Sending a Clear and Unequivocal Message - Take Back the Temple Mount - by Michael Freund

The latest crisis surrounding the Gate of Mercy compound presents the Jewish state with an opening to turn the tide of the past few decades, and send a clear and unequivocal message as to whom the Temple Mount truly belongs. One can only hope that this opportunity, like others before it, will not be squandered.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
15 March '19..
Link: http://www.michaelfreund.org/22456/take-back-the-temple-mount

With predictable petulance, the Palestinian leadership has been deliberately raising tensions on the Temple Mount, seeking to exploit the sensitive preelection season in Israel to further strengthen its hold on the holy site.

In recent weeks, both in word and deed, the Palestinian Authority and the Jordanian-Palestinian Wakf Islamic religious trust have engaged in a reckless campaign of incitement and slander against the Jewish state that culminated in a fire-bomb attack on an Israel Police station on the Temple Mount on Tuesday.

This latest escalation, coupled with the Wakf's repeated flouting of Israeli law, warrants a quick and firm response by the government to bolster Israel's sovereignty at the Jewish people's most sacred site.

The trouble began anew last month, when thousands of Palestinians forced their way into a compound near the Gate of Mercy, or Golden Gate, on the Temple Mount, with the aim of turning it into a mosque. The area had been sealed by court order in 2003 to prevent the Wakf from carrying out illegal construction at the site and destroying priceless Jewish artifacts from the period when the Temple stood.

After the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court said last week that it would issue another order empowering police to close the site, Wakf chairman Sheikh Abdelazeem Salhab defiantly vowed to ignore the ruling, and said the new mosque would "remain open for Muslims to pray."

This brazen violation of the status quo on the Temple Mount was accompanied by vicious vitriol aimed at sparking acts of violence by Palestinians.

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

Recovering from Israel’s two greatest strategic mistakes

...I am sure that the Arabs were surprised when Moshe Dayan offered them control of the Temple Mount. After all, Israel had conquered Jerusalem. Many of them were probably expecting to be kicked out of their homes, as the Jordanians had done to the Jews in 1948. But instead of teaching them that they had been defeated, Dayan gave them hope that by continued struggle they could prevail. And if they do, you had better believe they will not be magnanimous.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
18 September '15..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2015/09/israels-two-greatest-strategic-mistakes/

The murder of Alexander Levlovitz in Jerusalem when he was driving home from a Rosh Hashana dinner, is the latest in a series of cases of Jews killed or seriously injured by rocks and firebombs thrown by Arabs. The daily attacks in Judea/Samaria and Jerusalem rarely make the news outside of Israel, and even here we seem to accept them as natural phenomena, like large hailstones or volcanic eruptions, until someone dies or is maimed for life.

Right now this kind of terrorism is particularly prevalent, while at the same time a battle between police and rioting Arabs continues on the Temple Mount. The Arabs are upset because Israel’s government has decided that it is not acceptable for screaming mobs of Muslims to accost Jews trying to visit the Mount, where they are nevertheless not allowed to pray. There is continuous incitement on social media and in mosques calling on Muslims to “defend al-Aqsa,” which they can do on the Temple Mount or on highway 443.

Ever since the riots orchestrated by al-Husseini in the 1920s, the accusation that Israel plans to replace the al-Aqsa mosque with a Jewish temple has been effective in producing violent behavior among Muslims, despite its almost comical falsehood. Anything that Israel does in connection with the Mount is used as a pretext to make this accusation. The reason it works has to do with the first of two ideological principles that serve as foundations for Arab violence against Jews in Israel. Failure to take these principles into account led to the two greatest strategic errors made by Israel’s leaders since the founding of the state.

One principle is that of Muslim supremacy, according to which it is absolutely unacceptable that non-Muslims should in any way govern or control Muslims. A corollary is that a non-Muslim presence in what Muslims consider a holy place pollutes it. The so-called ‘status quo’ that has existed on the Temple Mount since it came under Jewish control in 1967 is a compromise – and you know compromises never fly with Muslims – to try to get around this. The status quo places the Mount under civil control of the Jordanian waqf, and allows non-Muslims to visit on a limited basis, but not to pray there.

Making this deal was the first great strategic error, because it should have been obvious that the Arabs would never be satisfied with anything less than full sovereignty over the Mount. Over the years, it has been a flash point for violence; and Israel has usually bowed to the threat of violence and little by little allowed its hard-won sovereignty to erode. For example, on several occasions the waqf has carried out construction projects while ignoring Israeli laws about safeguarding archaeologically sensitive areas; in fact, Jewish artifacts have been deliberately destroyed and Israel did nothing.

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.

The Compelling Need to Restore Security in Jerusalem

...If Aharonovich and the Israel Police Commissioner can’t muster the determination to tackle the string of security incidents, they should be replaced. Safety and security on all roads and at all sites in the city is a basic right of Israeli citizens of all religions and ethnicities, and the state has an elementary duty to provide this – even in Jerusalem; especially in Jerusalem.

David M. Weinberg..
A Citadel Defending Zion..
25 April '14..

I salute Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky for tenaciously pursuing the American government in order to have their son registered as having been born in Jerusalem, Israel – a case which they are now taking for a second time to the US Supreme Court.

But the real struggle over Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is underway every day in Jerusalem itself. At present, Israel is evincing a weak hand and losing the battle.

Last Friday, Tova Richler of New York arrived in Israel to attend her father’s funeral in the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in eastern Jerusalem. En route to the burial site, near the Gethsemane Church junction, her car was pelted with rocks and bricks by ten Arab youth, smashing the windows. She escaped alive but missed the internment.

In recent years, such attacks have become commonplace in and around the hallowed cemetery, and many people are afraid to travel to funerals and memorial ceremonies there.

The French Hill neighborhood which borders on Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital also has become unsafe. Residents are harassed by Arab youth from nearby Arab neighborhoods, and there have been many robberies, repeated arson attacks and car stonings, a firebombing, and a stabbing.

Anybody who has traversed the new road from Benzion Netanyahu junction through Beit Hanina also knows the dangers. Stoning is not uncommon, and red traffic lights are apparently mere decorations to the neighborhood’s Arab residents.

The greatest affront of all has been playing itself out almost every day this month on the Temple Mount in the Old City, where Arab youth regularly accost Jewish visitors to the site, and have taken to almost-daily stoning of Israeli police. The Arabs have even been caught stocking stones and other riot gear inside the mosques.

Outrageously, the police response to these attacks has been to close the Mount to Israeli-Jewish visitors and tourists – instead of closing it to Arab visitors.

Is Ascending Temple Mount an Undemocratic, Irresponsible Provocation?

MK Moshe Feiglin..
JewishIsrael.org..
29 Nissan 5773/09 April..

Editor's note: A Jerusalem woman sent a letter to MK Moshe Feiglin in which she criticized his visit to the Temple Mount. In her letter, she claimed that Moshe Feiglin broke the law by entering the Mount, that he irresponsibly provoked Arab anger and that his actions should conform to the will of the "majority." The following is Moshe's answer.

Dear S.,
Thank you for your letter and the social involvement that you express.

1. In your letter, you claim that I broke the law. I am sorry to say that from your letter it is obvious that you are not familiar with this issue. The legal situation on the Temple Mount is the complete opposite of what you describe. There is not and there cannot be a law that prohibits the entrance of Jews to the Temple Mount. There is not and cannot be a law that prohibits Jews from praying on the Temple Mount. There are laws that emphasize the rights of all religious groups to enter their holy places (similar to their right to enter any other public place) and to pray there.
For example, there is the Jerusalem as capital of Israel law that dictates in clause 3 as follows: "The holy places will be guarded against desecration or any other damage or actions that may undermine the free access of people of all religions to the places holy to them, or offend their sensitivities toward those places."

I would like to remind you that the Nation of Israel also has a faith; it also has a holy place and - wonder of wonders – the Jewish People also has feelings such that this law relates to me as much as it does to any other citizen.

I will not trouble you with all the other fundamental laws and other laws that address the freedom of worship that was withheld from me. I will also not explain the special immunity of Members of Knesset and the serious undermining of the Knesset's sovereignty when these laws are trampled upon by the police. Nor will I quote judges, including High Court justices that time and again uphold our legal right to enter and pray on the Mount. I will only mention that on Sukkot of this year, I was arrested for praying on the Temple Mount. Despite all the police efforts, I was released by the judge without bail, due to "absence of guilt." This is actually the basis for my lawsuit against the police for unnecessary detention.

Thus, I suggest that you may want to think if the situation is not completely the opposite of what you had claimed. Perhaps it is me who is abiding by the law, while those who are trusted with keeping the law are actually breaking it. As you are a responsible citizen, I am certain that this disturbing possibility will cause you to lose some sleep.

How to fabricate, incite and assure their violence is understood on Temple Mount

Yisrael Medad..
Green-Lined..
30 September '12..







This is how Muslims fabricate, incite and assure their violence is "understood" and "accepted" by the liberal/progressive camp.

First, they make up ridiculous claims about what we Jews are supposedly doing to the Temple Mount.

Chemical deterioration.

Or something silly, like falling trees.

Second, they use pejorative terms.

Storming. Breaking in. Talmudic rituals.

Third, they incite.

And fourth, they establish, despite all this propaganda of mendacious claims, a cognitive framework for 'justice' of which they are 'deprived' and then an announcement like this appears:

Weinberg - Who’s Destroying Antiquities?

David M. Weinberg
A Citadel Defending Zion
18 November '11


http://davidmweinberg.com/2011/11/18/who%E2%80%99s-destroying-antiquities/

Jews from around the world will celebrate their ancient heritage in Hebron this weekend, when the Torah portion known as “Chaye Sarah” is read in synagogues recounting Abraham’s purchase of the Cave of Machpela in Hebron as a family burial ground. The Bible relates that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives were buried in the cave.

But now that the Palestinian Authority has been admitted to UNESCO as a “member state,” the Palestinian Authority plans to ask the organization to declare several sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank, including the Cave of Machpela, as international heritage sites belonging to Palestine, not Israel.

Furthermore, the PA plans to sue Israel for “stealing Palestinian antiquities.”

“We will take Israel to court for systematically destroying and forging Arab and Islamic culture in Jerusalem,” said Hatem Abdel Qader, former PA minister for Jerusalem affairs, after the UNESCO vote.

PA Minister of Tourism Khuloud Daibes alleges that Israel’s renovations of Jerusalem’s Old City walls and its intention to replace the crumbling Mughrabi Bridge at the southern entrance to the Temple Mount are hostile attempts to “change the Islamic and Arabic character of the city.”

If this weren’t so funny, it would be outrageous. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Israel minted the international gold standard for unimpeded religious worship in Jerusalem, and for painstaking preservation of Moslem and Christian holy sites and archaeological sites across Israel. In civilized and professional circles, Israel is recognized as having contributed enormously to the excavation, study and preservation of Holy Land historical sites and relics.

Fresnozionism - Terrorism on the Temple Mount

Destroying Jewish history
with a backhoe (2007).

Fresnozionism.org
03 August '11

http://fresnozionism.org/2011/08/terrorism-on-the-temple-mount/

Jeffrey Goldberg writes about the three terrorist attacks he worries about the most, and one of them is an attack by Jews on the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount:

There are still Jewish extremists roaming the Old City of Jerusalem, and some West Bank Jewish settlements are still home to men who believe they could hasten the coming of the messiah by igniting a cataclysmic war with Islam. I’ve met these men — rabbis among them — and they believe that God would save Israel if the Muslim world rose up in anger at the destruction of what one rabbi called “the abomination.”

They are right about one thing: The Muslim world would ignite if the Dome were attacked.

Ironies abound. Can I be excused for saying that the Muslim world is remarkably inflammable? Even a cartoon or two can light it up. If the IDF were to disappear tomorrow, don’t you think Hamas and Hizballah would ‘spontaneously combust?’

Goldberg correctly notes that Israeli authorities take the threat of Jewish extremism very seriously. Would that the Lebanese, Palestinian or Egyptian ones took a similar attitude to Muslim extremism! Instead, the Palestinian Authority pays stipends to the families of ‘martyrs’ and convicted terrorists.

But there is even a greater irony, which is that the Muslim waqf to which Moshe Dayan foolishly ceded control of the Temple Mount in 1967, has been perpetrating a form of terrorism against the holiest place in Judaism for years. Here is a snippet from an article by former Mossad head Efraim Halevy, which fortuitously appeared today:

In the year 2000 I paid a clandestine visit to the Temple Mount, to what is called Solomon’s Stables, where I saw beautiful, 2,000-year-old columns. They do not exist anymore because they were destroyed by the Muslims, believing that if they destroyed the remnants of the Temple area, they would destroy Jewish rights there.

Herschel Shanks of the Biblical Archaeology Review has been writing about this for years:

Within the last few days [July 2007], a trench two-feet deep—starting from the northern end of the platform where Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock sits—has begun working its way toward the southern end of the Temple Mount. The work is being done without any regard for the archaeological information or treasures that may lie below. Destruction is particularly great in places where bedrock is no deeper than the trench. Some of the digging is being done with mechanical equipment, instead of by hand as a professional archaeological excavation would be conducted…

The Waqf is not acting illegally. According to one report, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has quietly granted permission for this destructive dig (otherwise the excavation would be a clear violation of Israeli law). The Israel Antiquities Authority, when queried about the matter, replied: “No comment.” So the dig is proceeding without interference from Israeli authorities. Perhaps their attitude is a product of fear; otherwise, it is inexplicable. Significant remains—pottery, tesserae from ancient mosaics, tiles and even architectural fragments—have already been observed in the soil from the excavated part of the trench.

As they have in the past, Palestinian leaders claim that neither Solomon’s Temple nor Herod’s Temple ever existed on the site. In a recent interview, Palestinian Justice Minister Taysir Tamimi stated: “About these so-called two temples, they never existed, certainly not on the Haram al-Sharif.”

The Waqf has a long history of ignoring Israel’s antiquities laws, and Israel has a long history of ignoring these violations. As early as 1970, the Waqf excavated a pit without supervision that exposed a 16-foot-long, six-foot-thick wall that scholars believe may well be the eastern wall of the Herodian Temple complex. An inspector from the antiquities department saw it and composed a handwritten report (still unpublished) before the wall was dismantled, destroyed and covered up…

In 1999, to accommodate a major expansion of an underground mosque into what is known popularly as Solomon’s Stables in the southeastern part of the Temple Mount, the Waqf dug an enormous stairway down to the mosque. Hundreds of truckloads of archaeologically rich dirt were dug with mechanical equipment and then dumped into the adjacent Kidron Valley. When archaeology student Zachi Zweig began to explore the mounds of dirt for antiquities, he was arrested at the behest of the Israel Antiquities Authority—for excavating without a permit.

For over two years Prof. Gabriel Barkay of Bar Ilan University (together with Mr. Zweig) has been engaged in a major sifting operation of this dirt, after he obtained a permit from the Antiquities Authority. Finds have included thousands of artifacts from all periods going back more than 3,000 years. They include a seal impression of a probable brother of someone mentioned in the Bible, Babylonian arrowheads dating to the destruction of Jerusalem in the 6th century B.C. (as well as other arrowheads from battles on the Temple Mount), thousands of coins (many dating to the Great Revolt against Rome), beautiful jewelry and even an ancient Egyptian scarab.

Infuriating.

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Where's the compromise over the Temple Mount?

David Kirshenbaum
JPost Opinion
31 October 09

In seeking to present a modus vivendi for the Temple Mount that "mainstream" Israelis can support, The Jerusalem Post's editorial, "The 'Third Templars'" (October 27, 2009) falls surprisingly short in fairness and substance.

The characterization of those who seek to change the status quo on the Temple Mount as "post-Zionists," "messianic followers" of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and "Third Templars" is false. A number of synagogues in my hometown of Beit Shemesh schedule regular visits to the Temple Mount. The vast majority of the members of those synagogues are immigrants from Western countries. We yearn to pray on the Temple Mount and not be muzzled and followed every step of the way by the religious bigots of the Wakf.

Far from being post-Zionists, we made aliya by choice, and as our children have grown, we watched with pride and knots in our stomachs over the years as they joined their fighting units in and around Gaza and Lebanon.

Wild-eyed messianics? Cultists? After we come down from our visits to the Temple Mount, we can be found at our day jobs as doctors in this country's hospitals, university professors, educators at prominent religious institutions, participants in the country's thriving hi-tech industry and lawyers at the most prominent law firms and financial institutions. Our rabbi, who has led many of our visits, is a former tanker in the IDF and was one of the subjects of a Jerusalem Post article last year about an interfaith legal studies program.

SIMILARLY, EVEN the most cursory good faith check would expose the speciousness of the "post-Zionist" and "messianic" labels the Post uses to deride the many rabbinical figures who are advocating that Jews be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. This, for example, is how Haaretz described the Temple Mount conference in its October 26 issue. "Top religious Zionist leaders came together Sunday at a rightist conference advocating Jewish ascent to the Temple Mount. It's hard to remember when was the last time Israel saw such a unity between its religious Zionist leaders. Political rivals such as MKs Uri Orbach and Michael Ben-Ari sat side by side on the center stage. Moderate rabbis 'respectful of the government' like Rabbi Yuval Cherlow and Rabbi Ya'acov Medan came together with 'rebellious haredi nationalists' such as Rabbi Elyakim Levanon and Rabbi Dov Lior. "

One of the most widely respected Zionist rabbis in the country, Chief Rabbi of Haifa She'ar Yashuv Cohen, has long championed a change in the status quo on the Temple Mount. Cohen, who has chief responsibility for the Chief Rabbinate's dialogue with the Vatican and has had tremendous success in working together with the large non-Jewish communities in Haifa, has for many years been trying to gain support among both his rabbinic colleagues and the political echelon for establishing a synagogue on the Temple Mount.
(Continue reading...)
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Playing With Matches On the Temple Mount

Honest Reporting/Backspin
1 November 09

The Palestinians and the MSM like to describe the Temple Mount as a tinderbox and Israeli actions could spark a new intifada or regional conflict. Two weekend Israeli media reports knock holes in that conventional wisdom.

First there's Haaretz, which reports that Fatah has been helping organize the latest violence at the Jerusalem holy site:

As is the case with his fellow Fatah activists, it's doubtful that [Hatem] Abdel Qader really wants the escalation on the mount to spark a conflagration throughout the territories. Their main intention seems to be to make their presence felt, to let off steam and then to return to routine in the compound. But the political environment, and especially the media, pushes them to make very aggressive statements against Israel, including accusations of attempts to damage the Al-Aqsa Mosque, even though nothing has changed on the ground at the Temple Mount in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reports that Waqf officials who oversee the Temple Mount are quietly pleased that Israel finally clamped down on Qader and Sheikh Raed Salah. As Vered Levine argued two years ago, Salah's another troublemaker whose media fame is disproportionate to the constituency he actually represents.

So if another "the second Al-Aqsa intifada" breaks out, just remember the Palestinians and the big media were playing with the matches beforehand.

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