Today, Deir Yassin Day, April 9, falls on a Friday, just as it did in 1948.

Deir Yassin was an Arab-populated village (it was mono-ethnic; no Jews allowed) that participated in anti-Jewish violence in 1920 including gun-running, in 1929 with attacks on nearby Jewish neighborhoods of Givat Shaul and Bet HaKerem, in 1936-1939, especially aiding terror attacks on the Tel-Aviv - Jerusalem highway and in April 1948, participated in sniping attacks on Bayit VeGan and Bet HaKerem, allowing Iraqi irregulars as well as Arab guerrillas to reside in the village.

On the night of April 8 and into the day of April 9, militants, members of two Jewish anti-British occupation armed forces sought to rid the village of armed persons who were disrupting the peace, seeking to thwart a United Nations resolution and killing innocent civilians.

An attempt was made to warn the villagers of the impending attack by use of a loudspeaker which largely failed due to an anti-tank trench that the attackers had not been aware of previously however many did flee towards another Arab village, Ein Karem.  During the attack, armed Arab disguised themselves in feminine attire.  In the ensuing battle, five members of the attacking force were killed and over 40 were injured, fully one-third of the force.

In the street fighting and house-to-house combat, 120 Arabs at the most, and perhaps fewer, were killed.  Many, including women and children, were prevented from leaving their homes and so suffered fatal wounds.

The news of the fall of the village developed into a wild rumor-mongering which caused thousands of Arabs, many not at all threatened, to flee.  This, ironically, facilitated future Jewish victories on the field of battle as they repelled Arab aggression.

In a later BBC documentary, "The 50 Years War", Arab residents of the village admitted that claims that a massacre took place were highly exaggerated.

 

source

The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will absent himself from the ceremony to reinaugurate the "Hurva" Synagogue in Jerusalem's wall old city neighborhood next week it has been reported.  The presumption is that he doesn't want to annoy the Obama Administration.

 

Netanyahu, if anything, is a wizard at public diplomacy.  How can he allow an event like this to pass by?  What is he thinking?

 

The structure was built at the beginning of the 18th century, 300 years ago (that's longer than the United States of America has been around, with or without Obama).  It was destroyed by Arabs.  The building, along with others, symbolizes that Jerusalem, Green Line or not, is Jewish and that we are determined to assure, maintain and develop its Jewishness by increasing our presence there.

 

Of course, there are other opinions.  Here's from this week's editorial of The Forward, which has just closed a co-distributive deal with Ha-Ha-Haaretz, the post-Zionist daily of Israel's progressive left camp, commenting on Vice-President Joe Biden's visit here and the 'surprise' announcement:-

 

As Americans, we feel insulted. Contrary to the spin generated in some quarters, the Obama administration has gone out of its way to support Israel and the Netanyahu government...Some Jews believe that all of Jerusalem belongs under Israeli control, but that is a political position, not an indisputable fact. Another people also lays claim to this holy city.

 

What really is the "fact" that the radical editorial writer ignored is that Jews who believe otherwise, that the city is actually all Israel's, are perhaps 98% of all world Jewry, excluding maybe Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni and Rahm Emanuel.  Not only that but there is a common misconception.  The claim is made is that Israel unnaturally "expanded" the city when it absorbed eastern areas after 1967.

 

But if we review the UN recommendation of November 29, 1947 (Part III, B) to partition the Mandate area, we will see that the borders of Jerusalem, as a corpus separatum, extend to Shuafat, past Abu Dis and to Bethlehem as well as to Motza, larger than the municipal boundaries today.  So what are they talking about, these concessionists who wish to yield, surrender and kowtow?

 

In not showing up, Netanyahu will not be taking advantage of a wonderful opportunity to say this.  To remind the world of Jerusalem's place in the soul of the Jewish people, its religion, culture, literature, art and history.  To recall to his listeners that not only was the Hurva Synagogue destroyed by Arabs, but another 30 or so synagogues were desecrated after 1948, and that thousands of graves on Mount of Olives were destroyed and that on the Temple Mount, the Waqf authorities are destroying and ransacking Jewish artifacts.

 

We, as Zionists, as Jews returning to our homeland, build.  We create.  They destroy.

 

And as for that Forward editorial "another people lays claim to this holy city", let us remind them that the League of Nations decision, international law, by the way, obligated us to protect and preserve religious rights and holy sites of non-Jews, no more.  No prerogative more than we.

 

 I would assume that Prime Minister Netanyahu could have said all this, and more, perhaps more eloquently than I.  But to do so, he would have to truly believe in these ideas and facts.

 

And, he would have to be there at the ceremony.

 

But he won't be there.

 

And that is too bad.

 

__________________

 

P.S.  That doesn't mean that thousands of other Jews need stay away.

According to this report, the publicity relating to a mass ascent to the Temple Mount was thwarted.

A report in an Israeli newspaper, disseminated worldwide by United Press International (UPI) stated that Jews planned a “mass pilgrimage” numbering in the “hundreds” to the Temple Mount on Thursday.

The “mass” throng actually consisted of only 200 Jews, but the reports set off panic among Arabs and left Jews outside the site as police blocked their entrance, as has happened several times in the past after Arab clerics spread fears of a “Jewish takeover.”

A spokesman for the activists said, “The police provided no reason for their arbitrary decision. At one point police claimed that the Mount was closed due to the Moslem new year, which occurs on Friday and not on Thursday.

Now, let's go back to the original story:

A group of activists dedicated to bringing Jews to the Temple Mount told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that they were hoping to see hundreds of participants take part in a planned "mass pilgrimage" to the site scheduled for Thursday morning in honor of Hannuka

...a representative of the Organization for the Renewal of the Temple (ORT) - which is organizing Thursday's event - told the Post on Tuesday there had been no indication the planned pilgrimage would cause renewed disturbances...[despite this] Yosef Rabin, an ORT member, told the Post that the scuffle broke out after a number of Arabs standing nearby became enraged when his colleagues started to sing Hannuka songs and dance as they departed.

...Nevertheless, Rabin said, the trip had been calm and quiet up until the fighting broke out, and he added that his group was pursuing its goal of promoting awareness of the mount "through legal means only."

"We do everything legally and in conjunction with the police," Rabin said. "And as long as we do, there shouldn't be any problem."

...Rabin said he had personally spoken with police about Thursday's pilgrimage and that they had told him there was no reason to believe problems would occur.

"Our focus is on bringing people to the Temple Mount, nothing else," Rabin said. "And we've been making hundreds of phone calls, using lists we have, and sending out e-mails and Facebook messages to try and get as many people as possible to come."

"Little by little, we're going to take back the mount," he continued. "And it will be done without violence or force."

The spokesperson, who I checked, is not know to most other activists, perhaps should have spoken to the press after the ascent unless, of course, this Rabin fellow was a GSS agent.  Now, there's a neat conspiracy theory.

If Rabin does exist, please contact me so I can clear your name.

As for your political sophistication, that's another matter altogether.

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P.S.  There is indeed a Yosef Rabin (pronounced Ray-bin).  And yes, he is upset.  However, as I informed him, the two most major and central Temple Mount activists could not, when I contacted them, confirm his existence.  He insists he has been active for the last four months and feels that what I wrote above in my blog "might be legally considered character assassination".  I doubt that.  He does admit "going to the media may not have been the best move".  Okay, we can agree on that. It seems that a very central Temple Mount leader actually told him that this week and hopefully, will be aiding him in his enthusiasm.

He also claims that he is a "part of the very few that safeguard the last thread of sovereignty for the Jewish People on the Mount".  I applaud him.  Indeed, as someone who substituted as tour leader for Dr. Yoel Elitzur the Thursday before Chanukah and ended up sharing tour guide duties with Rabbi Chaim Richman, has ascended the Mount a few times ever since my first ascent in September 1970, just 39 years ago, and who has written not-a-bad monograph (here) - I welcome him into the few.  I would guess that in the future, there will be no need for me to question not only his existence, and not only the extent of his activism but also his political sophistication which, of course, was the main point of my blog post.  My apologies, Yosef.  And good work for Har Habayit

Oh, and that GSS throwaway?  That was just in jest.  Why should I presume that an activist would be in cahoots with them?

Further to my previous post on Yossi Melman's disparaging suggestion that we move the capital of Jerusalem, even temporarily, I searched for the following and here it is, General Charles De Gaulle's speech on the liberation of Paris, August 25, 1944.  Here are words that express the true genuine feelings of a people for their capital:

"Why do you desire that we hide the emotion which seizes us all, men and women, who are here, at home, in Paris that stood up to liberate itself and that succeeded in doing this with its own hands?

No! We will not hide this deep and sacred emotion. These are minutes which go beyond each of our poor lives. Paris! Outraged Paris! Broken Paris! Martyred Paris! But liberated Paris!

Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France! Well! Since the enemy which held Paris has capitulated into our hands, France returns to Paris, to her home. She returns bloody, but quite resolute. She returns there enlightened by the immense lesson, but more certain than ever of her duties and of her rights. I speak of her duties first, and I will sum them all up by saying that for now, it is a matter of the duties of war...

...It is for this revenge, this vengeance and justice, that we will keep fighting until the last day, until the day of total and complete victory. This duty of war, all the men who are here and all those who hear us in France know that it demands national unity. We, who have lived the greatest hours of our History, we have nothing else to wish than to show ourselves, up to the end, worthy of France. Long live France!"

Those are the words of a nationalist, of a patriot, of a lover of his country and its capital city.

We Jews have no need to feel inferior to any nation or people.