Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Unifying Temple Mount Advocacy


The Temple Mount is the heart and soul of Jerusalem and Israel. Surrendering governorship of the Temple Mount to the Waqf is not explainable from a Zionistic perspective. It is nonsensical from a strategic perspective. It is not excusable from a Torah perspective. In this Essay I do not wish to judge a religious dispute, but show an avenue to national unity that is not being discussed.

From an international perspective, there is nothing wrong in owning your land. The assumption of giving up land is an assault on Zionism. The attempt from four decades ago to falsely claim Zionism as racism was rescinded by the U.N. The U.N.'s current policy is a form of repentance for repealing Zionism-is-racism, by pressuring Israel to surrender the land of their own accord to a known terrorist supporting entity. Zionism-is-racism was lighter than attempting to force a permanent partnership with someone who wants to kill the new partner. We can't live in the mindset of the U.N., especially when it has stopped being an honest broker long ago.

The actual movement for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount should not center around the Jewish right to only pray there, but their God given right to govern and build there as well.

Not equal rights to pray, but equal rights to manage your own religion's holiest site on Earth. The Muslims do it in Mecca, the Catholics in Rome, and the Jews should do it in Jerusalem.

From an internal perspective, if it is OK to build on the Golan without asking the U.N. each time, why not on the place we are guaranteed to build on by prophecy, a prophecy that even Islam admits is true?

Israel's policy has been to ignore all world opinion on the Golan. Why should the Temple Mount be different? Do what is truly best for you.

Why take a poll of only those who do not love you regarding the Temple Mount and not ask those who do love you? Israel only seems to ask the PLO and the U.N. It does not take polls or referendums on what Israelis feel about the status quo on the Temple Mount.

The PLO has shown they want to use the Mount as a strategic spark to ignite unrest. This time even when Israel did nothing they still are trying to use the Temple Mount for violence. Therefore strategic concerns are no longer a reason to delay full control of the Temple Mount.

If you can't explain control of the Temple Mount, how do you explain control of anything? King David bought it 3000 years ago and it is at the center of our prayers.

First thing to do, you don't need to explain anything, don't let haters hate at your expense.

Second, Land for Peace is anti Zionistic. Give into it no longer.

Third, religious rights of your people matter, stop offending Jews by ignoring their right to the Temple Mount.

It makes no sense to delay this any longer, from a strategic perspective, since the violence in the streets was part and parcel of the Waqf withdrawal from the Temple Mount. It was not Israel forcing them out and then there was violence. They withdrew to make an excuse for violence.
(In basketball that would be called an offensive foul. Charging at and leaping into someone who is doing nothing wrong to draw a foul, is a foul in and of itself.)

To entrust the Waqf again at this juncture is an act of rewarding terror.  The U.N. said do it. And the Knesset accepted it, and not one referendum or poll to consider how the constituency feels about it.

The same U.N. that advised Israel to give ISIS the Golan Heights prefers the Waqf remain in control of the Temple Mount.  What does that tell you?

Israel never budged on sharing the Golan, but Israel immediately heeded to return governorship to a pro violence organization that does not allow the Mount to be a holy place for all peoples. Israel needs to no longer take advice on these kinds of internal matters from the U.N.

Prime Minister Netanyahu correctly told the world a year ago that Israel will never give up the Golan. Even more firm than Israel's right to the Golan is Israel's right to the Temple Mount. Why not apply the same wisdom there? If the Knesset feel uncomfortable dealing with religious issues, and consider themselves less religious than the Waqf, there are more religious people in Israel than there are in Waqf who would be better caretakers than the Waqf is able, who would ensure, as a matter of faith, that no violence issues forth from the Holy Mountain.

Rather than allowing the Waqf to take back governorship of the Mount, it was upon the Knesset to recognize that all this was an offer from Heaven to retake the Temple Mount to allow it to be a true house of prayer for all peoples. Not in a way that would cause war, but delivered gift wrapped. Should the Knesset continue to foolishly cave into U.N. pressure to squander this chance, and continue to deny religious rights? The right still exists for Israel to select a different governor, even today. What is your opinion on this? Who will you share that opinion with?

But this was an important historic moment nonetheless. We were reminded in practical terms, that the Waqf is only a caretaker governor organization under International Law. Israel remains the true owners, even by International Law. This gives tantalizing hope that Moshiach/messiah can come even in an avenue that would allow that age to be ushered in, without the need for any further wars. An End of Days with out lives ending. Only the right of the wicked to oppress the meek need end.

Unifying the Message

Just encouraging Jews to flock onto the Temple Mount is not likely to succeed as a catalyst for real change, as it ignores a vital prerequisite according to many, many leading Rabbis. Many consider, no prayers should be held today, only when the Temple Mount contains the House of Jacob, and the Biblical laws of cleansing and purification are in place, then can people ascend and then also is world peace guaranteed.

Ergo, some rabbis may be strongly against prayer rallies on the Temple Mount, as it is a workaround and a potential delay to the process that must be done to really fix things in the world today and enter the era of no bloodshed, politically, and religiously it is even more complex. Well, we can leave that to the experts, but we need to recognize the reality that the Jewish-prayer-now movement may not have Divine blessing to rid Israel of Waqf rule. A commandment that is fulfilled via a sin is a sin (Talmud, Sukah 30a), and ignoring most of the great Rabbis of a generation is a bad start to attempting to establish a House of Jacob.  Hence it can aggravate a lot of the followers of those Rabbis. Thus, politically speaking, it leaves half of your potential supporters at the gate before any potential prayer rally is even announced.

I am not presuming to judge this from the perspective of are these rabbis or those rabbis wrong or right.  I am simply objecting to the lack of unity currently in the movement for Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.  I am merely trying to help light a path to unify all potential members of the movement towards the same direction by showing the side of the discussion that is not always reported on in the media. Let's not work around the great Rabbis, let's work with them. Consensus building will draw the combined energy of all lovers of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount to combine to form a govern-the-Temple-Mount movement.

May the Knesset no longer participate in the continued appointment of the Waqf as the governing authority on the Temple Mount. May the time that the hallowed Temple Mount becomes a house of prayer for all peoples occur swiftly, in our days. May it soon be so, by the grace of God.