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The Argument Is About Jews, Not Metal Detectors

(JNS.org) Jonathan S. Tobin - How could putting metal detectors to protect a holy site from a recurrence of murder provoke outrage, violence and a promise of mass riots? The answer is that this isn't about metal detectors. It's about the right of Jews to be in Jerusalem. Israel didn't change the status quo at the Temple Mount. Jews are still denied the right to pray at the holiest place in Judaism. The Islamic Waqf was left in charge of the Temple Mount's Al-Aqsa mosque. Nor was the new security measure discriminatory. Any Jew or non-Jew who wishes to enter the Western Wall plaza below the Temple Mount compound must also pass through metal detectors. For a century, Palestinian Arab leaders have been playing the "Al-Aqsa is in danger" card. It was the supposedly moderate Mahmoud Abbas who also claimed Jews were going to harm the mosque. His rhetoric sought to remind Palestinians that the conflict wasn't over borders or settlements, but something far more basic: a religious war that mandates Arab opposition to the Jewish presence. The new security measures are merely the latest pretext for Arab violence intended to make the point that Jews have no right to be there at all. The threats of violence are just one more power play intended to remind the world that the only solution Palestinians will ultimately accept is one in which the Jews are excluded. So long as this is their goal, it isn't Al-Aqsa that is in danger, but any hope for peace.
2017-07-25 00:00:00
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