Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office confirmed this week that he is willing to offer the Palestinians joint control over the Temple Mount as part of a final status peace agreement. Doesn’t Israel first need to actually have control over the Temple Mount in order to make such an offer?
Naturally, the Palestinians have responded to Olmert’s offer (which will be loudly opposed within Israel) by demanding even more. It’s full sovereignty over the Temple Mount or nothing, insisted a Palestinian official who spoke to WorldNetDaily:
There can be no agreement with Israel unless we get complete sovereignty of the Mount. Once Palestinian control over the [Temple Mount] is fixed, then we will make assurances for Jewish visits to the site.
Yeah, right. We won’t hold our breath on the whole “allowing Jews to visit” deal.
What gets me is that this story gives the impression that today Israel actually has control over the Temple Mount, that Jews are freely visiting Judaism’s most holy site, and would like to continue to do so even after peace with the Palestinians.
The reality is that the Palestinians already control the Temple Mount. Sure, Israel is in control all around the holy plateau, but up top, the Muslims run the show and are accountable to no one.
There are laws in place, and on paper is appears that Israel has sovereignty over the Temple Mount, but that hasn’t stopped the Islamic authorities there from conducting massive excavations and building new mosques at the expense of millennia of Jewish history and in violation of those laws.
Furthermore, the Muslims have decided, against Israeli law, that the Temple Mount is the only place in Israel where freedom of religion is denied. Jews and Christians are forbidden to pray atop the Temple Mount or to carry Bibles there, and that is when they are allowed up at all. This has been decided by the Muslims, and they have even managed to get the Israeli police to enforce their dictates.
So tell me, who is in charge on the Temple Mount? The only thing missing is the Palestinian flag.
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8 comments so far ↓
1 bernard // Aug 20, 2007 at 3:42 pm
why dont the Jews and all that support them all together make sure that the temple is made down and all the arabs prohibted to make any worship there.
2 Michael // Aug 20, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Ryan,
It isn’t so much the Islamic control of the mount that is bothersome, it is the current push to establish Islamic Sharia law and Satanic (Allah) worship over Samaria.
The mount of Olives, the last place the Lord stood on this earth (Acts 1:11 & 12) and the same place His feet will again touch His earth (Zech. 14:4) and “establishment” (histemi in Greek) of Islamic worship over the place He will return, is an abomination.
Islam is pushing the Israeli High Court right now to designate Mosques as holy places (sic) and the Court is pushing Israel to accomplish this. YNetNews 8-20-2007.
If the West Bank (Samaria & Judea) are given over to Islamic worship and rule, well as Jesus stated in Mark 13:14, run to the mountains;
But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing (histemi) where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
YBIC,
Michael
3 peter // Aug 20, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Ryan,
Sadly, this is so true. Me and a couple of my Jewish friends were heading to go up on the temple mount and they would not let them on because they were Jewish, but I was able to go up.
If the Jews are not allowed on the temple mount now, how will they be allowed in the future, when the terrorist control the temple mount.
pete
4 Marsha Carol Watson // Aug 22, 2007 at 2:51 am
I have thought about the word “abomination” many times in the last 20 years, as I have read it numbers of times…..With my best understanding, it seems to me this is the strongest word found in the Bible.
When God says something is an “abomination,” it seems to me that HE IS SAYING: His fury will be terrible, because the person or persons who have committed an abomination(s) have done something that brings God’s greatest wrath and fury.
When the Word of God says: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” I take this very seriously!!!!! He has taken me to the “wood shed” a few times in my earlier life, and I can tell you I DO NOT WANT TO PROVOKE HIM TO WRATH EVER AGAIN! His chastening is necessary when we knowingly and willingly commit sins….I grieved Him at times, but I was so caught up in “self” I only wanted what I wanted…..Thank God for a praying mother, who persevered in prayer until her prayers on my behalf were answered.
So when the Most High God calls something an “abomination” to Him….those muslims may think that they have got everything under control….but I for one, know they are in over their heads, and they have got a MAJOR WHIPPING COMING SOON! In their pride and arrogance, they mock God….He will “ZAP” them when they least expect it!!!!
I am going to continue to pray with fasting for Israel, knowing that God honors this, and it is pleasing to Him, that we stand in our own simple ways for His Word. “To OBEY is better than sacrifice!!!”
Israel and the Jewish People are not helpless. They are the “favorites” of the ONE TRUE GOD. If they will cry out to Him, He will amaze them with His miracle working power, and the Victories that He will give them….Our part is to pray, with fasting, and then BELIEVE HE WILL SEND A GREAT VICTORY!
No person ever gets away with going against God and His Commandments, precepts, statutes, etc….It may look like they have….but ON GOD’S TIMETABLE HE WILL BALANCE HIS BOOKS.
As for Prime Minister Olmert….he is a “patsy.” He is “crusin’ for a bruisin’ ” —– I would not want to be in his shoes!!!!!!
5 EGW // Aug 22, 2007 at 7:11 am
The interesting thing, which escapes most people is that the “Dome” is NOT a mosque, wasn’t built to be a mosque, and isn’t the Islamic “so-called holy” place on the Mount. THat is reserved for the Aksa mosque. But no one ever mentions that the Aksa mosque was originally a Byzantine church for a few hundred years, and when captured by Arabs, who added a dome or two, it then became a mosque.
As for the so -called mosque of Omar, this was built by Abd El Malik (I think) about 30-40 years AFTER Omar died. Old Abd was antagonistic to the Mecca crowd, and built the Dome with it’s 4 entrances (facing the cardinal points) to be a counter attraction to the Kaaba. Since we know by historical accounts as well as archaeology, that Jerusalem was captured by Arabs from the eastern desert and NOT by Arabs from the Arabian peninsula, this accords perfectly with Abd’s intentions. How the dome came to be called after Omar, I don’t know, but I DO know that the inscriptions inside it’s walls say that Abd built it in about 790-91, that Omar was the second “caliph” (and ruled for little more than a year), and that Abd was the 10th or 11th. I believe that the name of Omar was applied to it AFTER the dynasty of Abd was gone, and the belief in Allah, Muhammed and the Koran became solidified. This took until around the end of the 9th century.
6 EGW // Aug 22, 2007 at 7:14 am
I beg pardon for the typo. The date of the Dome is
690-91, not 790-91.
7 Ryan // Aug 22, 2007 at 8:10 am
Very good points EGW. The Al Aqsa Mosque, and NOT the Dome of the Rock, is what Muslims today call their third holiest site.
The Dome of the Rock, however, is over the rock that Mohammed allegedly ascended to heaven from.
Another thing to point out is that at the time of Mohammed, the area of the Temple Mount where the Dome is now located was by all accounts Byzantine Jerusalem’s trash dump. During that time, the Temple Mount was unimportant as a religious site to the Christians, who were focused on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
8 psalms83 // Sep 1, 2007 at 3:21 am
Lets all pray for G-ds input to this question…..ultimately it is the ground that G-ds Temple stood on ….I would think G-d will have something to say…..
to give it up may well cause G-d to bring judgement on those who would divide his land….Joel 3:2 …“I will enter into judgment with them [all the nations who]…have divided up My Land.”
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