OMRI CEREN: A PREVIEW …PA TV: “Rain Cleanses the Impurity of Jews in Jerusalem so Muslims Can Pray”
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/11/pa-tv-un/#more-774401
The Obama approach to Middle East peacemaking, it can’t be emphasized enough, is premised on the gamble that if Israel stops building schools and homes in the West Bank, then this will go away. Other people have suggested that broadcasting primitive “nature provides rain to cleanse away the filthiness of Jews” incitement is evidence of deeply-seated cultural bigotry. So there are arguments on both sides.
The theory was broadcast on Fatah-controlled PA TV last Sunday. The key part goes:
The golden dome [of the mosque] shines with colors of the sky, with the white of clouds, while the joyous holiday [Eid Al-Adha] is good to the residents. The light rain cleanses the steps of the foreigners [Jews] so that the feet [of Muslims] in prayer will not step on impurity.
This broadcast is a kind of follow-up to one from September. That one described Jews praying at the Western Wall as “sin and filth” and asserted that the Jewish connection to Jerusalem was a “false history.” So you can already tell that the Palestinians’ UNESCO ascension – which was meant to set up an international campaign against Israeli control of its capital, and which is already getting started – is going to be delightful.
There’s no news yet on whether the Palestinian Authority will be arguing that nature itself wants to cleanse Jews from Jerusalem, or whether they’ll settle for more quotidian arguments while reserving that insight for domestic consumption. At this point it’s a tossup which would work better at the United Nations.
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