Violence has so escalated in Israel that Secretary of State John Kerry was dispatched to the region last week to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Kerry sat down with Netanyahu in Berlin and asked that he “tone down” the rhetoric that was inflaming the public.
John Kerry asks Benjamin Netanyahu to tone down the harsh language https://t.co/Xl6s0Q5cgD pic.twitter.com/xQOqCGOTbd
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 22, 2015
John Kerry asks Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to soften rhetoric on Palestinians https://t.co/1KiREF5tou pic.twitter.com/vl0ctWChuT
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) October 23, 2015
No sale, not even with the world’s greatest negotiator in the room. Do you suppose Netanyahu’s still sore about the Iran deal?
PM Netanyahu: I made clear in my talks with Secretary of State John Kerry that there will be no change in the status quo.
— Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) October 25, 2015
Today, Rep. Keith Ellison tweeted that Netanyahu must stop inciting violence, citing a link to the left-wing newspaper Haaretz.
For safety of Israelis & Palestinians, leaders must call for meaningful dialogue, calm, not revisionist history https://t.co/tzTEX0eV9D
— Keith Ellison (@keithellison) October 26, 2015
@keithellison The dialogue must result in a change to the status quo, the root cause of this. The day-to-day abuses committed by the IDF.
— Rob Brown ?? (@XSiveVerbosity) October 26, 2015
Yes, but the Israeli PM must stop inciting violence. https://t.co/m0AkGh2lap https://t.co/iabAD6LvW6
— Keith Ellison (@keithellison) October 26, 2015
“Instead of inciting against Israel’s Arab citizens,” writes Haaretz in an editorial, “the prime minister and his ministers would do well to act to calm things down and adopt a different policy, which regards Arabs as equal citizens, not a fifth column undermining the state.”
Oddly, at no point does the editorial make mention of the rash of stabbings that Palestinians have perpetrated recently, nor does it mention the Palestinian man who drove his vehicle into a crowd of people waiting at a bus stop and then attacked the wounded with a meat cleaver.
Obviously Netanyahu and his violent rhetoric is to blame for that attack. In the meantime, the New York Times reports that the hottest new CDs in the region contain songs such as “It’an, It’an” (“Stab, Stab”), “Intifada of Knives,” and “Run Over, Run Over the Settler.”
First Hamas summer camps militarizing youth; now CDs with violent lyrics –stab, stab — to pump up Jerusalem Pals https://t.co/PSfbac1frO
— Aaron David Miller (@aarondmiller2) October 23, 2015
The hot new song in Ramallah for the fall of 2015 is “Stab the Zionist & say God is Great.” https://t.co/XzTsi74Ir9
— Eli Lake (@EliLake) October 23, 2015
Palestinian musician worries that songs with lyrics like “Stab, stab” may create a negative image of the cause https://t.co/So7kq4NyEN
— David Frum (@davidfrum) October 23, 2015
“Run Over, Run Over the Settler" is back and rising up the charts. Join Casey Qassam for this weekend's count down. https://t.co/pYt8jrBDL4
— Jonathan Schanzer (@JSchanzer) October 23, 2015
Nothing inciting violence there. And let’s not forget the parents who just named their newborn, “Knife of Jerusalem.” Or this Sept. 2 tweet on the Iran deal from an award-winning American journalist.
Take that, Bibi. https://t.co/V9Gn9vP6xN
— gwen ifill (@gwenifill) September 2, 2015
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