On October 7, 2023, Hamas rallied their terrorist forces and massacred and tortured over 1200 Israelis, motivated by a blatantly false claim that Israel was threatening the Al Aqsa mosque. Al Aqsa is the gray-colored domed building on the south end of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Hamas named the war the “Al Aqsa Flood.” IDF soldiers reported that many homes in Gaza had pictures on their walls of the Temple Mount.
This is not the first time that this false claim has been used to rally the bloodthirsty. In 1929, during the riots in Hebron in pre-state Israel, local Muslims killed 133 and raped and injured many more. The threat of Jews desecrating the Al Aqsa Mosque was their rallying cry. In 2000 we saw the second intifada which Muslim leaders called the Al Aqsa Intifada. Same story, different decade. 1083 Israelis were murdered over the next several years.
God willing, we will see a clear victory in Gaza as we have seen the return of the live hostages and a return of most of the bodies of those who were killed. Yet, at some point, doesn’t Israel need to respond to the Al Aqsa rallying cry? Otherwise won’t the remaining Hamas supporters claim victory? If nothing is said or done to clarify the truth on the Temple Mount concurrent with the Gaza peace plan, will we, God forbid, see another bloodthirsty Muslim eruption?
What could Israel do in response to provide clarity?
How about a speech by the Prime Minister or a high-ranking government official clarifying all of this, with a map of the Temple Mount, speaking directly yet respectfully to the Muslim world using clear evidence with both Jewish and Muslim sources? They could make the following points:
a) No threat ever: There was never any threat to Muslim worshippers at the Al Aqsa mosque. The real threat has been to the antiquities and artifacts which clearly show details of almost a millennium of Jewish presence. The Waqf, the Muslim Authority which Israel allowed to manage the site after the Six Day War, deliberately dug up thousands of truckloads of the holy ground where the Jewish Temples stood in an attempt to destroy those artifacts while they were charged with protecting the site.
b) A 1924 brochure: The tourist brochure, “al-Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem,” developed and written by the Muslim Waqf in 1924, encouraged visiting the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site and the site of the ancient Jewish Temples. In the historical section of the brochure it says, “Its (the Temple Mount) identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.”
c) Al Aqsa's location: A significant number of Sunni Muslims, particularly those from the gulf states, claim that the Al Aqsa mosque, (Arabic meaning - “the farthest”) the site from which they claim Mohammed ascended to heaven, would have to have been in Saudi Arabia.
d) Facing Mecca: The original mosque, built after the death of Muhammed by Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, was deliberately placed on the south side of the Temple platform, according to Muslim tradition, so as to face Mecca directly and not the Temple site. It is well over a football field and a half away from the center of the platform where two Jewish Temples stood for over 800 years. Therefore, even if Israel in the future would physically rebuild the Temple, it would be a good distance from the mosque.
f) Halakhic issues: Today most observant Rabbis caution their followers about ascending and tell them if they ascend, not to walk anywhere near the center because of their lack of ability to become ritually pure. In fact, it is a complex issue with various opinions on where Jews are allowed to walk. Rabbis are not authorizing a rebuilding of the Temple at this time for the same reason; because Jews do not have the ability to ritually purify themselves per commandments in the Torah.
While words matter, actions that demonstrate strength and power are what are ultimately effective in this part of the world.
What could Israel do to provide clarity on the actual Temple Mount?
- How about a regular daily morning minyan (Jewish prayer service) in a tent on this, the holiest Jewish site (in the areas where Rabbis permit)? It would allow Jews to say the Kaddish prayer in order to elevate the 2000 plus Israeli souls who were murdered by Hamas. A number of prominent Rabbis over the last millennia have visited the site and have so advocated.
- How about we rebuild the stairway from Robinson’s arch to the Temple Mount platform? It would allow those who would like to retrace the route from the City of David on the rediscovered pilgrimage road/promenade and walk up to the permitted area on the Temple Mount as Jewish and non-Jewish pilgrims did 2000 years ago?
- How about if Israel disconnects the muezzin speakers on the Temple Mount which are blasting the Muslim call to prayer? Everyone has cell phones. They can issue the call to prayer without waking the majority Jewish population in the area at pre-dawn hours. There is precedent, in northern Israel, Druze villages do not allow muezzin loud speakers.
This is not a real estate deal where President Trump should be trying to use his influence. There is zero chance Israel would negotiate away any piece of the ultimate ownership of the site. There is no contract currently being prepared to build the third Temple.
That said, Israel could take a page from the President Trump’s first term example. While previous Administrations feared the Arab street in moving the US Embassy, the President did not. In the words of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu zt”l, in Hebron after the Six Day War addressing Israeli soldiers after telling the local Imam about the Jewish connection to the burial site, “if you tell people the truth, they understand it.”
If the Gaza peace plan is to be lasting, Israeli leadership needs to address the central spiritual issue and clearly articulate to Muslims in Israel and beyond that there is no threat to Muslim worshippers at Al Aqsa and never will be.
However, God willing, someday soon, as it was when King Solomon reigned and as it was for the succeeding millennium, there will be a rebuilt Temple in the center of the Temple Mount. It will be a Temple for all nations connecting to God, as King Solomon said in his prayer at its dedication, with a focus on morality, unity, and peace.
Gary Schiff is a guide and natural resource consultant connecting Israel and the US