Things are
heating up at the Temple Mount area in Jerusalem and since it's Ramadan time, things will get hairier. Not unusual since this place is holy to Jews and Muslims. Jews hold it sacred as it was the actual site of two biblical Holy Temples plus the Western Wall and the Muslims falsely claim it's the third most holy city for them. Their fantasy is that Mohammed is supposed to have ridden up to Allah on his steed from that place in Jerusalem.
A bit of fact here. Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Koran while it is written in the Tanach hundreds of times. Mecca and Medina, far off in Arabia, are the only two holy cities in Islam and their claim of Jerusalem as the third one is nonsense. They use it merely as a political and bloody battleground in order to gain control of Israel by boasting it will be their capital when Palestine attains statehood and wipes Israel off the map.
As renowned historian Dr. Mordechai Kedar writes (see here and here), Jerusalem entered Islamic lore for practical reasons:
"After Palestine was occupied by the Muslims, its capital was Ramlah, 30 miles to the west of Jerusalem, signifying that Jerusalem meant nothing to them.
"Islam rediscovered Jerusalem 50 years after Mohammad's death. In 682 CE, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr rebelled against the Islamic rulers in Damascus, conquered Mecca and prevented pilgrims from reaching Mecca for the Hajj. Abd al-Malik, the Umayyad Calif, needed an alternative site for the pilgrimage and settled on Jerusalem which was then under his control."
During the Jordanian control of that section of Jerusalem from 1948-1967, Jews were banned from the area and their holy places, with 57 synagogues destroyed and cemeteries being trashed. However, once Israel won back the Temple Mount in 1967, the foolishly, in our eyes, permitted their enemy, Jordan, to retain administration of the area with Israel overseeing its security in vain hopes of promoting peace.
And Muslims use it to draw blood from Jews in their riots on their "sacred" spot. In fact, their leader for life, Mahmoud Abbas has incited his people by telling them, "We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem!" And Mahmoud al-Zahar,a senior member of Hamas, warned, "The continuation of the Zionist aggression and their brutality against Jerusalem and the holy shrines will be the cause of a major battle."
Muslims sponsor a culture of death wherever they root themselves. And Jerusalem is their current battleground. Israel must take a strong stand and not permit the Palestinian Arabs to continue to rule the Temple Mount.
Just recently, a Palestinian Arab, at the al Aqsa mosque, which was built above the Jewish shrines, tried to grab an Israeli officer's weapon and was shot to death in the ensuing struggle. Immediately, the Palestinian Authority, which routinely urges their people to kill Jews, claimed their man was murdered in cold blood and encouraged others to take to the streets in protest. CNN, MSNBC and other not friendly to Israel news sources immediately played up the shooting as another Israeli act of terror against Palestinian Arabs, except that the Arab's
DNA on the gun clearly shows that Israel was telling the truth.
The bloody war continues and we're concerned that Israel is losing ground. With the Biden administration in power, we've seen the Abraham Accords in danger of falling apart. The Saudis, once sure to sign on in a peace deal with Israel, along with members Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, now with China as intermediary, have entered into a relationship with Iran, their mortal enemy. If the Saudis, following Iran's lead, come around and once again support the Palestinian Arabs' demands on Israel, which they were shying away from under Trump's leadership, we're in big trouble. The earlier Saudi influence to have other Muslim nations side with Israel commercially, scientifically, education-wise and militarily, was invaluable and unbelievable at the time. Now that seems to be going down the drain because they perceive America as weak and disloyal to its allies..
In the last two years, the enemies of Israel have grown stronger and more belligerent. The Palestinian Arabs are no political fools. With a weak America leaving the Middle East to the Taliban, ISIS and Iran to fill the vacuum, Israel is in deep peril. The Israelis must, somehow reclaim all of Jerusalem as theirs and put down any uprising coming from within the Jewish state itself. The Palestinian Arabs see their opportunity is now and a wave of terror shows it. Along with Russia, China and Iran, they smell an America that is more willing to appease aggression than fight it. They know Israel is heavily dependent on the U.S. in all ways.
And Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are key areas from which to start the uprising. Watch out for more terror during the "peaceful, holy" span of Ramadan.
Alan Bergstein, lecturer and columnist, is an editorial writer for The NY Jewish Voice and a retired NYC school principal A father of four, he is a Korean War veteran and Jewish activist who is President of the Judeo/Christian Republican Club of Palm Beach County, Florida.
