Events in and surrounding Jerusalem have reached a critical not to say murderous phase. But out of the multiple evils that have been recently visited upon that city it is just possible that some good may come.
Recent attacks were essentially random in nature, since the killers could have had little if any idea of the identities of their human targets. The attempted assassination on October 29 of Rabbi Yehuda Glick – apparently carried out by a known terrorist affiliated to Islamic Jihad – is altogether different. Glick is a well-known advocate of the right of Jews to pray alongside Muslims on the Temple Mount. His alleged assassin appears to have known this, and according to eyewitness reports asked Glick to identify himself before pointing a revolver at him and shooting several times at point-blank range. It is a miracle that Glick is still alive, and we must all wish him a Refuah Shlema - a perfect and complete recovery.
The shooting of Glick had nothing to do with "settlements" or "the right of return". It had everything to do with the status of Jews in the eyes of Palestinian Islamists and their very many friends and admirers the world over. It also had everything to do with multiple incitements to the murder of Jews that have come from the very heart of the Palestinian leadership in recent days.
In the three days prior to the shooting of Yehuda Glick, Palestinian Television broadcast 19 times a plea by PA president Mahmoud Abbas inciting and urging that Jews be killed. Abbas implored that Jews be killed - Jews, not Israelis. Here is some of what he said: ''It's not enough for us to say: 'There are those carrying out Ribat [religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic]. We must all carry out Ribat in the Al-Aqsa [Mosque]. It's not enough for us to say: 'The settlers have arrived [at the Mosque]'. They have come, and they must not come to the Sanctuary [i.e., the Temple Mount]. We have to prevent them, in any way whatsoever, from entering the Sanctuary. This is our Sanctuary, our Al-Aqsa and our Church [of the Holy Sepulchre]. They have no right to enter it. They have no right to defile it. We must prevent them. Let us stand before them with chests bared to protect our holy places."
Note the chilling words. Jews, said Abbas, must be prevented "in any way whatsoever" from ascending the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Murderous sentiments have nothing to do with land
Why must Jews be so prevented? Why, apparently, are Muslims entitled to ascend and pray on the Temple Mount, but not Jews? Because, according to the Palestinian Authority, Jews are inherently evil. Jews praying at the Western Wall defile it. They must be prevented "in any way whatsoever" from defiling the Temple Mount.
These sentiments have nothing to do with land, but everything to do with faith. Their propagation underpins the truth that western governments would rather not hear: that at the heart of the Arab quarrel with Israel is a religious mindset saturated with anti-Jewish prejudice.
A BBC local radio station put it to me on 30 October that rabbinical prohibitions exist against Jews praying and even setting foot on the Temple Mount. So they do.
But there are also impeccable rabbinical sources that argue a quite contrary viewpoint. Earlier this year a group of prominent Israeli rabbis, including the saintly She'ar Yashuv-Cohen (chief rabbi of Haifa), went so far as to urge the Israeli government to establish, at a certain point on the Temple Mount, a Jewish house of prayer. They were right to do so. Is freedom of worship is to be allowed to Muslims, but not to Jews?
