Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on November 28, 2014

David Orentlicher 5:10 p.m. EST November 28, 2014

View of a bullet hole inside the synagogue on Nov. 18, 2014, in Jerusalem. Four Israelis were killed and eight injured after two armed men believed to be Palestinians from East Jerusalem attacked the Bnei Torah Kehilat Yaakov synagogue in West Jerusalem earlier today before being shot dead themselves. )(Photo: Getty Images)

For good reason, political leaders across the globe condemned the recent murders of four Jews and a Druze police officer in a West Jerusalem neighborhood the massacre targeted unarmed civilians, the men were praying at their synagogue, and they had done nothing to provoke their attackers. As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said, it was an act of pure terror that simply has no place in human behavior.

While there can be no justification for such outrageous conduct, the motives of the killers make their atrocity especially troubling. In part, they were influenced by false allegations that a Palestinian bus driver was lynched by Israeli Jews when he in fact committed suicide by hanging. More importantly, reported the New York Times, relatives explained that the attackers were driven by the current controversy over access to a site in the Old City of Jerusalem that is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest site in Islam. But the controversy has been greatly exaggerated by Palestinian leaders in a way that has done much to fuel the current round of violence.

What exactly is the controversy over the site, known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and the Temple Mount to Jews? Since 1967, when Israel gained control over Jerusalem during the Six-Day War, Muslims, through the Jordanian government, have been responsible for administration of the site. Jews and other non-Muslims may visit, but they are not allowed to pray there. Some Israelis would like to change the rules for the site to allow for Jewish prayer, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly has assured the Palestinian leadership and the world that Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo. And its not just talk. The Israeli police immediately arrest Jews who violate site rules.

Nevertheless, only last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas chose to escalate the controversy when he denounced efforts by Jewish extremists to contaminate the holy site with their prayer and warned that allowing Jewish prayer would provoke a religious war.

It is troubling enough that the Palestinian leadership would choose a path of incitement rather than conciliation over this controversy. It also is troubling because this kind of incitement has a long pedigree. Starting in the 1920s with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Palestinian leaders repeatedly have stirred up anti-Jewish sentiment by lodging false accusations of threats to the Noble Sanctuary. In recent years, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood have continued to perpetrate the defamation, and now President Abbas has seized on it to heighten tensions.

It is not in anyones interests for violence to intensify. Lives are needlessly lost, and hearts are hardened on both sides. And while the negotiating process is a difficult one, it has in fact been favorable for the Palestinians. Israel has more than once offered Palestinians a fair deal for a state of their own. In 2000, for example, President Bill Clinton brokered a peace plan that would have respected interests on both sides. But Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat rejected the proposal, in large part because of the demand for a broad right of return that effectively would turn Israel into a Palestinian state. In 2008, President Abbas accepted important compromises but ultimately passed on the opportunity for a resolution of the conflict with Israels Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. And, according to an inside report in the New Republic, Kerrys efforts to fashion a peace agreement elicited key concessions from Netanyahu earlier this year until Palestinian impatience led them to scuttle the talks in April.

Yes, the Israelis and the Palestinians are in the midst of a difficult and prolonged political dispute. But, as Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said on Wednesday, Palestinians and Jews are now in a situation where we all live together and where we are meant to live together.

Orentlicher, a former Democratic state representative, is a physician, attorney and professor of law and medicine at Indiana University.

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Synagogue killings only inflame further tensions

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