Op-Ed: Debunking the "Lone Wolf" Myth
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/16037#.VHNacpPoaUk
The
perpetrators of Arab/Muslim and Palestinian terrorism are not “lone
wolves”, as they have been described, but by-products of a centuries-old
intolerant ideology, supported today by educational and religious
indoctrination, including UNWRA.
Published: Monday, November 24, 2014 9:03 AM
At 7:01 am on Tuesday, November 18th, two Palestinian terrorists, Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, entered the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem where about a dozen people were praying. The two were carrying a gun, a meat cleaver, and an axe. Seven minutes later (to the cries of “Allahu Akbar!”) four of the worshippers were dead, a Druze police officer who tried to rescue them suffered mortal injuries and several others were severely wounded.
Photographs of the carnage, released by the Israeli government, showed prayer shawls, an open prayer book and the arm of one of the four rabbis, wrapped in scripture-laden tefillin, lying in a pool of blood.
In response to the gruesome axe murders and shootings, Palestinians in Gaza and the 'West Bank' erupted in spontaneous celebrations by handing out cookies and candy, dancing in the streets, honking horns, flaunting axes, setting off firecrackers, cheering, holding up posters “honoring” the two “martyrs”, and displaying V-for-victory signs just as they did in the celebrations that followed the September 11th terror attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15th, 2013.
These religious differences are not negotiable. For these Palestinian Islamists, this is a zero-sum game that allows for only winners and losers.
The Palestinian Authority referred to the slaughter as a “heroic operation at a religious Zionist institute”. Teachers employed by UNRWA (United Nations Relief & Works Agency) also joined in the “celebration”. They went on social media to praise what they called a “heroic operation,” hoping that Allah would accept the jihadists as “martyrs” in heaven.
This should come as no surprise. During Operation Protective Edge last summer, UNRWA allowed Hamas to use its schools and clinics to hide their terrorist tunnel entrances, store ammunition, and use UNRWA property as rocket-launching sites in its war on Israel. It also continues to allow its labor unions and school system to be controlled by Hamas representatives resulting in the radicalization of UNRWA’s school curricula for inculcating Palestinian children with hatred towards Jews, Israel, and a desire for martyrdom.
Equally disturbing is that a significant portion of UNRWA’s funding comes directly from the United States which gives more to UNRWA than any other country in the world, with the U.S. taxpayer disbursing almost $300 million dollars to the institution in 2013.
And what of Fatah, which rules the 'West Bank' and is considered the “moderate” Palestinian faction? Fatah’s website called the slaughter a “heroic operation,” its officials called it “a natural response to the…crimes of the settlers,” and the organization’s Facebook page announced it was handing out candy in 'West Bank' cities.
The problem is that the U.S. and especially the EU coddle the Palestinians by (in the case of the latter) recognizing a Palestinian state effectively rewarding the Palestinian Authority for its incitement to hatred of Jews and Israel, its support of Islamic barbarism against Israeli civilians, and its refusal to recognize Israel’s existence under any circumstances.
Neither the Europeans nor the U.S. Administration are prepared to acknowledge the uncompromising Islamist nature of Palestinian culture and the hatred that is propelling Israel’s so-called “peace partner”. Misunderstanding or denying what is essentially a religious war against Jews and Israel, Washington and the EU constantly issue statements condemning “both sides” and collectively attack the “cycle of violence” as if there were some moral equivalence between Palestinian Islamist aggression against Jews and Israel and Israel’s right to defend itself against such aggression.
Truth is, Allah - or at least the Islamist interpretation of Allah - drives events such as the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue carnage. What happened there was not a “lone wolf” attack on Jews in prayer, but the product of mainstream Palestinian political culture in which religious symbols such as the fictitious peril posed by Jews to the mosques on the Temple Mount has been exploited by Palestinian leaders to incite hatred against Jews.
These religious differences are not negotiable. For these Palestinian Islamists, this is a zero-sum game that allows for only winners and losers. There can be no compromise so long as Palestinian leaders maintain that every inch of Israel is “contested land”. Violence against Jews is considered praiseworthy in mainstream Palestinian culture. The obstacles to peace aren’t any specific Israeli policies. The sole obstacle to “peace” is the Jewish refusal to be expelled from their ancient homeland or even to defend it.
The infusion of Islamic hatred into what all too many Western observers believe is just a dispute over land and borders is either not understood or simply denied. Yet, even the Palestinian Authority’s Supreme Sharia (Islamic law) Judge and Abbas´s adviser Mahmoud Al-Habbash confirmed on PA TV on November 5th (as per Palestinian Media Watch) that President Abbas supports Ribat - a term that signifies religious war to defend or re-conquer land defined as Islamic. Abbas has in fact stated that "we must all carry out Ribat "to prevent Jews in any way whatsoever" from entering the Al-Aqsa compound (on the Temple Mount), because "they have no right to enter it. They have no right to defile it."
Contrary to Western media reports, the perpetrators of Arab/Muslim terrorism and Palestinian terrorism in particular, are not “lone wolves”, as they have often been described. They are the by-products of a centuries-old intolerant ideology, supported today by educational and religious indoctrination and incitement promoted openly in Palestinian kindergartens, schools, universities, mosques and the regime-controlled media in Gaza and the 'West Bank'.
The Kehilat Yaakov terrorists and others like them were not driven by socio-economic or human rights issues, but by a fanatical worldview which loathes civil liberties and considers Western freedoms to be an abomination. They were motivated and educated by the belief that their murderous actions against Jews would bestow upon them the honorable title of "shahid" (martyr) and that they were fulfilling a holy Islamic mission by murdering Jews and advancing the commandment of jihad.
Unfortunately, the Oslo Accords opened the doors for these Islamist beliefs to be taught through the Palestinian education system thereby creating an entire generation of young jihadists. Palestinian textbooks do not give Palestinian children an education; they give them an indoctrination. According to Palestinian Media Watch: “12th grade Palestinian schoolbooks make no attempt to educate for peace and co-existence with Israel. Indeed, the opposite is true: The teachings repeatedly reject Israel's right to exist, present the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, teach Israel’s founding as Western imperialism, and actively portray a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all.”
The Palestinian Authority’s 7th grade textbook "Our Beautiful Language" states: "We shall sow Palestine with shahids (martyrs), skeletons and skulls; we shall paint the face of Palestine with blood. ... We are returning home to the plains and mountains (of pre-1967 Israel) led by jihad flags, by bloody struggles, and by the willingness to sacrifice ourselves as martyrs."
Another textbook for the 8th grade "Islamic Studies" states, "Jihad reserves a key role for youngsters, just like those who sought martyrdom during the days of the Prophet Muhammad."
In short, the PA’s educational system (of which Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal were products) is Quran-based and designed to spin off a culture of death and martyrdom. Graduates of this education system are not “lone wolves” but potential terrorists who believe that their noblest goal in this world is to target Jews and Israelis for death - deliberately and methodically – in the name of Allah and martyrdom. Their aim is to erode Israeli confidence in their government´s ability to protect them, believing that Israel will be forced into making existential concessions that, over time, will undermine its ability to defend itself.
While Abbas voices different messages to the Western media than he does to the Arab media (as documented extensively by the Middle East Media Research Institute), the message that his Palestinian Authority teaches its children reflects his true worldview, as do the monthly allowances he pays to relatives of suicide bombers, Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israeli prisons, and by the naming of streets, squares, marketplaces, summer camps and sports tournaments after Palestinian “martyrs”.
As a consequence, Palestinian youth idolize shahids, jihad, and the murderers of Israelis while honoring the families of suicide bombers and de-legitimizing Israel as an immoral entity that must be annihilated. Palestinian terrorism is driven not by the size of Israel, but by its very existence.
The Oslo Accords opened the doors for these Islamist beliefs to be taught through the Palestinian education system thereby creating an entire generation of young jihadists.
The West’s mistake is its downplaying of this violent Islamist philosophy that underpins Palestinian society preferring instead to believe that the actions of Israeli victims and Palestinian terrorists are “morally equivalent”; that pressuring Israel into making existential concessions while ignoring Palestinian incitement is necessary to secure a true and lasting “peace”; and that providing millions in financial aid to the Palestinians (thus enabling them to continue bankrolling hatred of Jews and Israelis through their educational system) will provide an “incentive” for them to accept a “two-state solution.”
These are dangerous fantasies. According to a recent NPR report, a one-day conference in Cairo generated pledges of some $5.4B to help rebuild Gaza. Of that, approximately $212 million was promised by the U.S., bringing the nation’s total aid to the Palestinians for this year alone to $400 million - a significant portion of which will be directed to the families of suicide bombers, imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, the Palestinian media, the corrupt Palestinian kleptocracy, and a Palestinian educational system that is geared to promoting jihad against and hatred of Jews and the Jewish state.
U.S. law predicates funding for the Palestinian Authority on evidence that it is “acting to counter incitement of violence against Israelis and is supporting activities aimed at promoting peace, coexistence, and security cooperation with Israel.” The evidence that it is doing the exact opposite is overwhelming. The U.S. Congress must now act on this law. Suspending foreign aid to and all communications with the Palestinian Authority will demonstrate conclusively that hate education is the antithesis of core U.S. values; that hate educators must not benefit from the largesse of U.S. taxpayers; and that hate education in Palestinian society and peaceful co-existence with Israel are mutually incompatible with one another.
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