THE TEMPLE MOUNT
by Elyakim Haetzni, November 2000

According to the Hebrew poet Uri Zvi Greenberg, "whoever controls the Temple Mount controls the entire Land of Israel." When he uttered this prophecy he could not foresee that in the future an Israeli prime minister would invite the United Nations to exercise sovereign control over the Temple Mount.

Ostensibly, the idea should prove appealing to arafat. Here the Jews themselves are threading the needle of internationalizing Jerusalem, and internationalization is the cornerstone of un security council resolution 181--the decision concerning the 1947 boundaries, (an Israel without Nahariya, Acco, Nazareth, Jaffa, Ramle, Lydda, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva, Kiryat Gat), the next station in arafat's "strategy of stages" for liquidating Israel.

Nevertheless, it is still possible that arafat will not agree to put un security council troops on the Temple Mount, lest he be accused of restoring imperialism to the middle east via American control of "al quds."

The United States' proposal to internationalize the Temple Mount is predicated on the bosnian doctrine. This doctrine essentially seeks to turn explosive areas populated by immature natives, stuck in antiquated ethnic disputes (and therefore afflicted with a retarded globalization co-efficient) into great power protectorates. Economic and military pressure is applied to secure an imposed solution. In bosnia it was called Dayton, Ohio; here it is called camp David. There the guardianship was entrusted to nato, in the middle east which lies outside of nato, the security council is to assume the guardian's role. But both nato and the United Nations merely constitute the outer shell; the inner core is provided by American military presence. Without the 30,000 American troops in bosnia, this artificial moslem state would collapse. For the West, the maintenance of this army is a small price to pay for quiet in the Balkans, which has already ignited quite a few wars, including the First World War.

The dispute in the middle east resembles the Balkans in every respect. It is an ethnic war and a clash between religions, in a sensitive and dangerous area, where the natives play with matches on powder kegs. They therefore need "protection" from themselves, i.e. they need a "guardian."

Israel, a state which has lost its way and its self-confidence, is ripe for the status of a un protectorate. Already during the discussions about abandoning the Golan, the question arose how Israel could protect itself, given the memory of the Yom Kippur War, when without the Golan, the syrians would have easily reached Tzfat. Already then the Israelis proposed an American "defense pact," backed up with a military presence. Now, after our withdrawal in the north, the un--an organization which Israel always regarded with suspicion--serves us as artificial limbs, as a substitute for our own legs, which we left behind in lebanon. This new development acclimatized our public opinion for a un solution in the heart of the Country, as well.

The retreat from the central mountain backbone in Samaria and Judea is entering the practical stages. The army is making preparations for evacuating the vital air force base on Mt. Baal Hatzor. The Judea-Samaria police district is being dismantled. The Jordan Valley is being abandoned. Soon the port of gaza will be opened and nothing will prevent the introduction of armor and other arms through it. Hundreds of thousands of Arab "refugees" are to return within the "green line." The country will be severed by two extra-territorial corridors, connecting the two parts of arafat's "palestine." The threat from arabs who are citizens of Israel is intensifying, as the latest riots prove. Keeping all these facts, and others, in mind, it will come as no surprise that the Israeli Defense Force's high command has internalized the natural consequence that Israel will no longer be able to protect itself through its own power. This is the source of the seemingly paradoxical phenomenon, that Israeli officers who are supposed to provide the country with military solutions as an expression of its independence, are the first to press the politicians for a "political solution" and together with it the "default solution" of stationing a foreign army in our boundaries. Ehud Barak is the prime example of this Israeli Army, model 2000, and he believes that in the same manner the Jewish people, model 2000, is prepared to forego political and military independence in return for foreign security and political protection, readily hosting American soldiers who bring in dollars, stimulate the entertainment industries, and enrich contractors; a "fair price" for relinquishing sovereignty--an antiquated concept in the age of globalism, for "forsaking Jerusalem," an archaic and primitive infatuation.

And if from somewhere, low-key, subdued, questions would come forth--why therefore did we have to expel the British from here, for what purpose did we bury 20,000 in wars for independence, in battles for Jerusalem--who will hear them?

This explains how Clinton easily encountered Barak's enthusiastic agreement when he proposed the stationing of a security council army on the Temple Mount. Thus, those Jews who still cling to the "Land coveted by our forefathers", to the "Dream of generations", to "Zion, the world's delight" see their hope hanging by a slender thread, which is the opposition of the Arab side; their resistance to accept an equivalent role of protectorate status [because the arabs wouldn't agree to this foolishness].

"Shall I forget thee Oh Jerusalem"? The Israel of Barak, Beilin, and Ben Ami has forgotten and forsaken. How tragic, that from the "Hope of two thousand years" recited in our national anthem, all that is left is the hope for arafat's stubbornness.

Elyakim Haetzni is an attorney and Jewish activist from Kiryat Arba.

Famous Quotes

"You ought to let the Jews have Jerusalem; it was they who made it famous."--Winston Churchill to diplomat Evelyn Shuckburgh, 1955.

"Without Jerusalem, the Land of Israel is as a body without a soul."--Elhanan Leib Lewinsky (1857-1910), Hebrew writer and Zionist leader.

"No city in the world, not even athens or rome, ever played as great a role in the life of a nation for so long a time, as Jerusalem has done in the life of the Israel."--David Ben-Gurion, 1947.

"We regard it as our duty to declare that Jewish Jerusalem is an organic and inseparable part of the State of Israel, as it is an inseparable part of the history of Israel, of the faith of Israel."--David Ben-Gurion, Knesset speech, December 1949.

"In the din and tumult of the age, the still small voice of Jerusalem remains our only music."--Israel Zangwill, 1921.

"...For out of Zion will the Torah come forth, and the word of Hashem from Jerusalem."--Isaiah 2:3.

The moslem claim to Jerusalem is false
by Dr. Manfred R. Lehmann

The moslem "claim" to Jerusalem is based on what is written in the koran, which although Jerusalem is not mentioned even once, nevertheless talks (in Sura 17:1) of the "furthest mosque": "glory be unto Allah who did take his servant for a journey at night from the sacred mosque to the furthest mosque." But is there any foundation to the moslem argument that this "furthest mosque" (al-masujidi al-aqtza) refers to what is today called the aksa mosque in Jerusalem? The answer is, none whatsoever.

In the days of mohammed, who died in 632 of the common era, Jerusalem was a christian city within the byzantine empire. Jerusalem was captured by khalif omar only in 638, six years after mohammed's death. Throughout all this time there were only churches in Jerusalem, and a church stood on the Temple Mount, called the church of saint mary of justinian, built in the byzantine architectural style.

The aksa mosque was built 20 years after the dome of the rock, which was built in 691-692 by khalif abd el malik. The name "omar mosque" is therefore false. In or around 711, or about 80 years after mohammed died, malik's son, abd el-wahd--who ruled from 705-715--reconstructed the christian-byzantine church of st. mary and converted it into a mosque. He left the structure as it was, a typical byzantine "basilica" structure with a row of pillars on either side of the rectangular "ship" in the center. All he added was an onion-like dome on top of the building to make it look like a mosque. He then named it al-aksa, so it would sound like the one mentioned in the koran.

Therefore it is crystal clear that mohammed could never have had this mosque in mind when he compiled the koran, since it did not exist for another three generations after his death. Rather, as many scholars long ago established, it is logical that mohammed intended the mosque in mecca as the "sacred mosque," and the mosque in medina as the "furthest mosque." So much for the moslem claim based on the aksa mosque.

With this understood, it is no wonder that mohammed issued a strict prohibition against facing Jerusalem in prayer, a practice that had been tolerated only for some months in order to lure Jews to convert to islam. When that effort failed, mohammed put an abrupt stop to it on February 12, 624. Jerusalem simply never held any sanctity for the moslems themselves, but only for the Jews in their domain.

[Dr. Manfred R. Lehmann is a writer for the Algemeiner Journal. Originally published in the Algemeiner Journal, August 19, 1994.]

What Will Become of Jerusalem?

It is a sin to even discuss Jerusalem. Jerusalem cannot be divided, and it was not rebuilt to be destroyed again. The prophets spoke of the future of Jerusalem. Here is a quote from Isaiah...

And "The mountain of the Temple of Hashem Will be firmly established as the head of the mountains, and it Will be exalted above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it. Many peoples will go and say, 'Come, let us go to the Mountain of Hashem, to the Temple of the G-d of Jacob, and He Will teach us of His Ways and we will walk in His Paths.' For from Zion Will the Torah come forth, and the Word of Hashem from Jerusalem." (Isaiah 2:2-3 and repeated in Micah 4:1-2).

I have no doubt that this Will happen, and I'm convinced it Will happen very soon.