Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
The ZOA is appalled that Israeli Prime Minister Bennett and Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev (Labor) are dangerously humiliating the Jewish people by appeasing and submitting to the traitorous Islamist Ra’am party’s and Jordan’s demands to allow 50 more Islamic Waqf “police” on the Temple Mount – the Jewish people’s holiest site. Allowing an anti-Israel party and a foreign country such control over Israeli land and the most sacred Jewish site undermines Israeli sovereignty; endangers Jewish and other non-Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount and at the Kotel (Western Wall), and sends a message that Arab terror pays. It rewards Arab terror and murder.
Renowned Yale scholar Donald Kagan in his book “On the Origin of Peace and the Prevention of War” wrote that history has taught us that “appeasement always fails.” Winston Churchill said, “Those who appease the crocodile will simply be eaten last.”
Waqf “police” refused to help when Palestinian Arabs on the Temple Mount recently rioted, blocked Jewish visitors and stockpiled iron pipes and boulders to throw at non-Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount and Jewish worshipers at the Kotel, and threw these weapons at Israeli police. Waqf police have harassed non-Muslim visitors and attacked Jewish police. Waqf officials also oppose essential security precautions such as metal detectors, and oppose the basic religious freedom of Jews seeking to pray at the Jewish people’s holiest site. The Waqf moreover continued destroying priceless Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount from First and Second Temple periods, in violation of Israeli Supreme Court orders. And under the Waqf’s watch, on Holocaust Remembrance Day (April 28, 2022), thousands of Muslims around Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount screamed for more Jews to be murdered.
The Jordanian government has moreover been encouraging more violence on the Temple Mount. In a speech to the Jordanian parliament on April 18, 2022, Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh said he “praises every Palestinian and Jordanian Islamic Waqf worker… who throws rocks at the pro-Zionists.” The Jordanian government then had the gall to submit a paper to the U.S. complaining about Israel’s actions on the Temple Mount.
Bennett and Bar-Lev must stop rewarding Jordan’s, Ra’am’s, and the Waqf’s horrendous actions and outrageous demands. This appeasement must stop.
There are already outstanding calls for Minister Bar-Lev’s resignation, due to his repeated dangerous and insensitive policies and statements, including the following:
- In March 2022, Bar-Lev joked about making a widely-maligned error (Bar-Lev stated that he would bring the already-dead terrorist to justice) at the funeral of Doris Yahbas, 49, a mother of three, one of the four innocent Jews who were brutally murdered by a Bedouin Islamist terrorist in Be’er Sheva.
- During an interview last week, Bar-Lev improperly disclosed classified information regarding a 1984 operation in Syria.
- During the same interview, Bar-Lev falsely claimed that no Israelis had been murdered by terrorists in April. In fact, on April 7, 2022, a Palestinian Arab terrorist murdered three innocent Jews and injured another 11 people in Tel Aviv. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website moreover documents that there were 268 Arab terror attacks on Israelis in April 2022.
- In December 2021, bereaved Jewish families demanded Bar-Lev’s resignation after he absurdly compared deadly Palestinian Arab terrorism to alleged minor incidents that Bar-Lev called “settler violence,” during a meeting with U.S. Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland. Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said, “A public security minister who compares Arab terrorism to marginal events in the settlements should not remain in office. This is a failure in values. A person who refuses to apologize and belittles bereaved families must resign.”
- In September 2021, the frightening Gilboa prison break by six Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists occurred under Bar-Lev’s watch. Bar-Lev testified that he wasn’t even aware of the security concerns and breakout attempts at the prison beforehand.