Over the past month we have seen a steep increase in attacks from Palestinians against Israelis—stabbing unwitting bystanders is the method of terror de jour. You might be wondering why this is happening now—what are the roots?
(Transcript below)
Morabiton and Morabitat
It is impossible to understand what is happening without understanding the meaning of two words. Morabiton and Morabitat. These are Islamic fundamentalists connected to the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement under the leadership of radical Islamic leader Sheikh Raed Salah. Salah has been arrested several times for supporting Hamas and assaulting a police officer.
They bus in by shuttle these Muslim radicals into Jerusalem from Arab towns in central Israel. Their job is simple, to go to the Temple Mount and harass and intimidate Jews. For them this is Allah’s work—holy work. When Jews enter the Temple Mount, these Arab youths surround them yelling Allahu Hakbar which means Allah is great.
In one video I saw recently, about 15 Jews were surrounded by a large mob of Muslims who were chanting—no screaming over and over again—Allahu Akbar.
Okay, now that you understand who these folks are, I’ll continue. Our defense minister Moshe Ayalon outlawed these groups from operating on the Temple Mount in early September. Ayalon’s office said:
“The activity of the Morabiton and Morabitat groups constitutes a central figure in creating tension and violence on Temple Mount in particular and Jerusalem in general. The activity is inflammatory and endangers tourists, visitors and worshippers at the site, leading to violence that could harm human life.”
The response of the Islamists was to barricade themselves inside
“the al-Aqsa mosque, where they stockpiled rocks, planks, wooden sheets and fireworks, and also prepared Molotov cocktail firebombs and explosive devices.” (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Throughout Rosh Hashana, the Islamists rioted violently on the Temple Mount, throwing “rocks, fire bombs and firecrackers at the police.” This was endangering not only the lives of Israeli police and Jewish and Christian visitors, but Muslim worshippers as well. The Temple Mount is a historic site that draws tens of thousands of visitors a years. Israel cannot allow it to be overrun by a mob of violent extremists.
The Police finally had no choice but to remove the barricade. As you can see (in the video), they risked their lives in doing so.
The Police succeeded in removing the barricade and restoring calm to some degree. However the Muslim world went crazy. The Palestinian president accused Israel of desecrating the Muslim mosque:
“The Al-Aqsa Mosque is ours. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is ours as well. [Israelis] have no right to desecrate the mosque with their filthy feet, we won’t allow them to do that.”
The King of Jordan was outraged and threatened to break their peace agreement with Israel. This coming from the regime that destroyed everything Jewish in Jerusalem from 48-67, which we documented a few weeks ago. And the fake outrage had its affect, manipulating and provoking young Muslims to go out and attack Jews with knives.
In one attack a woman was surrounded in her car by a mob of 50 masked, stone-throwing Palestinians. She said,
“One of them opened the door. There was murder in their eyes. I thought they were going to lynch me.”
Some nearby Israelis intervened and saved her.
In another attack, a Palestinian girl wrote on Facebook ‘I’m going to become a martyr,’ and then she went out and stabbed an Israeli. She neither succeeded in killing an Israeli or becoming a martyr as she survived being shot by police. Another man is clinging to life after being stabbed in the neck, while last week a man was stabbed to death in Jerusalem’s Old City. His wife suffered critical stab wounds as well. When she appealed to the Palestinian shopkeepers for help they spit on her. When she appealed again some youths slapped her and laughed at her.
So Israel is left to choose between keeping order and peace on the Temple Mount—which releases terrorism or pleasing the Muslim world by allowing Jews and Christians to be harassed on the Temple Mount. It seems that we are damned if do and damned if we don’t. But praise God, we are not damned, because we are the restored nation of Israel and very soon, God is going to open up the eyes of our people to Yeshua.
