(American Interest) Walter Russell Mead - Palestinians rioted in Jerusalem on Friday following Israel's decision to install metal detectors at entrances to the Temple Mount. Last week, Palestinian terrorists smuggled guns into their own holy site, then used those guns to murder two Israeli police officers guarding one of the entrances to al-Aqsa. It's the installation of metal detectors, not the heinous use of a holy site as a launchpad for murder and terrorism, that has the Palestinians enraged. It would be difficult to imagine a less sympathetic grievance to attract Western support to the Palestinian cause. Metal detectors are now a fact of life in the West, found at sports events and outside religious sites like Notre Dame in Paris. There is also the irony that Palestinian terrorism has done more to force the introduction of metal detectors into our daily lives than any other cause. If this issue is going to be the chief grievance of the Palestinians, they shouldn't be surprised if the rest of the world shrugs. The writer is professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College.
2017-07-24 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive