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Can the whole world be wrong?
In April 2002, in the midst of Israel’s defensive campaign against Palestinian terrorism, it was accused by Saeb Erekat, Palestinian negotiator, of committing a massacre in Jenin. This view was widely accepted in the international community and it led to Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, demanding that Israel cease its campaign against Palestinian terrorism.
Can the whole world be wrong, he asked.
Then recently, in the last few days, Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who has been portrayed as a right-wing extremist, was shot in Jerusalem in an attempted assassination because he advocated the rights of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. I have a simple question on this: If you believe in the rights of Jews and Muslims to be able to pray in their Holy sites, why is it that if you’re a Jew and want to exercise that right, you’re automatically branded a right-wing religious militant extremist, but if you’re a Muslim – well that’s fine and is not an issue. Mahmoud Abbas even sent a letter of praise to the family of the assassin, but was there any world condemnation of his support for this assassination attempt? Nothing.
And on the subject of the Temple Mount, the Islamic Jerusalem Waqf, which administers the site, do not allow Jews to worship there – only Muslims. Surely, a religious discrimination of such magnitude would have universal condemnation? Nope – not a word. When Israel temporarily closed the Temple Mount, due to the security situation, Abbas called it an “act of war”. Now, that’s an inflammatory statement, isn’t it? But no… still no world reaction to that one.
This inflammatory rhetoric by the leader of Israel’s “peace partner” encouraged the Palestinians to launch more terrorist attacks by ramming their cars into innocent people waiting at train stations and light rail stops killing three. Hamas, a part of Mahmoud Abbas’s unity government, gladly claimed responsibility and has called for Palestinians to conduct more terrorist attacks. And the reaction from the world this time? Silence.
Actually, that’s not entirely true – they’ve called for the immediate resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. And by the way, the official Palestinian Authority news report called the Jerusalem terror attack “a car crash”, but that might not make the front page of the New York Times.
Then how about this? A couple of weeks ago, Egypt ordered residents living alongside the Gazan border to evacuate their homes within 48 hours in order to create a 500 metre buffer zone. They basically kicked them out, then destroyed their homes. And the world reaction was… nothing.
Moreover, on the subject of Palestinians, Jordan (the ‘moderate’ one) has a government policy of allowing Syrian war refugees to enter their country – except if they’re Palestinians. I even wrote about that in my first blog on this website. That’s right – no Palestinian refugees from Syria are allowed into Jordan and those that do make it are forcibly removed. Now – that would bring about world condemnation… surely… definitely… maybe? Nope – the silence continues.
However, if Israel builds a house… INTERNATIONAL OUTCRY WILL FOLLOW! PEACE TALKS DOOMED! WARMONGERING JEWS KILL PEACE! ISRAEL CONDEMNS THE WORLD TO WAR! A late night session of the UN Security Council would be immediately convened… followed by rioting.
There are so many more examples, but the ones above are just from the last couple of weeks. You see – the world speaks in booming voices about outrage and disgust and disdain and dismay – but only when it comes to Israel. When it comes to just about every other situation, they are as silent as a goldfish swimming around a fish bowl along with the same memory span.
The evidence shows that the world is not interested in condemning those that hurt Israel, and events like the above, they simply ignore. But their hypocrisy stretches even further to those that hurt the Palestinians themselves! If the Palestinians are not being hurt by Israel, then the world doesn’t particularly care. So while Israel buries its children, the world buries the truth.
However that has not stopped them from rushing to condemn the barbarism of the Islamic State, while ignoring the same fanaticism against the Jews in Israel. So for a world whose population comprises of only .2% of Jews, they’re certainly showing a lot of chutzpah!
Now going back to the question initially posed in this blog. The alleged Jenin massacre was a lie, of course, just another in the long list of litany of lies that follow Palestinian allegations and even the UN were eventually forced to admit the claim was false.
And almost thirteen years after Kofi Annan’s question, my answer now is the same as it was then.
Can the whole world be wrong?
ABSOLUTELY!