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 The idea of tolerating Judaism as a subservient minority religion has been replaced by the idea of "a state of all its citizens," and often this is only the first step of a much longer-term plan.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.

If these photos enrage you, you just may be an antisemite - by Elder of Ziyon

The Arab articles about "storming settlers" invariably mention that they are protected by a group of armed Israeli police. Now, why is that?

Elder of Ziyon..
20 September '19..

Ma'an, the independent Palestinian news agency, published an article saying that "448 settlers stormed the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Mosque" in the past week.

In English, this means that 448 Jews visited the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. This week there were more Jewish visitors than usual because election day is a holiday in Israel.

Ma'an goes on: "Hundreds of settlers, accompanied by Jewish rabbis, stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa and performed Talmudic rituals, with security protection from the occupation forces."

In case that doesn't anger the Arab audience of the article enough, they published a photo of these storming settlers.

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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 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.

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.

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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.

Guess whose Declaration of Independence allows Jews to pray on the Temple Mount? by Elder of Ziyon

...However, in their 2003 Basic Law, perhaps realizing that this was a potential problem for them, they added a caveat:

Elder of Ziyon..
15 November '16..

Today (Nov. 15) , as we mentioned, Palestinian Arabs are celebrating their version of Independence Day, as it is the anniversary of when they issued a "Declaration of Independence" - in Algiers.

The official translation of the document includes references to freedom of religion, and the accompanying political communique that explains the document includes this:

With a view to putting this affirmation into practice, the Palestine National Council insists on the following:
....
(f) Assurance of freedom of worship and the practice of religious rites at the holy places in Palestine for adherents of all religions

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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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A few words concerning the real Temple Mount extremists

...It is so obvious that it shouldn't need to be said, but when Palestinian Arabs seek to prevent Israeli Jews from visiting the Temple Mount or exercising their basic right to pray, it is the responsibility of the decision-makers to come to the defense of the latter rather than yield to the former. So let's stop bad-mouthing those Jews who want to visit or pray where our forefathers once stood. Dreaming of Jewish destiny is not extremism. But denying and disparaging it most certainly is.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
28 October '15..

Amid the Palestinian terrorist campaign in recent weeks, the Temple Mount has taken center stage, prompting a loud and growing chorus of extremists to try to exploit the situation for political gain. Hurling abuse at their opponents, and blaming them for Israel's woes, these radicals are putting forward a vision that, if implemented, would bring tragedy upon us all.

It is therefore time for Israeli society to take a stand and decisively declare: we will not cast our lot with those who seek to deny or sever the Jewish connection with our holiest place. After all, the real Temple Mount extremists are not those who long to visit the site or pray there, but those who denigrate and try to silence them.

Whatever one might think about the political fate of Jerusalem, it is simply impossible to deny the central role that the dream of a rebuilt Temple plays in Jewish belief. Like it or not, the longing for a restoration of the Temple is no less central to our faith than the desire for peace or social justice.

Ever since that dark day more than 19 centuries ago when the Roman legions set the Second Temple ablaze, the Jewish people have nourished the hope of returning to the Mount.

Indeed, since Talmudic times, Jews have concluded the Amida prayer, recited thrice daily, with the following plea: "May it be Your will, O Lord our God and the God of our forefathers, that the Holy Temple be rebuilt, speedily in our days."

Does that mean that our ancestors were "extremists" for the past 1,500 years without even knowing it? And just last month, in the Mussaf prayer recited on Succot, we implored God to "be compassionate to us and to Your Temple with great mercy, and rebuild it soon and magnify its glory."

Anyone who paints Jews who wish to visit the Temple Mount, or who dare to dream of a restored Temple, as wild-eyed wackos is engaging in a frontal assault on Jewish practice and belief. Enough with such derision and childish name-calling! Take, for example, the reaction to remarks made by deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely, who told the Knesset Channel on Monday that her "dream is to see the Israeli flag flying over the Temple Mount. This is the holiest place for the Jewish people." While she later clarified that this was her personal opinion and did not reflect official government policy, her proud and patriotic comments provoked an inexplicably harsh reaction.

In a fit of outrage, MK Yoel Hasson of the Zionist Union demanded that Hotovely be dismissed from her position immediately, asserting that, "With the stubbornness of a donkey, the messianic deputy minister continues to incite the entire Middle East."

Why should a Jew dreaming of raising an Israeli flag over our people's most sacred site warrant such verbal abuse? And from a member of Knesset, no less! What does Hasson think our ancestors meant when they recited "Next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem"? Does he think they were referring to the refurbished Waldorf Astoria hotel on Agron street? The Jewish people's emotional, religious and mystical bond with the Temple Mount is something that cuts across political boundaries. When left-wing foreign minister Tzipi Livni told The New York Times Sunday Magazine on July 8, 2007, that, "My existence here comes out of the connection between me and Temple Mount. This is the umbilical cord. It comes from Jerusalem," she wasn't unwittingly joining the so-called fringe.

New York Times Covers Palestinian Harassment of Jews, Blames Jews for Tensions

...the story leaves room for hope that The New York Times might move away from habit of subjecting Israel to severe scrutiny while shielding the Palestinian Authority and its subjects from the same. It provides an encouraging example of a rectification made to slanted language. But it also shows that old, bad habits are not so easy to break.

Gilead Ini..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
17 April '15..

There are pluses and minuses to today's New York Times article, "Muslim Women Join Feud Over a Holy Site" by Diaa Hadid, about Palestinian harassment of Jews visiting the Temple Mount. Let's start with the pluses, since we don't often have the occasion to use that word when discussing Times coverage of Israel.

The first plus is that the story was covered at all by a newspaper that tends to shy away from exploring the uglier sides of Palestinian society and reserve hard-hitting reporting for Israel.



It is certainly newsworthy that visibly Jewish groups are met by shrieking, shouting, chanting and hostile gestures, which all are aimed at making the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, a Jew-free zone. And it is refreshing that the newspaper, which CAMERA has frequently criticized for ignoring or downplaying Palestinian incitement and hate speech aimed at Jews, is letting readers know about important, if uncomfortable, activities at an epicenter of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The second plus is that a problematic passage in the piece was amended after CAMERA brought the issue to the attention of the newspaper.

The piece as originally published downplayed the importance of the Temple Mount to Jews relative to its importance to Muslims, which is, if nothing else, unhelpful to readers seeking to understand tensions on the Mount. Although an early paragraph did note in passing that the area "is held sacred by both" Jews and Muslims, a more focused follow-up later in the piece stated only that the compound is "revered by Muslims," while failing to note that it is revered by Jews:

The 37-acre compound in Jerusalem's walled Old City is revered by Muslims, who believe that the Prophet Muhammad's mystical journey took him from Mecca to Al Aqsa, and from there to the heavens. And it is for Jews the site of the First and Second Temples.

It is inexplicable that Muslim "reverence" would be juxtaposed with no-such Jewish feelings. To the newspaper's credit, it modified the language before the piece went to print, so that the more balanced final version stated:

The 37-acre compound in Jerusalem's walled Old City is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest place in Islam. Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad's mystical journey took him from Mecca to Al Aqsa, and from there to the heavens. And it is for Jews the site of the First and Second Temples.

Unfortunately, although the newspaper took these positive steps related to its reluctance to cover Palestinian misbehavior and to the slanted language it tends to use when reporting on Israelis and Palestinians, the article also made clear there's still ground to cover in both regards.

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. ‎

Ferguson, Palestinian Segregation and Apartheid

...If you are caught up with the meme of Ferguson = Palestine, you’ll regret it. It will only result in Americans resenting the Intifada methods imported now into the United States and you’ll be supporting an oppressive regime not only against Jews but its own populace: women, children, journalists, bloggers and Christians who suffer a loss of human rights and civill liberties.

Yisrael Medad..
Times of Israel..
19 January '15..





Watch this video.



That was an act of Palestinian segregation. Jews can’t use Islamic water at Islamic fountains.

Jews cannot share nor can they even be present as identifiably Jewish at the Temple Mount.

They will be accosted by Muslim men and women who are paid to ‘study’ there and whenever a Jew appears who seems to be not a tourist but one who seeks to pay quiet respect to the site of his/her former Temples (Israel forbids prayer in any form or even the reading from Bibles or other religious texts), they will obstruct, scream, push and shove and otherwise seek to creat a confrontation and provoke a Jewish response, even if in self-defense, so as to get that Jew removed and better, to have the police charge him with a crime and best, have him or her banned for a period from the site. A full riot would be a real achievement. In fact, all non-Muslims suffer the same discrimination.

Meanwhile, Israel allows Gaza Muslims to pray there on Fridays and all they do is wave banners and flags, rally on behalf of Hamas, burn a French flag recently, or otherwise raise mayhem and incitement.

Jews cannot ride the roads of the Palestinian Authority.

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."

Misunderstanding Democracy and the Police Commandant

Excellent question. Will he resign or be forced to do so?

Police Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino

Yisrael Medad..
My Right Word..
25 November '14..




The 'wisdom' of a police officer, the most senior in the force:

It's a mistake to allow right-wing MKs on Temple Mount, Police Chief Danino says

“Anyone who wants to change the status quo on the Temple Mount should not be allowed up there,” Police Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino said Tuesday, criticizing Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein for enabling right-wing politicians to incite Arab unrest by visiting the disputed holy site.

...Citing an “extreme right-wing agenda to change the status quo on the Temple Mount,” Danino made his position clear: “We say leave the Temple Mount alone.”

The police chief, whose force has been beleaguered by months of rioting and terrorist attacks, added that declarations by politicians, such as Moshe Feiglin, to change current policy does little more than incite the “Muslim world.”

First, he clashes with another government official.

Second, he misunderstands democracy.

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.

(+Video) Washington Post sees Jewish threat to Temple Mount

Actually, there's a perfect example of a civilized solution a half-hour's drive from Temple Mount to Hebron and its Cave of Machpelah -- the burial ground of the Jewish biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca and Leah. Since Muslims also claim links to Abraham, access for prayers is shared between Jews and Muslims at designated times and on respective religious holidays. Jews can pray there; Muslim can pray there. Voila. Why not on Temple Mount?

Leo Rennert..
American Thinker..
04 December '13..

There's something grotesquely incongruous about a Dec. 3 front-page article in the Washington Post that goes to great lengths to warn that Jews seeking to pray on Jerusalem's Temple Mount might unleash a third intifada ("At Temple Mount, dreams of prayer raise fears of violence -- Muslims raise alarms as Jews seek right to pray at disputed site" by William Booth and Ruth Eglash).

The basic theme of the piece, which also takes up a full inside page, is that any outbreak of violence would be due to Jewish worshippers who are overstepping their bounds and disturbing regulations that let Jews visit Temple Mount as long as they don't pray there. Now, some Israelis are raising a long overdue question: Why are Jews discriminated against on Judaism's holiest site? After all, nobody contests the sacred Islamic status of Mecca and Medina, along with inalienable Muslim rights to pray there. Also, Jews on Temple Mount are not seeking a religious monopoly. They would be perfectly content to share the right to pray on Temple Mount with Muslims whose Al-Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount is Islam's third holiest shrine.

Where the Post's article goes astray is its dubious predicate that it's okay for Muslims to pray on Temple Mount, but not for Jews, lest public order be disturbed. But disturbed by whom? By intolerant Muslims who insist on exclusivity over Jewish worshippers.

(This was posted just a short time ago from this morning as the Israeli police, unable to, or unauthorized to deal appropriately with the Muslim hate-fest, obligingly remove the Jews from the Temple Mount. A perfect illustration, yes? Y.)


And it is this fundamental Muslim intolerance that is the real threat to civil peace on Temple Mount -- a point missing from the Post's perspective. Jewish worshippers are not threatening disorder on Temple Mount. It's Muslims who stoke threats of violence.

Thus, the Post, while devoting reams of copy, nevertheless fails to mention what happened from 1949 to 1967 when Jordan, not Israel, ruled over Temple Mount and the Western Wall, the holiest Jewish shrines. Jews were barred from praying at the Western Wall -- a rank example of religious intolerance. At the same time, Jordanian troops destroyed dozens of synagogues in Jerusalem's Old City. Now, Israel is in charge and mosques are fully protected.

Temple Mount - Where prayer is a crime

Daniel Tauber..
Op-Ed Contributor/JPost..
16 October '12..

‘This morning, close to 9:40, the respondent was detained... after, during the course of his visit...he began to pray... he was even seen and heard praying... and this was against the regulations and instructions of the police which he was aware of....”

This was the prosecution’s argument against Likud activist Moshe Feiglin on Succot, when he and several others were arrested over the course of the holiday for allegedly praying at the Temple Mount.

In court, Feiglin, as could be expected, criticized the lack of publicized regulations regarding Jewish visits to the site and the prohibition on Jewish prayer. He denied, however, that he had prayed out loud – saying he only prayed in his heart. The judge accepted his version of events and ordered that he be released without any conditions or fines.

While the judge’s reluctance to punish a defendant accused of prayer is admirable, it is almost unimaginable that in a civilized country founded on principles of liberalism, democracy and Return to Zion, a court of law would entertain arguments on whether a person was actually praying and therefore subject to penalty, or that the state would accuse a defendant of the crime of prayer – not of directly disturbing anyone with that prayer – but the mere act of prayer itself.

But this is the Middle East, and the situation is said to be complicated, especially when it comes to the issue of the Temple Mount. In one of the earliest Supreme Court cases on the Temple Mount, in 1968, Judge Alfred Vaknon wondered whether the issue had any parallel in the “history of our country or the entire world.”

At its core, however, the issue is not that complicated: A Muslim Arab population is ready to resort to violence of the most extreme kind when anyone opposes it or offends its religious-cultural sensibilities.

Temple Mount reporting - Shouldn't the press be there?

Yisrael Medad-Eli Pollak..
Media Comment/JPost..
11 October '12..

When events, especially violent ones, transpire, the press should be there. All the more so when the site where these events happen is a known flashpoint affecting Israel-Arab peace. What happened, how it happened and why are of sufficient importance to necessitate that media consumers be informed. In-depth articles and interviews are to be expected. Coverage should be appropriate to the importance of the event and, of course, the possible ramifications of the story on each the society’s political, economic or cultural life should be discussed.

During this past Succot, Jews were arrested or detained, as were Arabs. The Jews were detained for either praying, attempting to pray or being presumed guilty of praying on the Temple Mount. The Arabs were arrested for trying to prevent those Jews from doing so. And last Friday, police entered the Temple Mount compound to forcefully disperse rioting, rock-throwing Arabs.

Following up on our previous observations on media behavior regarding the Temple Mount in these pages on August 16, one may ask: has the media’s performance in this regard improved, deteriorated or remained the same (i.e. apathetic and disinterested)? The week’s events could have been straightforwardly reported as Jews being prevented from exercising their human rights as legally sanctioned by the Law of the Protection of Holy Places, 1967, which reads: “Whosoever desecrates or otherwise violates a Holy Place shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of seven years; Whosoever does anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of five years.”

According to the law, in this case the Arab rioters should receive stiff jail sentences, while the police’s job was to ensure that the rights of Jews to visit and pray on the Mount were protected.

The Temple Mount - Truly “in Our Hands?”

Josh Hasten..
Algemeiner Journal..
12 September '12..

This past Sunday, I was asked to take part in an organized tour of the Temple Mount, the holiest site in all of Judaism. I accepted after embarrassingly realizing that I had not been up there in nearly three decades.

While it is true that the Kotel ‘Western Wall’ has become a substitute over the years - because of the many factors limiting Jewish visits to the Mount (some political, some spiritual, and many just psychological etc.), the ‘Wall,’ while a Holy Site, should never be regarded in the same light, or seen as a suitable replacement to the Mount itself.

Israel regained control of Jerusalem’s Old City, and specifically the Temple Mount during the defining moments of the 1967, ‘Six Day War,’ in which Israel fought a defensive battle for its survival against six Arab armies and won a victory for the ages, reunifying the city and at the same time placing parts of the ancient Jewish heartland – Judea, Samaria, the Golan, etc. back under Jewish control.

One of the most emotional moments of the war, and perhaps in all of Jewish history, was when IDF paratroopers succeed in taking over the Temple Mount and IDF Chief Lt. Gen. Mordechai “Motta” Gur broadcast the famous words, “The Temple Mount is in our hands!” Har HaBayit BeYadeinu.

But today, 45 years after that victory, is the Temple Mount still truly in our hands? That is the main question that I was aiming to answer on my tour.

While Israel ultimately has control over the site, namely in the form of a round-the- clock military and police presence, it is the Jordanian Muslim Waqf – or religious trust which acts as the daily caretaker of the area. As I would learn on the tour, the Waqf makes its presence felt at all times, and in many forms to ensure that Muslim-only religious practices, services, and even personal prayers are carried out.

The Mount these days houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and with its underground Islamic prayer chamber is able to hold thousands of worshipers – making it the largest Mosque in the Middle East. And of course there is the Dome of the Rock, a symbolic-holy site (not actually a mosque) where some claim the prophet Muhammad ascended to the heavens. One thing that we do know is that the structure was strategically and deliberately built over the Jewish Temple’s Holy of Holies, as an attempt to erase any Jewish historical or religious connection to that spot.

Jewish Sovereignty and the Temple Mount

Moshe Dann..
New English Review..
(August '12)..

The Israeli Police are very meticulous about Jews praying on the Temple Mount, site of the First and Second Temples. The holiest place in the world for Jews, they are forbidden to pray there.

Although the Temples were run by cohanim (priests), anyone could bring a sacrifice. It was in fact the first universal religious site in history. The center of Jewish worship, it was inclusive.

Strictly enforced by scores of guards employed by the Wakf (Muslim Authorities) who maintain surveillance of visitors, their discriminatory policy is enabled and assisted by Israeli (Arab) policemen. Non-Muslim religious items are prohibited by the Wakf, including Bibles and prayer books, and visiting hours are restricted.

According to UNESCO, Jordan is the legitimate authority in charge of maintaining and protecting the site and is the custodian of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

Because The Temple and the Holy of Holies, an inner sanctum into which only the High Priest was permitted and only on Yom Kippur, was situated on the Temple Mount many Orthodox rabbis forbid visits by Jews. The Temple, however, was located in the middle of the plaza and the southern third of the plaza was added during the Herodian period.

The exact site of the Temple, moreover, is unclear. Most believe it was in the area of the golden-domed "Shrine of the Rock," built by Muslims about 1,300 years ago, close to the spot where 4,000 years ago Abraham bought Isaac. A Crusader church was built there until reconquered and rebuilt by Muslim armies. Another opinion places the Temples slightly to the north.

Accessible to non-Muslims only during morning and early afternoon hours, except Fridays and Moslem holidays, to avoid interfering with Moslem prayers, Jews who intend to visit are required by halacha (Jewish law) to immerse in a mikve (ritual bath), avoid wearing leather shoes and walk along the periphery of the plaza area.

My visit to the Temple Mount was prompted by protests of prominent archeologists over destruction of the site ("renovations") carried out by the Wakf and recent discoveries, by chance, of First Temple period artifacts there.

More than a decade ago the entire southern portion of the Temple Mount, where the al-Aksa mosque is located was excavated by the Wakf and turned into one of the largest mosques in the Middle East. It can accommodate 10,000 people. In the process, however, 15,000 tons of valuable archeological material were dumped as garbage. Archeologists and volunteers sifting through the debris found thousands of important artifacts, some from the First and Second Temple periods – and their task is far from completed. How could Israeli authorities allow this travesty to happen?

Amrousi - We waited 2,000 years, and more ...

Emily Amrousi
Israel Hayom
23 September '11

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=538

On the day the Palestinians began to celebrate their announcement of statehood, hours before the opening U.N. session, I took my eldest son up to the Temple Mount. The area of the mount is disputed, and for the first time, I am entering the inner-most circle.

On the radio, I heard things that sounded like the end of Zionism. But what is Zionism, if not Zion? And what is Zion, if not the Temple Mount? Before the country's borders, before the West Bank, and before Jerusalem, forever and ever, our right to this land is derived from a single rock. A rock of contention, a rock of our existence - you must visit it sometime. Very few Israelis visit it. Even fewer religious Israelis.

We are excited when we visit Rachel's Tomb, celebrate at Meron, fight for our right to the Cave of the Patriarchs; but the Temple Mount is reserved for psychos....

Moses prayed to be allowed to visit this place, and his prayer was not answered. The eyes of Jews throughout the generations have been trained on this site, and we, who simply have to present our identity cards at the entrance, crowd into the backyard instead. It is said that upon liberation of the mount in 1967, soldiers ran to it, searching instead for the Western Wall.

I consider myself to be a rational person, but when someone pointed out the location of the Holy of Holies [the inner chamber of the ancient temple, which housed the Ark of the Covenant], I immediately felt the need to kneel on the ground. In three weeks, if we were prepared for it, the High Priest would enter that chamber on the Day of Atonement and our sins would be forgiven. But we are not yet ready for that, we are not prepared, and instead, Japanese tourists are inside the Holy of Holies, clicking away with their cameras.

I went up to the Jewish people's most sacred place, the foundation of the world, where Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac, the place from where the Divine Spirit departed, and I felt a need to offer a double blessing - one for he "who has kept us alive, sustained us and brought us to this time," and one for "the true judge of all." I understood this as a time when happiness mingles with humiliation. A Jew is not permitted inside the Temple Mount wearing a talit (religious prayer shawl), a Jew can't pray or sing there, and a Jew can't even cry there.

Near the X-ray scanner, I was asked if I had a siddur (Jewish prayer book) in my bag. The tour of the mount was accompanied by stern-looking police officers and representatives of the Waqf (an Islamic body with authority over the Temple Mount). When someone raised their hands in the air, the officials jumped on her. When someone moved her lips in silent prayer, the officials threatened to remove her from the grounds. I bent down to photograph my son, and when I straightened up again I realized I had defeated the officials by kneeling at the holy site.

The Waqf has removed every sign of ancient Jewish presence at the site. At the entrance, a Waqf sign says "The Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard and everything in it is Islamic property." The Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on the ruins of historical temple gates. In Solomon's Stables, there is no longer any trace of archeological artifacts. Beside the locked Gate of Mercy, wooden pillars that archeologists have dated to the First Temple era are strewn about among piles of garbage.

A group of tourists passed by, and they said they were from Baghdad. The policemen with us, Mario and Hussein, conversed with them in Arabic. Young Muslim children played soccer nearby. Men with the Koran opened in front of them swayed back and forth, just like yeshiva students do when studying their texts.

So close, yet so far. Opposite the temple, at a spot close to the Foundation Stone, where one is permitted to stand according to Jewish law, I hear the prophet Haggai shouting "So is now the time for you to be living in your own paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?" I take a step back, and, with my lips closed, whisper the prayers of all Jewish generations, under the watchful eye of the Waqf official.

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