Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Myshalom777 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 17/04/2005 17:59:14 GMT Daylight Time,  
jkilmon AT historian.net writes:

This,  for me, is one of those "I don't wanna hear it!" type of stories.  Why 
 
has the Israeli Government allowed this continued vandalism and  destruction 
of the Temple Mount?  You can blow the hell out of  Arafat's Ramallah 
Headquarters some time back or bulldoze neighborhoods  that protect 
terrorists but not protect the very focal point for the  Zionist movement in 
the first place?  Get the IDF in there and stop  this destruction or move 
back to Brooklyn.

Jack Kilmon
San  Marcos, Texas 




 

=======
Jack ... Although Moshe Dayan, a secular Jew, had an interest  in archeology 
and was charged with bringing Israeli sovereignty to the  Temple Mount area, 
there seemed to be other religious concerns weighing  in which prevented full 
Israeli control of crucial areas . The  following is an extract from Moshe 
Dayan's autobiography "Story of My Life"  pages 390-391 :  
"  . . . their water and electricity  had been cut off. I promised that both 
would be restored within forty-eight  hours. I then plunged directly into the 
main issue. I said that the war was now  over and we had to return to normal 
life. I asked them to resume religious  services in the mosque on the 
following 
Friday. I said I had no wish and no  intention of continuing the practice 
which the Jordanians had instituted of  censoring Friday’s sermon before it 
was 
broadcast. Under Jordanian rule,  Friday’s sermons, which were broadcast over 
the radio, were subjected to  strict censorship. I questioned in my own mind 
whether such a practice was  proper for a Moslem ruler, but a Jewish ruler 
should certainly refrain from  acting in the same fashion. I added my hope 
that the 
Moslem religious leaders  would not take advantage of such freedom by 
indulging in rabble-rousing sermons  that would incite some of their 
followers. If 
they did, we would of course take  appropriate action. 
I said that Israeli troops would be removed  from the site and stationed 
outside the compound. The Israeli authorities were  responsible for overall 
security, but we would not interfere in the private  affairs of the Moslems 
responsible for their own sanctuaries. These were two  Moslem places of 
worship, and 
they had the right to operate them themselves. My  hosts no doubt knew that 
on 
the day we bad captured this site, I had given  orders that the Israeli flag 
be removed from the Spire of the Dome of the Rock  where it had been hoisted. 
We had no intention of controlling Moslem holy places or of interfering in 
their religious life. The one thing we would  introduce was freedom of Jewish 
access to the compound of Haram esh­Sharif  without limitation or payment 
This 
compound, as my hosts well knew, was our  Temple Mount. Here stood our Temple 
during ancient times, and it would be  inconceivable for Jews not to be able 
freely to visit this holy place now that  Jerusalem was under our rule. 
My hosts were not overjoyed at my  final remarks, but they recognized that 
they would be unable to change my  decision. They would have wished the 
entire 
area, not just the mosques, to  remain under their exclusive control, with 
the 
continued ban on Jews. But they  also realized that Israeli troops had been 
removed from the compound and that we  had recognized their right to control 
their own holy  places. 
A sticky problem cropped up on August  16. This date it  coincided with the 
commemorative  mourning for the destruc­tion of the Temple. Rabbi Shlomo 
Goren, the chief  army chaplain, and several minyanim (religious quorums) 
decided to pray  on that day on the Temple Mount, namely, the Haram 
esh-Sharif. They 
brought with  them a Torah (Scroll of the Law), an Ark of the Law and a 
pulpit. I learned  about the incident only later, when Maj. David Farhi, the 
military government's  liaison officer with the Arab leaders, failed to 
prevent the 
rabbi and those  with him from praying there. The matter came up’ for 
consideration by the  government. Although, understandably, no minister 
wished to take 
 a
formal   position stating  baldly that Jews were forbidden to pray on the 
Temple Mount, it was decided to  ‘maintain the current policy, which in fact 
banned them from doing so. It was  evident that if we did not prevent Jews 
from 
praying in what was now a mosque  compound, matters would get out of hand and 
lead to a religious clash. Rabbi  Goren fought determinedly against the de 
facto 
ban, but he eventually  accepted the verdict and tempers were calmed. As an 
added precaution I told the  chief of staff to order the chief army chaplain 
chaplain to remove the branch office he had  established in the building 
which 
adjoins the mosque compound. I was convinced  that precisely because control 
was now in. our hands, it was up to us to show  broad tolerance, so rare an 
attitude among the regimes of the preceding decades  and centuries. We should 
certainly respect the Temple Mount as an historic site  our ancient past, but 
we 
should not disturb the Arabs who using it for  what it was now —a place of 
Moslem worship. " 
=================== 
--Celal