Published by an old curmudgeon who came to America in 1936 as a refugee from Nazi Germany and proudly served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He is a former law enforcement officer and a retired professor of criminal justice who, in 1970, founded the Texas Narcotic Officers Association. BarkGrowlBite refuses to be politically correct.
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Thursday, August 15, 2024
THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEN-GVIR'S VISIT TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT AS BLINKEN INSISTS
Al-Aqsa is a misdirect
Critics of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount negate the real causes of this war.
The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City,
The war Israel has been fighting for its
existence since Oct. 7 is in response to an unprovoked attack initiated
and supported by Iran and Qatar. Despite this, a troubling narrative has
emerged from various quarters, including the Biden administration,
which overlooks the core issue of aggression against Israel.
Israel’s Minister of National Security
Itamar Ben-Gvir recently went up to the Temple Mount with thousands of
other Jews, some of who prayed publicly on a site built for worship by
the Jewish people thousands of years ago. The Temple Mount is a site of
profound religious significance to Jews but also the current site of the
Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Critics have decried
Ben-Gvir’s visit as a provocative act capable of igniting World War III.
This clearly negates the true causes of this war, the threats Israel
faces and just who is provoking whom.
This obsession with Jews visiting or
praying on our holiest site rather than focusing on the actual source of
violence against us from our Shi’ite and Sunni enemies reveals a
dangerous misdirection.
Beginning on Oct. 7, the world witnessed
an unprecedented and brutal assault on Israel by Iranian- and
Qatari-supported terror proxies throughout the Middle East. This attack
was a direct act of aggression with no preceding Israeli provocation. In
addition to the attacks from Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon,
Iran directly attacked Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones that
Israel and its allies miraculously stopped.
Any world power seriously focused on
ending conflict and violence in the Middle East must focus on stopping
these violent acts and the Islamic ideological parties driving them, not
on symbolic gestures that are inconsequential in the broader context of
ongoing conflict.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar
Ben-Gvir, left, visits Al-Aqsa compound also known to Jews as the Temple
Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City on Aug. 13, 2024.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
recently criticized Ben-Gvir’s visit, saying it “demonstrated blatant
disregard for the historic status quo” of Jerusalem’s holy sites.
Echoing sentiments from various Arab nations, Blinken added: “These
provocative actions only exacerbate tensions at a pivotal moment when
all focus should be on the ongoing diplomatic efforts.” He urged that
the Israeli government prevent similar incidents in the future to
maintain stability and peace.
This is a classic example of the current
U.S. administration’s ongoing effort to create a moral equivalence
fallacy for the West’s convenience. The misdirect is the insidious
suggestion that an expectation of free religious worship for Jews
anywhere in Jerusalem, in the only Jewish country, is somehow a
“provocation” akin to the burning and beheading of babies, burning Jews
alive and raping of young men, women and the elderly by Hamas (and other
“civilians”) on Oct. 7.
The criticism of Jews ascending the Temple
Mount overlooks a crucial fact: The aggression Israel faces is not
about the Temple Mount but about the very existence of Jews in their
ancestral homeland. On Tisha B’Av, Jews globally mourned the destruction
of the two Temples in Jerusalem—a date deeply ingrained in Jewish
history and collective memory. The connection between the Jewish people,
Jerusalem and the Temple is irrefutable and pre-dates the rise of Islam
and the Arab presence in the region. This historical context is
embodied in monuments like the Arch of Titus in Rome, which commemorates
the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans.
The conflict Israel faces is fundamentally
about the refusal of Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim countries in the Middle
East to accept the Jewish state, irrespective of whether Jews are
religious or secular, living in cities near the Gaza border or in the
heartland of Judea and Samaria.
The purpose of this misdirection is to
perpetuate a policy of appeasement that fails to confront the
intolerance and violence inherent in some parts of the Arab world. This
appeasement by the Western world, with U.S. foreign policy at the helm,
has been a direct contributor to the ongoing conflict and emboldens
those who seek to undermine Israel’s right to exist.
Blinken and others advocating for Jews to
stop visiting or praying on our holiest site need to reassess their
approach. By prioritizing Jews visiting their holiest site over
substantive threats and ongoing violence from Iran and Qatar and their
terror organizations, the Biden administration endangers not only Israel
but also global security and stability.
The genocidal aggression against Israel in
the Muslim world under the guise of a cause called “Palestine” will not
be resolved by placating the Muslim aggressors or by pushing a U.S.
foreign policy agenda that disregards the realities on the ground.
Instead, we require a firm stance against
the perpetrators: Iran and Qatar, as well as Egypt for allowing the
smuggling of weapons to Hamas. There must also be recognition of the
historical and current realities faced by Israel.
Israel remains steadfast in its commitment
to its security and sovereignty. Despite the pressures and misguided
policies from allies, including those in the Biden White House, Israel
will continue to defend itself against any threat. The only way to
effectively combat aggression against Israel is by confronting it
head-on, not by succumbing to diplomatic pressures that ignore the root
causes of the conflict.
The world must wake up to the reality of
the situation and cease its counterproductive policies. Only through a
clear-eyed understanding of the conflict’s true nature can genuine
progress towards peace and stability be achieved.
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