above partial catalogue of Iranian and Hizballah aggression was perpetrated alongside negotiations in Geneva and Vienna for a comprehensive nuclear accord with Tehran.
It is therefore obvious that Israel faces an Iranian-Hizballah missile threat today, as it did yesterday, and probably also tomorrow, regardless of whether the US Congress endorses or throws out President Obama’s nuclear deal with Tehran.
He might have made a difference to this grim reality if US negotiators had stipulated that the deal include the lifting of the Iranian missile peril hanging over Israel and that Tehran’s waive its standing threat to destroy the Jewish state. But as things stand now, this particular argument in support of his nuclear deal with Iran is an irrelevancy.
President Obama is making a hard-sell to build public and Congressional support for the Iran nuclear deal. But he’s face far stiffer resistance than he or his political team expected.
- The latest polls show the American people oppose the deal 2 to 1 — and the more they learn of the details, the more opposed they become.
- Key Democrats in in the House and Senate are suddenly breaking with the President and declaring their opposition to the deal.
- The Canadian government has come out against the deal.
- Israeli leaders — both the government and the head of the opposition — are against the deal, as are 74% of the Israeli people.
- Arab leaders are speaking out against the deal, as well.
Yesterday, I published a 17-page analysis of “Why The Iran Nuclear Deal Is So Dangerous” and why it must be stopped by the American people and their representatives in Congress from becoming U.S. law. To read the full report, see the link below.
Today, I’m publishing an 8-page fact sheet detailing the latest polling and quotes by top Democrats, Arab leaders, Israeli leaders and others explaining why they are so deeply concerned. To read the full report, click the link below. For starters, here is some of the latest poll numbers.
What the American people are saying:
- “Poll: Americans oppose Iran deal by 2-1 margin” (The Hill, 8/3/15)
- “Nearly six in 10 Americans, or 57 percent, oppose the nuclear deal, while 28 percent voice support for it in the national poll released Monday, in a 2-to-1 margin against the deal.
- “Republicans strongly oppose the deal brokered by the Obama administration, 86 to 3 percent, while Democrats support the top second-term foreign policy agenda item for President Obama, 52 to 32 percent.
- “A majority of Americans disapprove the way Obama is handling the situation in Iran (56 percent), compared with 35 percent who approve. A majority (58 percent) also thinks the deal makes the world less safe….
- “The latest survey from Quinnipiac was commissioned amid testimony on Capitol Hill from Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in favor of the deal.
- “The survey of 1,644 registered U.S. voters was conducted July 23-28 via landlines and cellphones with a margin of error of 2.4 points.”
- “New poll shows opposition to Iran deal” (Washington Examiner, 7/29/15)
- 80 percent oppose giving Iran $150 billion in early sanctions absent congressional approval of the deal
- 72 percent said that Congress shouldn’t approve an agreement that does not allow independent U.S. inspections of Iran’s military laboratories
- 68 percent don’t believe that inspections overseen by the United Nations that allow up to a 24-day notification period before will prevent Iran from cheating
- 65 percent think the deal will result in other nations seeking their own nuclear weapons to protect themselves from Iran
- 63 percent disagree that the deal stops Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
- “It’s abundantly clear that the more Americans learn about key details within the Iran agreement, the less they like it,” said Pat Caddell, a Democratic pollster who conducted the poll, along with the Republican firm McLaughlin & Associates. “Opposition to the deal is growing as the facts work their way into kitchen table conversations across the country….”
- “The poll was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates and Caddell Associates for Secure America Now, a group that bills itself as a nonpartisan organization focused on security issues. It surveyed 800 likely general election voters July 22-23 and had an error margin of 3.5 percentage points, although some message testing questions had an error margin of 4.9 percentage points. Polls gauging American voters’ opinions of the Iran deal have varied, with some showing support and others showing opposition.”
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