Thursday, July 08, 2010

Chanukah redux: Jews still banned from prayer at Temple Mount


Scenes from 1967, including Rabbi Goren blowing the Shofar at the Western Wall and an IDF soldier on duty on the Temple Mount, directly above the Wall. Rabbi Goren opposed the giving of the Mount to the Muslim Waqf. Jews are currently forbidden to pray on the Mount, bowing to radical Muslim sensibilities.

Is the Temple Mount in Our Hands? -Efraim Halevy

Various Palestinian spokespeople have stressed an unequivocal Palestinian position demanding full, exclusive sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Israel's demand for the Western Wall is not premised on it being a holy Jewish site in and of itself. It is a remnant of our Temple and part of a structure that Jews have no less attachment to than Muslims. One who has no right for the structure has no right for any wall of that structure. To repudiate Israel's attachment to the Temple Mount opens the door for denying the Jewish people any right for any part of the Land of Israel.

Even the slightest concession over insisting on our equal sovereign rights for the Temple Mount will mark the beginning of the countdown on any Jewish right for this land.

How sad it is to recall Mordechai Gur’s [1967] touching call “Temple Mount is in our hands,” uttered in the wake of bitter battles and such high casualty toll. The Mount remained in our hands for several hours only, and future generations will look into the reasons for handing it over to our enemies immediately after the victory, without getting anything in return and without eliciting any understanding for our right to the site.
The writer is former director of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and headed the National Security Council.
(Ynet News)

*

No comments: