Trashing Jewish Holy Sites

http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=53C06FE5-A640-43CA-96B6-3DA6C17D80E5

FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, September 14,
2007

Every time someone daubs a swastika or
anti-Semitic epithet on a synagogue in any
American city, there is a quick, firm and
loud condemnation from Jewish leaders,
"watchdog" agencies, even leaders of other
faiths and usually government officials.

Yet remarkably, as the holiest site in all of
Judaism and its rich antiquities are
deliberately and methodically desecrated and
even obliterated, there is barely a peep,
though mostly no outcry at all.

How can this be?

For those who may be unaware, the Temple
Mount is the site in Jerusalem of both the
First Temple and the Second Temple - which
Jews believe is the resting place of G-d on
Earth - is quite literally under attack.
Heavy machinery and excavation equipment is
gouging, tearing and smashing this sacred
ground and the artifacts that were preserved
beneath it until the Muslim officials
(operating as per the Palestinian Authority)
recently began ripping it apart.

Based on what some archaeologists are saying,
this may be the worst devastation at this
site since the Romans destroyed the Second
Temple in 70 CE.

"The Temple Mount is one of the most
fantastic historical and archaeological
monuments. It needs to be preserved for all
humankind, and people are forgetting this,"
says Dr. Eilat Mazar, a leader of the Public
Committee for the Prevention of the
Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple
Mount.

"Many people don't know that under the Temple
Mount there is a whole world [of
antiquities]."

Mazar, a Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center,
and a scholar at the Institute of Archaeology
at Hebrew University, added on "The ZOA
Middle East Report" radio show: "The whole
behavior toward the Temple Mount is a crime
really."

A little background:

Since the Jewish nation entered the land of
Israel, the city of Jerusalem has been the
centerpiece for the Jewish people. For
thousands of years, there has been a
continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem. For
millennia Jews have prayed for the peace and
sanctity of Jerusalem three times a day and
face toward Jerusalem to pray.

At Jerusalem's heart is the Temple Mount,
where the Israelites were commanded by G-d to
build his Temple. The Temple was first
destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and
after the Jews were allowed to return to
Israel, they rebuilt the Temple (the Second
Temple) on this same site, where it stood
until the Romans destroyed it in the year 70.

Some 600 years later, after the Islamic
religion was founded and then became a world
power, the Muslims conquered Jerusalem and
first built a shrine to their Prophet
Mohammad ("The Dome of the Rock") and later,
the Al-Aksa Mosque.

Though Jews continued to live in Jerusalem,
for the next 1,300 or so years Jews did not
have any control over the holiest site in all
of Judaism.

It seemed that this would change after the
British Mandate offered the land to the
Jewish people to re-establish a nation on its
historical homeland, and once the League of
Nations (predecessor of the United Nations)
approved the Partition Plan carving out a
nation for the Jews and a nation for the
Arabs (The British had already given most of
the land of historically Jewish "Palestine"
to the Arabs to create the nation of
Jordan.).

While the Jewish people gladly accepted the
sliver of land the world offered them for a
nation, the Arabs rejected the land offered
to them, and on the May, 1948 day that Israel
declared its independence, the armies of five
Arab nations attacked Israel, with Jordan
illegally seizing control of the Old City of
Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

The Jordanians forbade the Jews from setting
foot anywhere near the Temple Mount, and also
from even being able to see its only
remnant - the Western Wall (known also as
"the Wailing Wall") -- except for one lone
vantage point.

After the Jordanians again attacked Israel
during the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israelis
drove back the Arabs, liberating the Temple
Mount. It was a joyous moment for the country
and Jewry worldwide.

But no sooner did the Jewish people regain
control over their holiest site did Israel's
leaders give the Palestinian-Arabs the
authority to administer the site through the
Wakf or "Muslim trust."

To further mollify the Arabs, Israeli
officials have mandated that only for a few
hours each week non-Muslims may ascend the
Temple Mount, and Jews and Christians are
forbidden to ever pray on the Temple Mount.

This has been the status quo since 1967.
While the Temple Mount has been under the
control of the Israeli government, it has
permitted the Muslim authorities to call the
shots: limiting access and freedom of
religion to non-Muslims, while frequently
conducting excavations allegedly to make
repairs or additions to the Islamic
structures.

Going hand and glove with this situation has
been the constant denial by the
Palestinian-Arab leaders and clergy as well
as much of the Muslim and Arabs worlds that
the two Jewish Temples existed at this site,
and that the Temple Mount has no religious or
historical significance to the Jewish people
whatsoever.

The current round of "excavations" by the
Muslim authorities on the Temple Mount
today - according to them to allegedly
replace electrical cables - are seen by
renowned archaeologists and others as the
continuation and acceleration of previous
efforts by the Muslims and Arabs to erase the
Jewish heritage there by removing the "facts
on the ground" and as many traces as possible
that this was a Jewish holy place.

As if this is not obscene enough, the Israeli
government can step in at any time and stop
this desecration, but has chosen not to
intercede. And, the Israeli police and the
government's Antiquities Authority have been
preventing the esteemed archaeologists and
concerned activists from intervening. They
have even interfered with and blocked efforts
to document the damage.

Yes, the government of Israel led by the
prime minister is aiding and abetting the
destruction not only of the most venerated
area to Jews in the world, but also an effort
that could ultimately lead to the very
delegitimizing of that government and the
nation of Israel -- should the Muslims and
Arabs be able to complete their diabolical
plot and convince most of the world that the
Jewish Temples were never there..

"The Israeli authorities actually almost do
nothing, and if they do, they kind of
observe," Mazar says, noting that there are
supposed to be careful methods of excavation.
The site and work should be meticulously
documented, there should be measuring,
collecting of fragments and the like.

"They [Antiquities Authority] don't fulfill
their obligations because they are told not
to do so [by the government], not that they
don't know how," Mazar charged.

"Tractors are working on the Temple Mount.
This is a place that no tractors should be. .
It looks like a construction site . ."

Mazar said that "The prime minister should
order right away that no machines should be
on the Temple Mount." "We need people to
appeal directly to the prime minister and
demand what seems to be very obvious: that
the Temple Mount compound should be kept
preserved."

But, the archaeologist noted that, "Many
people really don't know [about the damage]"
taking place

"The Israeli media and other media is not
allowed to go on the Temple Mount and take
shots and really interview people," she said.
"The media don't cover the issue or get
people's awareness."

For many who are aware of what is going on,
Mazar said, "the Temple Mount is a political
issue only."

But obviously politics should not be a factor
when it comes to destroying holy sites.

This is a desecration that cannot be covered
up with white-wash as leaders of so many
Jewish congregations have done the world over
when their synagogues have been targeted by
vandals. Once the Temple Mount artifacts are
fully obliterated, the damage cannot be
undone with a fresh coat of paint.

If we protest and condemn when a synagogue is
defaced, surely we, led by our leaders,
should be shouting and perhaps crying over
this worst-of-all defacements threatening not
only our religion, but also our nationhood.



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Trashing Jewish Holy Sites
    ... Archaeologists not in this political dog fight more or less openly admit the entire OT is a myth including Solomon and his temple and biblical Israel. ... Keeping in mind these jewish Israelis are the foreigners lets look at it in detail. ... Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: weird jews and lamb sacrifice Termple Mount
    ... Adin Steinsaltz, Israel Ariel, Yishai Baved and their associates secretly ... Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, ... Court of Justice for the right to perform the ritual. ... its members worked out an plan to infiltrate the Western Wall ...
    (soc.culture.israel)
  • ISRAEL FOSTERING
    ... Israel fostering Islamo-fascism ... imposing enemies who outnumbered the Jews in the region about 100 to one. ... The Israeli government gave the Temple Mount, ...
    (alt.politics.bush)
  • Re: Hamass plans for Temple Mount foiled
    ... Hamas's attempts to take over control of the Temple Mount as well as ... spread its ideology and recruit new members in Jerusalem have been ... the government would have to make public that the Temple Mount Waqf had violated its agreements with Israel. ...
    (soc.culture.jewish.moderated)
  • Re: Hamass plans for Temple Mount foiled
    ... Hamas's attempts to take over control of the Temple Mount as well as ... spread its ideology and recruit new members in Jerusalem have been ... the government would have to make public that the Temple Mount Waqf had violated its agreements with Israel. ...
    (soc.culture.jewish.moderated)