The sights and sounds of thousands of Palestinians dancing on the rooftops, drunk with hatred, as missiles and UAVs whizzed over their heads towards us, may seem peripheral to the difficult experience we all went through on Sunday morning. But in truth, they are anything but peripheral.
Those images – blurred due to darkness, are the true "day after" picture that the Biden administration envisions incorrectly. These images add to decades of terror, incitement, and bloodshed, and teach again that on the other side, it is not a matter of individuals; the hatred comes from the grassroots. The Palestinian leadership that is hostile towards Israel – old, new or "renewed" – is a reflection of Palestinian society.
It is important to say this now, because contrary to the impression the Americans are trying to make, at their core and essence, the Palestinians in the West Bank – like those in Gaza – are not truly part of the moderate axis opposing the Iranian offensive. The Iranians know this too, and they are counting on them just as they are counting on the Palestinian majority in Jordan, which they are now trying to destabilize from within.
The firing toward Jerusalem, which was intercepted over the Temple Mount ("Al-Aqsa") is not an Iranian mistake. Quite the opposite – it is a call for liberating the Temple Mount from "Jewish impurity." Just a few years ago, Iran's Revolutionary Guards participated in a drill in the city of Qom simulating the capture of the sacred compound in Jerusalem. The forces "breached and liberated" a model of the Dome of the Rock structure.
Even when Sheikh Raed Salah – one of our greatest enemies and the head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement that was outlawed – was released from police questioning after his participation in the infamous Marmara flotilla, Shiite Iran, which seeks to wipe Israel off the map, showed him great support. Iranian television channels broadcast live the mass reception held for Salah by some of Israel's Arabs.
From Iran's perspective, its proxies are not only in Gaza, Lebanon (Hezbollah), Yemen, Syria and Iraq – but also in the West Bank, and among extremist Israeli Arabs like Salah, Kamal Khatib and their ilk.
Israel understands this and is aware of it, but there is a need to make this information accessible to the world, particularly to the current administration in Washington, which continues to be under the illusion of a renewed Palestinian Authority while the residents of that very authority – the supposed "democratic base" for its renewed institutions – danced on rooftops with glee and ululate while cheering the missile and UAV attacks on Israel.
Some of the new government ministers and many of the new governors that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has now appointed within that whitewashed authority have a record of hostility toward Israel. Many have expressed explicit support for terror or expressed admiration for terrorists. In this sense, as stated, they are faithful representatives of the Palestinian public that is dancing on rooftops now, just like during the Gulf War.
Like its whitewashed representatives and Palestinian security operatives now taking part in attacks, they are different parts of the same picture – which the Americans choose to ignore. We, on the other hand, cannot afford to keep ignoring it, and must echo it across the world, particularly to our great friend the United States.
