The Strategy Behind the Premeditated Violence in Jerusalem

These days the Jewish communities celebrate the festival of Passover, which celebrates the beginning of the journey of the Jewish people towards national freedom and sovereignty. This is a journey, which continues till today. The people of Israel have not reached calm and tranquility, due to the enemies of Jewish national survival.     

Israel is once again under attack. Leading up to the first few days of Passover, the commencement of Easter and the Ramadan, we sadly witnessed a return of violent acts in many forms against Israel. 

We beheld the violent barricading on the Temple Mount, the launching of rockets from Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, and most tragic of all, we suffered heartbreaking terrorist attacks, which resulted in the murder of three innocent people. 15 year old Rina, her 20 year old sister Maia, and their mother Lucy, were brutally murdered, when Palestinian terrorists sprayed the family’s car with bullets. That same evening, a ramming attack at Tel Aviv’s beachfront promenade killed Alessandro Parini, a 35-year-old lawyer from Rome. Seven more pedestrians were wounded in this attack. 

The attempts to attach guilt to Israel for the unfolding events – for something Israel did or did not do – is not only false and futile, it is also an injustice to the truth and the victims.

It is time to lay down the facts and the truth. 

For over a century, baseless allegations about the Temple Mount have been manipulated as a pretext to spark anti-Jewish violence. These fabrications were voiced even before the establishment of the state of Israel, with the Mufti of Jerusalem. Haj Amin al-Husseini’s lie that al-Aqsa Mosque was in danger ignited a series of Arab riots that led to hundreds of deaths and, perversely, limitations being placed on Jewish immigration by the British authorities in an attempt to appease the mobs. 

Due to the relative success of this manipulative strategy, which usually ends with the condemnation of Israel or the Jews and the receiving of benefits of some kind or another, Palestinian officials and Hamas supporters continue this pattern of fabricated threats.  

Detecting the explosive potential surrounding the Temple Mount, upon which the ancient First and Second Temples were located, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque later built, they deliberately re-ignite the fabrications, in order to incite terrorism, inspire uprisings, trigger armed hostilities and realize political goals. 

This behavioral pattern reared its ugly head once again. The night before the commencing of the Jewish festival of Passover, armed with rocks, fireworks and blunt instruments, Hamas supporters and others barricaded the entrance to the El-Aksa mosque, entrapping peaceful Muslim worshippers inside. They then began pelting rocks and setting off fireworks in the mosque. The follow up to that would be pelting rocks on peaceful Muslim worshippers and on Jewish worshippers at the Western wall. The objective of inciting against Israel justifies, in their eyes, desecrating the holy mosque, endangering Muslims and Jews and engaging in physical violence.

Israel was obligated to enter the Temple Mount with force, in order to preempt the premeditated attacks, to protect the Muslim and Jewish worshippers, and to restore law and order. Israel has no interest in entering the Temple Mount with force. It does so, under duress. The sequence of the events is clear. First, the Hamas and Palestinian radicals instigate violence. Then, out of necessity, the Israeli forces enter to restore peace. It is an intriguing question why many of the media outlets knowingly turn the tables on the events, portraying Israel as the perpetrator, instead of the reactor, and thus falsely negatively impacting Israel’s image in the world. They deliberately use terminology like “Israel raids the Temple Mount”, or such imagery, encouraging further violence against Israel or Jews. This is a question which should be addressed in a separate article. This article focuses on laying down the facts for the innocent bystanders, who are swept up in the falsehoods and fabrications.  

They spread lies that Israel raids the Temple Mount or has an interest in changing the status quo on the mount. The untruths generate further violence, when Muslim followers around the world fall for these lies, deducing that the holy site is in danger. Nothing is further from the truth. I know what I am talking about. Not because I represent the state of Israel, but because I personally witnessed this. As a medic in the IDF I was stationed for a period of time in a post overlooking the Temple Mount, serving the medical needs of the forces responsible for preserving peace on the Temple Mount. The standing order was clear – the forces were responsible for preserving free access and free worship for the Muslims. The forces were prohibited from entry unless there was a danger to that freedom. The standing order has not changed. Proof of Israel’s commitment to safeguard the sacred sites of every faith and to uphold freedom of worship, especially for the Muslim population on Temple Mount, is demonstrated on a daily basis, proven in facts and figures over time.

Last year, approximately 1,250,000 Muslim entered the Temple Mount to worship during the month-long observance of Ramadan. Ramadan attendance number has risen sharply this year. In contrast, the number of Jewish visitors during the whole of 2022 was fewer than the number of Muslim worshipers during a single Ramadan Friday. Restrictions on Jewish and other non-Muslim visitors stem from a decision Israel made after the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, to uphold the status quo on the Temple Mount and allow the Islamic Waqf to continue to administer the holy site. Israel could have decided differently, giving advantage to Jewish worship. Israel did not.  

Observing the amount of peaceful Muslims who visited the holy site this week before the Hamas violence, and the peaceful access and prayer following the Hamas violence, is further demonstration of the fact that Israel preserves the sanctity and access while the Hamas and their followers defile and desecrate these values.  

Hamas expanded its offensive to additional fronts. Thirty-four rockets were launched from Lebanon (with the acquiesce of Iran-backed Hezbollah), rockets were launched from Gaza and there were launches also from Syria. In form, we saw an increase in terrorist attacks.   

If anyone believes these actions to be spontaneous, or responses to Israeli actions, then they are extremely naive. Contrary to the narrative being advocated by Hamas and anti-Israel advocates, the rioting and rocket launching were deliberately orchestrated, timed to take advantage of the sensitive period of the Ramadan. 

These provocative acts are driven by Hamas’ political agenda, whether that be tied to internal Palestinian rivalries, inter-Arab affairs, their perception that Israel is vulnerable or situations in the international arena. Primarily, they stem from a wider strategy of perpetuating the conflict with the objective of annihilating the state of Israel. The murdering of Jews and Israelis is just one component of the overall strategy. 

They perhaps believe that recent differences of opinion in Israel render Israel vulnerable. They are mistaken. Our democracy is part of our strength. Faced with such threats, Israel unites. Perhaps for this reason, the overarching strategy of toppling the state of Israel has proven un-successful.

The method of acting out violence with the confidence that Israel will be falsely accused of instigating that violence, has largely proven successful, since the time of the Mufti.

Yet, the method of acting out violence with the confidence that Israel will be falsely accused of instigating that violence, has largely proven successful, since the time of the Mufti. It is time for those in the international media and political circles, who feed this beast, to cease the endowment of benefit and credibility by the knee jerk reaction of falsely accusing Israel. 

Israel wants nothing more than peaceful coexistence, freedom of worship for all. Israel is committed to those values. Nevertheless, as long as Israel is unfairly condemned and terrorists rewarded, we are doomed to see the returning cycle of violence, whenever it suits Hamas’ agenda.

Hillel Newman is the Consul General of The Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles.