The forgotten fact that the Temple Mount is first and foremost a Jewish holy site - by Nadav Shragai

Rather than refreshing the public's memory of these fundamental facts, the discourse about the Temple Mount focuses on one question alone: to what extent Israel considers and honors the rights of the Muslims to it. The fact that the Temple Mount is first and foremost a Jewish holy site, and we backed away from it due to historical circumstances, has almost been forgotten. We need to start talking about it again, with sensitivity but also steadfastly.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
03 June '20..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/they-forgot-the-jewish-interest/..

If we're altering the history of the Temple Mount, and even the Saudis, in order to push out the Turks, might for the first time be given a foothold there at Jordan's expense – what about the Jewish interest?

In the past few days, ever since Daniel Siryoti reported on talks between the two biggest rivals for Islamic holy sites (Jordan and Saudi Arabia), the interests, status, and rights of the different Muslim players on the Temple Mount have been the subject of intense focus. On the other hand, almost no one is discussing what the Temple Mount is for us, the Jews, or our own interests, goals, and feelings regarding it. Sometimes it seems as if we are only concentrating on directing the movement of the Muslim actors there.

Maybe it's time to say – with all due caution and sensitivity – that Israel has been enslaved to the status quo on the Temple Mount for 53 years, that the status quo is largely a fiction, and that it has been changed drastically, mostly to the benefit of Muslims. Most importantly: that the Temple Mount is the holiest site to the Jewish people.

When it comes to the Temple Mount, Israel is mostly concerned with putting out fires and managing the conflict. It has never asked itself what the mount means to the Jewish state and what its goals there are. For example, 50 years from now, will we be satisfied with a division that leaves the Western Wall to the Jews and the mount itself to the Muslims? Under a permanent agreement, will Israel maintain the ban against Jewish prayer on the mount? Everywhere on the mount? There might be different possible answers to these questions, but the discussion cannot be devoted solely to the rights of the Muslims, ignoring our own.

Temple Mount Vs. Joint Arab List's Chutzpah - by Nadav Shragai

Don't let the boundless appetite of the Joint Arab List to fix what it sees as a historic wrong fool you into allowing Israel to give up one of the few remaining rights Jews have on the Temple Mount.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
11 March '20..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/the-joint-arab-lists-chutzpah/

Here it is, earlier than expected. As the country celebrates Purim, the masks have come off: the Joint Arab List is demanding that when Blue and White forms a government, it put an end to Jews visiting the Temple Mount. Or as the Arab Israeli and Palestinian discourse has referred to these visits for years now: "Visit by settler extremists."

That is how they refer to Jews who wear kippahs, who comprise the vast majority of the Jews who visit the Temple Mount in recent years.

The Joint Arab List's appetite and audacity, it seems, knows no bounds. The list is counting its chickens before they're hatched and is seeking to prevent one of the last remaining things the status quo allows Jews to do on the Temple Mount – visit it. This is only the beginning, but what a symbolic beginning it is.

The fact that the Jewish people have risen up in the Land of Israel is like a bone in their throats, and the fact that 53 years ago, Israel liberated holy Jewish sites – first and foremost the Temple Mount - they see as a major accident of history, but one that can be rectified. This is the reason behind the many attempts in recent years to attack Jews who visit the Mount. This also explains the terminology that the Palestinians and some members of the Joint Arab List use: "To save/liberate and redeem the Temple Mount from the hands of the Jews who sully it by their very presence there."

Some of the Joint Arab List MKs talk about the "Israeli people," much like the Palestinians do. They don't recognize Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people. The idea of tolerating Judaism as a subservient minority religion has been replaced by the idea of "a state of all its citizens," and often this is only the first step of a much longer-term plan.

The idea of a "state of all its citizens" has a handful of blind followers on the far Left, but we need to hope that Blue and White will now open its eyes and see that the Temple Mount is only the first step and that the flag has been raised to erase the "mistake" of a state for the Jewish people.

Don't be confused: The state of Israel, the state of the Jewish people, made its biggest, most incomprehensible decision about the Temple Mount, a concession that is unlike anything any other religion in the world has done. It allowed its most holy site to be left in the hands of a competing religion, Islam, and forewent the rights of Jews to pray there, and only allowed them to visit the Mount.

The Waqf and Jordan continue chipping away at the Temple Mount status quo - by Nadav Shragai

Jerusalem got the message but it seems as if it's too late. The new waqf council and Hamas are spreading lies about Israel planning to build a synagogue at the Golden Gate. They are determined to annex the area to the Muslim prayer area of the Mount, which is constantly being expanded. The first battle, which took place on Friday, went to them. We can expect another round.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
24 February '19..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/chipping-away-at-the-status-quo

Palestinians in Jerusalem achieved the victory they had been longing for on Friday: Muslim worshippers crowding into the Golden Gate area of the Temple Mount, which has been under a closure order since 2003 because of Hamas activity there.

The police, who accepted the reality in order to avoid widespread, violent clashes, did carry out dozens of arrests, but unless something happens to reverse the narrative, the Palestinian gambit comprises another step in their years long campaign to chip away at the status quo on the Temple Mount, mostly for the benefit of the Palestinians and to the detriment of the Jews. Two new mosques have been built at Solomon's Stables and at the site of the ancient Al-Aqsa mosque; restrictions on when and where Jews are allowed to visit the Mount; and almost no enforcement of planning and construction and antiquities laws for years. Now they have focused on the Golden Gate.

The latest calculated move was initiated by the waqf council in its new, more radical makeup, which now includes Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, a former mufti of Jerusalem and now a Muslim Brotherhood member and an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement. Other than Sabri, the new expanded council includes a number of officials from the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority.


H/T Avi Abelow

Continuing the Temple Mount revolution - by Nadav Shragai

...The ban on Jews praying on the Temple Mount is milk spilled by Moshe Dayan after the Six-Day War – it's a crime against God, but it's unlikely to be rectified now. The sop of comfort that remains to Jews on the Temple Mount – free visits at their people's holiest site – is the bare minimum. Halevy and Erdan realized that the time was ripe and that they had to push for the historic change.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
31 January '19..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/continue-the-temple-mount-revolution/



The quiet revolution on the Temple Mount, one of the most volatile places in the Middle East, has been taking place far from the spotlights for a few years. It was brought about gradually, with wisdom and determination, and was good for the Jews. Within a few years, the number of Jewish visitors increased sevenfold, from about 5,000 per year to over 35,000 per year in 2018. That is very few compared to the millions of Muslims and hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit the Jewish people's holiest site each year, but it's a modest beginning to fixing the historic and religious wrong that kept Jews off the Mount. Previous governments, and especially Jerusalem police commanders, took care to perpetuate that wrong for almost 50 years.

The architect of the change in the police's attitude toward Jews visiting the Temple Mount was Jerusalem District Police Chief Yoram Halevy. The one who gave him political backing was Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan. Many of their predecessors saw Jews visiting the holy site as a nuisance and a danger, and curtailed those visits as much as possible. They stuck to their side of the status quo, which prevented Jews from praying on the Mount, and ignored the other part of it – that Jews were allowed to visit.

History called in Halevy and Erdan, both of whom received religious Zionist educations in Jerusalem, and had the courage to challenge the rigid thinking that saw any Jewish presence on the Temple Mount as a danger. Their predecessors saw any expansion of the rabbinical ruling that allow Jews to visit the Mount as a threat; Erdan and Halevy saw it as an opportunity. When Halevy said over a year ago that "the number of visitors to the Temple Mount is doubling," and even called on Jews to "come to the Temple Mount," he expressed a Zionist, sovereign worldview of a place where Zionism and Israeli sovereignty have been backtracking since the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Temple Mount Needs to be Secured Now - by David M. Weinberg

Had a 100-kilogram rampart stone fallen into the Mount where Moslems gather or pray – Israel would be excoriated, even though Wakf digging may be to blame.

David M. Weinberg..
A Citadel Defending Zion..
27 July '18..
Link: https://www.davidmweinberg.com/2018/07/26/secure-the-temple-mount-now/

The 100-kilogram stone that burst out of the Western Wall this week and came crashing down on a plaza two meters away from a Jewish woman in prayer has raised questions over stability of the entire Temple Mount edifice.

It’s possible, say scientists and archaeologists, that the stone was weakened from its moorings by water seeping through the soil fill behind the wall or by vegetation growing within the wall itself.

But it is also possible that the Jerusalem Wakf Islamic Religious Trust which runs the Mount caused the near-catastrophe. It continues to conduct illegal digging projects and unsupervised underground renovations on the Temple Mount.

“We need to find out what is happening on the other side” of the wall, said Prof. Eilat Mazar this week. While the use of tractors, trucks and heavy machinery is ostensibly forbidden there, “every time they use an industrial tool – even for drilling – it influences the walls,” she said.

Mazar, of the archaeology institutes at the Hebrew University and Shalem College, has published a monumental survey of every single stone that makes up the Western Wall and Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount), and she currently leads digs in the Ophel south of the Mount.

She feels that the massive Herodian-built Temple Mount superstructure is relatively stable overall, but that there are sections that need closer inspection and preservation. This is especially true of the southeastern corner of the wall, located in the Davidson’s Archaeological Park. Mazar has warned for several years that a big bulge is protruding from the stone wall in this section.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) plans a scan of the southern and eastern sections of the Temple Mount walls, but it has not been carried out – because everything related to the Temple Mount is diplomatically sensitive. Just getting agreement on who is responsible for inspecting and fixing stones is complicated.

And yet, the matter is urgent. Can you imagine what the Moslem and global reaction would have been if a 100-kilogram rampart stone had fallen into the Temple Mount and onto a plaza where Moslems gather or pray? Israel would be excoriated by the UN Security Council, unjustifiably of course, for “demolishing Moslem shrines” – and no consideration would be given to the fact that out-of-control Wakf excavations may be to blame.

Surprise? Jordan issued a formal diplomatic complaint against allowing Jews to exercise freedom of religion - by Elder of Ziyon

The irony of banning Jews under the pretext of respecting religion is apparently lost on the Muslim world and its Western supporters.

Elder of Ziyon..
22 July '18..

On Sunday, over 1000 Jews visited the site of the Holy Temples on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to commemorate the anniversary of their destruction.

9 of them were detained by police for the unpardonable crime of praying or bowing.

Here's Arab video of the Jews peacefully strolling on the Mount, as well as praying outside of it.

(Continue to Video and Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The human landscape on the Temple Mount is slowly changing, but changing - by Nadav Shragai

...It remains to be seen how the "pilot" MK visit this week turns out, but when it comes to "ordinary" Jews visiting the Temple Mount, we have long since passed the trial state. The human landscape on the Mount is slowly changing.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
01 September '17..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=45047

A lot of Palestinians were trying to turn the first visit to the Temple Mount by MKs in two years into another flashpoint. At least for now, it isn't working. Two days before the visit, the Committee for Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa in the Palestinian Legislative Council announced that Israel's decision to allow MKs "to enter Al-Aqsa will not be allowed to pass quietly and will lead to a blowup in the situation in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine."

The council, an official PA entity, urged Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to scupper plans of the "occupation." PA television channels also threw a match onto the Temple Mount embers in an attempt to reignite the flames that were mostly quenched due to concerted efforts in the wake of the shooting attack on the Temple Mount and the ensuing metal detector crisis.

A documentary film that ran on PA television revisited the old lie that the Jews were the ones who planned to set fire to Al-Aqsa mosque in 1969, and even held up attempts to put it out. The mosque was set on fire by Denis Michael Rohan, an Australian Christian, who was arrested, tried, found insane, and committed to a psychiatric hospital.

A day before the MKs' visit, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They also spoke about "the settler attack on Al-Aqsa." A branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades) broadcast threats that they would attack the Knesset members based on intelligence it had obtained. MK Ahmad Tibi (Joint Arab List) made it clear that the Arab MKs would visit the Mount "whenever they want."

But Tuesday's visit to the Temple Mount was quiet. The first to enter was MK Yehuda Glick (Likud), who was shot and wounded three years ago by a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad over his Temple Mount activity. Glick recovered and became an MK, but since May 2016, when he was sworn in, has been barred from the Temple Mount. A week and a half ago, Glick tried to enter the Temple Mount compound, but was kept away by the police. After speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Glick was persuaded that the Mount would soon be opened to MKs on a permanent basis. A year ago, the police informed Netanyahu that visits to the Mount by MKs presented no problem for their forces, but Netanyahu preferred to play it safe and repeatedly postponed making a decision on the issue.

My Jerusalem ritual - by Forest Rain

...I touch the wall and feel the weight of centuries. Of my people, And our longing. Being almost there isn’t enough.

Forest Rain..
Inspiration from Zion..
01 March '17..





I have a Jerusalem ritual.
Whenever we visit, before we leave, we go to visit the Kotel.
It doesn’t matter what time of day it is. The Kotel is always there, waiting.

The Kotel. A wall so important it needs no other name, besides: “The Wall.”

Cutting through the heart of Jerusalem, she stands.
Golden and patient.

She calls, beckoning silently:
“Come to me. You belong to me. I am your past, your present, your future.
I have remembered you for centuries. I am waiting for you now.”

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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(Must Read) The Transgressions of the Filthy-Footed by Michael Lumish

...The Jews had thriving communities throughout the Middle East, but the Arabs killed them and drove them out because Islamic law, al-Sharia, forbids non-Muslim self-determination on any bit of land that was ever a part of the Umma. Thus Jewish sovereignty on historically Jewish land is considered an abomination before Muhammad, the Koran, and the Lord God Almighty. The very fact of Israel's existence is considered a humiliation to these backward-looking Islamists. And this is why they bravely send Israeli-Arab children out to stab Jews with kitchen knives. They have not the strength of character to fight their own fights, so they send their own children out to be killed in their stead. It must be acknowledged, however, that it is the Euro-Liberal-West that enables this behavior.

Michael Lumish..
Israel Thrives..
15 November '15..
Cross-posted at the Elder of Ziyon..

Over at Israellycool, Deebo has some interesting statistics concerning Jewish visitation to the Temple Mount, illustrated by a couple of very nice pie charts. The statistics come from both the Jerusalem Post and the Jewish Press.

Here are the pie charts.

The green represents the percentage of Muslim visitation to the Temple Mount in 2013 and 2015.

The yellowish-orange represent Christian visitation.

And that thin blue line that is almost entirely invisible? That is the "slice" of Jewish visitation to the holiest site to the Jewish people.

Deebo explains:

As you can clearly see, in 2 years the blue slice in the pie has grown by a whopping 0.1% among the more than 4,000,000 Muslim visitors the site receives each year. The increased storming is a sure sign that Al Aqsa will fall to the Zionists. At this rate of 0.05% growth per year, the number of Jewish visitors are expected to surpass that of Muslim visitors by the year 3009, assuming the number of Muslim visitors remains equal for the next 994 years.

Yes. Yes. Al Aqsa will fall to the Zionists who will transgress upon its sanctity with their filthy feet.

The next time that I am in Israel I intend to really filthy my feet up before I go stomping around on Islam's alleged third holiest religious site. I am not exactly sure how to go about doing that, but I am sure that there is mud to be had.

The truth, of course, is that the Temple Mount is not the third holiest anything to anyone. It is, in fact, the holiest site to the Jewish people, which is precisely why Islam claims it as its own.

If the Jews did not revere it in the first place, you can be sure, neither would Islam.

Some Thoughts Concerning a Palestinian-Arab Worshiper and his Pile of Rocks

...What is truly disgraceful and disheartening, however, is Israel's complicity in the discrimination against all non-Muslims on the Temple Mount. It undermines everything that Israel allegedly stands for. If Israel is the national homeland of the Jewish people, how is it that we gave away our holiest site to people who vow to drive us from our own land?

Michael Lumish..
Israel Thrives..
16 September '15..

Nothing says "holy" so much as stock-piling primitive weaponry in the Al-Aqsa mosque to be used for violence against Jews.

The Temple Mount issue is of particular fun because it is particularly unjust. We are told that the holiest place within the Jewish tradition also happens to be the "third holiest site in Islam." I have not dug into this question as much as I will need to, but I wonder just when Al-Aqsa became the third holiest site within Islam?

The Temple Mount has been the holiest site for religious Jews for over three thousand years because it is the site of the First and Second Temples. It represents where the Jewish people come from. Just when - I wonder to myself aloud - did it become the third holiest site in Islam?

My guess, in historical terms, is a quarter past last Tuesday.

My suspicion, and I have yet to verify this, is that this notion of Al-Aqsa as "the third holiest" whatever is a recent invention designed specifically to challenge Jewish claims to Jewish heritage on Jewish land.

In the nineteenth century, prior to the rise of modern Zionism, the Temple Mount was desolate. Jerusalem, itself was desolate. The Arabs did not care about either until the Jews sought to save ourselves and our families through returning home to the Land of Israel after centuries of persecution by Europeans... not to mention Arabs.

By the Temple Mount, we sat and wept

I wanted to see what all the fuss was about at the holy site and was subjected to humiliations from start to finish, included being told I’m forbidden from crying.

Lahav Harkov..
Reporter's Notebook/JPost..
08 September '15..

I didn't intend to write about my trip to the Temple Mount on Tuesday morning. Having written about politicians visiting the site and arguing about it in the Knesset so many times, I felt that I was remiss in never having been there myself, and simply wanted to get a sense of what it’s like.

However, since I wasn’t there to cover news, I decided not to wield my press pass and to visit like any other Jew on a tour of our religion’s holiest site. I mentioned the idea to my parents, who had met Temple Mount Heritage Foundation chairman Yehuda Glick earlier this year. They called him, and he helped organize our tour with guide Eyal Sapir.

As I said, my plan was to get some background information, but I’ll be honest, I’m a religious Zionist, so I was also very excited to visit the Temple Mount from that aspect, though I knew that I couldn’t pray there.

The moment my group arrived at the security check at the bottom of the Mughrabi Bridge, it became clear to me that this was going to be a humiliating ride – although I didn’t know how degrading it would get. The strange thing is that both Sapir and the police said it was a relatively uneventful, quiet visit, leaving me to think: Really? The norm is for Israeli Jews to be treated like dangerous criminals just for wanting to walk around? In the State of Israel? I suppose I knew from what people like Glick and other activists have said, but to experience it was jarring, and that was what changed my mind about writing about my visit.

From the start, the sense was that the police work for the Isalmic Wakf, which manages the site, and not for the citizens of Israel. They treated us with disdain, and catered to and tried to anticipate every inane complaint by Wakf staff.

“Don’t make this a hard day for me,” the police officer sneered at us. “No praying.

No bowing. No lying on the ground. No singing. No dancing.”

At the top of the Mughrabi bridge, a police officer looked me up and down and murmured something about my clothes. I’m religious. I know how to dress at a holy site. I wore a head-covering, a longer skirt than usual, and a shawl covering my elbows.

“Your skirt,” the police officer said.

“It completely covers my knees,” I responded, invoking the rules of every religious school I attended.

I was frustrated. I’m not used to being treated like I’m guilty for existing. I took to the one outlet I had to express my outrage, twitter: “On the way to the Temple Mount, not sure who’s treating me with more suspicion and disdain – the police or the Arabs.”

The Temple Mount is the heart, but we have lost our head

...Nowadays, even the secular Israelis are not spared. The Muslims have learned to distinguish the Israelis from the tourists and recently barred Jews from drinking at the water fountain on the northern side or the mount. And the press? Near complete silence. These hate crimes are of no interest to journalists. The Temple Mount is the heart, but we have lost our head. Tisha B'Av 5775. The Temple Mount is not in our hands, it is in theirs. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan -- are you in power or is this a dream?

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
23 July '15..

The Temple Mount. The month of Av 5775. Exactly 1,945 years since the destruction of the Second Temple. The images are difficult to see, almost inconceivable. Reminiscent more of Tehran or Gaza than Israel in 2015. The following is a textual interpretation of what the camera lens has been recording for months. All rights reserved to the Muslim websites that have been proudly documenting the scene. These are images that you will not find in the Israeli media.

The facade of the Dome of the Rock: A huge Hamas billboard features a masked fighter, a (fake) rendition of the dog tags belonging to fallen Israeli soldiers Shaul Oron and Hadar Goldin (whose body parts have been held by Hamas for over a year), and a drawing of a clenched fist detaching itself from handcuffs.

True sights from mosque courtyards: Women carrying photos of terrorists in their hands; children holding toy guns and rifles in menacing poses; youngsters waving Hamas and PLO flags; a masked man climbing to the top of Al-Aqsa mosque and planting a Palestinian flag atop it; a group of young people, whose shirts feature an image of Egypt's deposed Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi, waving Muslim Brotherhood flags; masked women standing at the entrance of the Dome of the Rock.

Also: Calls of "Khaibar Khaibar ya Yahud, jaysh Muhammad sawfa ya'ud," which means "remember Khaibar, Jews. Muhammad will return" -- an implicit call to murder Jews. Islamic State is also in the picture: A group photo featuring smiling faces and thumbs up signs supporting the organization that likes to decapitate. And no essay would be complete without the new-old libel suggesting that Jews make matzah out of children's blood.

There are also giant portraits of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas and calls of "ya Qassam, ya ayouni, blow up Tel Aviv and Kiryat Shmona."

Meanwhile, the mount is generally closed to Jews. On the odd occasion that Jews are permitted entry, the wait in line in interminable, and only small groups are allowed in, accompanied by heavy security and facing a barrage of insults and curses from bands of paid assaulters. The Jews are not permitted to respond. They cannot react. They are prohibited from moving their lips in prayer, even if they make no sound. They are not permitted to close their eyes, lest the Muslims interpret this as prayer. They are not even allowed to say "Allahu akbar" the way the Muslims do. They are not allowed to bring apples onto the mount lest they bless the fruit.

And I ‎will keep ‎returning, until the dream becomes reality

...Yes, there ‎were the expected criers, yelling Allahu akbar as ‎we passed. There were ‎strangers and neighbors, friends and foes, but none of it mattered because ‎I ‎had arrived and I stood in the sun wondering why I had not always been ‎there.‎ I asked my guide why he kept coming and he told me it was to keep ‎the dream alive. I knew ‎what he meant, immediately, and as we walked up ‎the steps I also knew what had broken my ‎heart in that session many weeks ‎earlier. ‎

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein..
Israel Hayom..
11 February '15..


I have a dream

‎"And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house ‎shall be ‎established at the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the ‎hills; and all of the nations ‎shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, ‎Come. And let us go up to the mountain of ‎the Lord, to the house of the God of ‎Jacob. And he will teach us of his ways, and we shall walk in ‎his paths: for out of ‎Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah ‎‎2:3‎).‎

Something shifted in me this past October, after learning about the ‎assassination attempt on ‎Rabbi Yehuda Glick. The Temple Mount had represented ‎an ache in my heart, but stayed there, ‎as elusive as a dream. Every time I ‎visited the Western Wall, I felt sadness and loss, knowing that ‎I was so close, yet ‎so far away, but somehow I had accepted the status quo and settled for ‎this ‎state of silent complacency. ‎

Then someone drove up on a motorcycle and tried cutting down a man who ‎had kept the dream ‎alive for all of us, and I knew in my heart that this could ‎not stand. ‎

A few months later, I went to the Limmud conference in England to give lectures ‎and to learn. ‎Between planning my own sessions and giving them, I went to ‎listen to a British Orthodox rabbi ‎talk about Jewish prayer on the Temple ‎Mount. I knew beforehand it was a liberal crowd, and ‎perhaps I should have ‎stayed away. I didn't, however, and 45 minutes later I found my ‎stomach ‎turning. ‎

In the middle of the lecture, the rabbi showed a short clip of Glick ‎speaking about our right to ‎pray on the Temple Mount, and why the ‎withholding of those rights should have consequences. ‎The audience ‎murmured, and as the video faded to black, the rabbi asked them, ‎‎"What is it he is ‎really saying?"‎

In my opinion, Glick is to the Jewish world what Martin Luther King ‎Jr. was to the U.S. civil ‎rights movement. Glick is putting the Temple Mount in ‎the context where it belongs: as a human ‎rights issue, making the injustice ‎of it all so blatantly clear. Much like Dr. King in his day, Glick is ‎being ‎criticized for challenging what is now the status quo and putting the issue on ‎the top of the ‎agenda, and this critique comes from the police, politicians and ‎religious leaders alike. ‎

But as I sat there, what I heard was a predominantly Jewish audience ‎call Glick a troublemaker, ‎an inciter, guilty of causing a third intifada. I felt ‎like I was losing my footing. I was heartbroken, ‎but I couldn't really pinpoint why. ‎

When a police chief simply misunderstands his role and is in over his head

...But it would appear that our police chief simply misunderstands his role and is in over his head. So let's spell it out for him as simply as possible: as a public servant, Mr. Danino, you are supposed to be serving the public, not the other way around.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
01 December '14..

Amid the political drama regarding the fate of the governing coalition, a spectacle no less crucial to the future of the Jewish state has gone largely overlooked.

In a series of public statements over the course of four consecutive days, Police Chief Yohanan Danino brazenly overstepped his position and authority, launching unprecedented verbal attacks on the attorney general, the Israeli Right and members of the Knesset.

Under heavy criticism in recent weeks for his failure to curb Palestinian violence on the Temple Mount and in eastern Jerusalem, Danino did what any bungling bureaucrat would do: he tried to pin the blame on everyone else but himself.

Speaking at a conference in Sderot, Israel's top cop denounced visits to the Mount by right-wing parliamentarians, suggesting that they had prompted Palestinian rioting. Furthermore, he asserted that anyone seeking to change Israeli policy at Judaism's holiest site should not be allowed to set foot there.

"Anyone who wants to change the status quo on the Temple Mount – it should be forbidden for him to go up there," Danino said, adding that, "I banned [Likud MK Moshe] Feiglin from ascending the Mount until I had no backing from the attorney general. This is a mistake, to allow someone who is a symbol of the movement to change the status quo [to ascend the Mount]."

In effect, our esteemed chief of police has just declared that those who support government policy on the Temple Mount may visit the site, while opponents should be barred from doing so. In other words, the exercise of one's fundamental rights and freedoms, at least in Danino's mind, should be directly linked to one's political views, and woe unto him who wishes to alter government policy.

This is an absolute outrage and it demonstrates that Danino doesn't understand the first thing about how a democracy functions. A person's inalienable rights, such as freedom of speech and worship, do not belong to Danino, the police or even the state. They are natural, God-given rights, and the state's role is to protect and uphold them. A Knesset member or ordinary citizen has the right to visit the Temple Mount regardless of his personal views vis-à-vis government policy. This is so obvious and self-evident that it should not need to be pointed out, particularly to the man who serves as Israel's chief law enforcement officer.

Not surprisingly, Danino's outrageous comments led MK Yuli Edelstein, the speaker of the Knesset, to send a letter to Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch in which he rightly noted that "these statements are grave and inappropriate coming from a police commissioner about elected public officials. It is unacceptable that a public servant – as senior as the position may be – would question the freedom of movement of Knesset members."

Once More, The Temple Mount is the Heart of the Matter

Make no mistake. This is the Palestinian strategic plan. The biggest mistake we can make is to ignore, to diminish it or deny it. What we need now is clear eyed leadership that understands that the Temple Mount has become the crucible in which the future of Jerusalem and Israel will be shaped. We must not shirk our history and we cannot endanger our future. We must rise to the challenge.

Matan Peleg/Douglas Altabef..
israelnationalnews.com..
24 November '14..




In Jewish tradition, the Temple Mount, Har Habayit, is uniquely holy, special and significant.

Not only the site of the site of the First and Second Temples, the Mount, Mount Moriah, is considered to be the site of where Abraham sacrificed Isaac, Jacob dreamed of the ladder ascending to heaven, and in some interpretations, the site of Gan Eden itself.

And while our political leaders are eager to mute its significance, our adversaries have correctly perceived its importance. In true supersecessionist fashion, they have raised the Temple Mount as an existential issue in the form of mythical threats to the Al Aqsa mosque.

Al Aqsa occupies a corner of the Mount, part of the Herodian extension of the plateau, not considered to be of any significant stature by Jews, and frankly, a place of zero interest to us.

However, employing the classic meme of bogeyman-like threats to it, anti-Israel forces from within and from without Israel, have found in Al Aqsa, the all-encompassing grievance and the great rallying cry for attacking Israel and any Jew that happens to be in it.

Once again the Arabs have hauled out the Big Lie, the threats to Al Aqsa, and the accusations of Judaizing the Temple Mount, which in turn reflect the Great Projection: their own deep-seated desire to throw us off the Mount,

Throwing Jews off the Mount by screaming about what we are supposedly doing to them (which of course is what they clearly want to do to us) is part of the crucial battle for the control of Jerusalem, and by extension all of Israel.

Our enemies rightfully appreciate that if we surrender on that which is most important to us, we will eventually surrender on everything else.

This is no mere turf war disagreement, nor a dispute about a modus vivendus for shared sacred space. Rather, the Temple Mount is for our adversaries the symbol of religious sovereignty, and by extension political sovereignty.

Never ones to use nuance or subtlety or even to be dissuaded by the facts, our adversaries have been admirably “on message:” Jews are trying to destroy Al Aqsa, Jews are trying to rid us of their connection to the Mount, Jews are trying to Judaize Jerusalem starting right here on the Temple Mount.

The hope and the expectation is that the world will rally to their cause, and that their insistence, backed by horrific violence, will intimidate Israelis into placating them by ceding Jewish rights and the time immemorial Jewish connection to the Mount.

The Temple Mount isn't the problem. It's the solution

...Only if we make it clear to ourselves and the rest of the world that this is the holiest place to the Jewish people and we will not give it up from fear of Arab terrorism do we have a chance to win. You don't contain terrorism -- you fight it until it is defeated. Our giving up the Temple Mount is the strongest incentive for the Islamic terrorism working against us. The Temple Mount isn't the problem. It's the solution.

Dr. Aryeh Eldad..
Israel Hayom..
02 November '14..

A day after an attempt was made on the life of activist Yehuda Glick, I was sitting in the Jerusalem District Court. A few months earlier, on a date set long ahead of time, I had submitted a petition under the Freedom of Information Law in the name of Professors for a Strong Israel.

Jerusalem, as we know, has multiple authorities, not only judges. A number of them are responsible for issues related to the Temple Mount. The municipality must concern itself with building permits and ensuring that the planning and construction laws are enforced; the Israel Antiquities Authority is supposed to oversee what many, including the High Court of Justice, have defined as "the most important antiquities site in Israel"; and the police are supposed to enforced public order and public security.

Between 1995 and 2001, the Temple Mount -- under the tightly closed eyes of the authorities -- was the site of one of the worst instances of antiquities vandalism in the country. The Muslim Wakf took over the huge underground spaces (4 dunams, or 43,000 square feet) known as King Solomon's Stables, and turned them into the biggest mosque in Israel. They employed enormous bulldozers to dig on the Temple Mount, and were careful to eradicate any trace of Jewish history. They cleared out hundreds of trucks' worth of debris from the holiest place to the Jewish people, including many archaeological finds that were thrown on the trash heap.

When the extent of the destruction was discovered by citizens whose eyes -- unlike those of the authorities -- were open, the State Comptroller's Committee charged the comptroller with investigating and reporting on the matter. When the report was submitted, government representatives sought to have it classified because its publication could damage foreign relations (U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry could discover that Israel had given up sovereignty over the Temple Mount) and expose the police's approach of sitting with their hands folded or running away when a police station on the mount was set on fire.

(Video) Celebrating Jerusalem Day on the Temple Mount

The Temple Institute..
28 May '14..

Today, the 28th day of the month of Iyar, (May 28), 100s of Jews, (and 100s of tourists), ascended the Temple Mount to celebrate the 47th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem and the liberation of the Temple Mount, on June 7th, 1967.



The Muslim Waqf did their best to dampen our joy and chase the Jews from the Mount, and although the police did close the Mount to non-Muslims mid-morning, it was only after 100s of Jews ascended.

The children of Israel have rediscovered the Temple Mount, the place of the Holy Temple. Each day, each week brings 100s and 1000s of more Jews to the Temple Mount. Jerusalem is the Holy Temple, and the Holy Temple is Jerusalem. With joy and determination, and with G-d's help, we will rebuild the Holy Temple.

Happy Jerusalem Day!

Visit us: http://www.templeinstitute.org

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DDN8Lw5u4A

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They certainly can do so at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as well.

Jews and Muslims both pray at the Tomb of Samuel the Prophet outside Jerusalem, and at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. There is no reason why they cannot do so at the Temple Mount.

Michael Freund..
Fundamentally Freund/JPost..
19 May '14..

After several exasperating decades, one of the thorniest and most painful issues on Israel’s public agenda may at last be heading toward a resolution. In a move underlining the national consensus regarding the Temple Mount, Likud MK Miri Regev and Labor MK Hilik Bar have reached across the aisle to prepare a joint bill that would allow Jews to pray at the nation’s holiest site.

The proposed law, which is slated to be submitted soon to the Knesset for approval, would right one of the most glaring wrongs on Israel’s human rights record. It would end discrimination against Jews who wish to commune with their Creator on the Mount without fear of arrest.

Don’t believe the media’s attempts to paint this bill as “controversial.” The only thing controversial about it is that there is a need for such a bill in the first place. Incredibly, despite Supreme Court rulings upholding the right of Jews to freedom of worship on the Temple Mount, the police have never – not once! – allowed this right to be exercised.

Instead, Jews who visit the Mount are subjected to humiliating restrictions designed to ensure that they do not pray. These include prohibitions on silently moving one’s lips, lest one clandestinely try to beseech God, or even bringing a Bible or prayer book to the site.

In recent months, several US congressmen visiting Israel under the auspices of the Yes to a Strong Israel! organization headed by the indefatigable Ruthie Lieberman have witnessed this discrimination firsthand.

Indeed, just last week, Rep. Andrew Harris (R-Maryland) and Ron DeSantis (R-Florida), toured the site accompanied by the Temple Institute’s Rabbi Chaim Richman. Speaking afterwards to reporters, Harris said, “I’m actually surprised that access is so limited and especially [by] the discrimination against Jews above any other religion in visits to the Temple Mount. It surprises me as an American, believing in religious freedom, that such conditions would exist.”

And yet they do, despite Israel’s ostensible commitment to freedom of worship.

In a scandalous act of submissiveness, the government has allowed the extremist Muslim Wakf to call the shots on the Temple Mount, where it thumbs its nose at Israel and its laws and denies Jews their basic rights.

But hopefully, that is about to change.

Seriously, It's Time to Build a 'Young Israel of the Temple Mount'

...Simply put: erecting a synagogue on the Temple Mount will not heighten Arab-Jewish conflict, it will lessen it. The best way to reduce friction on the Mount between the two communities is to accommodate both sides, rather than just shortchanging the Jews. Failure to do so will only continue to exacerbate tensions. The Temple Mount is the holiest site for the Jewish people, the place toward which we directed our dreams and prayers of return over the past two millennia. And now, ironically, it is precisely there that Jews are treated as pariahs. This historical absurdity and moral obscenity must once and for all finally come to an end.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
01 April '14..

At first glance it would appear to be a recipe for disaster, a proposal so brash it could ignite a conflagration between Arab and Jew. But the idea to build a synagogue on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which was recently put forward by an impressive array of rabbis, professors and other public figures in a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, might just contain within it the seeds of co-existence and should not be dismissed out of hand.

In their missive, the signatories wrote, "The Temple Mount is a unique place for prayer. We ask you, as prime minister, to do what is necessary to establish a place of prayer for Jews on the Temple Mount in a respectable and peaceful manner that will honor the holy place we all long for."

Interestingly, the signatories include prominent rabbis from across the Religious Zionist spectrum, such as Efrat Chief Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba and former Haifa chief rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen.

What prompted the letter is the ongoing situation on the Temple Mount, which is simply intolerable and cannot continue. Jews are denied the right to pray there and their visits are severely restricted. Jewish visitors are often shadowed by members of the Muslim Wakf, who despite claiming to venerate the site nonetheless hurl curses, insults and occasional stones at them.

And the Israel Police bar Jews from bringing Bibles or prayer books onto the Mount, and have been known to instruct them not to move their lips, because it could be construed as an act of silent prayer.

This ongoing violation of basic rights, such as freedom of worship and free speech, goes against the very core of Israel's ethos of tolerance. Indeed, the government's restrictions on Jews on the Temple Mount are un-Jewish, anti-democratic and blatantly discriminatory, and it is time to put an end to them. The current situation only inflames passions on both sides, fostering still more Arab anger and Jewish bitterness.

A simple way to defuse the tension and to prevent confrontations would be to build a synagogue, the equivalent of a "Young Israel of the Temple Mount," where Jews could pray freely and undisturbed.

Put aside for a moment all your preconceived notions about the subject and consider the following: for over four centuries after Caliph Omar conquered the land of Israel in 633-4 CE, a synagogue and Jewish house of study operated on the Temple Mount and Jews prayed there unmolested.

The only flag the police make sure is never seen there is Israel's flag

...It has been 47 years since Moshe Dayan handed over the keys to the Temple Mount to the Jerusalem waqf (Islamic trust) and ever since then we have been forced to stomach straw and gravel, incitement and violence, exclusion and damage to antiquities.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
26 February '14..

For years now, the Temple Mount has not been in our hands and Israeli sovereignty in the area has been de facto conditional. The past three generations have seen Jews allowed to visit the compound, but only as long as they do not look like Jews, pray like Jews and, at times, as long as they do not mention to anyone that they had been there.

It has been 47 years since Moshe Dayan handed over the keys to the Temple Mount to the Jerusalem waqf (Islamic trust) and ever since then we have been forced to stomach straw and gravel, incitement and violence, exclusion and damage to antiquities. Hamas and Palestinian Authority flags are flown over the area more often than not and it seems that the only flag the police make sure is never seen there as is Israel's flag, and most recently -- Jewish worshipers.

On Tuesday, just like two weeks ago, and two months ago, and a year ago, the compound was closed to Jewish visitors over the Muslim worshipers' riots and threats of violence. The meager allowances made to the Jewish worshipers to visit the holy site in set hours and in very small groups, are being eroded.

The status quo on the Temple Mount, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to maintain, is fluid and the current allowances are constantly gnawed at to the detriment of the Jewish side. It is one thing if we were to stick to and uphold the official status quo, but as things stand, the Muslims are gaining increased control over the Temple Mount. When it comes to the Muslim worshipers the status quo is as pliable as play dough, but when it comes to the Jews it is as hard as a rock.