Michael L.
I came across this under a Times of Israel article concerned with Arab clashes with the IDF:
Draiman Israel · Top CommenterI don't know about rebuilding the Temple, but I am with most of the rest of this. There are a number of reasons why rebuilding the Temple might not be such a good idea, not the least of which would be the impact of such a move on the Jewish faith, itself.
Re: Israel - To whom it may concern in Europe and the US and elsewhere:
We are tired of hearing that withdrawal from Judea and Samaria will bring peace. We know and you know that it would bring another Gaza. So stop saying it and promoting this fallacy. Past experience has proven that concessions, appeasement and land for peace only increased terror, violence and more conflict.
We are tired of hearing that land beyond the Green Line is ‘Palestinian land’. The Green Line is simply an armistice line that has no political significance. You know this too. The San Remo Treaty of 1920 Granted the Mandate for Palestine to the Jewish people, the same Allied powers also established 21 Arab States and one Jewish State - The Arabs are not willing to give up any part of the 21 Arab States and the Jews are not willing to give up any part of the Jewish State.
We are tired of hearing about the “Palestinian people.” They are no different from the Arabs of Syria or Egypt, from which most of their ancestors migrated in the last 150 years or so. There is no Palestinian language or religion, and until very recently they considered themselves simply ‘Arabs’. Their culture is almost entirely defined by their opposition to the Jewish state. There never was an Arab-Palestinian State or people in History. The Arab Palestinians have a State in Jordan which is 80% of the land originally allocated to the Jewish people under the San Remo Treaty of 1920.
We are tired of hearing that “the Palestinians deserve a state.” We are indigenous here, not them, and their behavior entitles them more to a trial at The Hague than to a state. The Arab Palestinians have a State it is called Jordan which was carved out of Jewish allocated land.
And they certainly don’t deserve our state, which is the only state they want. They already took 80% of Jewish allocated land which is Jordan. Israel also gave them the Gaza Strip.
We are tired of hearing about ‘The Occupation’. As Minister Naftali Bennett said the other day, you can’t be an occupier in your own land. The Arabs are the occupiers, Greater Israel has been a Jewish state for 4,000 years even if it was temporarily conquered and occupied by various nations over the centuries.
We are tired of hearing that “settlements are illegal under international law.” They are not. The San Remo Treaty of 1920 expliciptly stated that Jewish people can reside anywhere in the Mandate for Palestine, those terms are set in perpetuity.
We are tired of hearing that “settlement construction is an obstacle to peace.” Arab rejectionism and terrorism is the reason there is no peace. When the Arab-Palestinians teach and preach hate, terror and destruction to their children, this is definitely not a road to peace and coexistence.
By the way, we are pro-peace. We are just not pro-suicide and self destruction.
We are tired of hearing about the 5 million (or whatever ridiculous number there are alleged to be) ‘Arab-Palestinian refugees’ or the ‘Arab-Palestinian diaspora’. There were about 600,000 Arabs that left their homes in 1948, mostly of their own volition, more or less at the same time as the 980,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries, of which the Arabs confiscated their homes and assets. We resettled ours with limited land and resources — resettle yours, the 21 Arab states have more land and resources.
We are tired of hearing anything from anyone associated with the U.N. The U.N. is a parasitic and criminal enterprise dominated by our mortal enemies. The U.N. cannot create states, it can only recommend and so can other nations only recommend and not create a state that never existed before in history. If they want an Arab-Palestinian state, it already exists, it is Jordan which has taken 80% of Jewish allocated land.
We are tired of stupid post-colonialist rhetoric. We are not ‘colonists’ and Arabs do not have the right to murder us in the name of ‘resistance’ or beheading Jewish Rabbi's in Jerusalem's Har Nof Synagogue. Talking this way reveals you as moral imbeciles. They train their children to be suicide bombers.
You can not recognize a state and people that never existed and that has no borders, no single government, and no economy. They are not trusted by Arab states either.
We know we can not depend on any kind of security guarantee from anyone except the Israel Defense Forces. So stop being insulted because we do not trust you. And do not ask us to give up any nuclear weapons we might or might not have or any other method and technology that could help protect us.
We know that the left-wing parties in Israel are bankrupt of ideas. We are not going to vote for them, no matter how much you would like us to. So do not bother trying to influence our election. We will only vote for a government that protects its people and cares about the Jewish heritage, more than it cares for world opinion.
Don’t believe what you read in Ha’aretz newspaper, they represent a minority that has no allegiance to the Jewish heritage.
Jerusalem, undivided, is the capital of the state of Israel. Get used to it, because you can’t change it, the Jewish temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem.
Sincerely,
Ordinary Israelis who care about their heritage.
Since the destruction of the Second Temple Judaism has been a rabbinical, rather than a priestly, religion. Rebuilding the Temple would seem to suggest a return to a priestly form of Judaism which, naturally, would change the entire meaning and practice of the faith.
Michael there is a big push to rebuild the Temple, just like there is to accept and implement the Levy report.
ReplyDeleteAs you've no doubt seen by my web site I am a keen participant in the movement , Arlene Kushner being one of the conveners of this group. I have also been involved in actively fundraising for them.
“We Have Legal Grounds” – http://wehavelegalgrounds.org/
Levy Report translated into English.
http://jewsdownunder.com/2014/12/04/levy-report-translated-english/
Well, I don't know that I would say that I am opposed, but I definitely have my reservations.
ReplyDelete"Rebuilding the Temple would seem to suggest a return to a priestly form of Judaism ..."
ReplyDeleteWhat's your basis for saying that? Are you aware that in late Temple years, at least as redacted centuries later in the Talmud, the priests were subordinate to the Rabbis? For instance, before Yom Kippur, the High Priest would have to be grilled by the Rabbis to make sure he would perform the Avoda in the manner prescribed by the Rabbis and not in the manner prescribed by the Sadducees.
Another issue is where precisely was the Temple. I am aware of five theories: at the Dome of the Rock, north of the Dome of the Rock, south of the Dome of the Rock at el-Kas, northwest of Al Aqsa and in the Kidron. Without getting into the reasoning behind any of them, and noting that only archeological excavation can be definitive, certain locations on the list would be less disruptive of Muslim worship than others with their only "harm" to Islam being infringing their right to lord Islam's superiority over Judaism.
How about we just remove Jordan and the "waqf" from the equation, and allow local authorities to approve of, or dismiss, any such building as they choose?
ReplyDeleteFor example, the Park51 WTC victory mosque was, as it should have been, rightly rejected by its neighbors.
If Israelis want to build another temple in Jerusalem, which is the eternal capital of Israel, however, and if the municipality approves of it, then why not?
Even if I personally disapprove of a specific project, it should be left up to local democracy if it happens, in my opinion.
As you guys know, I virtually never speak to issues of religious faith.
ReplyDeleteThus, I will simply ask a question.
If Israel were to rebuild the Temple would this change the nature of the Jewish religion?
Seems like a reasonable question to me and I suspect that the answer to that question would be "yes." This is not necessarily a bad thing, but certainly something to be considered when suggesting the possibility of rebuilding the Temple on the Mount.
Jay,
I agree. I think Israel should tell the Waqf to take a hike.
These are the same people who thought that using Jewish tombstones from the Mount of Olives would make for good floors for Jordanian military latrines.