07/24 Links Pt1: Israeli Sovereignty Over the Temple Mount Is Crucial for Peace; Palestinians Protesting Metal Detectors ~ EoZ

From Ian:

BESA: Israeli Sovereignty Over the Temple Mount Is Crucial for Peace

Regardless of its direct security merits, Israel’s decision to place metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount has been transformed by adversaries and Israel alike into an issue of sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Power-sharing there has always constituted a slippery slope to disaster. The murder of two Israeli policemen at the Temple Mount is an appropriate moment to rectify the situation by reasserting Israeli sovereignty over the holy site.
Why is Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount so important? Because international “partnership” arrangements in political hotspots not only rarely (if ever) work, but make matters much more volatile and dangerous. At the Temple Mount, only exclusive Israeli sovereignty can work.
Many partnerships over contested areas have been attempted, and they have led to only one outcome: failure. In 1949, for example, the UN tried to broker deals between Israel and Syria over demilitarized zones delimited in the Armistice Agreement. The three areas were perennial hotspots over which much blood was shed. They were only resolved (as are most Middle Eastern political conflicts) by a decisive victory and the establishment of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Before that, it was bedlam. Since then, there have been 40 years of quiet.

Palestinians Protesting Metal Detectors

It would be difficult to imagine a less sympathetic grievance to attract Western support to the Palestinian cause. In fact, the Palestinian response will appear contemptible to anyone who bothers to read even the basic facts of the matter. Israelis can’t go into shopping malls and bus stations, let alone visit the Western Wall, without passing through a metal detector. But Israeli-style security measures are a fact of life in the West as well, with metal detectors now a ubiquitous presence at sports events and, yes, outside religious sites like Notre Dame in Paris.
There is also of course a deep historical irony. With the possible exception of al-Qaeda, Palestinian terrorism—which pioneered the use of plane hijackings, airport attacks, and suicide bombings—has perhaps done more to force the introduction of metal detectors into our daily lives than just about any other cause.
The Israelis might try to look for a way out of this confrontation. Violence within the al-Aqsa complex is rare. The Israelis might well decide that the metal detectors have caused more trouble than this is worth, despite the fact that the Palestinian response is being driven by unsubstantiated paranoia about Jewish conspiracies to overturn the Temple Mount status quo. But if this kind of issue is going to be the chief grievance of the Palestinians, they shouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the world shrugs.

Seth Frantzman: Playing chess with the Third Intifada

The problem Israel faces is that it is playing chess against this “third intifada.” It has to understand there are five or six rings of violence and protest. The first one involves Jerusalem. The second involves the Palestinian community in Israel, often called “Israeli Arabs” in the press but who see themselves as connected to the wider Muslim and Palestinian community. The third is the Palestinian community in the West Bank, the fourth is Gaza. Then there is the ring that involves the Arab and Islamic worlds, the protests that take place in Amman and further away against Israeli policies. Lastly there is the sixth ring that involves the international community and non-Palestinian anti-Israel activists abroad.
If all this is a known quantity why does Israel end up playing backgammon, often called “shesh-besh” in Hebrew and Arabic, in a situation that requires chess-like strategy? There are those that would say the state is merely responding to events on a case by case basis; metal detectors were a logical response to two police officers being killed.
But Israel has more to lose from a wrong decision than Palestinians do. The Israeli economy is stronger, Israel has worked hard to carve out relations in the Muslim world and its allies such as India continually warn Israel that the one issue that can harm relations is when Israel appears to be brutalizing Palestinians. Israel doesn’t win the public relations war when there is violence because it is the powerful party to the conflict.
Israel continues to defeat the various terrorist waves and mass protests. This was the case with the massive protests after the murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir in July 2014 and the wave of stabbings that began in September 2015. There is widespread knowledge that some Palestinian activists want a third intifada. They don’t know what shape it will take but they think that 50 years of Israeli rule in the West Bank and almost 25 years since Olso inevitably require a new “phase.” This threatens the aging leaders of the Palestinian Authority and threatens chaos that Israel doesn’t benefit from.
If no one benefits, including the dead protesters, the murdered Israeli civilians, the police, the army, the PA or the Palestinians, then why is there violence? Because there is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy that there will be a third intifada.

JPost Editorial: Cause and effect

Now, Netanyahu is being asked to cave in to the demands of the Islamists. A campaign in Israel is being led by Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement, and by Hamas, and is receiving the backing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jordan and North Africa. The governments of Turkey and Qatar are also supporting the struggle.
More “moderate” Arab leaders such as Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are gradually being forced to fall in line with the Islamists. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who initially denounced the murder of the Druse officers, has since changed course, suspending ties with Israel in protest against the metal detectors. The “Arab Spring” proved the power of the masses to bring about regime change. And its memory is still fresh in the minds of men like Sisi and Abdullah.
In retrospect, Netanyahu should have foreseen all this.
He has extensive experience with the explosive potential of the Temple Mount. The decision to place metal detectors on the Temple Mount seems not to have taken into consideration all the potential ramifications. Did Netanyahu ask himself whether the security benefits gained by introducing the metal detectors outweighs the price paid in the form of unrest, rioting and a renewed wave of terrorism? Sometimes it is better to be smart than right.
At the same time, no amount of concessions will satisfy people like Abed, Sheikh Salah or the Muslim Brotherhood.
Removing the metal detectors will not be the end of it. There will be new grievances, new “causes” for Muslim violence. Extracting concessions under threat of violence is one of the objectives of terrorism. The question is where do we draw the line. Perhaps we should have been “smart” when it comes to metal detectors.
Ultimately, however, appeasing Islamists does not lead to real peace. When violence is rewarded it tends to become an incentive for more violence.

David Horovitz: When Netanyahu walked eyes wide open into disaster

Responsible leadership has other dimensions too. It required intervening long ago with the Jordanian authorities, who have whipped up their people into hostility against Israel while privately enjoying the benefits of economic and security relations with Israel (as detailed here by Avi Issacharoff). To his credit, by contrast, Netanyahu has sought to muster leverage to work against the incitement to violence by the Palestinian Authority that so directly contributes to acts of terrorism such as the brutal killings of the Salomon family at Halamish on Shabbat eve.
Responsible leadership necessitated a far firmer line with the Israeli inciter-in-chief Raed Salah, head of the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, who has for years disseminated false assertions that Al-Aqsa is in danger — lies that fatally resonated with the three Israeli Muslims from his Umm al-Fahm catchment area who shot dead those two (Druze) police officers just outside the Mount on July 14.
Responsible leadership, incidentally, might also have issued orders to Israeli diplomatic legations in particularly sensitive locales to take additional security measures in these fraught times. Did furniture really have to be moved or fixed by Jordanian nationals in the Israeli Embassy compound precisely now, at the height of an already deadly standoff between Israel and Muslim officials, with anti-Israel demonstrations taking place nearby and Jordanian politicians at the forefront of the Israel-bashing?
Responsible leadership would also ensure that Israel had a foreign minister in place with the time to helm discussions on such seemingly minor but actually significant matters. And would insist on having a defense minister with years of security experience. But Netanyahu, not conspicuously underworked, nevertheless insists on leaving the Foreign Ministry post vacant and handling that portfolio himself, and booted his irritatingly principled ex-chief-of-staff defense minister Moshe Ya’alon in favor of the populist, militarily inexpert Avigdor Liberman.
It won’t be easy to get out of this mess. As he works “determinedly and responsibly” to solve the impasse with Jordan, to calm the passions surrounding the Temple Mount, and to prevent any further deterioration, interest groups on all sides will be urging Netanyahu to hang tough and compromise, give the Jordanians hell and engineer a deal, leave those metal detectors right where they are and remove them.
So all power to Netanyahu’s crisis-management effort now. It’s his pre-crisis management that was so wanting.

Trump sends Greenblatt to Israel to defuse Temple Mount crisis

After days of silence on an escalating crisis surrounding the Temple Mount, US President Donald Trump dispatched his special envoy for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, to the region Sunday night to try and end the bloodshed and tension. Greenblatt is expected in Israel on Monday.
A senior administration official told The Times of Israel that Greenblatt was on his way to “support efforts to reduce tensions in the region.”
Greenblatt, who has been one of Trump’s point men in his attempt to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, will “be closely coordinating” with Trump’s son-in-law and special adviser Jared Kushner, the National Security Council, the State Department and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
“President Trump and his administration are closely following unfolding events in the region,” the senior administration official said.
Kushner has been leading administration efforts to calm the crisis, CNN reported earlier Sunday, quoting a US official saying Kushner was in contact with the Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians.

Fred Maroun: The problem with the metal detectors is that they are Jewish

Metal detectors are used in many places in the world, including airports of course, but also Muslim places of worship. So why the big deal at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem?
Blogger Adele Raemer wrote, “These Palestinians who are objecting to it, are objecting for a reason. Not one that I can really understand”. Since, as an Arab, I grew up in Arab culture and have lived in proximity to it all my life, let me explain.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that there is no change to the status quo, and he is right. After Israel took East Jerusalem back from the Arabs in the 1967 war, “Dayan met with officials of the Muslim Wakf, who governed the holy site, and formally returned the Mount to their control. While Israeli soldiers would determine security and stand at the gates, the Wakf would determine who prayed at the site” (The Atlantic).
It was clear from the start that security was Israel’s responsibility, and it is obvious that metal detectors are a security measure. Therefore, using metal detectors does not change the status quo.
The problem, however, is that this is not how most Arabs see the status quo. Arabs see any change that gives Israel more control over them, no matter how reasonable, as a change to the status quo.

The Noble Sanctuary Is No Excuse for Murder

Extremists are opposed to any change even if they are there to serve the safety and security of their own worshippers. Even the King of Saudi Arabia said he saw no problem with the installation of electronic means of inspection, which are the same ones used at Islam’s holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina.
As the popular Arab proverb says: "These people do not want to eat the grapes, but rather, want to quarrel with the guard of the vineyard."
It is upon us as Arab citizens of Israel to condemn all acts of terror without doubting or blinking, in a loud and clear voice, as well as fighting incitement and those within our society who call for violence, and most importantly separating politics from religion.
As a Muslim Arab living in Israel I call on the world to start taking this manner seriously. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not between two religious groups. The Palestinian leadership is abusing Islam and its holy site to incite the masses all in order to promote their own agenda. The international media has to stop falling for these spins, and the international community, including the Muslim world should support any action that safeguards freedom of religion and the worshipers personal safety at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Mohammed Kaabiya is a strategic advisor on the Arab world to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

US Jewish leaders from right to left back metal detectors on Temple Mount

There is a broad consensus among American Jewish leaders in support of Israel’s use of metal detectors to intercept terrorists on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations “supports taking the necessary and appropriate steps to assure security for all and to protect the sanctity of these holy sites,” the umbrella group’s executive vice chairman and CEO, Malcolm Hoenlein, told JNS.org.
Herbert Block, executive director of the American Zionist Movement, said, “If the authorities responsible for security feel certain measures are necessary to meet their responsibility to protect those who visit for prayer or as respectful visitors, it is no different than security considerations at the Vatican, at the [U.S.] Capitol or any other significant location where public access is permitted under applicable law.”
“In a world where security measures are being enhanced in major gathering places, it’s only surprising that the Temple Mount didn’t have such measures until now,” American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris told JNS.org. “The terror attack last week, in which two Israelis were killed, is a tragic reminder of why metal detectors are needed for the safety of all visitors and personnel.”
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) and B’nai B’rith International are taking similar positions.

Muslims reject smart cameras as alternative to metal detectors on Temple Mount

The Israel Police set up special surveillance cameras at one of the entrances to the Temple Mount complex on Sunday morning, which could replace the recently installed metal detectors that have been at the center of growing tensions between Israel and Muslim worshipers.
The cameras can identify anyone who tries to enter the holy site with knives, weapons, hand grenades or other suspicious items.
But worshipers who arrived at the Gate of the Tribes for morning prayers refused to enter the Temple Mount and threatened to continue their violent struggle, rejecting any form of compromise. As a result, the Al-Aqsa Mosque was empty on Sunday morning, with its doors closed.
"We will not agree to the new inspection," several of the worshipers clarified. "Our struggle will continue without interruption at all hours of the day."
One of the sheikhs who arrived at the scene said that "the new measure is worse than the metal detectors," without elaborating.
"We will not agree to any inspection," the sheikh continued. "We will meet today and decide on our next steps."

Arab League chief warns Israel 'playing with fire' in Jerusalem

The Arab League on Sunday warned that Israel was "playing with fire" over the "red line" of Jerusalem, and said its foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday over the Israeli-Palestinian violence on the Temple Mount.
Several Arab leaders have expressed concern over the rapidly escalating tensions in Jerusalem. Riots broke out in the Old City on Friday and Saturday over Israel's decision to install metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount in an effort to bolster security at the volatile site. The move followed the July 14 murders of two policemen by three Palestinian terrorists at the site.
"Jerusalem is a red line that Muslims and Arabs cannot allow to be crossed. What is happening today is an attempt to impose a new reality on the Holy city," Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement.
"The Israeli government is playing with fire and risking a major crisis with the Arab and Islamic world," he warned.

Israeli diplomats in Turkey work from home amid jitters over Jerusalem

The Foreign Ministry on Monday instructed employees at Israel’s diplomatic facilities in Turkey to work from home amid continued regional unrest over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
An unnamed diplomatic source told the Walla news site that the decision to order officials at the embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul to work from home was made prior to an attack Sunday at the Israeli Embassy in Jordan, during which an Israeli security guard shot dead two Jordanians after being attacked by one of them with a screwdriver, leading to a diplomatic standoff between the two countries.
A number of demonstrations have been held in Turkey against Israel’s decision to place metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, which came after two Israeli police officers were shot dead just outside the compound on July 14 in a terror attack by three Arab Israelis who used guns they had smuggled into the holy site. Two of the protests took place outside Istanbul synagogues.
Turkey has been one of most vocal critics of the metal detectors, with a government spokesman saying last week that placing them was a “crime against humanity.”

IsraellyCool: WATCH: Turkish Islamists Being Anti-Zionist-Not-Antisemitic

Islamists in Istanbul (allies of Erdogan) got their rage on and “protested” the installation of metal detectors at entrances to the Temple Mount – by targeting a synagogue with kicks and objects. Because clearly their views on Israel are not because they actually hate Jews.
"Israel has banned Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque for many years,” Mican said in front of the synagogue. “It has not stopped at that and now it is harassing our Palestinian brothers by putting x-ray devices at the entrances to our sanctuary. Our brothers are not able to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is limiting to freedom of religion, faith and worship.”
“We are carrying out a protest here,” he continued. “Zionists should pull it together. They shouldn’t prevent our brothers from the freedom to worship. We will prevent your freedom to worship here just like you are preventing ours there. We can come here tomorrow just like we are standing here today. You will not be able to get inside.”

Jordan Holds Israeli Diplomat Hostage After Terrorist Attack

An Israeli security official is being held hostage in Jordan after he shot and killed a terrorist who tried to stab him with a screwdriver on Sunday. Even though the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, ratified by both Jordan and Israel, specifically exempts the official from all criminal and civil charges, Jordanian authorities have opted to violate the international accord and demand that the official be handed over for questioning by the local police. He is currently in the Israeli embassy in Amman, which is surrounded by Jordanian soldiers and police.
The shooting happened Sunday morning at the home of an Israeli diplomat stationed in Jordan. The terrorist, 17, was admitted into the house to install some furniture when he suddenly turned and tried to stab the security official, who shot and killed his assailant in self-defense. Another Jordanian citizen, the building’s owner, died in the attack, most likely from being caught in the crossfire.
A senior official in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that the attack and Jordan’s decision to break with protocol and demand the security official be interrogated are both attempts to further the crisis that began earlier this month when three Palestinian terrorists murdered two Israeli police officers on Temple Mount. The attack led Israel to place metal detectors at the entrance to the site, an act Palestinian officialdom has portrayed as an Israeli attempt to wage war on one of Islam’s holiest spots. The Israeli government will meet this morning to discuss the crisis. Meanwhile, a 21-year-old Palestinian stabbed an Israeli man this morning in Petach Tikva, wounding him severely. When apprehended, the terrorist said “I did it for al-Aqsa.”

Netanyahu vows to bring home embassy guard as crisis with Jordan deepens

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that Israel was working to try to end a growing crisis with Jordan and to bring home an Israeli security guard who shot dead two Jordanians at the Israeli Embassy compound in Amman after he was attacked by one of them with a screwdriver.
Speaking in Jerusalem alongside Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Netanyahu said that he spoke twice with Israel’s Ambassador to Jordan Einat Schlein following Sunday’s incident, as well as with the security guard.
“I assured the security guard that we will see to bringing him back to Israel; we have experience in this,” he said. “I told both of them that we are holding ongoing contacts with security and government officials in Amman, on all levels, in order to bring the incident to a close as quickly as possible.”

Fuming family of Jordanian stabber demands death penalty for Israeli guard

Family members of a Jordanian man shot dead while attacking an Israeli security guard at the embassy compound in Amman insisted Monday that he had not attacked the guard at all, and had been killed in cold blood.
Several dozen relatives of 17-year-old Mohammed Jawawdeh demonstrated in the Jordanian capital Sunday night, demanding justice for the “martyr.”
Several called for the guard to receive the death penalty for his actions, Jordan’s Roya TV reported.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Jawawdeh, who was at the diplomatic residence to install furniture, attacked the guard with a screwdriver, lightly injuring him. The guard returned fire in “self-defense,” and killed both Jawawdeh and a second man, Bashar Hamarneh, who was there at the time.
The ministry said the guard, whose name has not been cleared for release, is immune from prosecution under the Vienna Convention, but Jordanian authorities are refusing to let him leave while they conduct an investigation, according to reports.

Jordanian police threaten to jail Israeli pilgrims for praying

Jordanian police on threatened a group of Israeli tourists that they would risk being jailed if they prayed anywhere in the country, an Israeli official said Monday.
The tourists were in Jordan to visit the Tomb of Aaron, the biblical high priest and brother of Moses, who tradition holds is buried on Mount Hor, near Petra, at a site known locally as Jabal Haroun.
“It emerged that they were not allowed [to show] any religious symbols,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon told The Times of Israel. He said the incident occurred either Sunday or Monday.
One of the tourists, Rabbi Menashe Zelicha of Bnei Brak, said the police officers told his group that “in all of Jordan it is forbidden for Jews to pray.”
“We are not allowed to pray in the morning, no tefillin, no prayer shawls, nothing – we cannot pray, even in the hotel, even inside our room,” Zelicha told the Kol Chai radio station. “Policemen came into the hotel and were shouting and went wild, saying that in a minute they would take us out of Jordan if we made even a tiny squeak. They told us, ‘Whoever prays will be taken to jail.'”

In Halamish, missed clues, lax security let terrorist in

With a simple disguise, a butcher’s knife and bottles of water to perform ablutions, 19-year-old Omar al-Abed climbed over the fence of the Halamish settlement on Friday night, tripping its sensor but avoiding detection.
Once inside the settlement, the Palestinian teenager performed some kind of purification ceremony. He was wearing a white shirt, the common choice for many Shabbat-observant Jews in Israel.
“He knew that Jews wear white shirts on Shabbat. So that even if someone saw him, they wouldn’t pay him any mind,” said Victor Vaknin, the settlement’s security coordinator.
A few minutes later, he knocked on the door of the Salomon family’s house, knife in hand. The 10 members of the Salomon family in the house had already eaten Shabbat dinner. They were getting ready to raise a toast to the birth of a new grandchild when Abed arrived.
Expecting well-wishers, they opened the door to him. “But instead of a guest wishing them a ‘mazal tov,’ there was a massacre,” Vaknin said.

Palestinian Social Media Users Hail ‘Heroic’ Slaying of Jewish Family

Palestinian social media users, along with some in the larger Arab world, praised the brutal Palestinian terrorist attack in which three members of an Israeli family were murdered on Friday night during a Sabbath meal in the town of Halamish west of Ramallah.
Palestinian journalist Yasser Zaatreh wrote, “Yesterday was one of Palestine’s biggest days, starting with a day of rage that boasted the blood of three martyrs and ended with a heroic act that hurt the invaders. This is the land that Allah blessed.”
Palestinian poet Rebhi Altemawi used metaphorical language to describe the attack, writing, “The attack in Halamish, light and more light and more surprises.”
Palestinian journalist Mahmoud Abou Hassan quoted the Quran, writing, “Allah lifts up the hearts of the faithful.”
Twitter user Shadow Night Thanks wrote, “With the help of Allah the next attacks will be more severe. May Allah multiply these attacks.”

"An inability to distinguish between someone who's attacking & someone who got attacked" -@danielspeaksup of @HonestReporting on intl. media http://pic.twitter.com/po12kSmY6E
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) July 23, 2017

Palestinian stabs Arab-Israeli near Tel Aviv in apparent terror attack

An Israeli Arab man was stabbed by a Palestinian assailant in Tel Aviv suburb Petah Tikva late Monday morning, in what police said was a terror attack and case of mistaken identity.
Police said the victim, a 32-year-old Egged bus driver, was attacked at a shwarma stand in the city center and was stabbed in the neck. He was rushed to hospital with moderate-to-severe injuries.
The assailant then tried to escape on foot, but was wrestled to the ground by civilian bystanders and handed over to police. Some reports said a driver who was passing by helped stop the attacker by ramming him with his car as he tried to escape. Others said a local pizzeria worker helped subdue him by hitting him with a wooden pizza tray.
The assailant, a 21-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank town of Qalqilya, was arrested and taken for questioning by police.
Police spokesman Luba Samri said Monday’s attack was nationalist in nature. She said the attacker was a Palestinian working illegally in Israel.

Pizzeria owner pummels Petah Tikva stabber with a pie platter

selfie stick. An umbrella. A guitar. Nunchucks, and now, a pizza platter.
Shlomi Madar added the heavy wooden saucer to the growing list of obscure objects used to subdue (or just slow down) terrorists over the past two years, when he went after a stabber outside his pizzeria in Petah Tikva, outside Tel Aviv, late Monday morning.
“I heard screams coming from the shwarma shop two stores down and I immediately understood what was happening,” Madar, 24, told The Times of Israel Monday, hours after the incident.
Just feet away, a 21-year-old Palestinian from Qalqilya stabbed an Arab bus driver whom he apparently mistook for a Jew. Israel Police spokeswoman Luba Samri classified the crime as nationalist — code for a terror attack.
An employee at the shwarma shop described the early minutes of the incident to the Ynet news site. “A man came in and ordered shwarma. There was nothing out of the ordinary about his behavior. Afterward an Egged driver who eats with us regularly came in. He placed his order and went over to the refrigerator to take a soft drink. As I was preparing his order another driver came in and I suddenly heard him shout, ‘Terror attack, terror attack!’”

U.N. Palestine monitor calls for moves to challenge Israel’s membership in world body

Michael Lynk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur tasked with investigating alleged Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, told an international conference that the U.N. should examine Israel’s “status and membership” in the organization, whose resolutions the Jewish state “persistently defies.”
In the 1980s, Iran, Libya and Syria were among several Arab and Muslim countries which introduced annual motions to deny Israel’s credentials in the U.N. General Assembly.
Speaking by via Skype, Lynk addressed a conference last week in Baku, Azerbaijan, organized by the U.N.’s Palestinian division, together with the 56-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
“The United Nations General Assembly is in a position to commission legal studies designed to bring Israel into compliance with the United Nations’ body of resolutions on Jerusalem,” said Lynk.
These studies should include a “legal study into the status and membership of a UN member that persistently defies the direction of the Security Council and/or the General Assembly.”

PreOccupiedTerritory: UN Envoys Go Through Metal Detectors Into Session To Condemn Israel For Metal Detectors (satire)

Delegates to the United Nations Security Council passed through devices to detect the presence of the metal in weapons and ammunition today, en route to convening in the organization’s chamber for purposes of issuing a condemnation of Israel for installing those devices.
Council representatives assembled at their seats in the hall, after passing through magnometers as they entered the building, for security purposes. They then began to deliberate the formulation and intensity of a resolution to condemn Israel for installing magnometers at the Temple Mount for security purposes following the murder of two police officers with weapons smuggled into the compound.
“This session will come to order,” declared Council President Hippo Critt of the Republic of Macedonia. “The purpose of this emergency session, called at the request of the Palestinian ambassador, is to vote on a declaration in condemnation of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the Haram al-Sharif, in violation of 1967 agreements with the Jordanian Waqf under which Israel retains security control over the site.” Forty-five minutes earlier, Critt and two aides walked through the service entrance from the UN facility’s underground parking, where they passed through metal detectors similar to the units positioned by Israeli police at the Temple Mount.

Kredo: State Department Has Gone Rogue on Israel

Levin said he found the story "stunning," and Kredo said he had not seen an on-the-record answer quite like it in a decade of covering diplomacy. Hours after a Palestinian stabbed three Israelis to death in the West Bank, Kredo asked the Rex Tillerson-led State Department about its terrorism report and he was told that Palestinian calls for violence against Israelis were rare.
As Kredo noted, that is demonstrably false; the Palestinian Authority has routinely praised acts of terrorism and uses U.S. taxpayer aid to pay salaries to terrorists imprisoned in Israel.
"The answer that came from the State Department is quite confusing," Kredo said. "It almost reads as a college thesis, and essentially what they said to me is, ‘We don't know what spurs terrorism. It's a combination of complicated factors, and there's no one single pathway to such violence.'"
Kredo said his sources told him this showed a State Department that has gone "rogue" and does not follow Trump White House policy.
"The State Department is filled with holdovers from the former Obama administration and has a reputation for going rogue on these types of issues, particularly Israel," Kredo said.
A source who advises the White House on Israel told the Free Beacon that people around Trump understand that the Palestinians who hate and kill Israelis are taught to do so at a young age, while Obama officials never wanted to admit it.

IDF strikes Hamas in Gaza after two rockets strike Israel on Sunday

IDF tank fire struck and destroyed a Hamas instillation in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday morning in response to rockets that had been fired from the enclave towards southern Israel, the military said.
The response by the IDF came after two rockets struck the southern Israel communities of Sha’ar HaNegev and Eshkol regional councils on Sunday. Both rockets fell in open areas and did not cause any damage.
The Code Red siren alerts were not activated in both incidents and the army is investigating why the warning system did not pick up the launch of the first rocket.
The rocket launches come amid escalating violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank following a deadly terror attack which killed two Israeli police officers that led Israeli authorities to install metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount Complex in Jerusalem’s Old City.

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