A Muslim radio broadcast airing live from the Temple Mount on the official radio station of Islamic Jihad is now the most popular Palestinian radio program, according to a Gaza Strip poll released this week. This column broke the story last week that Al Quds Radio, official station of the terror group, has been broadcasting daily from the Temple Mount. The station regularly features Iranian and anti-Semitic propaganda and death threats against Jews. The station has been airing live Ramadan prayers since last week, as well as special Sunni Muslim Tarawih prayers recited at night during Ramadan. These special broadcasts have been preceded and followed by Islamic Jihad speeches calling for the destruction of the Jewish state and advocating Palestinian solidarity with Iran. According to poll ratings released yesterday by Palestinian Media Gathering, a Gaza-based media rankings organization, the Islamic Jihad Temple Mount broadcast is the most popular Palestinian radio program in Gaza. Saleh Al-Massri, Al-Quds radio station manager, told WorldNetDaily the Temple Mount the broadcasts provide Islamic Jihad with “an opportunity to spread Islam and its values and to bring some happiness to the suffering Palestinians who can’t reach the Al Aksa Mosque for Tarawih prayers.” It was unclear whether Islamic Jihad had official permission from Israel or from the Wakf, the Islamic custodians of the Temple Mount, to broadcast from the site, which is jointly administered by the Wakf and Israeli police. Israel’s police, government press office and military authorities all denied having any supervisory power over the broadcasts. Victory at Columbia “The fact that one of the American universities invited the Iranian president to raise whether the Holocaust happened proves that in the American people and leadership there is a hidden will to raise a serious discussion about these Zionists’ lies and propaganda,” Abu Mosaab stated. The Islamic Jihad spokesman applauded Columbia’s invitation to Ahmadinejad as “proving that in spite its power and influence there are some Americans . . . who are not afraid to go against the Zionist lobby threats and pressure.” West Bank Rockets Palestinian security officials in the Bethlehem-satellite town of Beit Jala last week seized what they said were two rockets that were meant to be launched against nearby Jerusalem. Palestinian officials said the rockets were a meter-and-a-half long and carried the words “Allah hu akbar – Allah is great.” Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesperson and a senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror group, which claimed responsibility for the rocket production, told this column his group has been “working overtime” to create a rocket infrastructure in the West Bank. Israel Defense Forces officials who inspected the rockets downplayed the threat. An IDF spokesperson said the “rockets supposedly found by the Palestinians near Bethlehem are not rockets but makeshift pipes that do not threaten Jerusalem.” But intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say there is much information that Palestinian terror groups have been producing and stockpiling rockets in sections of the West Bank that are currently capable of being fired. The security officials say the information is not getting out. “All I can say is, the information is known by the decision makers,” said a senior security official. The official noted that Israel has been “reluctant” to order large-scale anti-rocket operations in the northern West Bank in spite of intelligence about rocket infrastructures there. He speculated that a known rocket threat from the West Bank would generate opposition to any future withdrawals from the territory.
Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com. He appears throughout the week on leading U.S. radio programs.