The Political Video Game Both Sides Can Play

Palestine fights back on YouTube in the fight for the 1300 year old al-Aqsa Mosque.

New video from Palestine counters Israel's aggressive political posturing geared toward takeover of a 1300+ year old Mosque in Old Jerusalem. Courtesy: In the article PNN

(SALEM) - It seems fairly clear that Israel is doing everything in its power to destroy the historic al-Aqsa Mosque in the old city of Jerusalem. A video war is at play; Israel is placing their children at the center of their plan to take one of Islam's most famous landmarks, dating back to the year 705 CE, and now the Palestinians in Gaza have fired back with their own video mirroring the one the Israelis made.

Critics say Israel wants to take control so they can tear down al-Aqsa Mosque, where the silver domed mosque sits, along with the Dome of the Rock, and build a replica of the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Jewish people believe it is the place where the Temple stood. Israel seems determined to actually destroy al-Aqsa; they are going so far, as to have archaeologists dangerously undermine the ancient building.

Our writer in Egypt, Dr. Ashraf Ezzat, wrote Israeli Video Insults New President of Egypt on 24 July 2012:

And as a matter of fact, this dangerously ambitious plan is what the Israeli governments have in mind as the non-stop digging underneath the mosque has been going/eroding the foundation of the mosque in the name of archeological excavations for almost four decades now.

The Israeli archeologists know they won’t find/stumble upon any Hebrew relic, but they hope that, thru their ruthless digging under the mosque, they would contribute to the Zionist cause of undermining the Arab/Muslim identity of the old city of Jerusalem. All part of an undergoing plan for the judaization of Palestine

There is a long history of Israel illegally taking possession of property that belongs to Palestinians. It has taken place steadily since Israel gained statehood in 1948. The United Nations condemns the behavior but Israel uses its illegal settlement building as political bargaining power, and the United States allows all of it to happen.

History of al-Aqsa Mosque

Originally a small prayer house, the al-Aqsa Mosque was built by the Rashidun caliph Umar, and an extensive expansion was carried out by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik. His son al-Walid finished the project in 705 CE. An earthquake in 746 completely wrecked the building, which was rebuilt by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur in 754. It received yet another rebuild in 780 by his successor, al-Mahdi.

The mosque was left in pieces after a second devastating earthquake struck in 1033, but it only took about two years for the Fatimid caliph Ali az-Zahir to build another mosque which is the same one standing today.

The building has received many updates and upgrades over the years, but then fell into the hands of the Crusaders who captured Jerusalem in 1099. They would use the mosque as a palace and church, but it again became a mosque after Jerusalem was recaptured by Saladin in 1187. Even though Israel occupies old Jerusalem, the mosque remains under the administration of the Palestinian-led Islamic waqf.

The article In Video: “Our Children Are Ready Too” by the Palestine News Network, explains:

On Wednesday 1st August, Israeli newspaper Maariv stated that Palestinians took revenge for the Egyptian president Mohammad Mursi, by making a video in response to the Israeli video which insulted Mursi.

The newspaper said in a report titled, "See the retaliatory Palestinian video from the Gaza Strip", that Palestinians from the Gaza Strip uploaded a video on YouTube responding to the Israeli video that promotes for the construction of the Jewish temple on the ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Maariv revealed that the Israeli video had almost caused a diplomatic crisis between Cairo and Tel Aviv, while the Palestinian film was uploaded by Palestinians and is not considered an official response to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. Therefore, they hold full responsibility for the uploading of this video and that the Egyptian Foreign Minister is not responsible for it.

The Israeli video shows two Israeli kids building the Jewish temple on the beach. They get the attention of their father who drops the newspaper that displays the picture of Mursi on the ground. That was considered an insult for Egypt' President Mursi.

The Palestinian video shows a similar scene of two Palestinian kids building al-Aqsa mosque and making a three-dimensional map of Palestine on the beach. They then call their father who is seen to be writing "No God but Allah" on a piece of paper and places it as a flag on the top of Al-Aqsa mosque.

At the end of the Israeli video is the provocative statement, "The Children are Ready". The Palestinian video responded by another provocative statement, "Our Children are Ready Too."

Here are the two videos, I find it interesting that Palestinians can produce such excellent media and art and that the occupation and all of the death and helplessness has only made them stronger in so many ways.

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Al Franken and Tim King in Afghanistan

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

He holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu, India.

The notorious list comprising Tim's ancestors includes Pedro de Alvarado, the lieutenant of Hernando Cortez of Spain; King Phillip IV, Eleanor of Aquitaine and William the Conqueror. Perhaps most interestingly, King John; the dark force in the story Robin Hood, and also the last Spanish governor of California, a real person fictionalized as the arch rival of the character in Zorro, are in reality both Tim's multiple-great grandfathers.

Tim at his family ranch in Chino, California.

Others include a Confederate officer in the U.S. Civil War and a decorated 'hero' of the Mexican-American War and the so-called 'Indian Wars'. In fact on the east coast, Tim's lineage with the Slaughter and King families, pre-dates the Mayflower and several members of his family were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. He says his family's past; some of which is very dark; some quite chivalrous, presents a certain responsibility, and that in part drives his desire to see that people in today's world are not exploited or allowed to suffer in silence as victims of Human Rights violations, as people of previous times were.

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