"The Battle over Jerusalem Has Just Begun" - by Bassam Tawil - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10758/battle-over-jerusalem
The Palestinian "victory" celebrations that took place after Israel removed metal detectors and surveillance cameras from the entrances to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem bode badly for the future of stability and peace in the Middle East.
To the Palestinians and many Arabs and Muslims, the Israeli move is viewed as a sign of weakness. In their eyes, the removal of the security cameras and metal detectors is capitulation, pure and simple.
How do we know this? Easy: look at the Palestinian response. Rather than acknowledging the conciliatory nature of the Israeli government's decision, aimed at easing tensions and preventing bloodshed and violence, the Palestinians are demanding more.
As far as the Palestinians are concerned, the controversy over the Israeli security measures at the Temple Mount, which came after three terrorists murdered two Israeli police officers at the holy site on July 14, is part of a larger battle with Israel.
We have reached a new level in this discourse: Palestinian Authority (PA) officials are now openly admitting that it is not the metal detectors or security cameras that are at issue.
Instead, they admit, this is a battle over sovereignty on the Temple Mount and Jerusalem. For the Palestinians, the real battle is over who controls Jerusalem and its holy sites. The real battle, in their eyes, is over the Jews' right to live in their own state in the Middle East. Many Palestinians have still not come to terms with Israel's right to exist, and that is what this battle is really about.
The Palestinians, feeling triumphant now that Israel has complied with their demand to remove the metal detectors and security cameras, have been clarifying that it is only the first step in their fight to eradicate any Israeli presence in the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
No one explained this Palestinian position better than the PA foreign minister, Riad Malki, who announced on July 27 that the Palestinians consider the Israeli decision to dismantle the metal detectors and security cameras as surrender. He also confirmed what many Israeli and Palestinian political analysts have been saying for the past few weeks -- that the conflict over Israel's security measures was merely an excuse used by the Palestinians to force Israel to make political and territorial concessions.
In a speech before the Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo, Malki explained: "The issue is not metal detectors or cameras, but who is in charge and who has sovereignty over the Al-Aqsa Mosque." Malki went on to explain that the Palestinians do not see the recent conflict as a security issue, but rather as a purely political matter. "The battle over Jerusalem has just begun," he said, adding that the wave of Palestinian protests over the Israeli security measures had succeeded in "thwarting" Israel's "conspiracy" to change the historical and legal status quo at the Temple Mount.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki (pictured above in 2009) said last week in a speech: "The issue is not metal detectors or cameras, but who is in charge and who has sovereignty over the Al-Aqsa Mosque... The battle over Jerusalem has just begun."
We are witnessing a rare moment of truth from the PA foreign minister, in which, ironically, he refutes claims by many in the international community and media to the effect that the recent conflict was sparked by metal detectors and surveillance cameras.
The Palestinian protests that came in response to the security measures indicated that it was more about hating Israel and trying to force it to its knees than about the removal of metal detectors and cameras. During these protests, especially at the entrances to the Temple Mount, Palestinians chanted slogans that included threats to destroy Israel and kill Jews.
"We are marching toward Al-Aqsa (Mosque), and we will sacrifice millions of martyrs," was one of the chants at the protests, which were led by top Palestinian religious and political leaders. Another chant: "Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, jaish Mohammed sa yaoud" ("Khaybar Khaybar O' Jews, the army of Mohammed will return") -- a reference to the Battle of Khaybar in the year 628 between Prophet Mohammed and his followers against the Jews living in the oasis of Khaybar. The Jews were forced to surrender after being slaughtered and were thereafter permitted to live in Khaybar on condition that they give half of their produce to Muslims. The protesters also chanted slogans calling on Hamas's military wing, Ezaddin Al-Qassam, to launch terror attacks against Israel.
For the most part, the foreign journalists covering the protests did not perceive these chants as intimidating or anti-Semitic. The protests were largely reported in a positive sense as peaceful "civil disobedience." This is precisely the rhetoric, however, that fuels the Palestinian fire to take to the streets and hurl stones and petrol bombs at Israeli police officers and civilians.
Eighteen-year-old Omar Al-Abed, however, is one Palestinian who paid careful attention to such rhetoric. On July 22, he stormed the home of a Jewish family in Halamish, in the West Bank, and stabbed to death a grandfather and his son and daughter during a dinner to celebrate the birth of a grandchild. Shortly before setting out on his murderous mission, Al-Abed posted a note on his Facebook page in which he echoed many of the slogans from the protests, and went further by describing Jews as "sons of pigs and monkeys."
The carnage in Halamish was perpetrated by a single Palestinian. Perhaps he acted alone, without having been indoctrinated to murder Jews and without communal support for doing so? Well, let us check: how did the Palestinian street react to his murderous rampage? How did Al-Abed's own mother respond? The terrorist's mother was filmed handing out sweets to visitors in celebration of her son's decision to take the lives of the three Jews. "I'm proud of my son because he has raised our heads high," she declared.
Perhaps the pride in the terrorist was simply a local affair? No, even that hope is smashed: as many Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip, took to the streets to celebrate the brutal murder, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh phoned the terrorist's father to tell him, "Your son brought pride to the nation."
The Halamish bloodshed brought intense pride to the terrorist's mother, to those around her, and to the Palestinian world at large.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who never misses an opportunity to paint himself as a peacemaker par excellence, chose to remain quiet about the murder. Make no mistake: his loud silence over the Halamish terror attack is being interpreted by many Palestinians as an act of condoning the murder of three Jews. Whether condoning the atrocity or terrified of his own people, one thing is certain: Abbas and most Palestinian leaders have trained the Palestinians well. When they smell Jewish blood, they attack.
This is precisely what is going on in the Temple Mount mayhem.
Now that Israel has complied with their demands regarding the security measures, Palestinians feel more emboldened than ever. Murder and incitement, in their case, does indeed pay. They got away with the murder of the two police officers at the Temple Mount; they got away with the murder of the three family members in Halamish, and, in their view, they also got away with the recent violent protests and incitement against Israel.
Buoyed by the Israeli "capitulation," the Palestinians are now talking about a "historic victory" over Israel. They are boasting that they have twisted Israel's arm and forced it to "retreat." Palestinian cartoonists and commentators have expressed similar sentiments, arguing that the removal of the metal detectors and security cameras is largely the result of their violence, terrorism and threats.
Once again, an Israeli gesture is being misinterpreted by the Palestinians and other Arabs and Muslims as weakness. This sort of deliberate misreading is far from new. Yet every time it occurs, it sets the stage for another cycle of violence. The result of Israeli conciliation is invariably Palestinian violence.
The Palestinians have added it up just right. In their own words, they aim at an escalation of violence because they believe that what Israel did is the first step toward even more concessions and even further retreat.
For First Time in Millennia, Jewish Priests Will Undergo Training to Enter Temple's Holy of Holies - By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - https://www.breakingisraelnews.com
"Moshe called Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aharon, and said to them, "Come forward and carry your kinsmen away from the front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp." Leviticus 10:4 (The Israel Bible™)
For the first time in 2,000 years, a group of Kohanim (men of the Jewish priestly caste) living close to Jerusalem's Old City are studying the relevant Jewish laws to be able to ascend the Temple Mount and enter the Holy of Holies, where God's presence is said to dwell.
This development was initiated by Israel's first responder organization ZAKA, based on a decision by the ZAKA Rabbinical Council following an event occurring during the three weeks of austerity leading up to the Ninth Day of Av: the July 14 Palestinian terror attack against Israeli police officers that left three dead (including the terrorist), the most powerful source of ritual impurity, on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
Horrific as the attack was, one Temple activist said it may have served a divine purpose. "When the Jewish people are not moving ahead quickly enough, God does something to force it upon us," Yaakov Hayman, a prominent Temple Mount activist and expert, told Breaking Israel News. "When those Arabs did what they did, they created a new situation on the ground. We weren't preparing for it, so something happened that forced us to deal with it."
The "new situation on the ground" is that Kohanim, men descended patrilineally from Aaron the Priest, will now be trained for the first time in millennia to enter the area where the Holy of Holies once stood. Their purpose will not be to offer sacrifices or pray for the Jewish people, but to retrieve dead bodies should the need arise again.
The ZAKA council, headed by Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl, ruled that there is a religious obligation to remove every dead body from the Temple Mount - Jewish, non-Jewish and even terrorist - but that in certain situations, only Kohanim can do the job.
Kohanim are forbidden from becoming ritually impure and have stringencies placed upon them that other Jews do not. Kohanim are forbidden from entering cemeteries or coming into proximity with dead bodies. Normally, contact with a dead body would be forbidden to a Kohen, but this ruling overrules that condition.
The training will require the revival of Torah laws "our people have [not] used for thousands of years, let alone on a yearly, monthly or daily basis, like most other laws," explained ZAKA Chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav to Breaking Israel News.
"Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount) is the holiest place and there is a requirement that all ritually impure objects be removed as quickly as possible," he continued. "So, in this case, the rabbis ruled that it is acceptable for a Kohen to become impure himself to remove something from the Temple Mount."
Meshi-Zahav added that the ruling brought hopes of redemption. "Of course, we hope that by giving the Temple Mount the proper respect it deserves, we will bring about the Messiah. We want the redemption to come as quickly as possible."
"There is certainly something interesting happening here," Rabbi Ari Kahn, a member of the ZAKA Rabbinical Council and the head rabbi of the West Bank settlement Giv'at Ze'ev, said to Breaking Israel News.
Rabbi Kahn said there was "something natural" about watching rabbis rule on decisions they have not faced for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Due to the stringencies placed upon them, until now, Kohanim were not allowed to volunteer with ZAKA. Meshi-Zahav said the group is already in the process of hand-selecting these new first responders specifically tasked with Temple Mount duties. The members of the team of Kohanim will be "religious, God-fearing people, knowledgeable about Jewish law." He noted that learning the laws pertaining to ascending the Temple Mount is not simple.
As one of the few ZAKA volunteers sufficiently familiar with Temple Mount laws, Joshua Wander was the first to go up after the July 14 attack. He pointed out the need to ZAKA for a Temple Mount team of volunteers able to cope with the halachot (Jewish laws) on the Temple Mount.
"The positive side of this whole thing that's gone on in the past two weeks is that it's really created an interest globally to relearn these laws, which have been almost lost, and thank God, we are bringing back these laws," he told Breaking Israel News.
Before ascending, ZAKA volunteers will be required to immerse in a ritual bath. They will ascend wearing a minimum number of clothes, not wearing shoes, bringing in the smallest possible amount of equipment, and entering and leaving by the shortest possible route.
The guidelines Rabbi Nebenzahl used for his ruling were based on the writings of Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, a medieval Spanish Torah authority known by the acronym Ramban. The Ramban discussed the deaths of Aaron the Cohen's sons, Nadav and Avihu, inside the Tabernacle.
Now Aharon's sons Nadav and Avihu each took his fire pan, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered before Hashem alien fire, which He had not enjoined upon them. And fire came forth from Hashem and consumed them; thus they died at the instance of Hashem (Leviticus 10:1-2).
The Ramban explains that these bodies needed to be removed speedily by a priest, as described in a following verse of the Bible.
Moshe called Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aharon, and said to them, "Come forward and carry your kinsmen away from the front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp" (Leviticus 10:4).
This is not the first time an organization has acted to prepare Kohanim for the Messianic era. The Temple Institute, a non-profit government and privately funded center of "research and preparation for the Holy Temple" - located in Jerusalem's Old City - established a "Kohanim Training Academy" last spring, in which Kohanic students are taught and practically prepared to serve in the Temple.
Reflecting on how a tragedy led to a miraculous renewal of Torah laws pertaining to the Temple, Hayman compared it to a parable in the Talmud which illustrated that the greatest light of redemption comes from the deepest darkness. The Talmudic story tells of a group of revered rabbis, including Rabbi Akiva, a first-century rabbi and a major contributor to the oral tradition, who visited the site of the Temple, then a pile of rubble. A fox ran out of the ruins, and one rabbi began to cry, but Rabbi Akiva laughed. Rabbi Akiva asked him why he cried and the rabbi cited the Biblical verse describing the holiness of the site.
"...any outsider who encroaches shall be put to death." Numbers 1:51
The rabbi lamented that now, even wild animals could roam through the site. Rabbi Akiva explained that the Prophet Micah described the tragic scene they were seeing in front of their eyes.
Assuredly, because of you Tzion shall be plowed as a field, And Yerushalayim shall become heaps of ruins, And the Har Habayit A shrine in the woods. Micah 3:12
Rabbi Akiva explained that just as this prophecy of destruction had already come to pass, it was inevitable that the prophecy of Zechariah on the same subject would also come to pass.
Thus said God of Hosts: There shall yet be old men and women in the squares of Yerushalayim, each with staff in hand because of their great age. Zechariah 8:4
According to Hayman, the prophecy can be interpreted to mean that if the Jewish people do not take control of the Temple for holy purposes, another nation will take the opportunity to profane it.
"It is a like a lion being pestered by flies. Every now and again he wags his tail, but it doesn't do much. Then he roars and that changes the whole picture," said Hayman. "We are just waiting for the Lion of Judah to roar, to give the blast that will turn everything on its heels and indicate redemption is here."
Record Numbers of Jews Visit Temple Mount On Fast Of Tisha B'Av - by Deborah Danan - http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/08/01/watch-record-numbers-of-jews-visit-temple-mount-on-fast-of-av/
More than a thousand Jews on Tuesday visited the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem for the Tisha B'Av fast commemorating the destruction of both Jewish temples that once stood there.
1,043 fasting Jews visited from 7:30 till 11 this morning, a record for a single day, according to Yeraeh, a group advocating for Jewish visitation and prayer rights at the Temple Mount.
The Jewish visitors passed through metal detectors at the Mughrabi Gate - the only gate through which non-Muslims can enter - and were asked to leave their identity cards with police. As per the policy at the holy site, they were escorted by police during the entire visit to ensure that they did not break the regulations on the site, such as those forbidding prayer to non-Muslims.
Nevertheless, police said six people were arrested for not adhering to the regulations, in all likelihood for attempting to pray or bow.
There was an increase in police presence throughout the whole of the Old City during the day and cars were prohibited from entering.
The recent tensions over the Temple Mount and the government's decision to remove the metal detectors it placed at the site due to furious and violent Muslim opposition was part of what triggered the unusual interest in visiting the site, Yeraeh said.
Asaf Fried, a spokesman for an association of organizations dedicated to Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, told the Jerusalem Post that many more people had been inquiring as to how to prepare religiously to visit the site since tensions erupted a few weeks ago.
"People are very angry, the government's behavior last week was humiliating and degrading," said Fried.
"If Moshe Dayan gave the Waqf the keys to the Temple Mount in 1967, then last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave over sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the Waqf," he added, referring to the Jordanian Islamic trust that administers the holy site, which called on Israel to remove all the new security measures installed since a July 14 terror attack saw two Israeli policemen killed there.
Jewish visitors are required to refrain from sex for 72 hours as well as immerse themselves in a mikveh - or ritual bath - prior to ascending the Temple Mount, which is Judaism's holiest site.
New records have also been set for Jewish visitation at the Temple Mount during the Hebrew calendar year, with some 18,000 Jews having visited the holy site with organized tour groups compared with last year's figure of 14,908 - with six weeks of the year still remaining.
Last week, Breitbart Jerusalem toured the site while Waqf officials and Muslim worshipers were still boycotting it. According to Yitzchak Reuven, a Temple Mount activist who accompanied this reporter, the feeling of being on the holy site without having Muslim officials "breathing down your neck" and checking whether silent prayers were quickly being said was a "huge relief."
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Iran Helped Fuel Muslim Riots at Temple Mount -
The Islamic Republic of Iran reportedly provided aid to Palestinian protesters demonstrating against new security measures at the Temple Mount last month.
The aid reportedly included boxes of food and drink, which came with a flyer attached depicting the Dome of the Rock and a quote attributed to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reading, "With the help of God, Palestine will be freed. Jerusalem is ours."
While Palestinian media reported that the food packages were provided by an Iranian youth movement, a PA intelligence official said it was clear that the Iranian regime was behind the aid.
"It is clear to us that the regime in Tehran, by means of its long arms, is behind this catering operation," the official told the Israel Hayom daily in an article published Tuesday.
"The sums come to millions of shekels and the Iranians found an opening to reap the benefits and send a message to the Palestinian public right under Israel's nose that it is Iran that looks out for them. The flyer attached to all the food packages and the quotes of Khamenei make clear who is behind these food baskets."
The flyer also showed Khamenei's hand, pointing toward the Dome of the Rock. The hand was shown in mirror-image - appearing to be the Iranian leader's right-hand, when it is in fact his left. (Khamenei's right-arm was injured when he was badly hurt in a 1981 assassination attempt.)
Another Palestinian official told Israel Hayom that while the PA was aware of the Iranian effort, it did not notify Israel because of PA President Mahmoud Abbas's decision to freeze security ties in protest of the security measures. Those were placed at the Temple Mount following a July 14 terror attack at the holy site, in which three Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers with weapons smuggled into the compound.
"In the territory under Palestinian control this would not happen," he added. "We would not allow the Iranians a foothold like this, because this would come back at us like a boomerang with the reactions of Arab states."
The Iranian involvement also angered PA higher-ups, with one unnamed official said to be close to Abbas telling the daily that it was a mistake to allow Iran to reach into the West Bank with its "tentacles."
The Islamic Republic has long funded operations against Israel, often through its provision of money and arms to the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups.
Iran has also made calling for Israel's destruction and the "liberation" of Jerusalem central to its propaganda efforts. Its foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, was set to fly to Turkey on Tuesday for a Muslim conference on the latest developments in Jerusalem.
Israel removed last week all of the new security measures installed at the Temple Mount, and a PA official told The Times of Israel that security cooperation will gradually be restored as long as Muslim access to the holy site remains unrestricted.
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Hate and Haters - Terry James - http://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/
Explosive confrontations were spawned by an Israeli crackdown because of the murder of two Jewish policeman guarding a Temple Mount entranceway.
If there is one word that can define the tumult surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem at this late hour of this dispensation, that word is hate. Hatred against the Jewish race and against Israel has again come to the boiling point. It is coming from, in addition to the usual suspects, a source considered by a large part of the world's population to be a bastion of not hatred, but love.
Since this source is supposedly Christian-the Catholic pope-there is reason, from my point of view, to analyze the matters involved through troubled cogitation. I say this because much of the Christian world-the world to which I belong-believe the Jewish race and the nation Israel to be under satanic attack.
My view is that those who are outraged at the Jews and at Israel come not from a godly perspective, but from undiluted hatred. It is profoundly disconcerting, to say the least, that all of this vitriol comes from those claiming the Christian religion as their own.
Pope Francis is joined in his mild-mannered but sub-surface rage against Israel by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The Christian conglomerate, consisting of 13 religious bodies within the Jerusalem community, issued a joint statement condemning the violence surrounding the Temple Mount.
Although it was a condemnation of violence in general, the language reflects that of Pope Francis which, in tenor, was slanted toward support of the Muslim side. For example, the communiqué addressed all references to the sites of the area in Arabic terms rather than in Jewish or Christian terms. The statement clearly disregarded any connection of the Temple Mount area to the Jewish or Christian religions.
The statement read:
We, the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, express our serious concern regarding recent escalation in violent developments around Haram ash-Sharif and our grief for the loss of human life and strongly condemn any act of violence.
The statement, like the Pope, placed the blame for the ongoing violence on the metal detectors and cameras Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has placed in key areas to prevent further terroristic acts. Netanyahu, it is reported, has agreed to remove the metal detectors at some point, but not all safeguards. He will keep cameras and other devices in place in spite of the tremendous criticism of governments around the world and of threats of further attacks from the Arab-Muslim troublemakers.
The 13-member Latin Patriarchate stated in its declaration:
We are worried about any change to historical (Status Quo) situation in al-Aqsa Mosque (Haram ash-Sharif) and its courtyard, and in the holy city of Jerusalem. Any threat to its continuity and integrity could easily lead to serious and unpredictable consequences, which would be most unwelcome in the present tense religious climate.
We value the continued custody of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy places in Jerusalem and the Holy Land which guarantees the right for all Muslims to free access and worship to al Aqsa Mosque according to the prevailing Status Quo.
The following news item frames the "Christian" community's condemning tone, directed toward Israel.
The statement made no mention of the Muslim terror attack that led to Israel placing the metal detectors at the entrances to the site. Nor did it refer to the horrific Palestinian terror attack on Friday.
Bishop Munib Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land, said on Vatican radio that the metal detectors are a form of "collective punishment" which should not be permitted "because of an attack by two persons."
The bishop claimed that thousands of Muslims pray at the site during Ramadan and "everything goes smoothly". He did not mention the murder of IDF Border Policewoman Hadas Malkah, which took place during Ramadan.
"It's essential to find a political solution to end the Israeli occupation, which is considered illegal," the bishop concluded. (Catholic Churches in Jerusalem Blame Israel for Muslim Violence, Deny Biblical Roots of Temple Mount, By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel News, July 23, 2017)
Though couched in high-sounding phraseology of religion-diplomatic speak, the hatred for the Jewish state is there. It is even more hateful in its thrust than such vitriol issued by other sources. This is because these are those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.
It is hate-speech of the most troubling sort, in my opinion.
Jesus, who is God,and, incidentally, is Israel's Messiah, loves the Jewish people. To hate them and falsely accuse them, even though they certainly have erred greatly as have all other peoples, is to show hatred for Jesus.
The issuance of such condemnation, falling in line with all other hate-filled antagonists of God's chosen people, invites, ultimately, the curse of God (Genesis 12:1-3).
Claiming to be "Christians"-if they are indeed so-these have no excuse for their deliberate denial that the Temple Mount as well as all the contested territory and far beyond was given to Israel in perpetuity by God, Himself.
Those who claim Christianity as their faith base should take into consideration what it means to hate that which the Lord loves. About hate and hatred, the Lord-who here was addressing Jews first, as the Church wasn't born until Pentecost-said the following.
If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me...
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. " (Jn 15: 18-21; 16: 2-3)
Jordan's King Vows to 'Stop the Judaization' of Temple Mount - https://www.breakingisraelnews.com
"And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. Exactly as I show you-the pattern of the Mishkan and the pattern of all its furnishings-so shall you make it." Exodus 25:8 (The Israel Bible™)
His Majesty King Abdullah II on Saturday spoke before an assembly of local newspaper editors and journalists, saying "he spared no occasion to put the Palestinian cause and defend Jerusalem before the world," according to the Petra state news agency, adding, "There is no voice that speaks better than Jordan as we carry out our historic political and legal role to stop the Judaization of holy sites despite the difficulties and challenges."
Most historians agree that the Temple Mount's "Jewish" nature predated that of its modern Arab identity by some thousands of years. The Temple Mount housed the two Jewish temples in Biblical times, with much archaeological and historical evidence proving ancient Jewish presence on and around the Mount. In the early Middle Ages, long after the Second Temple was destroyed, the birth of Islam led to the construction of a mosque on the holy site which Muslims believe to be the "al Aqsa Mosque", or the "farthest mosque", referred to in the Quran. However, Islamic scholars dispute this.
Nevertheless, the Muslim religious claim on the Temple Mount - largely neglected and overgrown with weeds until the Jews began expressing an interest in it in the twentieth century - is the basis for countless Arab campaigns to deny any and all Jewish connection to the site. Of late, these campaigns have extended to numerous other Jewish holy sites, including the Western Wall, where Israel has full sovereignty, and various burial sites of Biblical figures, including the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, recently declared a "Palestinian world heritage site" by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In addition to blatant historical inaccuracies, Jordan may find itself in the wrong on matters of state as well. Jordan relies on Israel for much of its economic stability. With an annual $39 billion GDP, compared with Israel's $320 billion for roughly the same population size, Jordan could go under without Israeli support.
Under the 1994 peace treaty, Israel provides Jordan, a desert country, 13 billion gallons per year of fresh water from the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). More than 200,000 Israelis vacation in Jordan, which is starved for foreign currency. Jordan is expected to receive natural gas at a bargain-basement cost from Israel's Tamar and Leviathan offshore fields. In a country with a soaring unemployment-at least 30 percent, much higher among youths-Israeli businesses have established industry in Jordan, taking advantage of the lower pay across the river.
In addition, the Hashemite Kingdom sits on the tips of Israeli bayonets. Without a firm security cooperation with Israel, which includes real-time Israeli warnings about assassination attempts against the King, Jordan would long since have become a Palestinian state.
The Jordan Times' version of the King Abdullah's announcement Saturday scrubbed out the anti-Semitic tidbit.
There has been a wave of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic announcements from Jordanian officials in recent weeks. A Jordanian legislator invited former deputy head of Mossad Ram Ben Barak to fisticuffs at the Allenby crossing, "if he is a real man," after the latter mentioned the possibility of cutting the water supply to Jordan if Israel's poverty-stricken neighbor misbehaves.
56 lawmakers signed a petition calling on the King to bring back his ambassador from Israel and suspend relations.
And the Amman-based daily Al Watan ran a long article about the ancient Jewish custom of mixing gentile blood in the Passover matzah.
With close to 3.5 million Jordanians having "Palestinian" roots, meaning they arrived from across the river between 1948 and 1967, within an overall population of about 6.5 million, plus a volatile Syrian refugee population of about 2 million - Jordan is a boiling cauldron threatening to explode.
Jordan's Foreign Minister Slams 'Extremist' Jews Who 'Stormed' Temple Mount On Fast of Av - by Deborah Danan -
Jordan's foreign minister on Tuesday slammed Israel for the record-breaking 1,300 Jewish "extremists" who "stormed" the Temple Mount for the Tisha B'Av fast commemorating the destruction of both Jewish temples that once stood there.
Ayman Safadi told an emergency gathering of foreign ministers from 57 countries that even though the recent crisis regarding metal detectors installed at the holy site may be over, more turmoil is on the horizon.
"The number of extremists who stormed Al-Aqsa [the Temple Mount plaza] today stands at a record number, greater than any other since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967," Safadi said at an emergency Executive Committee meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul.
However, "many more dangerous crises will erupt as a result of continued Israeli violations if Israel does not uproot the sources of the tension, if the occupation doesn't end, if east Jerusalem is not independent and not the capital of the sovereign Palestinian State along the 1967 lines," Safadi warned.
The Waqf Islamic Trust, which administers the holy site, is funded by Jordan. Azzam al-Khatib, director of the Waqf, also criticized the large number of visitors, saying, "This is unprecedented, unacceptable and should stop."
Jordan's King Abdullah II on Saturday said Amman worked to prevent the "Judaization" of Muslim and Christian holy sites and reverse Israel's recently imposed security measures at the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.
Metal detectors and security cameras first installed after Israeli-Arab terrorists smuggled guns onto the Temple Mount and opened fire on July 14, killing two Druze-Israeli policemen, sparked outrage throughout the Arab world, which accused Israel of trying to control the holy site.
On Tuesday's fast day, over 1,300 Jewish visitors passed through metal detectors at the Mughrabi Gate - the only gate through which non-Muslims can enter - and were asked to leave their identity cards with police. As per standard policy at the holy site, they were escorted by police during the entire visit to ensure that they did not break the regulations on the site, such as those forbidding prayer to non-Muslims.
Police said nine people were forcibly removed from the site for not adhering to the regulations, in all likelihood for attempting to pray or bow.
The number was a dramatic increase from the 100 or so people that usually ascend the holy site. Yeraeh, a group advocating for Jewish visitation and prayer rights at the Temple Mount, attributed the rise to the recent unrest, saying more mainstream Jews are interested in asserting Jewish sovereignty over the site.
MK Yehudah Glick (Likud), an activist for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, praised the large numbers that went to visit, saying it showed Jews "were not afraid."
"The people of Israel are returning to the Mount," he said.
Jerusalem destroyed, Jerusalem redeemed - Shlomo Riskin - http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-destroyed-jerusalem-redeemed-parshat-devarim/
Just prior to the conclusion of the 1978 Camp David Accords, US President Jimmy Carter submitted a letter for Prime Minister Menachem Begin that caused the Israeli leader to turn pale and promptly return it to the leader of the free world unsigned. "But I did not ask you to give up Jerusalem," said the astonished American president. "I only asked that you put it on the negotiating table."
Begin answered in his characteristically poetic style: "For two-thousand years, we Jews have been reciting a verse from King David's Psalms at every wedding ceremony: 'If I forget thee O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose her cunning: Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I hold thee not above my highest joy.'"
"But does Judaism not state that you must give up a limb in order to save the entire organism?" remonstrated Carter. "Yes," countered Begin, "but not if the limb is one's heart. No human being can live without a heart. Jerusalem is the heart of Israel and the heart of the Jewish people."
At this time of year, this season of Tisha B'Av, we are especially cognizant of the devastating impact of the destructions of our nation's heart in 586 BCE. and 70 CE. With this in mind, it is important to note that Tisha B'Av is always immediately preceded by the biblical portion, Devarim (Deuteronomy). What is the significance of this calendrical juxtaposition?
Firstly, there is the linguistic connection between Parshat Devarim and Tisha B'Av. In our biblical portion, Moses expresses his exasperation with the Jewish people: "How (eichah) am I able to bear your contentiousness, your burdens and your quarrels?!" To underscore the appearance of the word "eichah," this verse is publicly chanted with the same haunting cantillation as the Scroll of Lamentations (Megillat Eichah), which is read on the evening of Tisha B'Av.
Going one step deeper, this linguistic connection points to the sin that led to Jerusalem's first and second destruction and subsequent long exile: internal strife among the Jewish people. Our sages defined this contentiousness and quarrelsomeness as "sinat chinam," causeless hatred. And since "every generation that does not build [the Temple] is as if they destroyed it" [Jerusalem Talmud, Yoma 1:1], it is painfully evident that we have much room for improvement.
Despite this daunting challenge, it gives us hope to know that Jerusalem, whose destruction we currently mourn and feel, is also the city from which the redemption of humanity will one day come. Jerusalem, once the paradigmatic symbol of destruction and loss, will become a symbol of reunification and restoration.
Isaiah, in presenting his vision of redemption, calls out in the Haftarah of the Sabbath immediately following Tisha B'Av: "Comfort you, comfort you ("Nachamu nachamu"), My people, speak about Heart-Jerusalem ("lev-Yerushalayim"), and call out unto her; her period (of exile) has been completed, her iniquity has been forgiven" [40:1-2].
Note that the prophet refers to the city as Heart-Jerusalem, a compound noun ("speak about Heart-Jerusalem"); it is "heart" that defines Jerusalem. This is what Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook likely referred to when he said of the Western Wall, "There are some hearts that are of stone; and there are some stones that are truly hearts." Such are the heart-stones of the Western Wall; such is Jerusalem - heart-stone.
According to all of our prophets, this message will be conveyed at the end of the days from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, to which all the nations will flock. At that time they will beat their swords into ploughshares, forsake entirely the cultivation of warfare [Is. 2, Mic. 4], and "the nations will change to speak a pure language; they will all call upon the name of God and serve Him with a united resolve" [Zeph. 3:9]. Jerusalem will become the vehicle for Israel's expression of the purpose for its being, the effectuation of a redeemed world of peace.
For these reasons and more, Prime Minister Begin was absolutely correct to insist that Jerusalem cannot be placed on the negotiating table! Jerusalem will one day reunite all of humanity within her bosom, for she is the heart of humanity. The love that will emanate from Jerusalem will be a love without cause ["ahavat chinam"], repairing the hatred without cause that caused Jerusalem's demise in the first place.
We have the obligation and the ability to transform this vision to reality by taking it upon ourselves on a daily basis to do our part to increase love without cause. B'ezrat Hashem, in this merit, we will witness the full rebuilding of Jerusalem speedily and in our days.
Losing and winning the Temple Mount - Caroline B. Glick -
Israel ceded the Temple Mount to terrorists last week. But with a clear goal, we can get it back in short order and keep it perpetually for the good of all humanity.
Last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his security cabinet caved in to the demands of the PLO and its partners in Hamas, the Islamic Movement, Jordan, Iran and Turkey by agreeing to remove metal detectors and other security screening equipment from the Temple Mount. The equipment was installed last month in response to Palestinian incitement and acts of jihadist violence against Israelis, including the murder of two policemen, at Judaism's holiest site.
After polls showed 77% of Israelis felt he and his cabinet members capitulated to terrorism, Netanyahu issued a statement thanking US President Donald Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner and Trump's senior negotiator Jason Greenblatt for their help in resolving the crisis.
The underlying message of Netanyahu's statement was that he and his ministers folded like a cheap suit to our enemies' demands, effectively ceding Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount to our enemies because Kushner and Greenblatt pressured them to do so.
But then this week, a congressional intern did us the favor of surreptitiously recording and leaking remarks Kushner made on the issue in off-record remarks to interns at the White House. Kushner's remarks, which came in response to a question about his role in mediating the Palestinian conflict with Israel, were fairly detailed.
Regarding the Temple Mount crisis, Kushner justified Israel's decision to place metal detectors at the entrance of the Temple Mount. In his words, following the murder of the policemen by terrorists armed with guns smuggled onto the Mount, "putting up metal detectors on the Temple Mount... is not an irrational thing to do."
Kushner also emphasized several times the central role that Palestinian incitement played in fomenting the violence on the Temple Mount. He drew the logical conclusion that the same incitement which fomented the violence on the Temple Mount led to the massacre of the Saloman family in their home in Halamish two weeks ago.
Unlike all previous US mediators, Kushner didn't blame "both sides" for causing the violence. He placed the blame squarely on the Palestinians who incited and committed murder.
In speaking this way, Kushner made clear that he isn't the type of person who will apply bone-breaking pressure on Israel to capitulate to the demands of terrorist murderers. Certainly Netanyahu and his ministers are strong enough to withstand whatever pressure Kushner and Greenblatt may have brought to bear on them last week.
Indeed, as one administration official put it, "The idea that the same Netanyahu who withstood eight years of unrelenting pressure from the Obama administration crumpled under pressure from Kushner and Greenblatt is simply ridiculous."
So if it wasn't American pressure that convinced Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and their colleagues in the security cabinet to crumple, why did they do it?
All of their instincts were pointing them down the opposite path.
From a security standpoint, you don't need to be a genius to understand that you don't respond to an enemy on offense by surrendering your defenses.
More generally, Netanyahu and his ministers all know that just as releasing terrorists from prison guarantees more dead Israelis, so capitulating to the demands of terrorists ensures more dead Israelis.
But if the decision was wrong from a security standpoint, it was downright crazy from a political perspective. Among the 77% of Israelis who said the decision amounted to capitulation were doubtlessly 100% of Likud and Yisrael Beytenu voters and 85% of Kulanu voters. (Bayit Yehudi voters at least knew their cabinet representatives, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, voted against the measure.)
According to the media, the cabinet was intimidated into surrendering by a doomsday scenario presented by the IDF and Shin Bet representatives at the cabinet meeting. Channel 2 reported that the IDF and Shin Bet warned the politicians that failure to capitulate would result in a security nightmare, whose details they laid out in a frightening PowerPoint slide.
The Palestinians would start a new terrorist war, they said.
Fatah's Tanzim terrorists, who have been inactive in recent years, would renew their attacks, they warned.
The Palestinians would undermine Israel's capacity to fight Hezbollah effectively in Lebanon, they insisted.
And finally, if Israel failed to capitulate, a "rare unity" of forces in the Islamic world stretching from Turkey to Iran would emerge, they hectored.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but all of these doomsday admonitions are debatable.
Take the issue of the "rare unity" from Iran to Turkey.
Since the Turks tried to break Israel's maritime blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza seven years ago, unity has been the rule not the exception in Turkish-Iranian relations. Both supported the Muslim Brotherhood in the so-called Arab Spring. Both supported Hamas in its 2014 war against Israel from Gaza. And today, both support Qatar against the Saudi- and Egyptian-led bloc of Sunni Arab states.
As for the Sunni Arabs, last week, the Saudis took the stunning step of siding with Israel on the metal detectors. The Saudis noted supportively that they installed metal detectors in Mecca and Medina.
As to the rest of the scenarios the security chiefs raised, they may or may not be true. But what is certainly true is that it isn't the job of the security community to tell Israel's leaders they have no choice but to surrender to aggression. It is their duty to formulate plans for defeating the aggressors, period.
And incidentally, ahead of Tisha Be'av, which fell this year on Monday night/Tuesday, unlike the IDF and the Shin Bet, the police did just that. Whereas the Shin Bet wanted to prohibit Jews from visiting the Temple Mount on the day of mourning commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the police recognized it was its job to enable Jews to visit.
Rather than join the Shin Bet in recommending that Jews be barred from visiting the Temple Mount, the police provided the requisite protection and enabled more than 1,200 Jews to visit the site without incident.
The fact that Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich provided security when Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman said it couldn't be done makes it hard to avoid the impression that the warnings the IDF and Shin Bet chiefs issued the security cabinet last week stemmed less from professional considerations than from ideological or political agendas.
This impression is strengthened when last week's horror scenarios are seen in the context of the security establishment's long history of blocking the implementation of government policies it was its duty to facilitate.
For instance, in 2010 and 2012, the commanders of the IDF and the Mossad reportedly refused to carry out Netanyahu's order to prepare their forces to strike Iran's nuclear installations.
And then-Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon's move to blame Netanyahu when the Palestinians unleashed a terrorist offensive in 1996 after Netanyahu's first government opened a second entrance to the tunnels below the Western Wall is etched in collective memory.
But for all their institutional and personal drawbacks, there is a limit to the amount of blame you can place on Israel's security leadership for the cabinet's decision to surrender to terrorists last week. After all, while it is true the IDF and Shin Bet commanders crossed the line, Netanyahu and his ministers let them cross it.
If Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman wanted to, they could easily have blunted the security brass's push for capitulation. They certainly could have publicly criticized them for their defeatism rather than insinuate that the Americans made them capitulate.
So why haven't Netanyahu and Liberman called them to order? Why doesn't Netanyahu - at a minimum - publicly criticize his generals for their insubordination and contrast their spinelessness with Alsheich's professional competence and determination?
The answer is discouraging. Netanyahu allows himself and his cabinet members to be bullied by his generals because he doesn't have a policy for securing Israeli sovereignty and advancing Israel's national interests at the Temple Mount. Without a positive goal, he is reduced to treading water with the hope of keeping a lid on Muslim jihadists. And so his "policy" of bowing to his politically subversive generals bears a disquieting resemblance to George Orwell's quip, "The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it."
Perhaps the depressing aspect of all of this is that it isn't hard to figure out what a reasonable, constructive policy would be for the Temple Mount.
As a liberal democracy, Israel has an interest, indeed a duty, to ensure that the holy site is open to all religions and that everyone has the right to freely worship on the Temple Mount. Given the fact that the Temple Mount is the holiest place in the world for Jews, Israel has a vital interest in securing its sovereign control over the area.
To secure its sovereignty and advance its clear interest in facilitating religious freedom for all, Israel's policy goal is straightforward. The government should enable all faiths to worship freely at the site.
To secure this end, the government should announce its goal and make a good-faith effort to involve all relevant groups and governments, including the Palestinian Authority, Christian authorities, Jewish authorities, the Jordanian regime and others in achieving it. The government should also state outright that if the Palestinians opt instead to incite and commit acts of violence and terrorism from the Temple Mount, Israel will secure its goal and enable Jews and Christians to worship at the holy site unilaterally.
To date, the Temple Mount has been the Palestinians' ace in the hole. They recycle the blood libel that Jews are endangering al-Aksa every time they feel they are losing ground in their never-ending war against Israel. And Israel inevitably capitulates.
But if Israel announces its policy is to secure religious freedom for all on the Temple Mount and makes a good-faith effort to advance it in conjunction with the Palestinians and all other relevant groups, it will set the conditions for taking that ace away.
If after it begins good-faith efforts to collectively advance the liberal, democratic goal of ensuring religious freedom for all at the holy site, the Palestinians again turn to violence, then the Islamic world, or parts of it, will be in a position to blame them when Israel unilaterally enables Jews and Christians to pray on the Temple Mount parallel to Muslim worshipers.
If Netanyahu and his ministers make this their goal then the IDF and the Shin Bet won't be able to intimidate them into capitulation next time around. Instead, the leaders of the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Foreign Ministry will all know their jobs and know that if they fail to perform they will be replaced.
Israel ceded the Temple Mount to terrorists last week. But with a clear goal, we can get it back in short order and keep it perpetually for the good of all humanity.
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