The evil of Palestinian propaganda

The pounding of nails or the buzz of a saw to build a home in an Israeli community in the disputed lands of the West Bank never fails to spark outrage against Israel from the State Department or European capitals. Virtually unnoticed by them is the sewer of hate against Israel and Jews that spews through Palestinian society.

Only a revolting crime like last week’s massacre in a Jerusalem synagogue can rouse from Washington an acknowledgement of the evil of Palestinian propaganda, such as was voiced by Secretary of State John Kerry: “To have this kind of act, which is a pure result of incitement, of calls for ‘days of rage,’ of just irresponsibility, is unacceptable.”

The murders of three rabbis, a worshipper and a Druse police officer by terrorists with meat cleavers and a gun coupled with Kerry’s denunciation forced Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to condemn the “killing of worshipers in a synagogue and all acts of violence regardless of their source.”

The problem is that Abbas is part of the problem of unending incitement against Israel and Jews from the authority, Palestinian official media and authority-run schools.

Abbas stirred up Muslim passions with repulsive rhetoric against some Israeli Jews who had the audacity to think they should be able to pray at the holiest site for their religion, the Temple Mount, and not just at the Western Wall below. Under an arrangement that has existed since 1967, Jordanian supervision of the Temple Mount, also home to the al-Aqsa mosque, means that only Muslims can worship there.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enforces this status quo. But Abbas, his media, terrorist groups like Hamas and even supposed allies of the United States used a Jewish aspiration for equal worship, on ground holy to Jews and Muslim, to stir up trouble and foment violence.

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