For the Children

While the news media seems to delight in showing children holding pictures of the vicious murderer Samir Kuntar, the news media does not publish the pictures of the two children Kuntar murdered. One was murdered by slamming her head against a rock. This sort of barbarity is worshipped by supporters of terrorists. Recently, people were horrified in this country by a "man" who beat a two year old to death.

You see no one holding pictures, much less children, of this "man" and calling him a "hero". So why are there so many pictures of children holding pictures of the "hero" Kuntar? It is suggested that the actions of Palestinian terrorists and other Islamic terrorists cannot be judged by the standards we supposedly hold so dear in Western societies. Why not? Whether the terrorist murders by smashing planes into buildings full of civilians, slamming a little girl against a rock, tearing apart two Israeli polcie officers, or bulldozing people in buses or cars: These are all acts of barbarity and should not be encouraged. Yet many try to excuse these horrific acts of murder by saying it is a response to the actions of Western governments like the United States and Israel.

Acts of barbarity have become a seemingly acceptable form of political protest. They are not political protests nor should they be accepted as a proper response to anything. They are barbaric acts of murder.

A family was destroyed by Samir Kuntar. His 'heroic" deed was smashing the head of a little Israeli girl against rocks. If this had happened in this country, England, or most countries, there would be gasps and outcries of horror. But it was only a little Israeli girl who in the last moments of her life, saw her father shot before her eyes. Her little sister died in her mother's arms. She died because her face was pressed against her mother's bosom in an effort to keep her cries from drawing the attention of those in Kuntar's company whose only goal was to murder as many Israelis as possible.

Below are pictures of Elnat and Yael Haran, two little girls who were murdered by the "hero" Kuntar:






Much effort is made to try to "humanize" and justify murderers and terrorists like Kuntar. What of the humanity of their victims?


H/t: The Only Pictures of Children We Should Be Seeing

The Lie of Al Dura

The images were blasted across the world. A Palestinian boy and father penned down by what from news reports appears to be gunfire from the IDF. Then the boy appears to be shot. The condemnation of Israel was shift and has been unrelenting. And it is all based on a lie. The news reporter and the camera man staged the scene. The boy and his father could not have been harmed by the gunfire of the IDF.

Even in the news footage, after supposedly being shot, one can see his arm moving later.

France-2 news sued Richard Landes for defamation for pointing out that the news footage was staged. French courts have overturned a libel ruling against Richard Landes. The truth has finally come out.

So much hate and deaths have been caused by unscrupulous news people. So many lies about Israel has been reported by the news media. But the truth will come out.

Percentages

Most people react with horror when innocent school students are slain without any provocation. I wanted to believe that all the reports coming from Gaza and the West Bank of people celebrating the deaths of 8 innocent students were staged. There is still a part of me that hopes that the majority of Palestinians do want to live side-by-side with Israel in peace. I'm always the optimist. But certain factors have always dampened those hopes: the hate-filled toward Jews/Israel in Palestinian school books, the hate-filled children's programming spewed out by the Palestinian Authority, the lack of any real effort by the Palestinian Authority to build up an infrastructure to promote businesses and healthy living, and mostly the idea that a child's greatest hope in life is to become a suicide bomber. All of these factors have led to a spiraling culture of death amongst Palestinians.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- A new poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians support the attack this month on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem that killed eight young men, most of them teenagers, an indication of the alarming level of Israeli-Palestinian tension in recent weeks.

The survey also shows unprecedented support for the shooting of rockets on Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip and for the end of the peace negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

The pollster, Khalil Shikaki, said he was shocked because the survey, taken last week, showed greater support for violence than any other he had conducted over the past 15 years in the Palestinian areas. Never before, he said, had a majority favored an end to negotiations or the shooting of rockets at Israel...

Further in the article I first read at Solomonia, a staggering 84% of Palestinians support the idea it is okay to murder teenage students as they study. I'm sure some half-wits will try to twist and manipulate the poll numbers in order to blame Israel. I really thought blaming the victim was so passe. But I guess when it is those bloody and evil Zionists, all rules of human rights go out the door.

Billions and billions in international aid has been given to help the Palestinians build up their lives. Greenhouses were given to them after Israel disengaged from Gaza and they were in ruins after the Palestinians dismantled them and dug tunnels to smuggle weapons. Israel had an industrial zone in which Gazans could have good jobs. The zone was continually frought with murderous attacks against Israelis and Israel was forced to close it.

At some point, people need to stop excusing the deadly temper tantrums of the Palestinians. But I suppose the excuses will keep coming and more innocents will be torn apart by rifle fire. I can't thinking about the Columbine shootings. I saw the tail end of a program about it the other night. While there was an effort to understand the mental state of the murderers, I noticed no one blamed the victims. Why should the murders of 8 yeshiva students be treated any differently?

Enablers

enabler
Main Entry: en·abler
Pronunciation: \i-ˈnā-blər, -bəl-ər\
Function: noun
Date: 1615
: one that enables another to achieve an end; especially : one who enables another to persist in self-destructive behavior (as substance abuse) by providing excuses or by making it possible to avoid the consequences of such behavior

I really do not understand the enablers of terrorists such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and so many others. They seem to be justifying all acts of terror while downplaying the murderous intent of terrorists. Even after 9-11, many asked the question: Why do they hate us? These enablers try to alloy the blame of the murderers by saying it is US policy that led to the deaths of close to 3,000 innocent people who were just at work. I witnessed the same on a show about women on death row.

One of the women had tortured, raped, and murdered an 8 year old girl. Her defenders say the women had suffered the same type of abuse throughout her life. While one can have compassion for the abuse the women suffered as a child, it does not excuse her murder of an 8 year old.

The attempt for justification for murder can also be seen in the movie To Die in Jerusalem. I will not mention the vile murderer but will mention the young woman whose life was cut short: Rachel Levy.

Gila is a survivor of another suicide bomber. Just read her blog My Shrapnel. She has posted about this vile movie which serves no purpose but to allow the enabling of future murders.

Enabler is usually a term that is associated with those who help alcoholics, drug users, and others to continue their self-destructive behaviors. It can also be used for what I see going on today. Israel is widely condemned for any acts she takes to defend her citizens. By comparison, we are asked to try to understand the vile acts of terrorism by Palestinians. We are told that Israel's might is so much greater that the stone-throwing, the Kassams, the Molotov cocktails, the shootings, the stabbings, and the suicide bombings are just a 'natural response' to the supposed injustices Israel commits.

Herein lies the problem: Israel is supposed to just take her citizens in Sderot being bombarded with a daily barrage of Kassams. Israel is supposed to open her check-points even though the check-points have stopped numerous suicide bombers. Israel is condemned for a passive fence that has greatly reduced the number of suicide bombings. Israel is condemned if power is cut-off to Gaza. Never mind that it is from Gaza the rockets are launched. Israel is condemned for so-called 'collectively punishing' those in Gaza while little is said of the collective punishment Palestinian terrorists enacts on Israelis. Below, sums it up:

My parents attended a lecture in Jerusalem the other day. The speaker (not surprisingly) touched on the current 'situation'. At one point a woman in the audience stood up and said [I'm paraphrasing from my recollection of what my father related]; "Hamas has publicly asked Israel for a cease fire... so why hasn't Israel accepted? Do we want peace or do we want to keep on fighting?" Several people tried to shout her down but the speaker held up his hands and said that he wanted to respond. He said, "First of all, there are several words for 'peace' in Arabic... but Hamas isn't using any of them. What they are asking for is a temporary cessation of hostilities which is entirely in their interest and doesn't serve Israel's interests in the slightest. I think I speak for the government of Israel when I say that the instant Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel there will be an immediate cease fire." This is fairly obvious to me... so why doesn't anyone outside of Israel seem to understand this???

The rhetoric against Israel is so one-sided, it enables the terrorists to continue their deadly goals. Time and again Israel is singled out and we are to think of the Palestinians as a sort of later day David against Goliath. But why such singular emphasis on Israel? Why is there not a call for the Palestinian terrorists to stop their murderous attacks? Why were there so many people who willingly sided with terrorists by holding up signs that said "We Are Hezbollah" when Israel went into Lebanon? Why do so many churches call for divestment in Israel? Why so many calls for Israel to be boycotted?

Solomonia has provided links which I find very helpful. An excerpt below:

In their various activisms, Christian groups have often spoken for Judaism in a way that is troubling. These have asserted principals of Judaism to advance their anti-Israel case, have offered their own quirky interpretations of ‘what Judaism teaches’ or emphasizes, or have latched onto fringe groups that supported their chosen viewpoints as if these were representative of Judaism.

For example, Christian groups have continually asserted that Jewish claims to land are null and void, but that Jewish covenant obligations remain in force. In cases they have posited an idyllic view of Jews living in the Diaspora as modeling “community life not dependent on violence to sustain it. . . [They] ‘were able to maintain identity without turf or sword, community without sovereignty. They thereby demonstrated pragmatically the viability of the ethic of Jeremiah and Jesus.’” [As an observer, I must say, I’d be surprised if many Jews in the Diaspora would be particularly pleased to be credited with demonstrating the ethic of Jesus … and I’m certain most of the people who experienced this life as a minority population subject to humiliating laws and officially sanctioned persecution would not take the suggestion well that this was God’s eternal purpose for them.]

Solomonia has another post called Enablers of Murder. An excerpt:

...According to Israeli spokesman David Baker, "We have over 200,000 Israelis in range of Palestinian rockets. We cannot allow this to go on. These rocket attacks on Israelis are sheer terror, designed to kill or maim as many Israelis as possible." If the attacks do not stop, then by no stretch of the imagination can the Palestinian people be considered ready for peace or even seriously interested in it.

The only way they will stop is if the world finally stops giving the Palestinians a free pass and calls the Palestinian game for what it is. There would be no Israeli strikes if there were no Palestinian aggression. The Palestinians cannot whine about the peace process while continuing to shell Israeli civilians on a daily basis. Yet the world indulges them. So many people believe the myth that the Palestinians are victims, that they are underdogs, that they have no incentive to change their behavior or take any responsibility for their actions. Why should they, when every UN resolution favors their cause, when only Israel and the increasingly isolated United States dare to criticize them openly? When even in the United States many on the political left raise the Palestinian banner?

In order for there to be peace in Israel and for a Palestinian state to be viable: enablers must cease their actions. Justifying attempted and successful acts of murder will not bring peace. It will only embolden the murderers.

Checking

During times of crisis, the most immediate reaction is for those to connect with loved ones. After Hurricane Katrina, it took me almost an hour, while dealing with a land line that kept losing dial tone, before I was able to hear my son's voice and know he was okay. One I first logged on this morning, I scanned the news as I always do. My heart skipped a couple of beats when I see the words suicide bomber in Israel.

I don't even read the article. I go and check my blogroll to make sure those in Israel are safe. But what of friends from the US who are traveling in Israel? Much harder to check on them.

Treppenwitz, in his post, And So It Begins, writes what it is like to watch a co-worker checking.

Suicide bombers make the international news. But the attacks on Israeli citizens by Palestinian terrorists using Molotov cocktails, rocks, guns, and knives are largely ignored.

Since Israel's disengagement, the scene of checking on the safety of loved ones has been played out over 4,000 times in the town of Sderot.

Israel Matzav and Israellycool are both updating as more news comes in.

And, lest I forget, today's two suicide bombers are curtesy of Israel's "peace partners", Fatah, via Hamas and the destruction of the border crossing.

Occupied Palestine

One of the narratives most frequently heard for supporting the vile acts of murder attempted murder by Palestinian terrorists against Israelis is that Israel is "occupying" Palestinian land. The charter of Hamas and even the supposedly changed charter of Fatah both proclaim that Palestine will be free from the river to the sea. In other words, both proclaim the destruction of Israel.

Now Palestinians are claiming charges of more "occupied land". This time the culprit is Egypt:

Ahmed Yousef, political adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, called for the "demolition and removal of the border between Palestinian Rafah and the Egyptian territory and the seizure of thousands of acres built on the border" claiming that the ownership back to the Palestinians.

Youssef claimed in an interview with the Arab channel tonight that "Hamas' destruction of the wall was intended to restore to the Palestinians their land allegedly taken to build a border wall is about 13 thousand acres" and said: "We do not want the continuation of the wall because we do not prefer the existence of any wall between us and deepened Arab" as he said.
...
The Egyptians have also foiled an attempt by Hamas members to raise Palestinian and Hamas flags on top of several government institutions in Sinai's Rafah and el-Arish.

The semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the attempt to place the flags was seen as a serious "provocation" by many Egyptians.

Since the claims of Palestinians in regards to "occupied land" are always met with little regard to truth, I'm sure Methodists and other church groups will immediately seek to divest from Egypt.

As I'm sure these same groups will seek to divest from Lebanon since the Lebanese attacked Palestinian refugee camps.

Of cousre, they'll need to include Jordan in those divestment plans. After all, in Black September, Jordan expelled such, fine upstanding terrorists as Arafat and other PLO leaders and fought against the Palestinian terrorists in Jordan.

Poor, Starving Gazans

Once again, Israel is being being blamed for causing hardships to those in Gaza. There are claims of food shortages, blackouts due to Israel, and other hardships Israel is inflicting on Gaza.

Let's look at some of the hardships. Food first:

You don't need to be a math genius to figure out that if Gaza has a population of 1.5 million, as the authors also note, then 680,000 tons of flour a day come out to almost half a ton of flour per Gazan, per day.

Read more about at Solomonia's post, How Much Flour Can One Person Eat?

Let's move on to the blackouts in Gaza. Hamas chose to cut the power off and then had a field day as journalists were more than happy to spread the "hardships" of Israel reducing power and fuel to Gaza. Read more at Inept Palestinian Propaganda Fauxtography.

Palestinians facing riot police!!! Oops. False alarm. No reason to become outraged. It is just the Egyptians trying to protect their citizens, infrastructure, and sovereignty.

And Sandmonkey has further musings in his post Gaza Lessons and Facts.

Manufacturing Outrage

By now, you've probably seen the pictures of the newest plight of Palestinians in Gaza. Surgeries have been canceled. Pregnant women about to give birth will have to do so without the benefit of electricity. And the terrorist thugs of Hamas, the "moderate" thugs of Fatah, the Egyptians, and others loudly proclaim it is the fault of the Israelis. And the news media continues to spin that propaganda.

Israel continues to provide 2/3 thirds of electricity to Gaza. Egypt provides 5%. And yet the heart of Gaza is in the dark. Why? Could it be that Hamas chooses to cut the electricity and endanger the citizens of Gaza in order to have yet more propaganda material to bash Israel?

A Blog For All has a round-up of the latest manufactured outrage aimed at Israel.

I'm just curious as to where all those protesters were when Lebanon actually did cut off the electricity, gas, and other utilities at Palestinian refugee camps.

Where is the outrage against the Palestinians who keep trying to smuggle into Gaza weapons and explosives hidden in trucks marked as humanitarian aid?

Where's the outrage when the Israeli town of Sderot is bombarded daily by Kassam rockets fired by terrorists from Gaza?

Why all the outrage when Israel justifiably closes border crossings with Gaza? Why isn't it mentioned in those news reports that Egyptian border crossings have remained open?

Family Tradition

PBS is to air tonight the first of the three part series The Jewish Americans. In today's Washington Post, there are responses of panelists. One of the panelists is Arun Ghandi.

Arun Ghandi offers the same advice his grandfather offered when Jews faced an enemy that was bound to annihilate them: go meekly and submit yourselves.

In Tel Aviv in 2004 I had the opportunity to speak to some Members of Parliament and Peace activists all of whom argued that the wall and the military build-up was necessary to protect the nation and the people. In other words, I asked, you believe that you can create a snake pit -- with many deadly snakes in it -- and expect to live in the pit secure and alive? What do you mean? they countered. Well, with your superior weapons and armaments and your attitude towards your neighbors would it not be right to say that you are creating a snake pit? How can anyone live peacefully in such an atmosphere? Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you? Can you not reach out and share your technological advancement with your neighbors and build a relationship?

Apparently, in the modern world, so determined to live by the bomb, this is an alien concept. You don't befriend anyone, you dominate them. We have created a culture of violence -- Israel and the Jews are the biggest players -- and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity.

Arun Ghandi's words echo that of his grandfather Mahatma Ghandi:

Having rejected both the plea that Palestine should be offered as a place of refuge for the Jews and the idea that the Western democracies should launch a war to overthrow Hitler, Gandhi offered only one avenue for the Jews to resist their persecution while preserving their “self-respect.” Were he a German Jew, Gandhi pronounced, he would challenge the Germans to shoot or imprison him rather than “submit to discriminating treatment.” Such “voluntary” suffering, practiced by all the Jews of Germany, would bring them, he promised, immeasurable “inner strength and joy.” Indeed, “if the Jewish mind could be prepared” for such suffering, even a massacre of all German Jews “could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy,” since “to the God-fearing, death has no terror.”

According to Gandhi, it would (for unexplained reasons) be “easier for the Jews than for the Czechs” (then facing German occupation) to follow his prescription. As inspiration, he offered “an exact parallel” in the campaign for Indian civil rights in South Africa that he had led decades earlier. Through their strength of suffering, he promised, “the German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German Gentiles in the sense that they will have converted [them] to an appreciation of human dignity.” And the same policy ought to be followed by Jews already in Palestine enduring Arab pogroms launched against them: if only they would “discard the help of the British bayonet” for their defense, and instead “offer themselves [to the Arabs] to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea without raising a little finger,” the Jews would win a favorable “world opinion” regarding their “religious aspiration.”

In a thoughtful personal response dated February 24, 1939, the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber — who had himself emigrated to Israel from Germany a short time earlier and combined his Zionism with earnest efforts to peacefully reconcile Jewish and Arab claims in the Holy Land — chided Gandhi for offering advice to the Jews without any recognition of their real situation. The individual acts of persecution that Indians had suffered in South Africa in the 1890’s hardly compared, Buber noted, to the synagogue burnings and concentration camps instituted by Hitler’s regime. Nor was there any evidence that the many instances in which German Jews peacefully displayed strength of spirit in response to their persecutors had exercised any influence on the latter. While Gandhi exhorted them to bear “testimony” to the world by their conduct, the fate of the Jews in Germany was to experience only an “unobserved martyrdom” without effect.

Both Ghandi's have basically exhorted Jews to submit to those who would slash their throats, be it Germans or Arabs. Israel does have a mighty arsenal and it is justified in having one. I doubt very much if Jews were to “offer themselves [to the Arabs] to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea without raising a little finger,” the Jews would win a favorable “world opinion” regarding their “religious aspiration.”

Arun Ghandi and Mahatma Ghandi echo the words of terrorists groups. And yet, I see very little criticism from Arun Ghandi on the deadly tactics used by terrorists such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah, and so many others. Why no calls from the Ghandis of the world for Arabs to lay down their arms? Why is there the implication that Jews and Israelis should not be allowed to defend themselves? Why do their words imply it is okay to have an open season on Jews? Mahatma Ghandi stated it would be easier for Jews to offer themselves up than it would be for Czechs to do the same. Does that even make sense?

Arun Ghandi is channeling his grandfather when he states Israel armaments are the cause of the violence in the Middle East. No where does he state that the terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens are an impediment. Nor does he say anything about Hezbollahs continued build-up of arms. Nor does he say anything about terrorists groups like Hamas and Fatah using foreign aid to purchase the armaments those groups employ in terrorist attacks.

Arun Ghandi states: We have created a culture of violence -- Israel and the Jews are the biggest players -- and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity. He claims Israel and Jews are the biggest players while ignoring the terrorist attacks in India. Why those terror attacks there? Or why the terrorist attacks in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and other places across the world? Does he really mean to say Jews and Israel are the cause? In India, Muslim extremists employ terrorism in an effort to regain Kashmir. Can that really be blamed on Israel and Jews?

To go further, are Jews and Israel to blamed for the ongoing genocide in Darfur committed by Muslim extremists? Israel was not the only country created by the United Nations in the 1940s. Syria, Jordan, and Pakistan are a few. Pakistan is now going through upheavals after Bhutto was assassinated. Pakistan has nuclear weapons as does India. Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea has nuclear weapons. And yet it is a country of around 7 million that is the instigator of a "Culture of Violence".

To me, the enablers of the "Culture of Violence" are those who hold up signs saying "We are Hezbollah". This is the true detriment to peace: justifying acts of terror. It is those protesters and groups like Peace Now, ISM, and so many others who fail to acknowledge that if Palestinians were to employ the peaceful tactics used by Mahatma Ghandi, there would be a Palestinian state existing side-by-side with the Jewish State of Israel. Why aren't the Ghandis of the world asking the Palestinians to employ peaceful demonstrations? Why aren't the Ghandis of the world asking Palestinians to lay down their arms? Why should Jews be asked to willingly submit to slaughter?

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow, President Bush will be leaving for an 8 day trip through the Middle East. He plans on visiting Israel and the Palestinian Authority controlled areas of the West Bank, including Ramallah.

I'm very worried for President Bush's safety on this trip. Fatah has been labeled as "moderate". Labels can be very deceiving. If you mean moderate in the sense that Fatah no longer calls for Israel's destruction in English, than I guess you could say Fatah is moderate. My concerns are very real.

Last week, two Israelis who were hiking were shot in the back by employees of the Palestinian Authority, one who just happened to be in the security force.

Also, Israel has conducted raids across the West Bank. In Shchem(Nablus), another area controlled by the Palestinian Authority, the IDF found suicide vests and arms of all sorts.

The Palestinian Authority insists it has little control of terrorists who target Israeli citizens. It seems to me President Bush and his Secret Service detail should place little credence in the Palestinian Authority to protect him. And President Bush should address the following impediments to peace: the daily Kassam attacks against the Israelis town of Sderot, the hate of Israel being taught in Palestinian Authority schools, the hate of Israel being blared from Palestinian Authority TV and radio stations, the aparthied being practiced by the Palestinian Authority against Christians, and the unwillingness of the Palestinian Authority to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish State and its right to live in peace.

Tears of a Mother

Moms throughout history have wept for their children. They can be tears of joy, sadness, or worry. Usually, they can bend a heart of stone. Moms also pray for their children. I know I do for my son. The Matriarchs and Patriarchs of Jewish are in effect our moms and dads of old. For thousands of years, they have taught us about human nature and have guided us to a closer relationship with HaShem. One of the most beloved Matriarchs is Rachel. Her tears are said to still cry for her children of Israel. There used to be a beautiful place to be able to go visit the Tomb of Rachel. The photo below shows what it looked like before it needed to be encased in a concrete bunker because of attacks by Palestinians on those who sought to visit Kever Rachel.



It is bad enough that Palestinians do not respect the holy sites of other religions. They desecrated the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and destroyed Joseph's tomb. The Waqf continues its destruction of the archaeological record of the Temple Mount.

Those were and are bad enough. But as with the Temple Mount, the Palestinians are making false claims of religious claims on Kever Rachel.

In 2000, after hundreds of years of recognizing the site as Rachel's Tomb, Muslims began calling it the "Bilal ibn Rabah mosque."20 Members of the Wakf used the name first in 1996, but it has since entered the national Palestinian discourse. Bilal ibn Rabah was an Ethiopian known in Islamic history as a slave who served in the house of the prophet Muhammad as the first muezzin (the individual who calls the faithful to prayer five times a day).21 When Muhammad died, ibn Rabah went to fight the Muslim wars in Syria, was killed in 642 CE, and buried in either Aleppo or Damascus.22 The Palestinian Authority claimed that according to Islamic tradition, it was Muslim conquerors who named the mosque erected at Rachel's Tomb after Bilal ibn Rabah.

The Palestinian claim ignored the fact that Ottoman firmans (mandates or decrees) gave Jews in the Land of Israel the right of access to the site at the beginning of the nineteenth century.23 The Palestinian claim even ignored accepted Muslim tradition, which admires Rachel and recognizes the site as her burial place. According to tradition, the name "Rachel" comes from the word "wander," because she died during one of her wanderings and was buried on the Bethlehem road.24 Her name is referred to in the Koran,25 and in other Muslim sources, Joseph is said to fall upon his mother Rachel's grave and cry bitterly as the caravan of his captors passes by.26 For hundreds of years, Muslim holy men (walis) were buried in tombs whose form was the same as Rachel's.

It seems the Palestinians are desperately trying to wipe out any and all Jewish ties to Israel. A leading "scholar" at Columbia, Nadia Abu El Haj, claims that all archaeology done by Israelis is political in nature and should be ignored because of some sort of "colonialism". Her critics have much to say:

...But politicization also derives from the impact of literary criticism and cultural studies upon anthropological method. Facts on the Ground is profoundly shaped by Edward Said's book Orientalism, which clearly rejects the idea of the objectivity of knowledge. Said's view is that science itself developed in the context of colonialism. By locating the scientific enterprise within the colonial, it becomes possible for writers like El-Haj to create labels such as "colonial science" that treat archeology in much the way old line-Marxists used the idea of "bourgeois science" to try to expunge Mendelian genetics from Soviet scientific thought. Like genetics, archeology is treated as suspect because it allegedly serves the interests of ruling groups.

It seems the Palestinians have no objectivity of knowledge and are politicizing Jewish holy sites in order to try to wipe away thousands of years of history. In Israel, Chrisitians, Bahists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and others are all allowed to observe their religious practices without fear. In the areas controlled by the Palestinians, religious rights are not respected and Christians are being driven out. If ever tears of a mother are needed, it is now.