It’s not about metal detectors. And how ridiculous that I should even have to say that.
A child watching Sesame Street knows when things are upside down. Children learn the basics of gravity and even proxemics at a fairly young age. They understand that there’s a certain amount of space that one must place between themselves and, say, a fire… or a dog that’s baring its teeth.
Sadly, most Israelis have these basics internalized as well, but they have been forced to live in a reality where many things are upside down.
Case in point: The situation now facing Israel, its citizens, and the many people who visit there is so far removed from the recent installation of metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount that it’s absurd to even suggest that this recent cause célèbre has any impact on what’s occurring in the Middle East. The metal detectors are merely the latest excuse.
The Salomon family members were not butchered because of metal detectors. There were no metal detectors when the Fogel family was murdered in their beds in Itamar. There were no metal detectors when Hallel Yaffa, an innocent 13-year-old girl, was slaughtered in her bed in Kiryat Arba.
The presence of metal detectors at the Temple Mount is just another excuse to shed blood. Why? Because Israel’s enemies live in a chasm of fake news and false motives.
Metal detectors weren’t suddenly installed to insult anyone. They were installed because two Israeli policemen were murdered, shot in the back by assassins who ascended the Temple Mount ostensibly to pray. And then turned and fired.
These metal detectors were recently installed to protect people—all people.
So how does Mahmoud Abbas react? How does King Abdullah of Jordan react? Publicly, their reactions imply to their people—and to the rest of the world—that Israel, “the Zionist enemy,” has perpetrated the unthinkable upon the Muslim people. These Arab leaders have abandoned the avenue of civil discussions and diplomatic relations and instead opted to incite “days of rage.”
Rage. That is the edict from the so-called moderate leaders of the Arab world. These are the men who say they want peace for their people, peace for the region.
Hamas and their ilk, the overt terror organizations, make no secret of their means nor the ends they seek. By contrast, Abbas and the Jordanian King are more polished and, consequently, somewhat more dangerous. Why? Because they hold out the promise of peace; they proffer the gift of life without terror, which all Israelis and civilized peoples hope and pray for. For the small price of trust, they say, “we promise to bestow the precious gift of peace upon a generation weary of terror and war.”
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. Beware of friends bearing gifts. Because with friends like these…
[Dov Hikind is a NY State Assemblyman, a Democrat from Brooklyn]
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2 Responses
This runs much deeper than metal detectors, but the metal detectors are still very relevant on the surface.
Dov Hikind displays incredible naivety in writing that he cannot fathom why the arabs had a problem with Israel putting up metal detectors at the entrance of a place that does not belong to them. The reason this is so naive is because he has no understanding of how the Israelis react when they are attacked. They react by showing the Palestinians who’s the boss. And so in this case they put up the metal detectors for the precise purpose of making the point that they will put up a checkpoint at the entrance of the temple mount, which would require all those who wish to enter to line up and have the Israelis make them empty their pockets, in addition to doing whatever else they please in the name of security.
And so what was once for the arabs entering a place that belongs to them, will not require them to have to deal with Israeli security forces who can boss them around and humiliate them at will. Anyone who has ever seen how Israeli security forces deal with arabs at checkpoints will know that its not a pleasant experience on the part of the arabs, as they are not dealt with with the greatest respect. And so forcing the arabs to pass through an Israeli checkpoint as a requirement in order to pray on the temple mount was the price the Israelis were going to make the arabs pay for the attack they pulled off.
The idea that it was for security purposes is ludicrous. And this is because anyone who is in possession of a weapon on their way in to the temple mount will simply use it before they enter.
However unlike Dov hikind, the arabs understood exactly why the Israelis wanted to install that checkpoint and so they protested and stated they will not pray on the temple mount if doing so requires them to be subject to dealing with Israeli security forces. And in doing so they won this particular round.