By Ryan Jones
Sep 12, 2005
Proclaiming their god Allah greater than the God of Israel, ?Palestinian? Muslims set upon four abandoned synagogues in the Gaza Strip Monday, setting them ablaze and raising the flags of the PLO and Hamas.
In the early morning hours, even before the last IDF soldier had left Gaza, Arab mobs overwhelmed the scant police forces deployed by the Palestinian Authority and swarmed over the former Jewish communities of Morag, Neve Dekalim, Kfar Darom and Netzarim.
Making straight for the synagogues, they fired their weapons in the air, set off fireworks and chanted ?Allah is greater? in celebration of Islam's victory over the Jews in that narrow coastal strip ? a piece of land given by God to the Israelite tribe of Judah.
?This is only the first step of the liberation. Tomorrow we'll liberate all of Palestine,? they shouted.
The burned-out shells of the Jewish houses of worship, as well as the other 15 or more synagogues in Gaza, will be razed in the coming days, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas said early Monday, after Israel chose to leave the structures standing.
?The Israelis left behind empty structures that served as synagogues in the past,? Abbas stated. ?But they removed all religious artifacts from there and therefore they are no longer holy places.?
That formal destruction began Monday afternoon, when a PA bulldozer was reported by the Associated Press to have started razing the synagogue in Netzarim.
Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom had pleaded with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to intervene and prevent the desecration of the synagogues, according to Ynet.
Annan promised to do so, but either failed to keep his word or was rebuffed by the PLO chief.
Last week, Knesset Member Effi Eitam said the Palestinian Arabs' treatment of the synagogues following the IDF's departure would prove what kind of people Israel was dealing with.
?This is a test for this new [Palestinian] entity,? Eitam told CNSNews. ?If the first thing that they will do is to destroy the synagogues and just to wipe out any Jewish presence from this land, that will prove that their face is [toward] war forever.?
By resorting to such desecration, the Palestinian Arabs ?will prove that they are not only terrorists...but they are really barbarians,? he continued.
That was the exact sentiment expressed by Shalom Monday morning as scenes of the burning synagogues began flood the media.
Shalom told Israel Radio the Gazan Arabs' actions were ?barbaric.?
He was supported in that assessment by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuval Steinitz, who said the images from Gaza prove ?we have no genuine, responsible partner for peace on the other side, but at most, a partner for excuses.?
Some in Israel suggested the unbridled desecration of the synagogues should be answered with the destruction of the Al Aqsa Mosque, which occupies Israel's holiest site ? the Jerusalem Temple Mount.
?If the government does not do it, no one should be surprised to find proud Jews standing up and doing it instead,? an unnamed source told Ynet.