A Much Needed History Seminar - by Jonathan Tobin

...The irony is that the only religious group that still suffers any discrimination in Jerusalem are the Jews, who are prevented by regulation from praying on the Temple Mount — the holiest site in Judaism — in order to avoid offending Muslims who view their presence near their mosques to be an insult to Islam.

AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
06 May '16..

Last month, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization passed a resolution condemning Israel that falsely claimed it was denying Muslims access to their holy places on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The bias of the measure was due in part to the utter disconnect between its charges and the truth since the only time in history when all faiths have had access to their holy places in Jerusalem has been the last 49 years when it was united under Israeli control. But the bias was also obvious from the language it used. It only referred to the Temple Mount — the site of the biblical holy temples of Jerusalem by the name used by Muslims: the al-Aksa Mosque/al-Haram al Sharif. Just as offensive was the reference to the Western Wall by its Arabic name, the al-Buraq plaza.

In other words, the United Nations was joining the Palestinians — who instigated the resolution — in not merely bashing Israel but in attempting to erase Jewish history. The Palestinians have always claimed that the Jews are foreigners in their ancient homeland and done their best to promote myths that deny that the Temple Mount is the site of the Temples. Of course, this is nonsense. They can call the Western Wall anything they like, but what do they think those ancient stones and all the archeological evidence in the area (or at least all the evidence that has not been destroyed by vandalism carried out by the Muslim Waqf that Israel allows to administer the Temple Mount) signifies? The irony is that the only religious group that still suffers any discrimination in Jerusalem are the Jews, who are prevented by regulation from praying on the Temple Mount — the holiest site in Judaism — in order to avoid offending Muslims who view their presence near their mosques to be an insult to Islam.

In response, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced today that he would be hosting a Jerusalem history seminar at his office for UN personnel in Israel. He’s also inviting diplomats stationed in the country, including those from the countries that voted for the offensive resolution, a list that includes supposedly civilized nations like France, Spain and Sweden as well as Russia and a number of Third World and Muslim nations (only the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia and the Netherlands voted no).

Of course, it’s just a public relations stunt. But it would not be amiss if the campaigns of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both committed to have any people they might hire to staff the State Department and the National Security Council to take such a course.

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