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Richard L. Benkin is an independent author and activist. He has penned manuscripts on the Temple Mount; East European Jewish Life; and Miriam, the true hero of Exodus. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and lives with his wife and daughter in suburban Chicago.
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By Richard L. Benkin
March 9, 2003
Israel's friends and supporters marvel at how anyone could fail to see the justice of our position. There are 15 Arab states in the Middle East, sitting upon two-thirds of the world's oil reserves-all of them obsessed with ousting the region's one tiny Jewish state. Why are they so focused on that tiny scrap of land, no larger than the state of New Jersey - a land that was little more than swamp and desert before modern Zionists started transforming it; a land with no oil wealth; a land virtually abandoned by Arabs for centuries?
The answer is clear for those who wish to see. The various ideologies motivating the Arab world - from Saudi Arabia's Wahabi Islam to Syria's faux socialism - do not accept any non-Muslim state in the Middle East. We could cite their philosophies, speeches and sermons, official documents, and more. More convincing, is an unvarnished report about Arab actions at Jerusalem's Temple Mount, which have become a metaphor for the entire conflict, and allow us to see the battle in the true light that animates it. This conflict transcends any simplistic land for peace formulae or negotiated giveaway of the territories regained in 1967. The belief that Israel's enemies want a "two-state solution" is a chimera.
Most people, who follow reports of military exploits, terrorist acts, and so forth, are unaware of activity on and about the Temple Mount, where tradition places Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, Jesus' preaching, and Mohammed's ascent into heaven. Beyond tradition, extensive archeological and other evidence locates both ancient Jewish Temples on the site. Yet, despite that Mount of evidence, and the lateness and ambiguity of any Moslem contention, it has been official Arab policy in recent decades to deny any historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem's Temple Mount. That's Arab policy, not Hamas, Palestinian, or Iraqi. At first glance, the notion sounds absurd; and it is absurd. Not just another piece of Arab propaganda, however, it is part of an ongoing Arab attempt to de-legitimize Judaism.
While many consider Israel's liberation of Jerusalem and Judaism's holiest sites from Arab occupation the crowning achievement of the 1967 Six-Day War; few know that even before the war's end, Moshe Dayan ceded control of the Mount to the Waqf. Secularist Israeli leaders, like Dayan, saw the Mount as merely an "historical curiosity" for Jews, but respected its religious significance for Moslems. Certainly, it is to our everlasting credit as a tolerant people that Israel did this. Could you even imagine any Arab country paying the same homage to Jewish religious sensitivities? While Jewish prayer at the Mount or Western Wall was prohibited during the years of Arab occupation, it is unthinkable that Israel would ban Moslem prayer at al-Aqsa. Since then, successive Israeli governments have maintained a policy of non-interference with Waqf actions, while banning Jewish and Christian prayer there. At the same time, deliberate Arab efforts to destroy any vestige of a Jewish presence on the Mount have proceeded almost unchecked.
In recent years, the Waqf has engaged in extensive and unsupervised "renovation" of the Mount, building a new mosque under its southeast corner and cutting additional exits through the Temple Mount walls. While it did, the Waqf blocked any archeological supervision of the work. Without any oversight, they ripped physical evidence of the Temple from the Mount and secreted it-often mixed with present-day garbage-in various spots around Jerusalem, most notably the Kidron Valley between Jerusalem's eastern wall and the Mount of Olives.
The Arabs, of course, claim that it's all a hoax. In their media and from their pulpits, they repeat their mantra of a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the Moslems' claim to the Mount. One Iranian piece quotes the Jerusalem mufti of accusing those who have protested Waqf actions as creating "a big hue and cry to justify [Israel's] interference in [Moslem] affairs." And he emphasized that the Mount is a sacred place "only for the Muslims, around the globe."
Recently, Waqf agents began cleaning one of the giant cisterns under the Mount. This complex of cisterns served as reservoirs for the First and Second Temples, and for the entire population of ancient Jerusalem. Why is this significant? It turns out that this is part of an effort by Moslem religious leaders to fill the cisterns with water from Mecca's Zamzam Spring. This would make our Temple Mount a site for Moslem pilgrims with weight equal to the Great Mosque in Mecca, Islamicize the Mount, and buttress Arab pretexts for denying all Israeli claims to the Old City of Jerusalem.
The destruction continues. The UN, of course, is silent. UNESCO, the body that is supposed to oversee such things, has ignored its mandate on this issue, content to issue anti-Israeli diatribes instead. That leaves another immediate danger. Recent surveys indicate that due to the Moslem construction, the southern wall of the Temple Mount is near collapse. Although Jordanian engineers finally prevailed upon the Waqf to allow them to effect some repairs, few authorities believe their efforts will correct the extensive damage to the Temple Mount. The potential for a collapse remains. When those walls fall, they could kill thousands of Moslem worshippers. With their leaders seeing Jewish plots behind every corner in the Middle East, such a disaster easily could spark a holy war of Moslems against Jews. The events still unfolding at the site of our Temples threaten both our history and our future.
A couple years ago, I stood atop Mt. Nebo, located in the "moderate" Arab state of Jordan. Noting Christian and Moslem elements, I asked my Jordanian guide why this spot, where Moses watched the Israelites cross into Canaan before he died, had not a single sign of a Jewish presence. He replied casually, "Well, there are no Jews in Jordan."
Glimpse the future of Jewish holy sites in Hebron and elsewhere under PA control! Under Arab hegemony, the Jewish residents from Jerusalem's Old City were expelled and all vestiges of its presence there removed. Mosques have been built upon Jewish holy sites, such as Rachael's Tomb near Bethlehem. Glimpse the future of Jewish holy sites in Hevron and elsewhere under PA control! If current actions are left unchecked, the Temple Mount will fare likewise. It happened then, and it's happening now.
We can debate the reasons why this uncommonly common and tiny piece of real estate occupies the world's attention; why the UN passes a never-ending series of resolutions about it while ignoring greater issues, as well as atrocities, elsewhere.
Wherever those arguments may take us, there can be little doubt that publicizing this Arab attempt to erase history can only lay bare the true intentions of the enemies of Israel-as well as enemies of Judaism, Christianity, and the principles of religious freedom.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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