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Last update - 08:41 15/10/2009
Share the Temple Mount
By Israel Harel
Tags: Jews, Muslims, Temple Mount 

Sheikh Ra'ad Salah's calls for a jihad against Israel worked. At the last minute, the government was deterred from executing its plan to demolish the mosques on the Temple Mount and from exploiting the Sukkot pilgrimage to Jerusalem to lay the cornerstone of the Third Temple. For fear of Intifada III, the transfer of East Jerusalem Arabs to Umm al-Fahm was also put on hold.

When Jews are accused of harboring the most absurd intentions, the world media chorus, joined by a few Israeli soloists, fans the flames without bothering to check the facts. And though inflammatory nonsense about diabolical plans has been repeated every few months over the past 40 years, it is of course Israel that is accused of playing with fire that can only lead to war between Islam and Judaism. MK Ibrahim Sarsur was a bit more modest: He merely warned of an impending world war.

The original sin came soon after paratroop commander Motta Gur radioed his historic announcement - "The Temple Mount is in our hands" - on June 7, 1967. Instead of accustoming the dazed Islamic world to a natural and understandable Jewish presence on the Mount, defense minister Moshe Dayan ordered that it be handed over to the Waqf, the religious endowment entrusted with looking after Muslim property. And when the Waqf saw that the Jews were not aware of the historical, religious and political significance of this concession, it transformed the Jewish people's holiest site into an autonomous Palestinian religious-governmental center and kept the Jews out.
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The rabbinic establishment then reinforced Dayan's historic folly by forbidding Jews from entering the Temple Mount compound for religious reasons. Thus the government and the rabbinate together bolstered the Palestinian Arab narrative, which maintains that the place is holy for Muslims alone.

The fact that the Muslim world has never responded to the frequent calls for jihad by Sheikh Salah and his cohorts has done nothing to alter the false Jewish idea that a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount would lead to a religious war between Islam and Judaism. This destructive notion has enabled the Arabs to do as they wish on the Mount and in other parts of Jerusalem, including running national and governmental centers in Israel's capital.

The most prominent of these used to be Orient House, about which a document submitted to a previous administration declared that taking control of it was "liable to set the Middle East alight." But when the Palestinians went too far, security forces did occupy the building, where they found weapons as well as intelligence documents. It was shut down, and apart from a poorly attended protest - where many of the demonstrators were Israeli Jews - the Middle East reacted the way it reacts to the cries of "Wolf! Wolf!" about the Temple Mount. And so Orient House dropped out of the headlines and fell into oblivion.

Dayan also left the keys of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in the Waqf's hands. But in Hebron, the Jews refused to surrender their rights, so the government was forced - despite threats of a religious war - to grant equal prayer time to Jews and Arabs. And over the last 30 years, despite Baruch Goldstein's massacre of Muslims at prayer and other grave incidents, both Muslims and Jews have grown used to the status quo.

Even at this late date, it is essential to equalize Jews' status on the Temple Mount with that of Muslims (excepting, of course, the right to enter the mosques). The Arabs will threaten a jihad and condemnations will pour in from all sides. But in time, Jewish determination will make the Muslims and their Jewish backers get used to the new reality. And the police, thousands of whom are currently plagued by Salah's habit of stirring up trouble during the Jewish holidays, will be able to spend these festivals with their families, just like other Israelis do.
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  1.   Think this is going to work, Mr Harel? 08:50  |  sh 15/10/09
  2.   ARABS need not share.Dar Al Islam makes them rulers 09:01  |  PETER SM 15/10/09
  3.   Why? 09:29  |  Colin Wright 15/10/09
  4.   No one ever grows accustom to occupation Mr Harel 09:42  |  Kim 15/10/09
  5.   This has always been an Islamic sanctuary 09:45  |  Khaled Amayreh 15/10/09
  6.   Can Muslims share the Kotel then? 09:51  |  Michael 15/10/09
  7.   The Mosque is an exclusive Islamic site 10:40  |  Abu Firas Al Qudsi 15/10/09
  8.   Israel is right once again 10:50  |  Baruch Gold 15/10/09
  9.   Very sad indeed! 10:51  |  Joe Feld 15/10/09
  10.   #5 and #6 get your stories straight 10:52  |  Chaim Ben Kahan 15/10/09
  11.   #6 11:12  |  Logic 15/10/09
  12.   Pathetic 11:13  |  Sherlock Holmes 15/10/09
  13.   ah yes, Hebron 11:37  |  rm 15/10/09
  14.   #5 & #6 12:11  |  Joe W 15/10/09
  15.   Khaled Amayreh 12:27  |  Jasper 15/10/09
  16.   To Abu Firas and to the rest of the muslim world 12:34  |  Daniela 15/10/09
  17.   Abu Firas Al Qudsi 12:34  |  Jasper 15/10/09
  18.   wright 12:44  |  doubter 15/10/09
  19.   #15 Jasper 12:49  |  sh 15/10/09
  20.   Michael No. 6 12:49  |  Jackie 15/10/09
  21.   Yes, but not as rulers 12:54  |  Fritz T. 15/10/09
  22.   abu firas 13:00  |  yerushalmi 15/10/09
  23.   Confusion of religion and nationalism 13:01  |  r cummings 15/10/09
  24.   sh 13:05  |  Jasper 15/10/09
  25.   The temple mount is in palestinian territory 13:07  |  jens 15/10/09
  26.   *17 Jasper ...you are wrong 13:26  |  Abu Firas Al Qudsi 15/10/09
  27.   Reply to #6 Kotel sharing plan 13:27  |  Joe Feld 15/10/09
  28.   # 8 Baruch Gold AMEN DO IT! 13:27  |  Petra 15/10/09
  29.   To open up the Western wall to Muslims? 13:44  |  David D 15/10/09
  30.   Reply to #13 Hebron 13:45  |  Sherlock Holmes 15/10/09
  31.   Reply to #5 1,400 versus 3,000 years 13:51  |  Danny 15/10/09
  32.   To Sherlock Holmes - You need to move your 14:06  |  r cummings 15/10/09
  33.   Ben Kahan #10, get a brain 14:26  |  zeev 15/10/09
  34.   Insidious Effrontery of Harel 14:31  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/10/09
  35.   jens 14:38  |  Yaron 15/10/09
  36.   Shalom Bayit Disregarded And For What? 14:38  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/10/09
  37.   SH. The Reichenbach Fall was more than a slip 14:41  |  Peter 15/10/09
  38.   two state? 14:54  |  oz 15/10/09
  39.   Creeping absurdism 14:56  |  Natallie Durson 15/10/09
  40.   Joe 27 Fair enough. Then Jews should share the Temple Mount. 14:57  |  Michael 15/10/09
  41.   *22 yerashlimi is confused 15:01  |  Abu Firas Al Qudsi 15/10/09
  42.   to Sherlock Holmes #30 15:18  |  zeev 15/10/09
  43.   Abu Firas Al Qudsi on Holy Places 15:32  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/10/09
  44.   Michale on Sharing of Holy Places 15:38  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/10/09
  45.   Not share, remove Muslims from Temple Mount 15:45  |  David 15/10/09
  46.   #5, Temple Mount has ALWAYS been Jewish 15:48  |  David 15/10/09
  47.   Very sensible article. 15:54  |  sandra chitayat 15/10/09
  48.   Reply to #32 Economic union 15:55  |  Sherlock Holmes 15/10/09
  49.   Reply to #42 `Greater Israel` 16:01  |  Sherlock Holmes 15/10/09
  50.   The Jews need to share Jerusalem and all its holy sites 16:04  |  Ibrahim 15/10/09
  51.   Reply to #25 Jens 16:08  |  Sherlock Holmes 15/10/09
  52.   abu firas 16:11  |  yerushalmi 15/10/09
  53.   David and His Heart of Stone 16:13  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/10/09
  54.   Share the Temple Mount 16:14  |  Diya 15/10/09
  55.   The Hardness of Harel 16:19  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/10/09
  56.   to David #46 - right you are 16:34  |  zeev 15/10/09
  57.   ibrahim 16:37  |  yerushalmi 15/10/09
  58.   to sandra chitayat #47 16:51  |  zeev 15/10/09
  59.   Chief Rabbi begged Moshe Dayan to destroy Temple 17:02  |  David 15/10/09
  60.   *52 yorshalimi can you answer the question? 17:08  |  Abu Firas Al Qudsi 15/10/09
  61.   Temple Mount versus Settlement Expansion 17:23  |  Vladek 15/10/09
  62.   Khaled Amayreh`s "exclusivity" 17:40  |  SDHD 15/10/09
  63.   Cummings` magnifying glass 17:44  |  SDHD 15/10/09
  64.   SDHD on Destruction of Holy Sites 18:12  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/10/09
  65.   Fine, Harel. Let the Palestinian refugees return home..., 18:22  |  Ben Alofs 15/10/09
  66.   I would like to pray on the mount 18:34  |  Avi 15/10/09
  67.   Always charecterized by arrogance and intolerance 18:54  |  RfaelMoshe 15/10/09
  68.   Share the Temple Mount 19:00  |  Catarin 15/10/09
  69.   Silly Sullivan 19:06  |  SDHD 15/10/09
  70.   Share the Temple Mount 19:10  |  Catarin 15/10/09
  71.   Reply to #41 19:11  |  Danny 15/10/09
  72.   No mosque at the Western Wall either 19:15  |  Ilan 15/10/09
  73.   Abu Firas Al Qudsi 19:20  |  Gavriela 15/10/09
  74.   Reply to #7 Two points 19:20  |  Motic 15/10/09
  75.   Share the Temple Mount 19:22  |  Catarin 15/10/09
  76.   Share the Temple Mount 19:34  |  Catarin 15/10/09
  77.   Further to #69 19:38  |  Akiva 15/10/09
  78.   Reply to #59 19:44  |  Avi 15/10/09
  79.   Abu Firas is VERY confused 19:46  |  SDHD 15/10/09
  80.   Abu Firas ummmm, there are 2 mosques 19:49  |  SDHD 15/10/09
  81.   to Danny #71 20:13  |  zeev 15/10/09
  82.   to Avi #66 20:38  |  zeev 15/10/09
  83.   SDHD - It doesn`t matter a toss 20:41  |  r cummings 15/10/09
  84.   GREAT IDEA. SHARE JERUSALEM ALSO. ALL OF IT. 20:44  |  Lou Medel 15/10/09
  85.   Is Harel trying to get some riots going? 20:49  |  Mark Lincoln 15/10/09
  86.   Jasper #24 20:50  |  sh 15/10/09
  87.   Colin Wright 20:56  |  utagawa 15/10/09
  88.   Share the Temple Mount 20:57  |  R C 15/10/09
  89.   SDHD Believe me, I have thought about it 20:57  |  Yaakov Sullivan 15/10/09
  90.   to R C #88 - 7th try 19:34  |  zeev 22/10/09
  91.   The best thing for temple mount 18:09  |  Lim Chua Hoy 26/10/09
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