Now that Ehud Olmert has made public his desire to invite foreign entities in to officially decide the issue and fate of Jerusalem (Olmert: Let Foreigners Help Change Status of Jerusalem, IsraelNN.com, 31 August 2008), it is time we Jews take a forgotten lesson in history. While there are many lessons from which we need to learn and 
How and when did it happen that Judea had become a client kingdom of Rome?
remember, it is the one circa 70 CE to which I initially refer.
Etched in stone relief on the Arch of Titus in Rome, and etched in the soul of every Jew, is a picture of a triumphant Roman Army carting off holy spoils from the destruction of the Second Temple: the Menorah, the Table of Showbread, the Silver Trumpets. Whether religious or not, every Jew who looks at this picture must feel a tightening in the pit of his or her stomach, a feeling of pain and shame and anger. Whether we like it or not, in our collective heart we know that the Temple is symbolic of how we are faring and symbolic of Jewish sovereignty over our own land.
In remembering, we focus on the affront and invasion of a conquering power, the shame that we couldn't, or didn't, stop it. The fact that we still have visual reminders that the Temple is yet absent from our midst nags at our subconscious. Though we murmur about the cause of the destruction being sinas chinam - baseless hatred between Jews - the unfortunate truth is that in our long history we have rarely been without a time of sinas chinam.
It is true that there was an excessive amount of hatred between us in the years leading up to the destruction, and that it was rampant in the midst of the chaos of Titus' invading army. Yet, when we focus on the event itself (the destruction) and rely upon explanations which could be meaningful, but which border on cliche, we miss some very important facts. We must dig a little deeper and ask a few pointed questions.
Rome was already in Judea when Titus went on his rampage. Why were they there in the first place? How and when did it happen that Judea had become a client kingdom of Rome?
Rolling back history not very many years prior to the destruction, we discover a series of appalling events. Although there were exceptions, the glory of the Maccabean victory in 164 BCE eventually gave way to corruption and greed in the latter years of the Hasmonean dynasty that followed.
During the 10-year reign of Queen Shlomis Alexandra in 76-66 BCE, there was peace and tranquility and a palpable blessing over the land. But following her death a power struggle ensued between her sons Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, and the political and religious establishments were divided into loyalties between the two brothers.
Politically, the Pharisees aligned themselves with Hyrcanus and the Sadducees with Aristobulus, but morally, the religious leaders of the day were silent. In addition, Hyrcanus conspired with Aretas of Petra against his brother. The civil war that erupted was bloody and intense. To bring about a peaceful solution, the two brothers - first Aristobulus, then Hyrcanus - invited Pompey and the Roman Legion to come into Judea and Jerusalem, establish order and be the ones to decide the issue of who should be the ruler of Jerusalem and Judea.
Rome, waiting like a crouched lion for its prey, was only too happy to oblige the confused Jewish kingdom. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Even in our short lesson, we can see that the real reason for the loss of Jewish sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, ending in the destruction of the Temple, was not so much the very real sin of baseless hatred, but that we abdicated the responsibility for our own destiny as a people and handed that responsibility over to a foreign entity that was waiting to destroy us.
That loss of sovereignty lasted until 1948; and in only 60 years we have already forgotten the lessons of our past.
Every one of the foreign entities listed in today's news as possible international monitors and decision-makers 
We abdicated the responsibility for our own destiny.(Jordan, the Vatican, Egypt and the Quartet of Russia, the United Nations, the United States and the EU) has outwardly proclaimed its wish for Jerusalem to become either Muslim or internationalized. No matter how tempting it is to say the problem lies with the intentions of these foreign powers, the real battle, like in 63 BCE, is within. We have one camp that is only too willing to turn over the decisions for the Jewish state to others because they believe that therein lays their own ticket to power; and we have another camp which gives nod to Jewish sovereignty, but like the leaders of old, remains silent in votes and actions that would make a difference.
There is again a lion crouching at the door. Will we finally learn our lesson and unite in Jewish sovereignty over our own land, or will we, G-d forbid, once again abdicate our responsibility for our own destiny and hand it over to foreign powers that want to destroy us? I wish I knew the answer.