By BI: There now is a lot of skepticism about a story that blamed Jews for arson attack on Christian Church on sea of Galilee. The arson attack sent shock waves through the Christian world and led to widespread condemnation by Israeli officials, Western politicians, and religious leaders.
Western Journalism Israeli police immediately suspected arson due to the fact that the fire started simultaneously in different areas and because graffiti in Hebrew was found on a wall outside the church stating, “Idol worshippers will be eliminated.” (Muslims are the ones who repeatedly accuse Jews and Christians of being “idol worshippers”)
Graffiti in the church speaking of banishing “false gods”
Israeli media started to speculate the arson attack was the work of Jews staging a so-called “price tag attack.” Such attacks sometimes occur in the West Bank when Jews living in the Israeli settlements take revenge for terror attacks by Arabs or for the demolition of homes in illegal outposts by Israeli security forces.
A couple of hours after the arson attack on the church, police arrested a group of 16 yeshiva students who were visiting the area “a few miles away,” The Jerusalem Post reported.
The yeshiva students, however, were praying on the site of the prophet Habakkuk’s tomb, which is more than a few miles away. Habakkuk’s tomb lies on the road to the Golani Junction 10 miles east of Tiberias, 20 miles away from Tabgha. The students were released without charges.
The graffiti on the wall suggests something other than an attack by Jews, despite the fact that the text was written in Hebrew. Christians all over the Middle East are persecuted and slaughtered by Muslims because they are seen as “idol worshippers.” Furthermore, the attack took place on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, when traditionally there is a spike in terror attacks against non-Muslim targets in the Middle East.
But there’s more. Tabgha is less than 10 miles away from the Arab village of Tuba-Zangariyye. In October 2011, unknown assailants staged an arson attack on a mosque in Tuba-Zangariyye. Then, just as now, police and media immediately suspected Jews were behind the attack after graffiti in Hebrew stating that the arson was a price tag attack was found on a wall of the mosque.
An Israeli blogger later discovered that the graffiti was written on the wall with charcoal after the fire had blackened the wall. The words were not written with spray paint, as is usual with this sort of vandalism – but with charred wood from the fire itself. How the arsonists could have forgotten a can of spray paint. Not only that, but the diagonal pattern of the graffiti indicates that it was written after the fire had already blackened the wall.
A couple of months after the attack on the mosque, shots were fired on the home of Tuba-Zangariyye resident Bassem Souad. The shooting at Souad’s home occurred after he told TV Channel 2 in Israel the arson on the mosque in Tuba was the result of a quarrel between residents of the village, and not an attack by nationalistic Jewish elements, Haaretz reported at the time.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has ordered a swift investigation into what he described as an “outrageous arson attack.” “Freedom of worship in Israel is one of our core values and is guaranteed in the law. We will bring to justice those responsible for this crime. Hate and intolerance have no place in our society,” Netanyahu said.