Arab Incitement?

The Arabs justly take a lot of blame for "Arab incitement" but today's MSM feeds from Jerusalem make clear WHO is doing the incitement -- BBC and CNN.

Arab commentators on today's mini-riot were fairly even-handed except for the slightly hysterical couple who were so clearly fact-challenged as to present no credibility. But BBC's commentators were almost drooling at the idea of a "Third Intifada" which they relentlessly suggested was about to explode. Every question directed to every commentator of any political or religious stripe emphasized ad nauseum that "these pictures are going to be broadcast all over the world and cause Further Unrest," and often ended with either "this could be the start of a Third Intifada," or a reminder (erroneously) that "this is how the last Intifada started--right here on the platform of Al Aqsa, the third holiest shrine of Islam!"

PULEEEEZE!

First, I'm going to puke if I hear "the third holiest shrine of Islam," one more time. It's the FIRST holiest place of Judaism which somehow never gets mentioned by any of the BBC/CNN twits, and it was basically an unimportant backwater of every Islamic empire from the Ummayyids through the Turks that got absolutely NO attention from its Moslem masters. Religious pilgrimages were (and are) to Mecca; trade bypassed Jerusalem completely; the great learning centers were Damascus, Cairo, Baghdad and Isfahan; government was run from those cities as well as Istanbul. Jerusalem was the place the Crusaders stole for a while, was lousy with Jews, and was only good for the tourist trade.

Second, Ariel Sharon's walk around the Temple Mount walls did not cause the Second Intifada, a Palestinian-crafted myth which the Left refuses to abandon. Arafat gave orders days earlier to stock the Haram al Sharif with rocks, and to bus the school children there to throw them along with their enthusiastic elders. Sharon arrived at the Mount with Waqf and Palestinian Authority permission to do his walk-about -- which he had done annually, likewise with permission from the Arab authorities, on prior years without incident. So why an Intifada that year? Arafat had turned down Ehud Barak's Clinton-brokered offer of a Palestinian state, and in typical Arafat fashion, decided that if this is what the west was offering him without violence, then how much more he would get if he again resorted to violence! Typical airplane-hijacking-terrorist mind-set.

Third, this area is sensitive because of competing religious and nationalist claims, but I'm sick to death of hearing the tendentious mantra that Old City is "occupied Palestinian land," as BBC relentlessly drummed. It is NOT occupied Palestinian land -- the Palestinians NEVER held this land. Any basic fact check will show that up until the Jordanian Army conquered the East Jerusalem and the Old City, the majority of the population was Jewish; the Jordanian Army ethnically cleansed the Old City (as well as every other Jewish town, village and suburb), expelling all Jews and dynamiting the Jewish Quarter. The Jordanians then held the Old City and surrounding conquered areas which under the U.N. Resolution were supposed to be an International Compound -- NOT "Palestinian." The Jordanians held this land, used it as sniper posts and artillery platforms against the Jewish population across the cease-fire line for years, then lost it when they launched their attack against Israel in 1967. Then the Israelis annexed the land which had NEVER been, by treaty, UN Resolution, or any other agreement, "Palestinian" -- and so it is now Israeli land, or if the BBC/CNN twits want to argue, disputed "international land" but it is not, and has never been, "Palestinian land."

Fourth, the whole dispute is manufactured. This is just another Palestinian fabricated justification for attacking the Jews. What the Palestinians have not told their pet media is that the Israel Antiquities Authority coordinated this digging by the Mughrabi Gate with the Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian government (which sees itself still as holding the guardianship of the Haram al Sharif) as well as the Palestinian Authority. The repairs to the Mughrabi Gate walkway have been needed for years; the temporary walkway is both an eyesore and a danger.

Fifth, a similar dig, much closer to the walls of the Haram al Sharif, has been going on quietly for months. Like the Mughrabi Gate excavation, this too was coordinated with all the relevant Arab authorities. No protests have gathered around this other dig. No rock-throwing, terrorist-beragged youths have assembled to stop this other dig. No mainstream media coverage by breathless announcers equipped with dubious credentials has emanated from this other dig. Why not? Because this other dig started months ago and couldn't be used as an excuse to unite the warring factions of Fatah and Hamas against Israel. However, as the civil war death toll mounted in the Palestinian-controlled areas, as the population grew restive under the guns of competing militias, the leadership of both sides saw power slipping from their grasp, the possibility of popular uprising or uncontrolled warlording, and sought not a "Unity Government" in Mecca, but a pragmatic power-sharing that at least allowed them to keep a grip on their positions and the foreign aid that funds them. But Hamas and Fatah need to draw their people's attention away from their bloodletting and internecine struggle -- and what better way to unite their warring, hating halves than by fabricating a Jewish desecration against Al Aqas Mosque?

And who is there, front and center, to cover it all in living color and breathless anticipation of more bloodshed but BBC and CNN, who can hardly contain their glee that once again, they can pontificate about the evil Israelis and applaud the brave little suicide-bombers who slaughter them. Back to the Pre-9/11 World where Left was "right" and no one dared to question it!

If there isn't a Third Intifada, it won't be because the MSM didn't try to incite one.

Photo by Elad Sherman, Jerusalem Shots--entrance to the Temple Wall Plaza with the temporary ramp up to the Mughrabi Gate.