History, Stones And The Palestinians Orwellian Dance

Via Ed Driscoll comes this link to The Orwellian Erasing Of Jewish History Continues, by Judith Weiss of Kesher talk.

The orchestrated violent reaction to the ramp renovations at the Temple Mount raises again the persistent attempt by the Palestinians to conceal or eradicate evidence of the Jewish history of the site, throughout Islamist history a common enough policy toward the holy sites of other peoples…

. . . . Israel itself is a mistake. . . . the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself…

Rewriting Jewish history for political purposes may get a sanction from academia with a tenure appointment in the anthropology department at Barnard, still under review. (If you are an alumnus, you may want to express concerns to the College. A caveat and list of contacts are at the end of this post.)

The applicant, Nadia Abu El Haj, is an assistant professor of anthropology at Barnard, and a member of the controversial MEALAC faculty. She has written a book which purports to be an examination of how Israeli archaeologists “construct a narrative” which supports “the Zionist myth” by destroying evidence to the contrary.

To make her case, she asserts not only that their findings are false, but deliberately false, that – contrary to enormous amounts of factual evidence – there is no connection between Jews today and whatever ancient Israelite nation existed, that Israeli archaeologists deliberately destroy evidence of Palestinian history in Israel (this is a nice bit of projection, considering that Palestinians do exactly that to Jewish artifacts), and then she actually defends destruction of Jewish artifacts by Palestinians…

Just how depraved, dysfunctional and morally bankrupt do many in Palestinian/Arab world have to be, to deny real history? Just how depraved, dysfunctional and morally bankrupt do many in Palestinian/Arab world have to be deny the realities of Jewish and Christian history, so as to create a surreal and false identity out of thin air that might give credibility and meaning to centuries of failure and nothingness?

To deny Jewish/Christian history in Jerusalem and Israel is to deny the beliefs of Jews and Christians and to deny both the Old and New Testaments (both of which precede the birth of Mohammed and the Quran). Jews and Christian believe that it was upon Rock of Abraham was the site where the Patriarch Abraham showed his willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac, only to be told that God demanded not sacrifice (Jihadis and shaheed wannabes, take note), but rather that he parent his beloved child and instruct that child in the ways of the Lord.

Jews were charged to make a pilgrimage to the Temple three times each year. Jesus was on one of those pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem, accompanied by no more than a hundred or two hundred of his followers, when the preached the message that was change and influence the world and the political, social and moral evolution of man.

Are both Judaism and Christianity lies, simply because there are those in the Palestinian and Arab communities need to dismiss those faiths to bolster a concocted, Dali-esque, dream world self image that serves no other purpose than to camouflage a history of failure, disgrace and political dysfunction? Are there that many in the Arab world that are willing to be a party to the deceit that serves no other purpose than to perpetuate the failed ideologies and regimes that have destroyed the once proud ummah?

As the Arab world whips itself into a frenzy, convinced the Israelis are undermining the Temple Mount, deceit becomes the gospel that indermines reality. See Fausta for a look at reality.

Even the Arab League inserted itself into the fray- a useful way for that organization to continue it’s track record of doing nothing for the ummah, other than to preserve the misery inflicted on the Arabs by dysfunctional Arab regimes. We wrote

The Arab League is neither NATO or the Moose Lodge.

Even the name, ‘Arab League,’ is deliberately misleading. In fact, that organization does not represent Arab interests at all- and never has. The Arab League has not sponsored a single educational, economic or real democratic reform and empowerment program in it’s entire existence. The Arab League is an organization dedicated to maintaining the status quo and preserving the leaders of some of the most repressive and dysfunctional regimes in the world. That is it’s entire raison d’etre.

We have noted that the real naqbah (catastrophe) was not the creation of the state of Israel, but rather, audio tape, video tape and technology. As one Syrian bitterly noted, ‘We can no longer hide who we are and what we have become, from the west or from ourselves.’

The Arab world outrage at the Israeli archeological dig is comical.

Since when has the Arab world cared about the sanctity of holy places?

In The Prophet’s House To Become A Parking Lot, we noted how disintersted the Arab world was when the Prophet’s house was to be razed to the ground to make way for commercial development.

We are told the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about the land, and about the Islamic holy sites, supposedly ‘soiled’ by the presence of non-Muslims (read:Infidels) in their midst.

That’s right, the whole world misunderstands Muslims. It is simply a matter of us understanding just how important ‘the land’ and the ‘history’ is to Muslims.

Sounds plausible, right? Well, if you answered to the affirmative, you’d be wrong.

Suppose we were to tell you that the Israelis were going to demolish the Church of the Nativity to put up a parking lot? You’d say that the idea was so preposterous, that it wasn’t the least bit numerous. If it were true, we can only imagine the impending Christian thunder.

As it happens, the ‘Guardians of the Faith,’ the Saudis, are going to destroy the home of the Prophet Mohammed, but a stone’s throw from the Great Mosque. That’s right- and that’s for real.

“What makes this demolition worse is the fact that the home of the Prophet is to make way for a parking lot, two 50-story hotel towers and seven 35-story apartment blocks; a project known as the Jabal Omar Scheme, all within a stone’s throw of the Grand Mosque…

…wonders if the lack of a response is because Muslims have become so overwhelmed by the power of the Saudi riyal currency that we have lost all courage and self-respect? Or is it because they feel a need to cover up Muslim-on-Muslim violence, Muslim-on-Muslim terror or Muslim-on-Muslim oppression?

“The cultural massacre of Islamic heritage sites is not a new phenomenon. It is said that in the last two decades, 95 per cent of Mecca’s 1,000-year-old buildings have been demolished. In the early 1920s, the Saudis bulldozed and levelled a graveyard in Medina that housed the graves of the family and companions of Muhammad. Today, the religious zealots in Saudi Arabia are not alone (emphasis-added).

Oh yeah, it’s about the land and about sacred sites. Right- the Arab world cares about ‘the land’ and ‘sacred sites.’ Clearly, the Muslim world doesn’t give a damn about the ‘land’- that of the Prophet or that of the Palestinians.

If they would bulldoze the house where Mohammed lived, just how important do you think the place he parked his horse really is?

Remember- in 1967,

What Israel found in the West Bank and Jerusalem was appalling. Despite repeated promises and agreements, Jordan had never allowed Jews to their holy sites and Houses of Worship. There was a reason for that. Every single Jewish House of Worship was destroyed- all of them. The tombstones of the Mount Olives Cemetery, millenia old, were desecrated. Many were used to line latrines and as sewage conduits by the residents and the Arab occupants of Jerusalem. The area in front of the Wailing Wall, the most sacred of Jewish holy sites was a garbage dump, some 60 feet deep, by some estimates. Yes, there are photos and other documented evidence of these realities.

There is an equally appalling record of Arab desecration of Christian holy sites and Houses of Worship. So much for Arab world ‘sensitivities.’

Jewish communities, from Syria to Yemen, that predated even the foundation of Islam, have been eradicated from the collective memories of those nations, as if they never existed. That effort has become another scarlet letter and another legacy of failed societies and cultures led by dysfunctional regimes.

Certain parallels can be drawn from the behavior of others who insist on denying reality. In Some Observations On Self Delusion, Dr Sanity notes,

It gets excessively wearisome to constantly point out to them that there is a world that exists outside their heads and outside their emotions; and that the entire purpose of reason –which they reject in favor of feelings –is about understanding that world…

…they think they can get away with their interpretations simply because they don’t have to deal with external reality –if they feel it, it must be true.

It would be hard not to connect the dots. Reality is indeed a pesky thing.

From All We Are Breaking Is Stones:

Throughout history, Religions have not been particularly tolerant of each other. Destruction of other gods, in the name of yours is standard historical fare.

But we like to think that things are more civilized today; and while it is true that there is considerably more tolerance in the world–in spite of individual acts of perfidy…

…today’s fanatical Islamic jihadists are probably the most “equal opportunity” haters of other faiths. They have instituted the most restrictions and oppression toward other religions where they are dominant, yet casually demand that their beliefs be recognized everywhere on threat of violence. Their remarkable disdain and contempt for the religious beliefs of others stems from their delusion that their own religion has reached the “pinnacle” of religious evolution.

The ironies cannot be lost:

Whatever anyone thinks of religion, Thomas Jefferson said it best in a letter to a friend:

I never told my own religion nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another’s creed. I am satisfied that yours must be an excellent religion to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness. For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be judged.

Lastly, consider the character of those making the charges against Israel.

We wrote,

When the Jews emerged from the ovens of the Holocaust, they too, were under stress. Unlike the Israelis, the Nazis took no great pains to avoid civilian causalities (that or the Israelis have proved to be remarkably inept as killers).

Those wretched and ragged Jews did not choose to behave like the Palestinians. Rather than glorify and amplify dysfunction, they built a democratic state, with world class institutions and infrastructure. Rather than glorify hatred and bigotry, they built a functioning state. That truth has not been lost on the Arabs in the region or in Israel herself. Time and time again, those Arabs make clear they would rather live under Israeli control than under the Palestinian Authority. When the Israelis pulled out of southern Lebanon, the Alawites (the privileged clan that claims the Assads of Syria), made clear they too, wanted to remain under Israeli jurisdiction.

Can anyone imagine, any circumstances under which Israelis would indoctrinate their children to believe that killing was a religious obligation? Can anyone imagine Israelis instructing their children to act as human shields for gunmen? Can anyone imagine Israelis publishing textbooks instructing children to hate and slaughter? Can anyone imagine Israelis devoting media programming to extol the virtues of death and murder?

The best expressions of religious convictions are deeds and not creeds.

Religions, like societies and cultures are judged by what they create and not by what they destroy. Religions, like societies and cultures , are measured by the lives they save and enrich, not by the lives they take or enslave.

No amount of dancing can change those truths.