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Sure idiot, disregard the UN resolution that created the non-member State of Palestine to the 67 armistice line...Money not Morals are the reason Israel exists...In time Morals will win out. They always have.In Palestine.I can't prove a negative. Where is Israel proper?You're the one who can't prove it. Post it and we'll take a look.
You've never actually proved that the quite applies to Israel.
Where is Israel proper?? Take a guess TinmoreIn your dreams
Palestine is inside Israel . Palestine doesn't even have borders.
Funny how you consider Palestine to be different than what the whole world considers it.
I deleted my post after realizing it...Sure idiot, disregard the UN resolution that created the non-member State of Palestine to the 67 armistice line...Money not Morals are the reason Israel exists...In time Morals will win out. They always have.In Palestine.I can't prove a negative. Where is Israel proper?
You've never actually proved that the quite applies to Israel.
Where is Israel proper?? Take a guess Tinmore
Palestine is inside Israel . Palestine doesn't even have borders.
Funny how you consider Palestine to be different than what the whole world considers it.
YOU idiot. I just said the same thing as you did regarding Palestine. Learn how to read.
No, Palestinian parents and Hamas teaching kids hatred and that killing Israelis is good, is the cause of retribution, hate and despair.Get real Krusty, the biggest terrorist attack on worshipers was committed by Dr. Baruch Goldstein by murdering 29 Palestinians and wounding 125...Once again Israel got what Israel deserved for their treatment of Palestinians with peace offerings, a security fence & land concessions so the Palestinians can remain in Israel. When will Israel ever learn to treat the Palestinians like their own Arab brothers do in surrounding Arab countries?
Prayer massacre Three Americans among four rabbis killed as Palestinian militants storm Jerusalem synagogue - AOL.com
Now its been reported that his grave is a shrine...Israel is the cause of retribution and hate, and despair...
Exactly Krusty! Exhort those ZioNazis to be more li9ke real Nazis to solve their problem!This whole ongoing conflict is primarilly Israel's fault for not just treating the Palestinians like their own Arab brothers do. No one or no nation ever made peace WITH Palestinians. But king Hussein of Jordan proved you can make peace FROM Palestinians. When will Israel ever learn?
Its hard not to teach to hate the people who disenfranchised you from your homes and kills you when you resist...Honestly why would the Palestinians not teach hate of their oppressor?No, Palestinian parents and Hamas teaching kids hatred and that killing Israelis is good, is the cause of retribution, hate and despair.Get real Krusty, the biggest terrorist attack on worshipers was committed by Dr. Baruch Goldstein by murdering 29 Palestinians and wounding 125...Once again Israel got what Israel deserved for their treatment of Palestinians with peace offerings, a security fence & land concessions so the Palestinians can remain in Israel. When will Israel ever learn to treat the Palestinians like their own Arab brothers do in surrounding Arab countries?
Prayer massacre Three Americans among four rabbis killed as Palestinian militants storm Jerusalem synagogue - AOL.com
Now its been reported that his grave is a shrine...Israel is the cause of retribution and hate, and despair...
The parents don't have to teach their children about hate and despair.No, Palestinian parents and Hamas teaching kids hatred and that killing Israelis is good, is the cause of retribution, hate and despair.
Some interesting stuff on Synagogue security in Jerusalem:
Israelis visiting synagogues in Western Europe for the first time are often astonished by the level of security: private security guards, community volunteers, uniformed police and advanced surveillance systems are the norm. Moreover, in the few Muslim countries with still-functioning Jewish congregations, like Turkey or Tunisia, synagogues operate in fortified compounds.
Less than two months ago, during Rosh Hashanah, the level of police presence around synagogues in North London, apparently motivated by the rising number of anti-Semitic attacks in the wake of the Gaza conflict, was unprecedented. This has all become standard in parts of the world where synagogues have been terrorist targets by Palestinians and Islamist groups since the 1970s. These security measures seem to have worked. The two deadly attacks on Jewish targets in 2012 in Toulouse, France, and earlier this year in Brussels, Belgium, were on a school and a museum respectively, both with considerably less security than nearby synagogues.
In Israel, however, the scene of a plethora of attacks and suicide bombings over the decades, synagogues have not been protected to the same extent as, say, shopping malls and schools. With the exception of a tiny handful of large, well-financed houses of worship, the thousands of small and medium-sized and even big neighborhood synagogues remain wide open. While Israelis are used to having an armed security guard inspect them when entering nearly every supermarket, mall and cinema, there is something jarring to them about restricting entrance to a synagogue. At one point during the Second Intifada, the police suggested that members place one of their own at the door during the High Holy Days, as deterrence, but the practice did not last for long.
Incredible as it may sound, Tuesday morning's terror attack on the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood, in which four worshippers and one police officer were killed by Palestinian terrorists from Jabel Mukaber in East Jerusalem, was the first of its kind in living memory on a local synagogue. There was of course the 2008 attack on the Merkaz Harav yeshiva, which technically also served as a synagogue, not far from today's murder scene. In that attack, eight students were murdered.
The exact number of synagogues in Israel is unknown. Unlike many well-appointed Jewish houses of worship in the Diaspora, most in Israel are small and locally-funded, with many situated in bomb shelters and ground-floor apartments, or in halls rented out by schools and community centers. While some have been in existence for decades, new synagogues are established every week as communities grow or split over arcane disputes. There are thousands of synagogues in Jerusalem alone.
In the wake of Tuesday's terror attack in Har Nof, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef issued an edictsaying that prayers must be held only in synagogues with a security guard. However, there is no realistic way that these security measures can be implemented, given the vast amount of synagogues.
It took years and protracted arguments between the various authorities and government departments to secure funding for security guards at all of Israel's thousands of schools, and this massive undertaking is still not complete. Securing all of Israel's synagogues is an impossible task and no congregation is about to give up its location because the chief rabbi, who has a miniscule following, if he has one at all, says so.
No one can say for sure why terrorists had not yet targeted a local synagogue until Tuesday morning's attack. The most plausible reason is that they are less convenient targets than public transport or coffee shops, usually being open just twice a day for an hour or so at a time during morning and afternoon-evening prayers. Also, synagogues afford little cover for terrorists as they would be immediately noticed upon entering. Even in disguise, an attacker who does not know how to conduct himself in a synagogue immediately sticks out like a sore thumb.
In Tuesday morning's attack, one of the terrorists was apparently acquainted with the targeted synagogue as he worked at an adjacent grocery shop. He would have known that at 7 A.M., the synagogue would be crowded, allowing him and his accomplice to quickly move between congregants, hacking away at the worshippers.
Attack on worshipers in synagogue sets deadly precedent - Diplomacy and Defense Israel News Haaretz
So Synagogues are soft targets, and likely to remain as soft targets for quite some time.
Peace now, with equality and justice would be a very good idea for all those wishing to worship in Jerusalem / Al Quds.
Exactly Krusty! Exhort those ZioNazis to be more li9ke real Nazis to solve their problem!This whole ongoing conflict is primarilly Israel's fault for not just treating the Palestinians like their own Arab brothers do. No one or no nation ever made peace WITH Palestinians. But king Hussein of Jordan proved you can make peace FROM Palestinians. When will Israel ever learn?
No, Palestinian parents and Hamas teaching kids hatred and that killing Israelis is good, is the cause of retribution, hate and despair.Get real Krusty, the biggest terrorist attack on worshipers was committed by Dr. Baruch Goldstein by murdering 29 Palestinians and wounding 125...Once again Israel got what Israel deserved for their treatment of Palestinians with peace offerings, a security fence & land concessions so the Palestinians can remain in Israel. When will Israel ever learn to treat the Palestinians like their own Arab brothers do in surrounding Arab countries?
Prayer massacre Three Americans among four rabbis killed as Palestinian militants storm Jerusalem synagogue - AOL.com
Now its been reported that his grave is a shrine...Israel is the cause of retribution and hate, and despair...
Exception made for Senility, I defer...Exactly Krusty! Exhort those ZioNazis to be more li9ke real Nazis to solve their problem!This whole ongoing conflict is primarilly Israel's fault for not just treating the Palestinians like their own Arab brothers do. No one or no nation ever made peace WITH Palestinians. But king Hussein of Jordan proved you can make peace FROM Palestinians. When will Israel ever learn?
HUH? Why are you now referring to the Arabs as Nazis?
Politics Can't Explain the Israeli Synagogue Attack. Only Hatred Can.
By Yishai Schwartz @YishaiSchwartz
They came with meat cleavers and pistols. A little after 7 a.m. on Tuesday, as Jewish worshippers were completing the silent Amidah prayer in a Jerusalem synagogue, two men began shooting and hacking at those trapped inside. Four of the worshippers—all rabbis, three of whom were American and one English—are dead. One of the police respondents, a member of Israel’s Arab Druze community, is in critical condition. Images of the immediate aftermath show sacred books, prayers shawls, and the straps of tefillin strewn among bodies and blood.
The citizenship and piety of the victims is largely immaterial—this was simply brutal, ideological murder. But the choice of victims does tell us something about where these murders come from, and what they mean politically.
In recent weeks, the usual hum of low-grade Palestinian incitement has been raised to a fever pitch. There have been allegations of murder and paranoid rumors of Israeli plans to dismantle Muslim sanctuaries. Lone-wolf terrorists have rammed their cars into crowds and stabbed young commuters at bus stops. The Israeli security forces, expert in disrupting networks and intercepting infiltrations, have found themselves helpless to stop it. How do you predict an attack by a single local resident armed only with a car and a kitchen knife?
There is irony in the latest attack. The synagogue was in Har Nof, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in West Jerusalem. The worshippers lived in internationally recognized Israel and almost certainly never served in the army. They would never approach the Temple Mount, the holy site where recent visits by Jews have supposedly triggered the latest wave of Palestinian violence, because they believe that God’s law forbids it. In other words, these worshippers should be among the least offensive to Palestinians.
This is not to say that, for instance, last week’s murder of 26-year-old Dalia Lemkus was less obscene because it happened near a West Bank settlement. But the senselessness and brutality of the synagogue assault, and the otherworldliness of the victims, lays bare the inadequacy of rational political explanations for terror. No doubt the murderers had their grievances (and some perhaps were reasonable), but the butchery in Har Nof shows that any sense of strategy has been overwhelmed by hate. The murder of non-Zionist Torah scholars is an attack on Jews more than Israel, and explaining it requires an understanding of hatred, not of politics. Perhaps the current celebrations throughout the West Bank and Gaza—replete with songs of praise on mosque loudspeakers and the festival-like delivery of sweets to children—goes at least part of the way to providing that.
Rarely has it been clearer: these men were killed simply because they were Jews living in the land of Israel. That they were rabbis killed at prayer is a potent symbol of the attack's senselessess, but their orthodoxy also serves as evidence of how utterly self-defeating Palestinian terrorism is.
The ultra-Orthodox, after all, are some of the most pragmatic and powerful players in Israeli politics. For the last two decades, the ultra-Orthodox parties have been kingmakers, key to the governments of both right and left due to their flexibility on negotiations with the Palestinians. It was the largest of these parties, Shas, that offered Yitzchak Rabin the crucial coalition support he needed to proceed to the Oslo accords. Together, the two main ultra-Orthodox parties hold 18 seats in Israel’s 120-seat, famously fractious parliament. Any conceivable left-leaning coalition would rely on their votes.
But in recent years, the ultra-Orthodox shifted strongly in the direction of the hawks. This shift, and its reasons, has mirrored the rest of Israeli society, and it has very little to with revisionist or expansionist ideology. The ultra-Orthodox, dismissive of Israel’s secular establishment and content to wait for the messiah, continue to be among those least ideologically committed to Jewish sovereignty over the land. But their confidence in the Palestinians and their leadership, in their willingness or ability to stop incitement and curb terrorism, has diminished dramatically.
To many Israelis today, it no longer matters that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s security forces work well with Israel or that he is clearly preferable to Hamas. (Abbas condemned today’s attack while blaming it on Israeli incitement; Hamas simply welcomed the murders.) But preferable does not mean acceptable. And when Abbas's calls for a “holy war” against Jewish “contamination” of the Temple Mount is answered with butcher knives in a synagogue, the preferable does not seem acceptable at all. So the same pragmatism that convinced ultra-Orthodox leadership to back the peace process will continue to turn their rank-and-file against the Israeli Left. Even Aryeh Deri, the wiliest and most dovish among ultra-Orthodoxy’s political leaders will find himself inexorably pulled rightward.
Zionism has always required a balance between the aspirational and the pragmatic. Israel’s most deft leaders threaded the needle between the desire for the resurrection of ancient Jewish sovereignty and the compromises necessary for peace. For years, the pragmatists, those who could put in perspective the starry-eyed yearning for expansive Jewish sovereignty, were the champions of negotiation. But now it’s those pragmatic negotiators who seem starry-eyed, and to the residents of Har Nof, more walls and checkpoints will seem the safer bet.
Politics Can't Explain the Israeli Synagogue Attack. Only Hatred Can.
By Yishai Schwartz @YishaiSchwartz
They came with meat cleavers and pistols. A little after 7 a.m. on Tuesday, as Jewish worshippers were completing the silent Amidah prayer in a Jerusalem synagogue, two men began shooting and hacking at those trapped inside. Four of the worshippers—all rabbis, three of whom were American and one English—are dead. One of the police respondents, a member of Israel’s Arab Druze community, is in critical condition. Images of the immediate aftermath show sacred books, prayers shawls, and the straps of tefillin strewn among bodies and blood.
The citizenship and piety of the victims is largely immaterial—this was simply brutal, ideological murder. But the choice of victims does tell us something about where these murders come from, and what they mean politically.
In recent weeks, the usual hum of low-grade Palestinian incitement has been raised to a fever pitch. There have been allegations of murder and paranoid rumors of Israeli plans to dismantle Muslim sanctuaries. Lone-wolf terrorists have rammed their cars into crowds and stabbed young commuters at bus stops. The Israeli security forces, expert in disrupting networks and intercepting infiltrations, have found themselves helpless to stop it. How do you predict an attack by a single local resident armed only with a car and a kitchen knife?
There is irony in the latest attack. The synagogue was in Har Nof, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in West Jerusalem. The worshippers lived in internationally recognized Israel and almost certainly never served in the army. They would never approach the Temple Mount, the holy site where recent visits by Jews have supposedly triggered the latest wave of Palestinian violence, because they believe that God’s law forbids it. In other words, these worshippers should be among the least offensive to Palestinians.
This is not to say that, for instance, last week’s murder of 26-year-old Dalia Lemkus was less obscene because it happened near a West Bank settlement. But the senselessness and brutality of the synagogue assault, and the otherworldliness of the victims, lays bare the inadequacy of rational political explanations for terror. No doubt the murderers had their grievances (and some perhaps were reasonable), but the butchery in Har Nof shows that any sense of strategy has been overwhelmed by hate. The murder of non-Zionist Torah scholars is an attack on Jews more than Israel, and explaining it requires an understanding of hatred, not of politics. Perhaps the current celebrations throughout the West Bank and Gaza—replete with songs of praise on mosque loudspeakers and the festival-like delivery of sweets to children—goes at least part of the way to providing that.
Rarely has it been clearer: these men were killed simply because they were Jews living in the land of Israel. That they were rabbis killed at prayer is a potent symbol of the attack's senselessess, but their orthodoxy also serves as evidence of how utterly self-defeating Palestinian terrorism is.
The ultra-Orthodox, after all, are some of the most pragmatic and powerful players in Israeli politics. For the last two decades, the ultra-Orthodox parties have been kingmakers, key to the governments of both right and left due to their flexibility on negotiations with the Palestinians. It was the largest of these parties, Shas, that offered Yitzchak Rabin the crucial coalition support he needed to proceed to the Oslo accords. Together, the two main ultra-Orthodox parties hold 18 seats in Israel’s 120-seat, famously fractious parliament. Any conceivable left-leaning coalition would rely on their votes.
But in recent years, the ultra-Orthodox shifted strongly in the direction of the hawks. This shift, and its reasons, has mirrored the rest of Israeli society, and it has very little to with revisionist or expansionist ideology. The ultra-Orthodox, dismissive of Israel’s secular establishment and content to wait for the messiah, continue to be among those least ideologically committed to Jewish sovereignty over the land. But their confidence in the Palestinians and their leadership, in their willingness or ability to stop incitement and curb terrorism, has diminished dramatically.
To many Israelis today, it no longer matters that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s security forces work well with Israel or that he is clearly preferable to Hamas. (Abbas condemned today’s attack while blaming it on Israeli incitement; Hamas simply welcomed the murders.) But preferable does not mean acceptable. And when Abbas's calls for a “holy war” against Jewish “contamination” of the Temple Mount is answered with butcher knives in a synagogue, the preferable does not seem acceptable at all. So the same pragmatism that convinced ultra-Orthodox leadership to back the peace process will continue to turn their rank-and-file against the Israeli Left. Even Aryeh Deri, the wiliest and most dovish among ultra-Orthodoxy’s political leaders will find himself inexorably pulled rightward.
Zionism has always required a balance between the aspirational and the pragmatic. Israel’s most deft leaders threaded the needle between the desire for the resurrection of ancient Jewish sovereignty and the compromises necessary for peace. For years, the pragmatists, those who could put in perspective the starry-eyed yearning for expansive Jewish sovereignty, were the champions of negotiation. But now it’s those pragmatic negotiators who seem starry-eyed, and to the residents of Har Nof, more walls and checkpoints will seem the safer bet.
The demand by Israelis for Legitimacy in Arab E. Jerusalem by the World and UN needs to be in order...Israel according to International Law occupies E. Jerusalem by force...'The Muslims Don't Understand - We Don't Want Al-Aqsa'
Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi explains Al-Aqsa Mosque is outside the Temple boundaries, but Islam's focus on force prevents coexistence.
By Yishai Karov, Ari Yashar
First Publish: 11/20/2014, 5:30 PM
Al Aqsa Mosque (bottom-left) is outside the Temple Mount according to Jewish tradition
Nati Shohat/Flash 90
Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi and prominent religious-Zionist scholar Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel spoke to Arutz Sheva about the tensions over the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism which has been at the center of attempts by Palestinian Authority and Islamist leaders to incite a religious war.
Despite being Judaism's holiest site Jews are prevented from praying on the Mount and Jewish visits are severely restricted, due to threats of violence from Muslim leaders.
Islamists and PA officials, including Mahmoud Abbas, regularly accuse Jewish visitors to the Mount of attempting to "storm the Al Aqsa Mosque." Al Aqsa mosque - not to be confused with the golden-domed Dome of the Rock shrine - is the largest of several mosques at the site, where the ancient Jewish Temples once stood.
But In fact, Rabbi Ariel pointed out, no religious Jews have ever attempted or asked to pray inside the mosque - and they have absolutely no desire to do so.
Referring to the binding of Yitzhak (Isaac) as related in the Torah - which took place at the site - Rabbi Ariel noted the Jewish patriarch "came down from the altar as a pure sacrifice whose entire goal was to serve G-d."
"To differentiate, it is known that the Muslims adopted the idea of the binding and celebrate the sacrifice holiday (Eid al-Adha) of the 'binding of Ishmael,' and the messages of Ishmael are the complete opposite (of the binding of Yitzhak)," noted the rabbi, referring to the Islamic festival which co-opts the Biblical story but substitutes Yitzhak for his older half-brother and ancestor of the Arab nation Ishmael.
Ishmael "came down from the altar not as one who was (sacrificially) slaughtered, but as a slaughterer. That's the difference. He wanted to submit the whole world under him by force," Rabbi Ariel said of Islam's focus.
It is that fundamental theological difference which prevents many Muslims from understanding that Jewish demands for equal prayer rights on the Temple Mount - which is Judaism's holiest site - are not an attempt to prevent Muslims from praying there as well.
"They say we want Al-Aqsa (Mosque). Who wants Al-Aqsa? It's outside of the Temple Mount. It's very possible that it will remain even when the Temple is rebuilt!" said Rabbi Ariel, noting that the mosque itself stands outside of the sanctified areas of the Temple Mount according to Jewish tradition - though it is part of the wider complex.
"But because of their forcefulness they are convinced we too want to come to Al-Aqsa by force."
The rabbi's appraisal is backed by, among others, the writings of former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Shlomo Goren zt''l, who also noted that Al-Aqsa was built outside the boundaries of the Temple.
The demand by Israelis for Legitimacy in Arab E. Jerusalem by the World and UN needs to be in order...Israel according to International Law occupies E. Jerusalem by force...'The Muslims Don't Understand - We Don't Want Al-Aqsa'
Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi explains Al-Aqsa Mosque is outside the Temple boundaries, but Islam's focus on force prevents coexistence.
By Yishai Karov, Ari Yashar
First Publish: 11/20/2014, 5:30 PM
Al Aqsa Mosque (bottom-left) is outside the Temple Mount according to Jewish tradition
Nati Shohat/Flash 90
Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi and prominent religious-Zionist scholar Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel spoke to Arutz Sheva about the tensions over the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism which has been at the center of attempts by Palestinian Authority and Islamist leaders to incite a religious war.
Despite being Judaism's holiest site Jews are prevented from praying on the Mount and Jewish visits are severely restricted, due to threats of violence from Muslim leaders.
Islamists and PA officials, including Mahmoud Abbas, regularly accuse Jewish visitors to the Mount of attempting to "storm the Al Aqsa Mosque." Al Aqsa mosque - not to be confused with the golden-domed Dome of the Rock shrine - is the largest of several mosques at the site, where the ancient Jewish Temples once stood.
But In fact, Rabbi Ariel pointed out, no religious Jews have ever attempted or asked to pray inside the mosque - and they have absolutely no desire to do so.
Referring to the binding of Yitzhak (Isaac) as related in the Torah - which took place at the site - Rabbi Ariel noted the Jewish patriarch "came down from the altar as a pure sacrifice whose entire goal was to serve G-d."
"To differentiate, it is known that the Muslims adopted the idea of the binding and celebrate the sacrifice holiday (Eid al-Adha) of the 'binding of Ishmael,' and the messages of Ishmael are the complete opposite (of the binding of Yitzhak)," noted the rabbi, referring to the Islamic festival which co-opts the Biblical story but substitutes Yitzhak for his older half-brother and ancestor of the Arab nation Ishmael.
Ishmael "came down from the altar not as one who was (sacrificially) slaughtered, but as a slaughterer. That's the difference. He wanted to submit the whole world under him by force," Rabbi Ariel said of Islam's focus.
It is that fundamental theological difference which prevents many Muslims from understanding that Jewish demands for equal prayer rights on the Temple Mount - which is Judaism's holiest site - are not an attempt to prevent Muslims from praying there as well.
"They say we want Al-Aqsa (Mosque). Who wants Al-Aqsa? It's outside of the Temple Mount. It's very possible that it will remain even when the Temple is rebuilt!" said Rabbi Ariel, noting that the mosque itself stands outside of the sanctified areas of the Temple Mount according to Jewish tradition - though it is part of the wider complex.
"But because of their forcefulness they are convinced we too want to come to Al-Aqsa by force."
The rabbi's appraisal is backed by, among others, the writings of former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Shlomo Goren zt''l, who also noted that Al-Aqsa was built outside the boundaries of the Temple.
Even if god came down from the Heavens and told the Israelis to move on, they would defy...It will only be solved with force and the time will come from all political indicators.
No-one on Planet Earth believes this bullshit for the 67 Pre-Emptive invasion by Israe4. Even PM Begin admitted this motive in his memoirs...The demand by Israelis for Legitimacy in Arab E. Jerusalem by the World and UN needs to be in order...Israel according to International Law occupies E. Jerusalem by force...'The Muslims Don't Understand - We Don't Want Al-Aqsa'
Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi explains Al-Aqsa Mosque is outside the Temple boundaries, but Islam's focus on force prevents coexistence.
By Yishai Karov, Ari Yashar
First Publish: 11/20/2014, 5:30 PM
Al Aqsa Mosque (bottom-left) is outside the Temple Mount according to Jewish tradition
Nati Shohat/Flash 90
Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi and prominent religious-Zionist scholar Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel spoke to Arutz Sheva about the tensions over the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism which has been at the center of attempts by Palestinian Authority and Islamist leaders to incite a religious war.
Despite being Judaism's holiest site Jews are prevented from praying on the Mount and Jewish visits are severely restricted, due to threats of violence from Muslim leaders.
Islamists and PA officials, including Mahmoud Abbas, regularly accuse Jewish visitors to the Mount of attempting to "storm the Al Aqsa Mosque." Al Aqsa mosque - not to be confused with the golden-domed Dome of the Rock shrine - is the largest of several mosques at the site, where the ancient Jewish Temples once stood.
But In fact, Rabbi Ariel pointed out, no religious Jews have ever attempted or asked to pray inside the mosque - and they have absolutely no desire to do so.
Referring to the binding of Yitzhak (Isaac) as related in the Torah - which took place at the site - Rabbi Ariel noted the Jewish patriarch "came down from the altar as a pure sacrifice whose entire goal was to serve G-d."
"To differentiate, it is known that the Muslims adopted the idea of the binding and celebrate the sacrifice holiday (Eid al-Adha) of the 'binding of Ishmael,' and the messages of Ishmael are the complete opposite (of the binding of Yitzhak)," noted the rabbi, referring to the Islamic festival which co-opts the Biblical story but substitutes Yitzhak for his older half-brother and ancestor of the Arab nation Ishmael.
Ishmael "came down from the altar not as one who was (sacrificially) slaughtered, but as a slaughterer. That's the difference. He wanted to submit the whole world under him by force," Rabbi Ariel said of Islam's focus.
It is that fundamental theological difference which prevents many Muslims from understanding that Jewish demands for equal prayer rights on the Temple Mount - which is Judaism's holiest site - are not an attempt to prevent Muslims from praying there as well.
"They say we want Al-Aqsa (Mosque). Who wants Al-Aqsa? It's outside of the Temple Mount. It's very possible that it will remain even when the Temple is rebuilt!" said Rabbi Ariel, noting that the mosque itself stands outside of the sanctified areas of the Temple Mount according to Jewish tradition - though it is part of the wider complex.
"But because of their forcefulness they are convinced we too want to come to Al-Aqsa by force."
The rabbi's appraisal is backed by, among others, the writings of former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Shlomo Goren zt''l, who also noted that Al-Aqsa was built outside the boundaries of the Temple.
Even if god came down from the Heavens and told the Israelis to move on, they would defy...It will only be solved with force and the time will come from all political indicators.
First, there has been no official borders defined by negotiation with the palestinians. Second, won half of Jerusalem in a defensive war after being attacked by foreign arab forces. Third, Jerusalem was opened up to all faiths after Israel managed to take the western wall, the most holy site for Jews.
Al-Aqsa is the muslims place of worship on the mount, but the mount itself should belong to all faiths, all those seeking a closer connection to god.
Omar cleaned and created the site for pilgrimage to all, much as Mecca was once a site of pilgrimage open to all faiths. God (or what ever people perceive as a higher power) should not the be the domain of just one faith but inviting to anyone seek a spiritual connection and inner peace.
Palestinians in their hate and violence have lost all credible right to claim the mount as exclusively theirs, or the city of Jerusalem. They have defiled al-Aqsa and their professed faith while practicing hate. They have brought shame to Islam and to other muslims by their actions.
'The Muslims Don't Understand - We Don't Want Al-Aqsa'
Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi explains Al-Aqsa Mosque is outside the Temple boundaries, but Islam's focus on force prevents coexistence.
By Yishai Karov, Ari Yashar
First Publish: 11/20/2014, 5:30 PM
Al Aqsa Mosque (bottom-left) is outside the Temple Mount according to Jewish tradition
Nati Shohat/Flash 90
Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi and prominent religious-Zionist scholar Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel spoke to Arutz Sheva about the tensions over the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism which has been at the center of attempts by Palestinian Authority and Islamist leaders to incite a religious war.
Despite being Judaism's holiest site Jews are prevented from praying on the Mount and Jewish visits are severely restricted, due to threats of violence from Muslim leaders.
Islamists and PA officials, including Mahmoud Abbas, regularly accuse Jewish visitors to the Mount of attempting to "storm the Al Aqsa Mosque." Al Aqsa mosque - not to be confused with the golden-domed Dome of the Rock shrine - is the largest of several mosques at the site, where the ancient Jewish Temples once stood.
But In fact, Rabbi Ariel pointed out, no religious Jews have ever attempted or asked to pray inside the mosque - and they have absolutely no desire to do so.
Referring to the binding of Yitzhak (Isaac) as related in the Torah - which took place at the site - Rabbi Ariel noted the Jewish patriarch "came down from the altar as a pure sacrifice whose entire goal was to serve G-d."
"To differentiate, it is known that the Muslims adopted the idea of the binding and celebrate the sacrifice holiday (Eid al-Adha) of the 'binding of Ishmael,' and the messages of Ishmael are the complete opposite (of the binding of Yitzhak)," noted the rabbi, referring to the Islamic festival which co-opts the Biblical story but substitutes Yitzhak for his older half-brother and ancestor of the Arab nation Ishmael.
Ishmael "came down from the altar not as one who was (sacrificially) slaughtered, but as a slaughterer. That's the difference. He wanted to submit the whole world under him by force," Rabbi Ariel said of Islam's focus.
It is that fundamental theological difference which prevents many Muslims from understanding that Jewish demands for equal prayer rights on the Temple Mount - which is Judaism's holiest site - are not an attempt to prevent Muslims from praying there as well.
"They say we want Al-Aqsa (Mosque). Who wants Al-Aqsa? It's outside of the Temple Mount. It's very possible that it will remain even when the Temple is rebuilt!" said Rabbi Ariel, noting that the mosque itself stands outside of the sanctified areas of the Temple Mount according to Jewish tradition - though it is part of the wider complex.
"But because of their forcefulness they are convinced we too want to come to Al-Aqsa by force."
The rabbi's appraisal is backed by, among others, the writings of former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Shlomo Goren zt''l, who also noted that Al-Aqsa was built outside the boundaries of the Temple.
If that's the extent of your position, then......Fact: Jews came from Europe settled in Palestine and expelled the local people. That's the only thing one needs to know.
