Sadly, The Lies and Murders Continue

“It is a puzzle: are the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) playing dumb, or do they believe their own ridiculous rhetoric?”

This is a quote from a well-known and respected journalist in the Middle East, Khaled Abu Toameh, in a recent Gatestone Institute article published on February 17^th, 2016 entitled, Palestinian Leaders: Who Are They Fooling?

He goes on to say, “As the current wave of stabbings, car-rammings and shooting attacks, which began in October 2015, continues and even seems to be intensifying, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and top Palestinian officials insist that we are witnessing nothing but a ‘popular peaceful uprising.’”

Permit me to also quote an excerpt from my Eye of Prophecy article, If You Tell a Big Lie Long Enough… (Posted 10-10-15):

Muslims in general, Palestinian Arabs in particular, and entirely too many nations and news sources have become increasingly confident of global impunity to and world-wide acceptance of what they say; to the extent that no matter how big the lie or omission, nations and peoples will now or one day soon believe them.

Moreover, it’s abundantly clear that the growing deadly attacks on Israeli civilians is a result of incitement directly from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas; who is himself becoming progressively and intensely bolder in his proliferation of big lies about Israel and the Jews. As epitomized in his recent speech of September 30^th to the United Nations General Assembly, he is overtly implementing the Muslim strategy of distorting events and facts to the point of literally rewriting history. Middle East history as found in the Palestinian education system and textbooks and journalism and maps is markedly different from the real history of Israel’s existence, especially since 1948.

In that Eye of Prophecy article, I also quote several parts of Abbas’ inflammatory and inaccurate (lies) speech to the United Nations last year.

Just when you think that PA President, Mahmoud Abbas couldn’t possibly tell more and bigger lies, he does just that. It’s one thing for his own people to be deceived by this bombast that is designed to incite them to even more vicious attacks on innocent Israelis; it’s quite another for dignitaries all over the world to turn their collective heads away from what is really happening in Israel and stick those same uninformed heads in Arabic quick sand. Either through ignorance or deliberate distortion of the facts, even our U.S. President doesn’t truly understand the real reasons for Palestinian violence in Israel, or Muslim atrocities in the rest of the world. Mainly because he doesn’t really grasp the significance of Islamic goals of world domination, fostered by uprisings and isolated but incessant attacks on the “infidels.” Summed up in one word: Jihad.

PA President Abbas went on to say that the Palestinians were simply employing, “…all peaceful means” to “resist Israeli occupation.” This noble pursuit of a peaceful strategy to resist an Israeli occupation that doesn’t exist in the first place has resulted in the deaths of 30+ Israeli Jews with dozens more injured; as well as some 170 Palestinians—many of them children—who have launched these “lone-wolf” attacks to carry out the abhorrent self-fulfilling prophecy of the politically corrupt and morally bankrupt Palestinian Authority.

Once again quoting Khalid Abu Toameh: “One can only imagine what the uprising would have looked like had it not been ‘peaceful.’ Abbas seems to consider knives and automatic weapons ‘peaceful’ tools that Palestinians are entitled to use to ‘resist occupation.’”

The Cruel Count Goes On

In a recent February 10^th, 2016 report from Israeli internal security force Shabak (Shin Bet), since this killing rampage began on October 1^st, 2015, there have been 228 terrorist attacks or attempted attacks by Palestinian Arabs. Equally appalling is how many of the assaults have been carried out by Palestinian youth, a few as young as twelve. Only 25 attacks or 11% were committed by those over the age of 30. Here is a breakdown on the ages of the remaining attackers 30 years of age or younger:

Ages 26-30: 17 or 8%.

Ages 21-25: 74 or 34%.

Ages 16-20: 81 or 37%.

Younger than 16: 22 or 10%.

Female attackers including teenagers numbered 24 or 11% of the total. Apparently when it comes to the Islamic supremacy of men over women, this inequality is overlooked; as both men and women, boys and girls have equal opportunity to dispense death to the hated Jew and die a martyrs’ death for their efforts.

To better put these figures into perspective: Proportionally, had these horrendous assaults taken place in the United States based on our population compared to Israel’s Jewish population, there would have been approximately 11,580 such attacks throughout America. Who knows what our State and Federal Governments would do if that took place?

To date not one Palestinian senior official has condemned any of these attacks. Instead, they have eulogized the assailants by posting their pictures in public places and naming streets after them. Moreover, as indicated in some prior Eye of Prophecy articles, the Palestinian Authority actually pays monthly stipends to the families of their so-called “martyrs.” Some of this money comes directly from United States aid to the Palestinians.

But then how could the Palestinian leaders denounce such atrocities? Knowing full well that they, themselves, are directly responsible for the anti-Israeli incitement that has erupted into one wave after another of these brutal bloodbaths.

No longer do the Palestinian leaders even attempt to conceal their true agenda. They have been so emboldened by world-wide sympathy for their “cause” that they can distort the very meaning of words and concepts such as peace, to justify these killings. Meaning that as long as the murderers commit their crimes for the sake of peace, then the actual murders must logically be part of a “peaceful uprising.”

PA President Abbas further inflames the jihadist mentality of the young and impressionable with such words as, “Every drop of blood (meaning, of course, Palestinian blood) that is spilled in Jerusalem is pure blood.” With the obvious but ugly reverse connotation that Jewish blood is anything but pure. After all, that blood flows through the same “filthy feet of the Jews,” which he fraudulently claimed were “defiling Islamic holy places in Israel.”

In this perverted thinking and warped rhetoric, Abbas is encouraging his people to preempt the Jews from this so-called (non-existent) desecration of Muslim holy places. And what better way to stop the Jews than to kill them. Furthermore, Abbas then has the audacity to accuse Israel of “aggression” and “war crimes” for daring to silence these attackers by what are clearly legitimate acts of self-defense. How depraved is that?

It is nothing less than sinister double talk and twisted morality that truly exemplifies what the Bible says will happen in the last days:

“What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter” (Isaiah 5:20).

Deplorable Actions by Israeli Arab Knesset Members

The Israeli Government is considered to be a Parliamentary Democracy, and is one of the most unique governments in the entire world. It consists of 120 Knesset members representing the diversity of Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs (citizens of Israel) and currently consists of twelve separate parties, including the Joint Arab List (Wamab) party. Yes, you read that right. For years, Arab Israelis have served in the Knesset. Presently there are seventeen such delegates who represent the approximately 1.8 million Arabs living in Israel with full citizenship rights.

These inhabitants should be distinguished from the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who have refused to become citizens of Israel, and who now bear the identity of Palestinians. Most of the lone-wolf attackers have been West Bank Palestinians, but there has also been a handful of Israeli Arab citizens who committed these crimes.

Israeli Arabs have freedom of transportation throughout Israel, freedom of education, freedom of employment, and (as indicated) freedom even to serve in the Israeli government. The Israeli Arab Knesset members are supposed to represent their fellow Arab Israeli citizens; not the Palestinians, who are (supposed to be) represented by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That is if you consider corruption as a representative form of government.

On February 2, 2016, three of these Knesset members (Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka, and Basel Ghattas) met with the families of eleven terrorists who were killed during their unprovoked murderous attacks on innocent Jews. Then, the following day the families also met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in his Ramallah office just a few hours after another terror attack killed 19-year-old female Border Patrol Corporal Hadar Cohen, and injured another soldier.

(Photo of Corporal Hadar Cohen)

As representatives of the Balad faction within the Joint Arab List Knesset party, both Hanin Zoabi and Jamal Zahalka are well-known for their anti-Jewish activism, and have a long history of confrontational incidents with other Knesset members in particular and Israelis in general.

Though yet to be convicted, Zoabi, in particular, has been charged with incitement several times in the past including participation in violent Palestinian protests; resulting in several attempts by fellow Knesset members to remove her from the Israeli government.

(Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi participates in protests in Haifa, 7-18-14)

Yet, in the view of many Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, her (and the other two MK’s) appearance with the families of the terrorists crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed. Ostensibly this meeting was to demand return of the terrorist’s bodies from the Israelis; but anyone who has any clue at all knows the real reason they met with the families. It was a show of tacit solidarity and overt support of the killers and their actions to snuff out the lives of Jews anywhere and everywhere in Israel.

Political protest is one thing … we have an abundance of that in our own republic of the United States of America. But an out-and-out endorsement of murder (no matter the rationale of the murderers) is far beyond what any democratic or representative form of government should condone in their government representatives.

As an example: Can you imagine if a few United States Senators or Congressmen met with the family of the two Islamic terrorists who killed fourteen people in San Bernardino last year? Moreover, that the purpose of such a meeting was to extend both political and personal sympathy to the family for the loss of these two murderers? Of course we can empathize with the sadness of the parents, if they are truly sorry that their children had committed such a horrendous act of evil. But not for the murderers, themselves. Can you imagine what the Senate and House of Representatives ethics committee would do? I can assure you they would call for immediate expulsion of these malevolently misguided members of Congress.

Which is pretty much how Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted when told that these three Knesset members had attended this “pity party” (my description) with the pernicious purpose of glorifying, not denigrating, the young Palestinian murderers by means of scandalous support of their families.

Said Netanyahu: “Members of Knesset who go to comfort the families of terrorists who murdered Israelis do not deserve to be in the Israeli Knesset. I have asked the Speaker of the Knesset to examine what steps can be taken against them.”

Keep in mind that PA President Abbas met with these same families for precisely the same reason that the three Arab MKs attended the prior meeting with them … shocking support and shameful sympathy for the “heroic death” of their children while killing Jews.

Subsequently, the Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein filed a complaint to the Knesset Ethics Committee with a strong rebuke of the three Arab MKs … that their actions constituted incitement and, “encouragement to murder.”

Speaker Edelstein went on to say: “It is inconceivable that at a time when innocent citizens are being slaughtered on the streets of Israel, these MKs go to console the families of the murderers and with unbelievable insolence dare to bring the families’ demands to the government. I see this as a severe injury to the Israeli legislature and the State of Israel and hope that these actions will finally be noted by the judges of the High Court of Justice the next time they discuss an appeal against disqualifying unworthy candidates from running for office as lawmakers.”

Both Netanyahu and Edelstein are absolutely justified in their recommendations, if for no other reason than the oath that all Knesset Members took when sworn into office: “I pledge to bear allegiance to the State of Israel and faithfully to discharge my mandate in the Knesset.”

Treason, Pure and Simple

Instead, these three misguided MKs have acted against the State of Israel in general and their own Israeli Arab constituents in particular. Worse, they are now purporting to represent the Palestinians who live in the West Bank and who certainly are not part of the Israeli Arab citizenry of Israel proper. They have neither the legal nor the political authority to represent Palestinians of the West Bank or Gaza Strip. For one thing, as indicated, those Arabs are already under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. Nor obviously, did West Bank Palestinians vote for the Arab List Party to which the three MKs belong.

Naturally, in a democratic government such as the Israeli Knesset, MKs can meet with whomever they choose, including Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, or East Jerusalem.

But NOT for the purpose of this meeting … to undermine the security and very lives of Israelis which is tantamount to treason. If one thinks there was any other agenda for this meeting, then why did the meeting begin with a solemn moment of silence for the dead Palestinian murderers?

(The Three Arab MKs Meeting with Families of Palestinian Terrorists)

As stated by Khalid Abu Toameh in another article posted on February 11, 2016: “These parliamentarians ran in elections on the premise of working to improve the living conditions of Israeli Arab voters and achieving full equality in all fields. However, they devote precious time and energy on Palestinians who are not citizens of Israel. Their spare moments are spent vying for the distinction of being the most vitriolic provocateur against their country.

“Instead of acting against the interests of the Palestinians—by pretending they were sitting in a Palestinian parliament and not the Knesset—there are alternative scenarios. These Arab Knesset members could be serving as a bridge between Israel and Palestinians living under the jurisdiction of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

“Such provocations make it more difficult for Arab university graduates to find jobs in both the Israeli private and public sectors. The deeds and rhetoric of these Knesset members have ensured a continuing gap between Arabs and Jews inside Israel. Thanks to some Arab Knesset members, many Jews no longer see a difference between an Arab citizen who is loyal to Israel and a radical Palestinian from the Gaza Strip or West Bank who seeks to destroy Israel.”

The Arab Knesset Members are part of the problem, but certainly not the only problem.

Returning to the rabble-rousing rhetoric of the Palestinian Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas called for international intervention to stop Israeli “aggression” against Palestinians, and Israeli “war crimes” that are, “deliberately targeting Palestinian children.” According to Abbas, only the United Nations can save those children by sending troops to the Palestinian territories.

Yes, you’re right: The children he is referring to are those very “children” who have murdered and wounded Jews for the past several months. Children inflamed by the inexcusable incendiary words of their leaders and supported both silently and overtly by the parents of those children, who glorify the “sweet death” of shahid (martyrs) over life. Those who say what their children did and what they condone is “good.” That these shahids will experience the “light” of paradise. (Read again Isaiah 5:20).

(Palestinian children in training to eventually kill Jews)

This is a twisting of reality and a distortion of God’s eternal truth rarely heard even in today’s ugly, hate-filled world. Not only are the Palestinian children “martyrs,” Mahmoud Abbas fabricated lies that the Jews are deliberately targeting these children in order to eliminate them. No matter that the Palestinian youth are wielding rocks, Molotov cocktails, knives, axes, guns, and cars as weapons. That’s a mere technicality!

With such audacious rhetoric, even if a select few Palestinians did want to voice opposition to their children killing and dying for the Palestinian Authority, they couldn’t. They wouldn’t. Their children have been jaded and poisoned by the incessant oratory of their leaders, by repeated exposure to media cartoons and stories and flash point videos on how to kill Jews. By Muslim imams from countries like Iran. All spurring on the young to pursue their honorable mission in life: Kill a Jew and become a martyr, automatically eligible for Paradise!

Doesn’t matter how young the boys are when they die. They will inherit their seventy virgins! But what about the girls who commit murder. If they are killed in the act, where do they go? What awaits them?

(Newsflash: As this Eye of Prophecy article was in progress, yet another killing took place in Samaria (West Bank), north of Jerusalem. On 2-18-16, a 21-year old off-duty IDF soldier, Staff Sergeant Tuvia Yanai Weissman (married father of a 4-month old baby) was stabbed to death in a supermarket by two 14-year old Palestinian boys. Another Israeli Jew was wounded.)

Sick? Yes, quite sick. Islam is a religion straight from the gates of hell. Directly from Satan, himself, who hates all Jews and Christians; who would seek to pervert the everlasting truth of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; who would seek to destroy the Gospel of God’s Son, Messiah Jesus either by false religions or by killing every Jew and Christian.

It is an ideology of horrific hate, of cruel conquest, of ruthless repression, and of deceitful death. I’m sorry, but the facts are all too evident. The gruesome pictures of death and destruction all over the Middle East, of the Twin Towers, of dozens of other massacres, speak much louder than the deceptively soothing argument that Islam is a religion of peace.

If it were, then the three Arab Knesset members would have pleaded with the Palestinian families and all Palestinians to end the murders. To stop brain washing their children into killing Jews. To allow the MKs, themselves, to indirectly champion the Palestinian cause, while directly performing their sworn duty to represent the Israeli Arab citizens of Israel.

For you see, these Palestinian children are not like the cold-blooded, merciless, evil men and woman who belong to terrorist groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram, and others.

Or, are they?

That shouldn’t be, but is a rhetorical question. Because the fact of the matter: By all that Muslims hold dear in their Koran—not the least of which is eventual world domination through, if necessary, Jihad—a fifteen-year old Palestinian girl can and does become just as militant, just as vicious, just as determined to kill Jews wherever she finds them, as the most hardened 30-year old man who beheads Christians and Jews wherever he finds them.

Action against the Arab Knesset Members

Already there is concern by some Israeli officials whether potential dismissal of the three Arab MKs would reflect adversely on the democratic principles of representation of all Israeli citizens, Jewish and Arab alike.

For example, columnist Dr. Gabi Avital wrote in the Israel Hayom online news source, “Internal logic suggests that it would not be appropriate to pass laws that would restrict the behavior of elected officials—certainly not laws that would enforce suspension or permanent expulsion from the Knesset.”

But Dr. Avital also recognized the agonizingly adverse impact on the very fabric of Israel’s democratic society by the actions of the three MKs. He writes: “The large Arab minority is represented by its elected officials, who are supposed to be the community’s mouthpiece on every issue. But the recent deviation of three Arab Knesset members—who visited the families of terrorists who had been killed, took part in a moment of silence in the terrorists’ memory and even displayed a certain admiration, calling them ‘martyrs’—made many people angry, including Meretz MK Ilan Gilon. And from here, the path was forged toward suggesting that the prime minister amend the Basic Laws, allowing the removal of Knesset members from office with a 90-vote majority…”

A 90-member vote is three-fourths of the Knesset membership. Even the U.S. House of Representatives only requires a two-thirds vote to remove a member for whatever civil or criminal offenses have been committed. One example is the expulsion of former representative, James Traficant from office for taking bribes, tax evasion and racketeering, among other things.

By the current Israeli law, MKs are granted lifetime immunity from prosecution for voting, acts committed, or opinions given in the course of duty. They are also not subject to arrest unless caught in the act of a violent crime, disturbance of the peace, or treason.

Many would argue, including me, that the ill-advised meeting between the three Arab MKs and the families of the terrorists is as treasonable as anything could be. At the very minimum, it’s a seditious disturbance of whatever day-to-day peace is possible within Israel.

I, for one, believe it’s time for Israel to proactively toughen its’ intolerance of these lone wolf attacks. In some measure they have already done so, i.e. by increasing checkpoint inspections, by refusing to hire Palestinian workers on job sites in or close to Israeli settlements.

(A victim of one of many “lone wolf” attacks in Israel)

Here are some excerpts (in italics) from a recent Eye of Prophecy article, Can A Murderer Be A Martyr? (Published 1-30-16). With one observation that these attacks should no longer be considered lone-wolf assaults.

Despite Mahmoud Abbas’ denial, his speech to the United Nations last fall and subsequent rhetoric to his people has directly inflamed mostly teenage Palestinians to commit murder. With nearly all of the parents of these children not only excusing the actions of their offspring, but praising them for it. Not only the parents, but the Palestinian leaders have glorified the “heroic” actions of their child martyrs.

Here is what the father of 16-year old Morad Adais, who killed Dafna Meir, said: “I am proud of my son.”

That says it all. All fathers are or should be proud of their sons, right? Even when they commit murder, right? Of course not. It’s as wickedly wrong as anything can be.

Although these murderous Palestinian assaults on Israelis are perpetrated by individuals (as opposed to known terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas), in my opinion they can no longer be classified as “lone-wolf” attacks. If for no other reason than there have been nearly 300 such incidents just in the past four months or so, resulting in the death of 30 Jews and wounding of dozens more. In other words, the sheer number of the attackers can now be classified as a concerted group of individuals in a cruel combined effort to instill terror among Jewish communities, no different than a terrorist group or grouping of terrorists with a collaborative mindset and a callous communal cause of killing Jews.

As such, this makes them vastly different from the “ordinary” murderer in the United States or anywhere in the world who kills someone for any number of different reasons, but certainly not just because their victims are Jews (or Christians). Surely the parents, families, national leaders, and fellow citizens don’t glorify the murderer in these kind of killings. Conversely, they are appalled.

Not so with the Palestinians. If they, in turn, are killed in the commission of their hideous crimes, their own people (including parents and leaders) and religion can call them martyrs to their heart’s content. But by all the universal laws of morality, of right and wrong, of good and evil, there’s no way that a murderer or would-be murderer (in case they don’t succeed) can be considered a martyr for a cause that is anything but righteous or a religion that is anything but peaceful.

Which is another compelling argument that there must be (and is) a universal standard of law and truth that can objectively define right and wrong. Moreover, these universal truths have, in fact, been given to us by the true and living God through the Bible.

Otherwise, we are left with the moral and spiritual dilemma that a murderer is actually someone’s martyr. That a terrorist is another one’s activist. If that were true then all Nazis (participating in Jewish genocide) who were killed during the Second World War or who were tried and executed for war crimes after the war could be designated as martyrs “for their cause.”

There Is Hope

What is it that produces such hatred and violence not just with hardened terrorists, but with the very young among the Palestinians? The answer is found in Scripture: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Unless the human heart is changed from within, there is no hope, certainly not for peace between Jew and Arab. As long as men, woman, and children follow a false god and a false religion, they will continue to follow the pious and political leaders of that religious ideology.

Ultimately, the true answer lies in the truth. God’s truth: That only Messiah Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6) can really make a difference. This same Jesus is also called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). He alone can change the human heart. He alone can right all wrongs. He alone can end the hatred that fills the minds and hearts of so many, and the bloodshed that stains the streets of Israel, and the fields of the earth.

One day soon, very soon, he will return in power and great glory. And when he does:

“His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” (Isaiah 9:7).

Things to Ponder

May we Americans never forget who it was that attacked us on 9/11 and why. Nor will the French soon forget their 9/11 which took place just this past November 13, 2015 in Paris, the deadliest attack in France since World War II. Through a series of coordinated attacks, Muslims (apparently through ISIS) killed 130 people and wounded another 368. Eighty-nine of the fatalities occurred in the Bataclan theatre, while a concert by the American rock band Eagles of Death Metal was taking place.

One of the songs played that fateful night by this rock group was called, Kiss the Devil. With some of the lyrics, “Who’ll love the devil? Who’ll sing his song?” The song ends with, “I will love the devil and sing his song!”

Quite likely, most of the crowd who lifted their hands and swayed to the music didn’t give much thought to the lyrics of this song, but I’m equally certain some did … perhaps Satan worshippers. We’ll never know for sure. But the very fact that these kind of songs are composed and sung before thousands gives us an idea of what we’re up against in this wicked world. Satan not only was being glorified by the musicians and the audience, he was behind the murderous rampage of the Islamic terrorists who carried out his bidding.

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

And what is the response of those who have been redeemed by the awesome sacrifice of Messiah Jesus. We are to:

“Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17).

And don’t forget to:

Sha’alu Shalom Yerushalayim. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalms 122:6).