More Sound and Fury…writes Michael Kuttner
Once again a chorus of condemnation against the Jewish State pours forth from the international choir of cynical hypocrites whose pavlovian knee jerk frothing is activated whenever Israel takes steps to assert its legal sovereign right to provide for the health, welfare and safety of its citizens.
They are joined by others for whom Israel has become a dirty word, those who are distanced from any semblance of Jewish identity and solidarity and others whose hallucinatory visions blind them to the blunders of the past and as a consequence make them immune to perceiving that repeating the same mistakes will only lead to worse disasters.
Induction ceremony
Last week my wife and I attended a ceremony for newly inducted teenagers who had completed their period of basic army training and were about to receive their berets. This particular unit was the paratroopers and their red berets are a coveted symbol for all those youngsters who aspire to join a front line fighting unit. The impressive ceremony, attended by hundreds of proud parents, grandparents and other family members, took on added significance owing to the fact that it took place at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem, a stone’s throw from Mount Scopus. I will explain the importance of this site shortly but first let me slightly digress for a moment.
Last week a Hamas terrorist drove his car into a crowd of Israelis waiting at the light rail Ammunition Hill stop. He severely injured several and killed a 3 month old baby and an Ecuadorian woman in her early twenties who had come to live in Israel, before being shot dead by security authorities as he tried to escape. There is no doubt whatsoever that this was a deliberate terror attack as the terrorist’s own connection with Hamas, his family’s reactions and the hero worshipping adulations issuing forth from the Hamas/Fatah Palestinian Authority, all attest to this fact. The murderer’s mother praised her son as a martyr and said he had brought honor to his family. The “moderate” PA issued a poster lauding his martyrdom and the Arab masses rejoiced. Needless to say prior to and following the funeral, Arab mobs intensified their murderous stone throwing and vandalism against Jews and the light rail which is supposed to benefit them as Jerusalem residents.
This week a Palestinian Arab terrorist shot and critically wounded a Rabbi who advocates freedom of worship for Jews as well as Moslems on the Temple Mount. It is important to note that Jews have no interest in entering the Mosque but just wish to be able to pray on the Mount which was a holy site for Jews long before Islam was ever founded. The fake hysterical utterances about protecting Moslem holy sites from the Judaization of Jerusalem are part of an old and well tried tactic to arouse the mobs. It worked in the past and no doubt will work again because the international community is willfully deaf and blind to this tsunami of daily hate and lies.
The international reaction follows a familiar pattern. Silence from those who always condemn Israel and an appeal for calm from the US State Dept. which usually means that Israel should grin and bear it. However the most amazing response from the US Administration followed soon after. Advising their employees in Jerusalem not to travel on the light rail it explained that “owing to a traffic incident” at Ammunition Hill this area should be avoided. Note the wording: a traffic incident, not a terror attack. This sums up the warped warbling and twisted twitter emanating from Washington on this and related events.
Now back to the paratrooper ceremony. A mere 12 hours after the terror attack (unrecognized as such by most of the international media, no doubt taking their lead from Washington) I traveled to the Ammunition Hill train stop (on the light rail) which is the nearest spot from where an easy 10 minute walk leads to the place where the parade was scheduled to take place. The agenda of those who perpetrate terror and glorify it is to make Israelis so scared that they will hunker down in their homes or better still run far away. This tactic has not succeeded for over 70 years and will not today. We will not be terrorized into abandoning our Capital or country.
Ammunition Hill from 1948 to 1967 was under illegal Jordanian occupation. It was a fortified army base from where British trained, armed and officer led troops rained death and destruction on downtown Jerusalem and also blocked access to Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus. Needless to say this did not result in any sanctions or condemnations from the UN, European countries, the UK or the USA. During the 6 Day War in 1967, Israeli paratroopers battled hard to liberate this part of Jerusalem. Owing to an extensive network of trenches and strategic location many casualties ensued before Israeli troops managed to overcome and subdue the Jordanians. Today, a museum stands on the site and it is a memorial to all those Israelis who died to ensure that Jerusalem could be reunited and the hospital and university opened once more. From that time, induction ceremonies for the latest paratroopers take place at this site. The memory of those brave youngsters, who gave their lives so that Jerusalem could be once more the undivided capital of a Jewish State, is honored on these occasions and when the assembled multitude, new inductees and families, stand to sing Hatikvah, emotions ran high.
The area of Ammunition Hill is today part of a thriving Jerusalem suburb. However, as far as international critics are concerned it is occupied territory, as is all of Jerusalem previously illegally occupied by the Jordanians. Remember this as the latest brouhaha breaks out.
Just as Ammunition Hill is now an integral part of reunified Jerusalem, so are Ramat Shlomo, not far away in the northern part of the city and Har Homa in the southern suburbs. A growing population which includes immigrants and young couples needs affordable housing and therefore these areas are slated for further development. However building dwellings for Jews in our capital today brings forth the wrath of all the righteous hypocrites whose silence when Jews were denied access to their holy sites and half their city was notable. Countries which today occupy such territories as the Falklands, Northern Ireland, Bermuda, New Caledonia, Gibraltar, Tibet, Crimea, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands amongst other places conquered by force, sanctimoniously condemn Israel for building in territory which historically and legally is an inseparable part of the Jewish homeland.
The following statement thundered forth from Washington: “building in Jerusalem is illegitimate settlement activity that prejudges Jerusalem’s future..”
Please note that apparently building dwellings for Jews in any part of the capital is illegitimate. Note also that as far as the US Government is concerned the fate of our capital is still to be decided. In plain language that means the city is up for sale, its fate no doubt to be decided by the corrupt United Nations.
Taking its cue from Washington, the Hamas/Fatah PA announced that any construction in Jerusalem is punishable under international law. On the heels of this garbage the UN Security Council decided to hold an emergency session at the behest of Jordan & the PA to discuss the heinous crime of Jews building houses and Israel responding to daily outbreaks of violent incitement, fueled, aided and abetted by the very people we are pressured to embrace as peace partners. If any proof was needed that this corrupt organization is an instigator rather than a facilitator of peace in the Middle East, this proves it. Ebola, Islamic State and genocide elicit yawns while Israel galvanizes this world body into a ferocious frenzy. Moreover the spectacle of Jordan which illegally occupied half of Jerusalem and Judea/Samaria for so many years and which barred Jews from visiting the Western Wall, destroyed the Mount of Olives Cemetery and ethnically cleansed all Jews from the city as well as destroying their Synagogues, claiming to be the champion of religious freedom is farcical but consistent with current UN degeneracy.
The icing on this week’s cake of unbelievable sound and fury which signifies nothing intelligent is a reported quote by unnamed US officials (hint, hint, nudge & wink) that the Israeli PM is a chicken sh*t.
Jews have been called far worse names throughout their history and we will no doubt survive this latest FOWL manifestation by frustrated officials.
The memory of those brave paratroopers who laid down their lives so that we could live and flourish in a reunited Jerusalem, which after 2,000 years once more is the capital of a Jewish State should galvanize and make us more determined than ever to build in our Land.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.
Asserts its rights to provide health, welfare and safety to its citizens! By expanding settlements in East Jerusalem ?