Israel fostering Islamo-fascism

by Joseph Farah

It pains me to write this.
But it is becoming increasingly clear to me that Israel, in so many ways on the front lines in the fight against Islamo-fascism, is actually a force promoting it.
At least the misguided, corrupt governments of Israel have managed this mission impossible.
I don't make this statement rashly. I've considered what I'm saying for a long time. I've hesitated to say it before because I have endeavored to give the Jewish state the benefit of every possible doubt.
Many in the Arab and Muslim worlds consider me an outright apologist for Israel. I have been caricatured as a Zionist apparatchik. I have been accused of being a Mossad disinformation specialist. So, when I criticize Israel, what I say ought to be at least considered – especially by Israelis and Jews.
It is not just Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's bizarre behavior and irrational policies with respect to Iran-directed Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon. But I will concede that my efforts at trying to comprehend the incomprehensible in this case led inescapably to this conclusion.
Like it or not, Israel is fostering Islamo-fascism.
It is not doing so because of its aggressiveness, as some claim. It is not doing so because of its retaliations against attacks, as some claim. It is not doing so because of its heavy-handedness or brutality, as some claim.
On the contrary, it is doing so by sending all the wrong signals to its mortal enemies.
This is not a new phenomenon. I've written about it frequently. We witnessed it just last year with Ariel Sharon's forced "disengagement" from Gaza. We witnessed it years earlier with Ehud Barak's unilateral, middle-of-the-night withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
And we witnessed it 40 years ago at the conclusion of the 1967 Six-Day War – reborn Israel's crowning military achievement, a miraculous drubbing of its imposing enemies who outnumbered the Jews in the region about 100 to one.
What happened at the conclusion of that war in which Israel conquered the Golan Heights from Syria, Judea and Samaria from Jordan, Gaza and Sinai from Egypt and, most importantly of all, the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, from Jordan?
The Israeli government gave the Temple Mount, inarguably the most holy site in Judaism, back to the hostile Muslim Arabs to administer – effectively agreeing to ban Jews and other non-Muslims from a religious site of deep significance to Christians as well.
This may not have been the first example of Israeli enabling of Islamo-fascism, but, to me, it is the biggest, the worst, the most egregious, the least forgivable.
A mere 12 years later, in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran, an event seen by many as the birth of the modern Islamo-fascist movement. While that is overstating the case, it is absolutely true that the mullahs in Iran and the other radical Islamists around the globe watched what happened in June 1967 in Jerusalem in awe and amazement.
First they saw their hated enemies, the Jews, overpower and overrun much bigger armies in convincing fashion. Then they saw a rabbi ascend to the top of the Western Wall of the newly captured Temple Mount and blow the shofar, or traditional ram's horn. Many Jews believed these developments signaled the imminent coming of the Messiah.
These events made the Islamo-fascists question – at least momentarily – what was happening to them. Was Allah abandoning them? Had they been unfaithful? Was it a judgment? How was it possible that the Jews' faith was being rewarded while their faith was being denied?
Then Moshe Dayan announced the Temple Mount would be handed over to the Muslim authorities to administer.
It was the ultimate appeasement. Oh, he had his religious justifications for the move. Some rabbis insisted Jews could not step foot on the Temple Mount for fear of contaminating the Holy of Holies. Presumably they had no fears the place where the Shekinah glory of God is manifested physically would be contaminated by the control of Muslims who denied the historic fact that a Jewish temple ever existed on the mount.
Such an unexpected turnaround was perceived as it could only be understood in the Islamic world. It was both an Israeli capitulation – the first of many – and an act of Allah.
No matter how hard the Israelis try to demonstrate such random suicidal acts of compassion, they will only be rewarded with more hatred, more violence and more intransigence. What they are doing is reaffirming the Muslim zealots' faith in Allah. They are reaffirming the Quran's contempt for Jews and other infidels.
And this is how Israel continues to foster Islamo-fascism – without even trying.