Thursday, October 13, 2016

Democratize the Temple Mount!

Michael L.

This is a retread of a brief piece from last May which seems appropriate given the fact that the insidious UNESCO arm of the equally insidious United Nations just decided that the holiest site for the Jewish people, the Temple Mount, has nothing whatsoever to do with Jews (or Christians, for that matter) and is solely Muslim.

Needless to say, both UNESCO and the UN can go straight to hell.

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{Also published at The Jewish Press.}
daffyTemple Mount activist, Yehuda Glick, was elected to the Knesset and already there are concerns about World War III.

Glick got shot up and almost murdered in 2014 for the temerity to suggest that non-Muslims - even Jews - should be allowed to pray at the holiest site of the Jewish people.

Writing in the Times of Israel, Marissa Newman tells us:
Although Israel has repeatedly reassured the Palestinians and Arab states that it will not alter the status quo at the flashpoint site, Glick is confident he will find allies in the Knesset to support his cause.

And asked whether he would tone down his lobbying if asked to do so for security reasons, he said there would be “no reasoning” behind such a request and maintained: “I will continue advocating.”
I think that I am going to call the guy up and thank him for his bravery and essential human decency.

If there is one issue that genuinely pisses me off it is Israeli policy concerning the Temple Mount. How is it possible that someone like Moshe Dayan could be so naive as to think that handing over the holiest site of the Jewish people to Arabs would somehow placate them?

It did the exact opposite as should have been entirely predictable.

Instead of being grateful to the Jewish people for their generosity, the Arabs use the Temple Mount as a club and Israel allows this despite the fact that it need not do so.

They have even made it a rule that no member of the Knesset shall be allowed to go up there.

I do not know what to say. The stupidity is just breathtaking.

By preventing non-Muslims from praying on the Temple Mount Israel sends a message to the world that Jerusalem is not really a Jewish town. Maintaining the "status quo" is the same as maintaining the idea that Jerusalem actually belongs to the Arabs and, therefore, Jews are nothing more than land thieves.

The problem that Jews have with the Temple Mount is the same problem that Jews have with the notion of "Israeli Occupation of the West Bank." If Israel is illegally occupying someone else's land, including the Temple Mount, and thus Jerusalem, in general, then we might as well pack it in and say goodbye.

If Jewish people think that we stole land from others and if they think that we should not even be allowed to pray at the site of the Temples then what is the point of Israel? I understand that much of the rabbinate, for theological reasons, believe that Jews should not go up to the Holy of Holies, period, but that is not the point.

The point is the question of Jewish sovereignty.
Some critics warn that new MK Glick, a symbol of sought-for change at the Temple Mount, could spell trouble.

“Yehuda Glick’s joining the Knesset would create even more pressure on the government to change the status quo arrangements on the Temple Mount,” said Dr. Motti Inbari, an associate professor of religion at UNC Pembroke and expert on the Jewish Temple Mount movements, speaking days before Glick was sworn in. “I am doubtful that he can change anything, but the two appointments of [presumptive defense minister Avigdor] Liberman and Glick send a message of a harder line by the Israeli government, and I will not be surprised if the Muslims would see it a provocation against them and counterreact.
In my opinion, Israel should actually and honestly be provocative.

The truth, of course, is that the very last thing that Israel has been on this question is provocative. On the contrary, when it comes to the Temple Mount Israel does little more than cringe.

Instead of doing the right thing in regards the Temple Mount, which is to say democratize it, successive Israeli governments prefer to bow to the irrational demands of their tormentors. Instead of standing up for its own alleged values, Israel allows Muslim bigots to decide who may, or who may not, be allowed to pray on a bit of land within the ancient capital of the Jewish people.

It's a disgrace.

21 comments:

  1. F***ing antisemitic morons and the abstainers are cowards and enablers. I just can't believe this BS. The UN is a joke; worse than a joke. Man, I am some pi**ed-off. That such a thing can happen in 2016 only goes to show that Jews are pretty much on their own and Israel is absolutely necessary given world antisemitism and hate. "Never again" will only work if there is an Israel; an extremely strong Israel.

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    1. Y'know, Doodad, ultimately this is a numbers game.

      That is, they've got 'em and we don't.

      Israel may be Mighty Mouse, but even Mighty Mouse cannot take on the world.

      I don't know that we're heading toward the Second Coming of the Holocaust, but there is definitely rain on the horizon.

      What we are experiencing today is only different from what our ancestors experienced in centuries past due to the fact of the IDF and due to the fact that we have technology and Smart Phones and whateverthefuck.

      You and I can lay our ears down on the railroad tracks in a way that our great, great, great grandparents could not.

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    2. Now that the vote has been taken what is Israel prepared to do in order to have it rescinded?

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    3. Jeff, what can Israel do?

      I suppose it could parade a gaggle of historians, archeologists, and anthropologists through the UN, but the UN obviously doesn't give a damn about truth.

      They are not only hiding 3,500 years of Jewish history, but are throwing the very notion of "truth" directly into the toilet.

      What's true, in Orwellian fashion, is whatever is politically expedient.

      Or so it seems.

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    4. I don't know what Israel can do, but they're smart guys. They ought to be able to come up with something. When the branch of the UN supposedly dedicated to education, science and culture goes Orwellian on you it's getting late in the game. Israel cannot depend on everyone knowing that this is a complete lie, because, as we have seen, the lies pile up and after a time people no longer no the difference, e.g., the "indigenous Palestinian people". Look at what Morocco did when the UN offered modest criticism of its policies in Western Sahara. The UN backed down.

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  2. "the UN is a nest of totalitarians, barbarians and anti-semitic scum"

    https://twitter.com/davidharsanyi/status/786583160498839552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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  3. UN is the conscience of mankind. Or something.

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  4. The UN is where the world's dictators, serial human rights abusers, and undemocratic states come to exercise their democratic rights. It is perverse, grotesque and needs to be rethought. UNESCO operates like the KGB. The UN is a failed experiment. The US should withdraw its funding and the UN should collapse.
    It sucks money from our wallets to do the bidding of scuzzballs.

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    1. Israel should up & leave. Without Israel, the UN will lose its focal point, and will soon collapse from its own irrelevance.

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  5. The UN would collapse without the US.

    Kick it out of town. It is a security risk and a threat to world peace. The money you would save would balance the budget. The real estate alone would put Donald Trump in the shade.

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  6. 'How is it possible that someone like Moshe Dayan could be so naive as to think that handing over the holiest site of the Jewish people to Arabs would somehow placate them?"

    Dr. Kedar told me that the Waqf didn't expect to keep control of the Temple Mount. He said that Dayan gave it to them out of pure greed. He was allowed to get valuable artifacts that Israel would not have let him have. Some Orthodox won't go to the Mount anyway, thinking they can't go until the Messiah comes. I think that the Waqf should have been required to let Jews pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque. Maimonides said that if a Jew can't go to a synagogue, he can go to a mosque. People that pray together are unlikely to shoot each other. And the
    Al Aqsa Mosque sits above Herod's commercial center, certainly not the Holy of Holies and should be acceptable for prayer even to Orthodox.

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    1. Huh.

      I was in email touch with Kedar not so long ago.

      Did you take a class with him?

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    2. No, just had lunch with him at the Rabbi's house when he came to Rockford.

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    3. He's coming to the states and is open to venues.

      I tapped exec dir of SF Hillel on the shoulder about it.

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    4. When is he coming? Let me know if he'll be in the Midwest. Thanks

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    5. Joseph,

      from the email:

      "Dr. Kedar will be on a speaking tour, visiting North America, between February 8 and March 7, 2017. He is available to be booked for lectures and various presentations. He can be a scholar-in-residence for a weekend or give presentations and lectures during the weekdays."

      That's all I know.

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  7. When one looks at the actual document, one sees there is a lot more in it demonizing Israel than just ignoring the Jewishness of the site.

    http://rot.linicom.co.il/audit/api/v1/ads?ch_id=60&lType=Interstitial&a=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002462/246215e.pdf

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  8. Recent Bibi Tweet:

    "What's next? A UNESCO decision denying the connection between peanut butter and jelly? Batman and Robin? Rock and roll?"

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  9. I have often asked myself....when ever Arab Islamists stack a turn on at the Temple Mount...why doesn't the Israeli Government simply just round these cretins up, and escort them off the Mount, in addition to then totally prohibiting them; Arab Islamists, ever going back on that Mount.

    I visited the site during 2015....A visit that lasted not much longer than 8/10 minutes. I along with other tourists were met with a dozen or more screaming aggressive Arabs.

    Israeli Authorities rounded us, the tourists up, and escorted us off the Mount. I still scratch my head for what went down there that day.

    The impression I was left with was that Israel; through it's compliant and feigning behaviour, had something to be embarrassed for as a sovereign nation.

    I know where I come from, the cops would be still cracking skulls if a gang of hooded malcontents attempted ride roughshod over a visiting group of tourists. It is time I thought I would ask a Jew, if I have the wrong slant on it...for I went back in 2016 for another looksee...and the hood malcontents were still running the show...i.e. no one but malcontents were allowed to go up there...


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  10. One way of democratizing the Temple Mount might be to only allow in those from cultures with a democratic bent.

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