Back in March, WorldNetDaily‘s Aaron Klein wrote enthusiastically about the Israeli far right’s plan to storm the Temple Mount with 10,000 supporters. Klein conducted sympathetic interviews with David Ha’ivri, one of the main organisers, without bothering to tell his readership of starry-eyed Christian Zionists that Ha’ivri is a virulently racist fanatic who detests Israeli democracy and is reviled by most people in his own country. While Klein was looking forward to the Temple Mount being “reclaimed” from the Muslims who so unfairly have control of the site, I wrote:
Let’s just hope Ha’ivri is no more than a self-aggrandising fool who has duped a stupid journalist about how much support he has. Klein and WND’s editor Joseph Farah are playing with fire: Klein has encouraged Ha’ivri and his followers in their delusions, and given them a massive free advert; WND readers have been encouraged to identify Israel with a bunch of religious fanatics rather than to understand the complexities of Israeli society.
So, today’s D-Day. And what do we find? Over to Klein:
As of noon, only a few hundred protestors amassed near the Temple Mount, a trickle of the 10,000 Revava had hoped for.
A “few hundred”? Not according to the BBC:
In the event, only a few dozen Jewish ultranationalists tried to get to the area, police said.
Haaretz concurs with the smaller estimate.
But I shouldn’t be too smug: Ha’ivri never realistically expected to take the Temple Mount. All he really wanted to do was to stir up some hatred and unrest in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim world, and with large numbers of Palestinians now riled up he appears to have succeeded. And all along he’s had two partners in this ignoble plot: Aaron Klein and Joseph Farah.
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[…] but a guy with a PhD (from the Hebrew University, apparently) should know better. The recent Israeli far-right protests at the Temple Mount were small, and their primary aim was to spread fear and resentment among […]