During Sunday’s cabinet discussion of the coming month of Ramadan on the Temple Mount (March 11), Israel Police put forward a compromise proposal regarding limiting the entry of Israeli Arabs to the holy site. According to this proposal, only men aged 40 and over will be allowed in during the first week of Ramadan, and at the end of the week, it will be decided whether to continue imposing the curbs.
Curbs on women and children will be decided later.
Meanwhile, Israel Hayom’s Shirit Avitan Cohen tweeted that regarding Arabs from Judea and Samaria, only men aged 60 and over will be allowed, as well as children under the age of 10 (Muslim Month of Hate Looming over Israeli Government’s Decision-Making).
The position of the head of the Shin Bet and the representatives of the IDF in the discussion was that restrictions on Israeli Arabs could give Hamas what it wanted – unification of arenas and unrest among a population that avoided conflicts throughout the war.
BEN GVIR CALLS SPADES
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on Saturday night that this was yet another example of the conceptzia that still has its hold on the security apparatus, and should be forgotten after the events of October 7:
“It is absolutely forbidden to allow the entry of residents from the ‘Palestinian’ Authority into the territory of Israel. It cannot be that while kidnapped women are being raped in Gaza, Israel is allowing a Hamas victory celebration on the Temple Mount. The positions of some of the security officials recommending the approval of a massive entry of PA residents into the Temple Mount show that they have learned nothing from October 7.
“I recommend that those security officials take a look at the polls conducted in the Palestinian Authority, where they will discover the tremendous support for the massacre committed by Hamas on the seventh of October. I will strongly oppose the entry of PA residents into Israel and I hope that this is how my colleagues will act in the expanded cabinet – which is the only forum where this decision should be made, and not a limited forum in which I am not included and does not reflect the opinions of all the members of the cabinet.”
The security officials said at the meeting that most of the “problematic factors” among Israeli Arabs and eastern Jerusalem Arabs are under men the age of 40, including members of groups that have been outlawed, and those who do not belong to any group but are known to the Shin Bet and the police.
A political source told Kan 11 News that “the decision takes into account the fear of overcrowding at the Temple Mount gate.” According to him, the target number of individual worshippers in the entire compound at one time should be about 50 thousand worshipers. The same political source also noted that any decision is subject to change “depending on the fighting situation in Gaza, and if there is a deal to release hostages.”
WHEN JEWS OVERCROWDED TEMPLE MOUNT
Mishna Avot 5 recalls one of the ten miracles our forefathers and foremothers experienced on the Temple Mount was that on Yom Kippur the Jewish people stood pressed together, yet bowed down and had room enough.
The 2nd Roman Prefect of the province of Judea Marcus Ambivulus witnessed the Yom Kippur ceremony at the second Temple and testified there were 36,000 Cohanim and 24,000 deputy Cohanim, and then there were the Levites and, of course, the rank and file Jews, and when they bowed down, there was room enough for all of them (of course, I conflate the Mishna about the first Temple and a Roman’s testimony about the second).
AMOS HAREL’S FARCE & TRAGEDY
Speaking of the Conceptzia, Haaretz security commentator Amos Harel cried out this headline: “The farce surrounding the restriction of the ascension to the Temple Mount on Ramadan could lead to tragedy.” That’s Muslim ascension, mind you, limiting or even banning Jewish ascension would not trouble the Israeli left a wee bit.
“In yesterday’s debate, Ben Gvir demanded that strict restrictions be placed on the entry of Israeli Arab worshipers to the Temple Mount on Ramadan. All the security officials opposed this. Furthermore, it became clear that there was a legal problem in prohibiting the entry of worshipers who are Israeli citizens according to sweeping categories, such as age restrictions. What can be done is to issue a banning order against specific people, such as known religious instigators. This was, in fact, the decision that was made at the end of the discussion. But Netanyahu is afraid of Ben Gvir and therefore he issued a vague summary of the discussion, from which each of the participants can understand what he wants.”
“Netanyahu is afraid of Ben Gvir” has become a permanent battle cry of the left, as if they would have preferred Netanyahu to continue ruling if only Ben Gvir were out of the way.
FLEISCHMAN’S CHOICE
A while back, right-wing panelist Itamar Fleischman interviewed a leftist protest activist named Aybee Binyamin who proclaimed that the hostages must be freed at any cost. Fleischman asked: What if the cost for the release of all the hostages was that Netanyahu would stay in office another five years? Binyamin did not answer.
נוגה היקרה @NogaArbell אני יודע שאת לא נבהלת בקלות אבל רק רציתי להזכיר לך שהרעש שעשו מהציוץ שלך מגיע כרגיל מצביעות וזה קרה אך ורק בגלל שאת שייכת לקבוצה מסויימת וממחנה מסויים.
אייבי בנימין אמר דברים קשים הרבה יותר אבל לא ספג שום דבר שקרוב למה שאת ספגת ב- 24 שעות האחרונות. pic.twitter.com/F1lqON489j— תעברו לטלגרם Moshe Siani משה סיאני (@moshesiani) February 14, 2024
Hamas has been invested in an indefatigable campaign to turn Ramadan into a direct extension of October 7, with the Al Aqsa Mosque as the focal point of an explosion of violence that would flood eastern Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. All of the above is going to happen, more or less severely, depending on the IDF’s and the Shin Bet’s ability to suppress local outbursts.
With that in mind, Ben Gvir’s plan to block the Temple Mount to PA Arab visitors and severely limit access to young Israeli Arabs would be an effective way to reduce violence during the month of rage. Why would security officials oppose it? After all, this move has been used in the past to curb violence, when Jerusalem police barred Jews from the Temple Mount during significant portions of Ramadan.
The answer is that Israel’s security apparatus is afraid of Hamas. Don’t get me wrong, the IDF and the security agencies have shown without a doubt how capable they are of destroying Hamas. It’s their leaders who just don’t want to get involved in yet another string of confrontations with a ruthless enemy capable of mobilizing thousands of bloodthirsty, insane Muslims, with or without the blue ID cards.
VIRY-CHÂTILLON WILL MARCH ON YOU
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said after Muslim riots in October 2016 in La Grande Borne in Viry-Châtillon, south of Paris, when four police officers were injured from a hail of Molotov cocktails, that “There are no no-go zones” in France.
Denis Jacob of the French police unions disagreed, declaring, “Of course, there are no-go zones in France where the police cannot intervene and do their jobs in safety. The police can’t apply the law in these areas, they are attacked. If the police can’t do their work, it’s because there are criminals and delinquents who don’t respect the law. It’s not just a problem with this government, it’s a problem with all French governments over the last 20 years. Governments will never admit there are no-go zones because it’s a sign of a failed state.”
That, folks, is what the conceptzia looks like. Of course, if the French police were to marshal all their forces, together with the French military, they could kill the elements that threaten peace and civility. But who wants to get into this mess?
Turns out Itamar Ben Gvir does, and for that, he is hated by Haaretz and the few thousand Haaretz subscribers, and the US administration that can’t read, say, Makor Rishon (or The Jewish Press for that matter).
Ben Gvir (and The Jewish Press) understand that if you don’t march on Viry-Châtillon with everything you’ve got, Viry-Châtillon will someday march on you.
