Israel is avoiding the Abyss, For Now - By Jonathan Spyer -
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/52626/israel-avoiding-the-abyss-for-now-opinion/#u1m3m5PgLZcia5wv.97
For the past four weeks, Israel and the West Bank have been hit by a wave of stabbing attacks by Palestinian Muslims on Israeli Jews and protests in the West Bank.
Palestinian fury derives from claims that Israel planned to change the status quo banning Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, as it is known to Jewish people, or Haram al-Sharif, as it is known to Muslims.
The 15ha area, in Jerusalem's walled Old City, in many ways constitutes the epicentre of the long conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, Arabs and the wider Muslim community.
It is the holiest place in Judaism. As the site of the First and Second Temples, it is the most resonant reminder for Israeli Jews of their sense of remembered and ancient sovereignty in the land.
For Palestinians, Arabs and the wider Muslim world, the area is revered as the site of the al-Aqsa Mosque, whose holiness is surpassed only by Mecca and Medina. The fact of Israeli control of Jerusalem's Old City since 1967 constitutes for many Palestinians a constant reminder of what they regard as the wrongs of the present situation, and the perceived historical injustice of Israel's establishment. So the area is a permanent flashpoint. Its potential to ignite the flames of renewed conflict is ever present.
Some believe the wave of attacks heralds a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising. But several indications suggest that, although the wave of attacks is unprecedented in the decade since the end of the second intifada in 2005, it does not appear set to turn into a mass uprising.
So is the violence being contained, and if it is, what are the factors underlying this? And will the present trend hold?
Jerusalem has been flooded with an increased deployment of police, reinforced by 1,200 border police officers, for the past two weeks. This week Israel police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld contended that this deployment, on a tactical level, had succeeded in preventing attacks and containing the situation.
Without doubt there has been a numerical decline in attacks in Jerusalem, and a similar reduction in incidents elsewhere in Israel, during the past week (though not in the West Bank).
Several additional elements have contributed to the tentative sense that the violence, if not yet defeated, is being contained.
First, the agreement reached between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II in Amman last Saturday lessens the plausibility of any claims that Israel plans to alter the status quo on the Mount.
This agreement, in the first instance between Netanyhau and Abdullah, provides an Israeli guarantee that the status quo on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif is not going to be changed. The placing of cameras in the area will be a further positive contribution in making clear that no such change is being implemented.
Of course, no evidence has emerged of an Israeli plan at any stage to change the status quo in the area. Rather, one of the more notable constants since the capture of the area by Israel in June 1967 has been the continued prohibition of Jewish or Christian prayer on the Mount, despite its great significance to these religions.
But the perception of a danger to the al-Aqsa Mosque, the product of a constant drumbeat kept up by Hamas, the Islamic movement in Israel, prominent clerics and sometimes Fatah party leaders including Abbas, has been the key element in firing up the incendiary atmosphere behind the attacks.
The agreement will not appease the youthful circles most closely involved in the violence. They are influenced by social media rather than high-level Âpolitics.
But it may well reduce the general level of apprehension regarding the situation on the Mount, and thus lessen the broader support necessary to turn the present situation into a large-scale Âuprising.
Second, it is noteworthy that co-operation between the Israeli security forces and those of the Palestinian Authority has not broken down as a result of the events. The authority leadership does not control the young people carrying out the stabbings. But if the authority wished to put its own structures behind the unrest, it could transform it at a stroke into something far more seriÂous.
On a verbal level, the Palestinian Authority accepts the stabbings and describes the perpetrators as "martyrs." Abbas contributed to the inflamed atmosphere underlying the attacks in a speech broadcast on PA TV on September 17 in which he called on Israelis/Jews not to place their "filthy feet" on the Mount.
But the goal of the Palestinian Authority president is to control and channel the unrest, not to escalate it. The authority may benefit from unarmed protests that keep the Palestinian cause the subject of world attention. But Abbas does not seek a general violent insurgency against Israel.
This reflects itself in the practical moves adopted by Abbas.
Fatah party armed groups such as the Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades played a key role in the attacks on Israeli population centers in the 2000-05 period. Security co-operation broke down in northern autumn of 2000 in a prelude to the mayhem that followed.
But this time, despite his rhetorical condemnations, Abbas evidently prefers not to throw away the relative stability of recent years. The Tanzim and other Fatah armed groups have been instructed not to engage in violence. The official Palestinian Authority security forces are continuing cooperation with Israel.
Third, there is a more nebulous element here, harder to quantify but nevertheless apparent in conversations with Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. The general chaos in the surrounding area - in Syria, Sinai, Iraq and so on - has not escaped the attention of Palestinians or Israelis. This serves as a disincentive to participation in violence among wide sections of society. It is easy to launch an uprising, harder to know where it may lead.
The second intifada was not that long ago. It is still remembered by all those over the age of 30. The suffering that it entailed and the surrounding examples of what a general breakdown in civil order can produce are probable contributors to the fact the demonstrations of recent weeks have stayed small, numbering in the hundreds rather than the thousands.
Fourth, the attacks are emerging not from organized structures but from a milieu of young Palestinians too young to remember the previous intifada, who receive their information from social media, where claims that Israel is about to change the status quo on the Temple Mount proliferate.
The experience of the Arab Spring shows the power and the limitations of loosely organized or unorganized groups of youth inspired by social media.
Activity generated by social media is immensely difficult for the security forces of a government to combat. There is no means to infiltrate or have forewarning of a person who is convinced by a message on social media, then chooses to go out and commit a murder using instruments available in most kitchens.
Israel's Netanyahu to fast-track Leviathan and Tamar natural gas plan after minister resigns - By Ari Rabinovitch - http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/01/us-israel-natgas-idUSKCN0SQ1RM20151101
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take control of the Economy Ministry to fast-track a plan to develop huge offshore natural gas deposits after a minister who had been holding up the plan stepped down.
Economy Minister Aryeh Deri, who had opposed waiving normal antitrust laws to give rapid approval to a framework deal to develop the gas fields off Israel's Mediterranean coast, said he had offered his resignation.
His decision allows Netanyahu to take the helm of the Economy Ministry and give final approval to a framework deal he reached in August with Texas-based Noble Energy (NBL.N) and Israel's Delek Group (DLEKG.TA).
The outline plan leaves the partners in control of the country's largest gas field, Leviathan, while forcing them to sell smaller, yet sizable, assets.
Deri could have deemed the agreement important enough for national security to exempt it from normal antitrust laws but refused to do so, saying it would set a dangerous precedent.
Netanyahu said he had no problem making such a ruling.
"Minister Deri informed me of his intent to resign from the Economy Ministry in order to allow for the completion of the proceedings. The ministry will revert to me and I will authorize the outline (agreement)," Netanyahu said in a statement.
The plan was opposed by Israel's anti-monopoly regulator who argued it did not open the market to sufficient competition, and he later resigned in protest.
The agreement became the focus of national debate.
Critics said Netanyahu was giving Noble and Delek too much power over the country's gas reserves, while Netanyahu said it was more important to get the gas out of the ground quickly.
While the debate raged, Noble and Delek froze investments and Leviathan remains undeveloped. A number of long-term, multi-billion-dollar export deals being negotiated with buyers in Egypt and Jordan were also put on hold.
Various alternatives were considered for breaking the logjam.
One option would have been for a parliamentary vote to transfer the power to bypass the antitrust authority from Deri to Netanyahu's entire cabinet, but Netanyahu, with just a single-seat majority, failed to muster enough support.
The latest political maneuvering sees Deri shifting jobs to head a ministry in charge of developing and investing in communities in Israel's periphery.
Once the gas agreement is approved, Noble and Delek have said they would funnel close to $10 billion into Israel to develop Leviathan and expand a second field, Tamar. They will also put shares in Tamar and two smaller fields up for sale.
With news of the pending approval, Leader Capital Markets, one of Israel's top investment banks, said it was resuming stock coverage for energy and exploration companies.
The outline will have "a positive impact" on the sector, said Leader analyst Yehonatan Shohat, and "paves the way for the signing of export deals and brings long-term regulatory certainty."
Ignoring Palestinian Responsibility - Alf Cengia - http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=8143
In some ways, the persistent ignoring of Palestinian responsibility in the never-ending crisis with Israel exhibits cult-like characteristics. My reasoning is simple.
Most of the individuals and organizations involved in writing about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and organizing protests and conference events should be informed with the true nature of the issues in the region. My contention is that they are. Yet they invariably place most of the responsibility for peace squarely on Israel's doorstep.
The nature of the conflict is misinterpreted by avoiding the fact that both Palestinian leaderships oppress their citizens; that they misuse foreign aid for personal benefit and to finance war against Israel. Digging tunnels into Israel is a costly business.
The persecution and precarious status of non-Muslims and free-press journalists under Palestinian leadership is routinely overlooked by these commentators. The violent rhetoric against Israel is either ignored or excused, as is the recent incitement for Palestinians to kill Jews by driving over them or stabbing them with knives.
The recent willingness by certain members UNESCO to hand over the Wailing Wall to the Palestinians indirectly placed every other Jewish and Christian holy site in jeopardy. At best it echoed the fashionably insane appeasement response to the violence-demand formula. At worst it was opportunistic sabotage.
One could do a series of articles on the Temple Mount fiasco alone. Not only have historical Jewish Temple artifacts been relegated to rubbish heaps and Jewish history denied, but non-Islamic prayer on the Temple Mount is also heavily policed. Are these examples of Palestinian tolerance?
Defenders of the Palestinian assert a neutral position. More often they are either biased or misinformed. An example is Christian publisher Cameron Strang's 2014 comments:
"To remain a democratic state that is Jewish in character and majority, Israelis must find a way to acknowledge Palestinian demands for sovereignty in a portion of the historic land of Israel. And in order for Palestinians to achieve dignity and freedom, they must be either be allowed to create their own state in a portion of historic Palestine or be given equal civil and political rights in Israel."
This is a popular assessment of the conflict. And it's wrong.
When one listens to the Palestinian leaders' Islamist rhetoric and monitors the attacks (current and past) on Israel; one doesn't foresee a future for Jews or any other non-Muslims within the region. That's why Christians have been leaving the area. In fact Israeli Arabs and Christians enjoy more civil liberties in Israel than they do under Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
In a desire to be an impartial peacemaker Mr. Strang talked about an alternate world problem and applied an alternate world fix.
As CAMERA noted, his solution to the problem ignores on-ground reality. The Palestinian leaders don't want peace with Israel - they want to remove it from the region. Unfortunately, his Relevant Magazine claims an annual outreach of over 1.35 million young adults.
The imaginary solution becomes a virtual reality to Strang's readership. Israel is hyped as the key to the conflict. As a Christian publisher, Strang had a responsibility to provide relevant information. He didn't, and he's not alone.
Lynne Hybels (wife of Pastor Bill Hybels) also claims to be impartial yet supports what Dr. Paul Wilkinson has dubbed Christian Palestinianism. According to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein CP is a movement which "traffics in anti-Israel propaganda and historical misinformation." He's correct. Notably Hybels and Gary Burge were guests at one of the virulently anti-Israel Christ at the Checkpoint (CATC) conferences which are run by Christian Palestinianists.
Hybels was even named to President Obama's Faith Advisory Board in 2011. The Obama Administration doesn't have an exemplary track record of objectivity regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict either. Of course White House policies aren't a function of Hybels input. We've noted in previous columns that Mr. Obama sat in anti-Zionist Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years. He surrounds himself with like-minded people.
Algemeiner notes that Obama officials insinuated Israeli responsibility in the recent Palestinian attacks on Jews in five ways;
1) Condemning violence and incitement on both sides (when one side is the aggressor)
2) Refusing to indentify the PA incitement to violence
3) Refusing to identify which side is inciting terrorism
4) Accusing Israel of using excessive force in dealing with the knife attacks
5) Partly rationalizing violence as the product of Jewish occupation of the West Bank (an old favorite)
Elsewhere Algemeiner has also noted why the BBC - by its own admission - cannot report Israeli history truthfully. Apparently the time required for fact-checking is a scarce commodity. The BBC isn't the only medium with fact-checking issues - ABC's Quantico TV show made a litany of factual errors placing Israel in a bad light (hat tip Jim Fletcher). Quantico has over 11 million weekly viewers!
What I find most troublesome are instances where the church claims to adopt a peacemaking role, yet constantly absolves Palestinian culpability while being patently anti-Jewish. In one example, CAMERA asks whether CATC has a hidden agenda:
"The Kairos Palestine document asserts, among other things, that Jewish sovereignty or self-determination is contrary to God's plan for humanity. The document is so egregious that a resolution adopted by the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) has declared it to be supersessionist and anti-Semitic." (Emphasis mine)
Supersessionism (Replacement Theology) - the idea that the church has replaced Israel - sometimes drives unbiblical attitudes towards modern national Israel and the Jews. Often these people side with Israel's antagonists as a knee jerk reaction to Christian Zionism and dispensationalism.
A particularly revealing example of this attitude is set out in a 2005 ELCA article. The writer cites Bishop Younan and Rev. Naim Ateek making blanket statements that Christian Zionism and premillennialism are heresies. The ELCA has its own heresy issues. But that's another column.
In an article linked above, someone said that Lynne Hybels shouldn't be condemned for believing that Israel isn't a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. I agree to a point. However, contrary to Hybels, Younan and Ateek, the Bible clearly states that God is not finished with Israel. In fact God seems to think the matter important (See Zechariah chapter 8).
The Old Testament prophets portrayed a future time when unbelieving national Israel would be subjected to severe tribulation prior to Christ's return (Jeremiah 30:7; Hosea 5:15; Matt 23:39). Secular Israel is a present reality, as are the growing portents of a Future Tribulation.
Anyone claiming to be a Christian (and especially those who aspire to teach God's word) has a responsibility to understand what God has revealed and faithfully disseminate it. This doesn't mean that Christian Zionists ought to idolize national Israel. It is an imperfect nation (like its neighbors) which will be subjected to God's divine plan of redemption.
Yet neither should we pander to Israel's enemies. The irony of doing so means that one partakes of the very prophecies which one denies.
And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you. Deut 28:37
There are close parallels to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the European refugee violence, the problem of Islamic terrorism and the purging of Christianity in the Middle East. Israel's problem is also the world's problem.
By the way, let's not forget Genesis 12:2-3 and Genesis 27:29.
Isn't it time we paid attention?
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