Why is it that the ELCA supports the Palestinians? Part II

I really don't understand the "poor, oppressed Palestinian" theme...

From the Jerusalem Post:

It's almost a foregone conclusion that the synagogues of demolished Gush Katif will be destroyed. Remaining to be determined is only how and who will lay them to ruin. The underlying assumption is that whatever Israel leaves behind will be instantly vandalized and devastated.

Even the dead weren't considered immune from postmortem violation. That is why Israel removed the graves of Israelis from Gush Katif's Neveh Dekalim Cemetery.

This is no manifestation of baseless paranoia. In 1948, after the Jordanian Legion occupied east Jerusalem, forcibly expelling the Old City's ancient Jewish community, it showed the world what could be perpetrated even by moderate Arabs, as the Hashemites were reputed to be.

They destroyed no less than 58 synagogues, including the magnificent Rabbi Yehuda Hahasid Synagogue (the Hurva).

Synagogue remains were used by the Jordanians as cowsheds, donkey stables and public lavatories. This wasn't neglect, a charge that can be leveled at Israel regarding some mosque structures in abandoned and emptied Arab hamlets. This was deliberate abuse with intent to desecrate and humiliate. While Israel's record in 1948 and 1967 may not be perfect, jubilant desecration was never the motivation.

Even the ancient and hallowed Jewish Mount of Olives Cemetery wasn't left alone. No less than 75% of its tombstones were ripped out.

The international community was outraged a few years ago when Afghanistan's Talibans blew up giant Buddhist statuaries. But outrage was conspicuously absent against the destruction of Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount. Nor was there any particular international notice, let alone concern, when Nablus mobs ransacked Joseph's Tomb in 2001.

The wish to spare the Israeli public scenes of jubilant terrorists and their admiring disciples wreaking vengeance on synagogues is what prompted the government's original decision against abandoning any synagogues to the marauding rioters' predations. But why must it be assumed that such barbarism is uncontrollable, or even understandable?

To find a counterexample, one need look no further than Tel Aviv. The Hassan Bek Mosque was built about a century ago by Ottoman Turks on the border of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. During the British Mandate, Jaffa's Arabs had no qualms about using this house of worship to sow death and destruction. Arab snipers regularly fired into Tel Aviv streets from the minaret, killing and wounding passersby. After the War of Independence, Israelis had every reason to pull down the infamous mosque. But they didn't.

Israel even allowed Saudi money to finance the mosque's renovation and expansion. It's an operating mosque today. The police reportedly suspected that the suicide bomber who killed 22 youngsters at the Dolphinarium had been harbored there. When a known underworld character recently deposited a pig's head in its courtyard, he was summarily arrested.

Yet the rights and courtesies Muslims request aren't readily reciprocated. The PA is reported to have snubbed Israel's inquiries about whether it would protect Gush Katif's synagogues from harm.

Who will actually wreck them is much less relevant than why this has become almost inevitable. Why cannot Palestinians show the entire watching world that they are capable of rising above base instincts and conducting themselves according the civilized standards they so aggressively demand from others? Why does the world not expect and rigorously require these same standards of them?

Assumed Palestinian savagery, not to mention presumed international indifference to it, do not inspire Israeli confidence and do not augur well for the future of a negotiated peace.

Israel is committed to treating its Arab citizens with full equality and Muslim and Christian religious sites with utmost respect. Palestinians want Israelis to believe that all they want is to live peacefully in a state beside us.

They will have trouble convincing most Israelis of their peaceful intentions when they not only cannot tolerate living Jews in their midst, but also cannot even tolerate buildings or graves, without tearing them to bits.

Click on the title!

---Katie