The Palestinian Authority appears to have too many streets named Elm or Main street. Instead, it has decided to name a street after a murderous terrorist, Muhammad Halabi, 19, on the outskirts of Ramallah. Halabi stabbed to death two Israelis, Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Bennett, in the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3 and also injured Bennett’s wife Adele and their 2-year-old son in the attack. Now Palestinians can live on Halabi street to honor these infamous acts.
Nehamia Lavi, 41, was a rabbi for the right-wing settlement group Ateret Cohanim, which seeks to create a Jewish majority inside the Old City. Halabi stabbed the two ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and wounded the wife of one of them. He then reportedly took a gun from one of the men and fired at tourists and security forces in the area, wounding the couple’s 2-year-old son. He was later shot by Israeli forces.
After the murders by his son, the father of Halabi proclaimed that “I am proud of my son and what he did − he has done what 1.5 million Muslims have failed to do.”
The Palestinian Authority said that the naming of the street was “to honor Halabi, who carried out a stabbing and shooting operation against settlers in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.” Muhammad Hussein, mayor of Surda-Abu Qash, insisted that “This is the least we can do for Martyr Halabi.”
Now here is the truly mind-blowing element. The Palestinian Bar Association has awarded an honorary law degree on a man who stabbed two people and injured a woman and a baby. It is hard to imagine a more antithetical figure for the concept of the rule of law.
I understand that there is extremism on both sides and I certainly understand that there have been deaths on both sides (including stabbings by Israelis). However, any hope to claim a higher moral ground is lost when the Palestinians select a knife wielding murderer as an honored symbol — and honorary lawyer — in their society.
What do you think?
Beldar here. Yeah I am from another Planet. What I see is an unrealistic view from many of the commentors here. You wish to put the Jews back into the death zone. UkYouFay.
2000 years and still going
Numbers 33:55
But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass,
that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.
Jeff-
For the reasons you so eloquently described, please use accurate terminology when referencing normal people as opposed to religionists. Normal people should not be describing themselves in the negative as “not deluded”.
Randyjet,
Please refer back to my comment about how the US sells & exchanges weapons to almost every country on earth, including Israel and its’ ‘enemies.’
For more info, please look at wikipedia’s site for the history of Israel-US military relations: The US have been selling weapons to Israel since 1960 (some historians believe that the US has been indirectly giving weapons to Israel since the end of WW2, as early as 1949).
Which makes you wonder: what’s really going on in our world? Why give (or sell) weapons to every country on earth (including your ‘axis of evil’ countries/enemies), and then allow our men and women to die from a weapon manufactured by and in the US, since the 1940s?
I think, IMHO, there is more to the story than you and I can speculate? But stay tune…..
Daniel 9:26 “The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end…”
Jeff
This has less to do with gods and more to do with outright theft.
As an atheist, this is all very silly, on both sides. I find it petty when I hear the “My god is better than your god” bickering. It sounds like little kids on a playground arguing that “my imaginary friend can beat up your imaginary friend.” It is unfortunate that people are so diluded that they believe they have to kill other people in the name of their nonexistant mythical gods. Belief in gods, along with ghosts, zombies, vampires, santa clause, etc should be treated as a mental disorder; none of these things really exist. So put your guns and knives down, extend an open hand to your HUMAN brother, and let’s make this world a better place for everyone. This is the only world we have and there is no glorious afterlife when we die, so you had best make this life worth living because this is all you get. I am often accused of being a pessimist about the human race and I believe we will destroy ourselves in the near future. The actions of this individual and the PA are a good example of why I feel this way. Every day we hear stories like this, how can anybody be an optimist about the human race?
Jeff,
Please visit and read the following article/website(s):
http://winteryknight.com/2015/10/17/book-review-of-r-c-sprouls-if-theres-a-god-why-are-there-atheists/
This maybe an eye-opener for your immaturity or lack of sensitivity to what others believe?
If you are really interested in learning more about what you believe in, then please feel free to visit Dr. (Professor) William Lane Craig’s website:
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/theistic-critiques-of-atheism
Last time I checked, neither Egypt, Saudi Arabia, nor Jordan has tried to sink a US warship as Israel did. They killed 34 US sailors, and wounded 174, and kept on trying to sink the USS Liberty in multiple attacks from the air and sea. I know that blank check supporters of Israel can care less about ordinary GIs, and view them as the Israelis did as expendable. Ask the survivors of the USS Liberty how good a “friend” Israel was that day.
Then we have the case of Pollard who is going to get out of prison soon to enjoy his millions of dollars he has stashed away in Israel, most of it US taxpayer dollars too. I can understand why the Israelis have nothing but contempt for the USA. We are SUCKERS!
randyjet – why would we abandon our only friends in the region?
Paul, we have Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar… seems like we have many friends in the region.
po – none of those are really our friends.
I am the dog who mentioned the nitwit named Woodrow Wilson and mentioned him in the context of his getting the U.S. into WWI on the premise that we would “Make the world safe for democracy”. Bush had some notion of this “safe for democracy” premise under his hide when he went into Iraq. CNN had a very good show on the other night about the muddle east and the idiocy of those who wish to intervene.
Israel is a bit of a horse of a different color than Syria, Iraq, Iran, Jordan et al. It does have a Democracy. I capitalize the word in this context. The Western nations and people do have some obligation and motive in securing the Jewish state following WWII and the Holocaust. If you deeply look into the role that the Frogs (French) played in the Holocaust then you will see that this was not just Germans at work. Many Europeans participated or simply sat silent. Silence runs deep. Memories are as long as one human life. Those of you who comment here and trash Israel need to realize that some of us know where you are coming from. Heil Hitler. The Middle East is huge. There is plenty of room in Jordan alone for all of the so called Palestinians living in the West Bank who hate Jews. Egypt should take back Gaza. Hezbolah needs to be destroyed. Hamas needs to be destroyed. Hotsie Totsie, I smell a Nazi. (Curley on the Three Stooges). The anti Israelis today are the same ilk of the Hitler Youth, the Hitler Adults and the Vichy French.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You reap what you sow. Etc. This is human nature. When one people steal life from another, regardless of what the reasons, the pressure builds and explodes. The US experienced this in the ‘taming of the West’. It has happened enough throughout history to present an identifiable paradigm.
Now it is Israel taking what they believe is theirs from others who believe it is theirs. There is no moral high ground. If anything the dominant and experienced victim is the most lacking in morals. It is what it is. When you put your boot to the neck of someone and they hack and slash back, you don’t deserve any consideration. Unfortunately there will always be innocent victims.
Naming streets after killers is no different than electing them to lead the country. Begin murdered many people including British civil servants. If he didn’t pull the trigger or detonate the bomb he was part of the group. Somehow it all comes down to the side one is on. Regard Vietnam and the three million victims there. Not too much thought given to that here in the good ole US of A.
It is not as bad as the Israelis electing a terrorist to be PM, Mr. Begin who was responsible for the murder of UN peace mediator Count Bernadotte. Then we have Sharon who went into a Palestinian village and murdered all the women and children in it. The men had all fled believing that the IDF would not murder them. They guessed wrong. Then there is the current criminal Netanyahu who prompted the murder of Rabin when he made peace with the PA. He is still continuing his campaign to exterminate the Palestinians, so I can understand their frustrations and anger. It is too bad that there are no adults in the region who could put a stop to this. The US could IF we applied a true even hand, but that will not happen until we break the lock Israel has on US policy.
Glorifying terrorists and terror
Palestinian society’s habitual glorification of terrorists as heroes and role models is one of its most effective means of promoting terror. In honoring the worst killers,
the PA is simultaneously giving approval to murder and enticing future terrorists with assurances of glory and honor if they succeed in killing. Terror and murder become the Palestinian’s ticket to fame, honor and glory.
The terrorists honored most highly amongst Palestinian society are those who have killed the greatest number. Abd Al-Baset Udeh, killer of 30 at the Passover Seder massacre,
had a soccer tournament for 14-year-olds named for him. His brother was honored with distributing the trophies. Dalal Mughrabi, terrorist bus hijacker
(led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history in 1978, when she and other terrorists killed 37 civilians, 12 of them children) has had
summer camps, schools, graduation ceremonies and sporting events named for her, as well as many TV documentaries honoring her.
Palestinian newspapers also frequently glorify Mughrabi, as in the Al-Ayyam article which described Mughrabi as writing “the most glorious page of heroism in the history of the Palestinian struggle.
Thaer Hammad, who as a lone gunman murdered 10 Israelis in 2002, was glorified by the official PA daily as “the hero of the Intifada.”
Naming a street, constructing a statue, hoisting a flag symbol, any other efforts that glorify atrocities are wrong in every instance, whether in Palestine or in the US or anywhere else. Nevertheless they have always existed.
If this becomes a trend, for this war as with most, there are not enough streets in the world to be named for all those who have killed in the name of God and country.
What is one to do, when they are forced off their land and denied a place that they can legally claim as their own?
Few can truly answer how they would feel unless you have walked in similar footsteps. I know how I feel when my rights are usurped by the ruling oligarchs and my property confiscated from me in the name of the public good, angry and poorer. That is a simply and realistic response but to not have a place where my rights are protected and thus have not rights, must be horrible and intolerable.
All nation states appear to have this propensity. Those in power, upon achieving their positions are magically provided the wisdom and knowledge to know what is in the best interest of the majority, and they feel they must then steal from the majority through taxation, from those who they are trying to help, to achieve their God given powers; what appears to be in truth, that of either extreme arrogance or ignorance. There has to be a bit of sociopathy in these sort of individuals because the system promotes greater powers to those who steal the most.
The citizens are caught in the middle trying to survive and do what’s right when we all know two wrongs cannot possibly make a right. A catch 22 created by the nation state and all those who worship this institution as if it is the savior of mankind when it has never saved only but the rulers and their cronies.
What has the world really achieved by the legalization of force and coercion; constant social and political conflict.
We can attempt to dwell on who is right and wrong but in war/conflict there does not appear to be a rational or fair means of determining this. It does not matter if it is two politicians on a stage debating, lying to the Citizens, as to how they are going to improve their lives or two military combatants engaged in an all out firefight, it is almost impossible to choose who is the least wrong or the most right.
By it’s pure existence the nation state creates conflict because it legalizing the ability to usurp individual rights and to steal the property those rights are supposed to protect. How can this possibly create a civil society.
po
I do not disagree with the facts about a swath of land that is occupied with one particular identity that is walled IN… can be capable of. This is a modern version of the Cain and Abel story… One brother is determined to be ride the other.
However, to honor a murder?
As Darren would say, it is a peace accord self destructing move…
Joseph Jones,
You have made a few US diplomatic assertions that are politically & economically inaccurate; you misinterpret the bible when quoting Psalms about the current state of Israel (do you even know the who, when, and why of the Psalms that you are quoting); and one of your statements have nothing to do with the other (for example, your statement, about what transpired in 70 AD-Rome invasion of parts of Israel to crush an uprising, leading to a massacre of thousands of Jews-and the Mosaic/Levitical Era, has nothing to do with the other. Some Jews would be offended by your lack of insensitivity to what transpired in and leading up to 70 AD).
It would take me (or anyone else who has knowledge about what I mentioned above about your comments) all day to inform or correct you about your lack of understanding of US History (including current events, in regards to the Middle East, how the US sells weapons to every country on earth-the US even built a weapons manufacturing plant the size of 70 NFL football stadiums in the Middle East-and still claiming that we have allies and enemies, the wealth of mineral and natural resources in the Middle East-the reason why Russia and the US are racing to see who gets it all first, etc), the Bible, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict (the Middle East has been in chaos for millenniums with no end in site, until Jesus returns).
I think that the honors heaped on this man are appalling.
But I’d also point out that because the PA (or, elsewhere, Hamas) does something, does not mean all Palestinians approve of it, any more than all Israelis approve of everything their government does.
And as despicable as naming a street after a murderer is, I’m from a country which puts Andrew Jackson on the $20. My point is not to say “everybody does it,” but to keep some sense of humility; honoring horrible people is not a uniquely Palestinian trait.
This thread is now an EPA Toxic Superfund waste site.
Anyone who thinks it’s past time to let Palestine and Israel fight to the death is wrong, lying, mislead, or combination thereof. It’s high time the US stopped picking sides in that fight. Too bad ultimately the only side we pick is the one with which we have an alleged “unbreakable bond,” in direct contradiction of G. Washington’s Farewell Address wherein he recommends that “all foreign relations are temporary.”
Everyone who thinks the world is better off since the west mandated by threat of violence a so-called “Jewish” nation in the middle of then-Palestine, raise their hand. Oh, I forgot, God granted title to the land to the Jews, right? Is there some title company deep in Jerusalem with a land grant signed by God? I refer Zionist “Christians” to Ps. 147 vs. 20: ” I have not dealt so with any other nation…” Get it? Since Rome destroyed the OT Temple in 70AD, the Mosaic/Levitical era ceased to exist on this planet.
President Wilson proclaimed a C ago that the USA would usher in Utopia by spreading “democracy” around the globe. How’s that democracy-spreading program worked out for earth’s inhabitants, do you think? Are they lovin’ democracy in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, etc, etc, etc.
Uh oh, Josseph, you are in trouble now…you will spend the next few days fighting the label of antisemitism some of our friends are sure to heap upon you.
Run, Josseph, run!
You know the Cleveland guy who kidnapped a couple of young women a decade ago and held them prisoner in his basement, rapping them at will?
Well, that is the exact, the perfect metaphor for what Israel is doing to Palestinians.
And in light of that, talking about “both sides” as if there was some parity in power and oppression is akin to claiming that the kidnapped woman’s slapping of her kidnapper constitutes violence on both sides.
Or is it the honorary lawyer distinction that hurts?
Then there should be a John Wayne Gacy Blvd. in Des Plaines, IL., Albert DiSalvo Lane in Boston, and a Jeffrey Dahmer Court in Milwaukee.