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| Middle East |
| Israelis raid Nablus |
| 2002-02-11 |
The previous day, the Israeli airforce carried out a series of raids on Palestinian targets, in the northern Gaza Stip, wounding 40 people. These raids were in response to a deadly attack at a restaurant outside the Israeli army's southern headquarters in Beersheva in which two women soldiers, and their two Palestinian assailants, died. Since it was someone else's holy site, the Palestinians felt compelled to destroy it. Then they could say that it was a Muslim holy site and build a new mosque in the rubble. That way, anybody coming close would be desecrating it and they could be shot or bombed. That's planning, Palestinian-style. Speaking as a Jewish supporter of Israel, I feel I should point out that there is considerable debate, at best, within the Jewish community, archeological and historical, as to the accuracy of the claims made for the historiocity of the site known as "Joseph's Tomb," and significant doubt about them. Claiming it as a major "religious site" is, last I looked, pretty much a 20th century phenomenon largely made by an extreme fringe of politically minded settlers and/or religious kooks. Most archeologists consider the idea that it is the tomb of the biblical patriarch to be, um, in error. (Then there are all the confused Christians who think it's Jesus's father who's under discussion.) All true, but it remains that the Palestinians promised to respect it and not damage it when they were given control of the site, and then destroyed it next time they had a temper tantrum. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |