By RON DERMER
As Israeli civilians are butchered by Palestinian
terrorists, the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also being
butchered by a campaign of vicious lies. Here are 10 of the most pernicious
myths about the current attacks:
First: Israel is trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount.
False. Israel stringently maintains the status quo on the Temple Mount. Last year some 3.5 million Muslims visited the Temple Mount alongside some 200,000 Christians and 12,000 Jews. Only Muslims are allowed to pray on the Mount, and non-Muslims may visit only at specified times, which have not changed. Though the Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site—where Solomon built his Temple some 3,000 years ago—Israel will not allow a change in the status quo. The ones trying to change the status quo are Palestinians, who are violently trying to prevent Jews and Christians from even visiting a site holy to all three faiths.
First: Israel is trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount.
False. Israel stringently maintains the status quo on the Temple Mount. Last year some 3.5 million Muslims visited the Temple Mount alongside some 200,000 Christians and 12,000 Jews. Only Muslims are allowed to pray on the Mount, and non-Muslims may visit only at specified times, which have not changed. Though the Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site—where Solomon built his Temple some 3,000 years ago—Israel will not allow a change in the status quo. The ones trying to change the status quo are Palestinians, who are violently trying to prevent Jews and Christians from even visiting a site holy to all three faiths.
Second: Israel seeks to destroy al-Aqsa mosque.
False: Since reuniting
Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has vigorously protected the holy sites of all
faiths, including al-Aqsa. In the Middle East, where militant Islamists
desecrate and destroy churches, synagogues, world heritage sites, as well as
each other's mosques, Israel is the only guarantor of Jerusalem's holy places.
Palestinians have been propagating the “al-Aqsa is in danger” myth since at
least 1929, when the Palestinian icon, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin
al-Husseini, used it to inspire the massacre of Jews in Hebron and elsewhere.
Nearly a century later, the mosque remains unharmed, but the lie persists.
Third: A recent surge in settlement construction has caused the current wave of violence.
False. Annual construction
in the settlements has substantially decreased over
the past 15 years. Under Prime Minister Ehud Barak (2000), 5,000 new units were
built in the settlements; under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (2001-05) an
average of 1,881; under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (2005-08) 1,774. All three
were hailed as peacemakers. What about under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(2009-15)? Just 1,554. Some surge.
Fourth: President Abbas says that Israel “executed” the innocent Palestinian Ahmed Manasra.
False: Manasra is neither
innocent nor dead. He stabbed a 13-year-old Jewish boy who was riding his
bicycle. Manasra has been discharged from the same hospital where his victim
continues to fight for his life.
Fifth: Israel uses excessive force in dealing with terrorist attacks.
False: Using force to stop an attack by a gun, knife, cleaver or
ax-wielding terrorist is legitimate self-defense. Israeli police officers are
subject to strict rules that govern the use of deadly force, which is permitted
only in life-threatening situations. How would the American public expect its
police to respond to terrorists stabbing passersby as well as police officers?
Sixth: The current violence is the result of stagnation in the peace process.
False: Israel experienced some of the worst terrorism in its history when the peace process was at its peak. The reason for Palestinian terrorism is neither progress nor stagnation in the peace process, but the desire of the terrorists to destroy Israel.
Seventh: President Abbas is a voice of moderation.
False: Abbas said on
September 16 that he welcomes “every drop of blood spilled in
Jerusalem.” Abbas has not condemned a single one of the 30 terror attacks on
Israelis over the past month. He and his Fatah movement continue to use the Web
and the airwaves to incite the Palestinians to even more violence.
Eighth: International action is required to enforce the status quo on the Temple Mount.
False. Israel enforces the
status quo. The international community can help most effectively by telling
the truth and affirming Israel's proven commitment to maintaining the status
quo. It can also help by holding Abbas accountable for his mendacious rhetoric
regarding the Temple Mount.
Ninth: The reason the conflict and the violence persist is because the Palestinians don't have a state.
False: The Palestinians
have repeatedly refused to accept a nation-state for themselves if it means
accepting a nation-state for the Jewish people alongside it. In 1937, the
Palestinians rejected the Peel Commission report that called for two states for
two peoples; in 1947, they rejected the U.N. partition plan that did the same.
In 2000 at Camp David and again in 2008 the Palestinians rejected new proposals
that would have created a Palestinian state. The Palestinians rejected peace
both before and after the creation of Israel, before Israel gained control of
the territories in 1967 and after Israel vacated Gaza in 2005. The Palestinians
have always been more concerned with destroying the Jewish state than with
creating a state of their own. The core of the conflict remains the persistent
refusal of the Palestinians to recognize the nation-state of the Jewish people
in any borders.
Tenth: Palestinian terrorism is the consequence of Palestinian frustration.
False: Palestinian
terrorism is the product of incitement, which inculcates a culture of hatred
and violence in successive generations. The biggest frustration of the
terrorists is that they have failed to destroy Israel. They will continue to be
frustrated
Ron Dermer is Israel’s Ambassador to the United States.
