David Wuz Here
While the rest of the media portray Jews as instigators and rabble-rousers, daring to defile the Al Aqsa mosque with their Zionist cooties, I’d like to offer what I call a little perspective:
Something astonishing, even alarming, is taking place in the battle over the future of Jerusalem. Even as Palestinian rioters run amok on the Temple Mount, egged on by the radicals of the Islamic Movement, much of the anger and dismay in the Israeli and international press is being directed, ironically enough, at Jews who merely wish to visit the site.
Mustering all the righteous indignation at their disposal, the media have been filled in recent days with all kinds of pejoratives to describe them, ranging from “extremist” to “fringe” to “ultra-right-wing,’ as though a Jew’s desire to exercise his basic, fundamental rights somehow constitutes an act of provocation.
Local pundits and commentators alike have also joined the fray, going to great lengths to justify the restrictions imposed by the police on Jews wishing to visit the Mount, even accusing the would-be pilgrims of seeking to trigger a firestorm of Islamic fury. It does not seem to bother them one whit that the policy in place today is entirely discriminatory in nature, as the followers of Muhammad are allowed to visit and pray where Solomon’s Temple once stood, but not the followers of Moses.
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Needless to say, this approach plays straight into the hands of our foes, whose ultimate goal is to wrestle the holy site away from us by denying its historical and spiritual connection with the Jewish people.
AND WHAT a sad and pitiful sight this is to behold. Before our very eyes, we are witnessing a concerted effort to delegitimize and even demonize our people’s most cherished dream: the longing for the Temple. The very aspiration that was born in the moments when Roman flames engulfed the Second Temple more than 1,900 years ago, and which was carried in Jewish hearts throughout centuries of exile, has now become an object of scorn, mockery and ridicule.
Make no mistake: This is nothing less than an unbridled assault on Judaism itself, and it is time for the derision and name-calling to stop.
This is what the site looks like now:
Very pretty.
But this is how it might have looked when “the followers of Moses” ran the place:
A little Masonic, if you ask me, but no less impressive for that.
Oh, and there was even a temple before that one that might have looked something like this (if you’ll allow the artistic license):
Yes, Virginia, there was a Solomon, and he completed his temple on Zion on or about 960 BC. Which gives the Jews about 3,000 years of history on the spot.
So when Ariel Sharon decided to drop by the site in September of 2000, or when other Jews do so today, there should be not a peep from the Palestinians or other Muslims who love their temple so—any syllable of which is pure, distilled, unadulterated anti-Semitism. They’re luck the Israelis don’t raze it to the ground and get busy on their Third Temple, one they have every right to build.
But that’s not for me to say.