• UNESCO Director General Objects to Arab Claims on Western Wall in Jerusalem - Somini Sengupta
  Senior UN officials have objected to a proposal by some Arab states to have UNESCO classify the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, as part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City. UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova expressed her objection to the resolution on Tuesday in a stern statement, saying it "could be seen to alter the status of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls." The Western Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage site adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. (New York Times)
      See also U.S. "Strongly Opposes" UNESCO Proposal to Reclassify Western Wall - Michael Wilner
  "The United States strongly opposes this resolution and any such use of international fora such as UNESCO to inflame tension in the region and alter the status quo at the Holy Sites," Edgar Vasquez, a State Department spokesperson, told the Jerusalem Post. "One-sided anti-Israel resolutions have been a recurring challenge at UNESCO since 2009, and in all such circumstances the United States has blocked consensus on such resolutions by calling for a vote and voting against the texts."  (Jerusalem Post)
      See also Palestinians Drop Bid to Name Western Wall Part of Al-Aqsa - Raoul Wootliff
  The Palestinians have withdrawn their demand that UNESCO declare the Western Wall an "integral part" of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Israeli officials said Wednesday. The resolution still contains a request to recognize Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron as Muslim sites. (Times of Israel)
      See also Jewish Groups Blast Arab Proposal to Label Western Wall a Muslim Holy Site - Rebecca Shimoni Stoil
  Jewish organizations came out in force against the Palestinian initiative on Monday. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations noted that appropriation of the Western Wall as a plaza named after the Prophet Muhammad's horse flies in the face of historical fact. "In the millennia before the re-creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Arab leaders largely ignored Jerusalem, laid no claim to the Western Wall or Rachel's Tomb....No UNESCO or UN resolution or action can undo more than 2,000 years of history."
      "President Abbas' goal is to deny Israelis and the Jewish people their connection to the land. He seeks to cut off their past in order to cut off their future. It would be better if President Abbas would devote the same energy to reigning in the violence being perpetrated by Palestinians and to engage Prime Minister Netanyahu in meaningful talks. He well knows that his actions at UNESCO can only undermine any prospect of peace and gains his people nothing."  (Times of Israel)
      See also Palestinians Attempt to Declare the Western Wall a Muslim Holy Site (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

• IDF Targets Gaza Sniper Cell Behind Recent Attacks - Yaakov Lappin
  The IDF identified a terrorist cell in Gaza which has been behind a series of sniping attacks on security forces close to the Gaza border fence over the past week, and opened fire on it. The cell, which was "preparing additional sniper attacks," was accurately struck, the army said. (Jerusalem Post)
      See also IDF Kills Field Commander in Iranian-Supported Shiite Military Unit in Gaza - Eliot Levy
  The Palestinian casualty killed by the IDF during clashes near al Bureij in Gaza Tuesday was identified by Gaza sources as a field commander in the military wing of Al-Sabarin, an Iranian-supported Shiite military organization. The man and a group of other individuals had used the protests as a cover to conduct sniper fire against Israeli forces. (Ynet News)
• Palestinians with Knives Attack Soldiers in Hebron, Wound One - Tovah Lazaroff
  Two Palestinian terrorists wielding knives attempted to stab IDF soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday night. One soldier was wounded. The other soldier shot both attackers dead. (Jerusalem Post)
• Palestinian Driver Rams Car into Two Israelis in Gush Etzion - Gili Cohen and Chaim Levinson
  A Palestinian man drove through Gush Etzion Junction on Tuesday and ran into two Israelis standing near a bus stop. The car then hit a concrete barrier and the Palestinian got out of his car with a knife in his hand. A soldier at the site shot and killed the assailant. (Ha'aretz)
• Israel Foreign Ministry Chief Attends OSCE Conference in Jordan - Herb Keinon
  Times of crisis "cannot be an excuse for not having dialogue," Israel Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold said on Tuesday at an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference in Jordan attended by representatives from 57 member states, plus six Mediterranean partners - Israel, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. The Israeli delegate was seated between the representatives of Egypt and Jordan. (Jerusalem Post)

• Must Both Sides Exercise Restraint? - Ben-Dror Yemini
  The young man approached a group of police officers, pulled out an axe and managed to hurt two of them before he was immediately shot in the head by other cops in the area. It didn't happen in east Jerusalem. It happened in October 2014 in the borough of Queens in New York. The terrorist was Zale Thompson, 32, an American who had converted to Islam.
      No one thought for a minute that the police officers hadn't done the right thing. No one said that "both sides are required to exercise restraint." But that's exactly what the American administration's spokespeople, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, have been saying in the past week.
      The use of a knife is not random. Slaughtering has become trendy. As far as the American administration is concerned, these are poor people acting out of distress. That is complete nonsense. Africa's poor don't turn to terror. It has nothing to do with poverty. It has to do with incitement and brainwashing. (Ynet News)
• With Attacks, Palestinians Proclaim to Israelis: We Don't Want to Live Alongside You - David Horovitz
  As was the case at the start of the 2000s, when Hamas and Fatah terrorists were training, arming and dispatching suicide bombers to target our buses, malls, and restaurants, we set out each day knowing that people around us want to kill us. For now, they are generally using less devastating methods than back then. But potentially, there are more of them. And they are right here among us. The brainwashing has been so effective that they come at us ready and willing to die in the act of killing a Jew.
      In bloody, unmistakable capital letters, the perpetrators of this new round of evil mayhem proclaim to Israelis: We don't want to live alongside you. We want to kill you and force you out of here. (Times of Israel)
• Cutthroats of the Holy Land - Clifford D. May
  Over recent weeks, Israelis have been confronting a new threat: Palestinians wielding butcher knives. Videos on social media teach would-be assassins how to use sharp instruments to inflict maximum damage on unsuspecting Israelis.
      How can there be progress toward peaceful coexistence if Palestinian leaders believe the very idea of Jews and Muslims praying side by side justifies the slaughter of innocent women and children? More broadly: If tolerance becomes a one-way street, is it still tolerance? Is there not a point at which it becomes more akin to submission? The writer is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. (Washington Times)

Deadly Lies about Israel - Ron Dermer (Politico)

• Israel stringently maintains the status quo on the Temple Mount. Last year some 3.5 million Muslims visited the Temple Mount alongside some 200,000 Christians and 12,000 Jews. Only Muslims are allowed to pray on the Mount, and non-Muslims may visit only at specified times, which have not changed. The ones trying to change the status quo are Palestinians, who are violently trying to prevent Jews and Christians from even visiting a site holy to all three faiths.
• Palestinians have been propagating the "al-Aqsa is in danger" myth since at least 1929, when the Palestinian icon, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, used it to inspire the massacre of Jews in Hebron and elsewhere. Nearly a century later, the mosque remains unharmed, but the lie persists.
• Using force to stop an attack by a gun, knife, meat cleaver or ax-wielding terrorist is legitimate self-defense. How would the American public expect its police to respond to terrorists stabbing passersby as well as police officers?
• The reason for Palestinian terrorism is neither progress nor stagnation in the peace process, but the desire of the terrorists to destroy Israel.
• President Abbas has not condemned a single one of the 30 terror attacks on Israelis over the past month. He and his Fatah movement continue to use the Web and the airwaves to incite the Palestinians to even more violence.
• The Palestinians have always been more concerned with destroying the Jewish state than with creating a state of their own. The core of the conflict remains the persistent refusal of the Palestinians to recognize the nation-state of the Jewish people in any borders.
  
  The writer is Israel's Ambassador to the United States.
  
      See also The "Al-Aqsa Is in Danger" Libel: The History of a Lie - Nadav Shragai (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)